The novel “Starship: Rebel” by Mike Resnick was published for the first time in 2008. It’s the fourth novel in the “Starship” series and follows “Starship: Mercenary“.

Captain Wilson Cole, a former Republic officer, is earning a reputation as a mercenary. In command of a fleet increasingly large led by the former Republic starship Theodore Roosevelt, he’s doing bigger and bigger military operations. His enemies know that he’ll leave them a way out and that he’ll keep his word, which helps to limit the actual battles.

The bounty on Wilson Cole’s head keeps on increasing but generally the Republic Navy is too busy in its war against the Teroni Federation to hunt him in the Frontier territories. However, a dramatic event radically changes the situation and convinces Cole that the time has come to use the force against the starships operating in the Frontier.

In “Starship: Rebel” there are new adventures of the crew of the starship Theodore Roosevelt, or Teddy R. for simplicity, part of the future history told by Mike Resnick in most of his stories. The “Starship” series is an old style space opera, very adventurous or anyway in which events are the most important element.

Cole Wilson and his fleet have become a power in the Frontier and various valueble partner joined him. In “Starship: Mercenary” he made a deal with the Platinum Duke and the former Teroni fleet officer Jakovic became an important member of his fleet.

At the beginning of “Starship: Rebel” all in all things are looking good for Wilson Cole but soon things change dramatically. Cole is a pragmatic man so after the mutiny of the Teddy R. crew he tried to avoid a direct confrontation with the Republic but there comes a point where he can no longer just hide.

The “Starship” series was defined military science fiction however in the early novels battles were typically small clashes between very few starships and limited incursions of planets. Wilson Cole is an extrarordinary strategist who thinks first of all to minimize the use of weapons and civilians’ involvement so tries to plan surgical military actions.

Limiting the use of force may be possible for Wilson Cole in clashes with pirates, warlords and various criminals of the Frontier but it becomes much more difficult if he decides to face Republic warships. From this point of view, “Starship: Rebel” represents a turning point in the series because in previous novels the protagonists thought about building a new life on the Frontier and now Mike Resnick raises the stakes.

In some ways, the previous novels were predictable in the sense that Wilson Cole and his allies had to confront the villains of the Frontier and he invented some strategy to win. In “Starship: Rebel” some twists raise the dramatic level of the story.

The intensification of military activities helps to maintain the pace of the story a bit faster than the previous novels but many elements of the series are still present, for better or worse because they’re the ones that make the series funny but also repetitive.

Wilson Cole keeps on having discussions with some partner, especially Sharon and Val. He must explain strategies only he understands and there are missions that only he seems to be able to accomplish because no other in fleet fleet seems to have skills comparable to his ones. Mike Resnick keeps on foreshadowing future trouble for Cole and his allies.

The “Starship” series is of the adventurous type and the novels are quite short by today’s standards so the space for character development is limited. The inclusion of new important characters in every novel doesn’t always help because the protagonists are can become too many.

Mike Resnick tried to give the novels some autonomy but they still form a great story that also gives the protagonists a bit of depth so it’s best to read the whole series. “Starship: Rebel” is substantially at the same level as the previous novels, an easy reading for some leisure.