SPSFC Book Review - Any Job Will do by John Wilker

As a judge in the sci-fi book competition, SPSFC, I'm reading a number of books to help find the best book out of nearly 300. However, I may pick only one to be my quarterfinalist.

Rune S. Nielsen is part of the EPIC Indie team of judges.

If you enjoy easygoing sci-fi space opera adventure, which makes for a fun, quick, and easy read, this might be for you. Judging by the reviews online, a lot of readers really love this book as it’s basically, “Firefly with Han Solo as the captain.” Despite such cool vibes, the plot was just too aimless for my taste, and this is a cut from the competition. DNF at 45 %.

Title: Any Job Will Do
Author: John Wilker
Genre: Sci-Fi Space Opera Adventure
Pages: 336
Independently published: 2021

Buy the book

(Contains spoilers.) When you have a plot based around a small group of characters, performing roguish odd jobs for "random" clients, you need strong and interesting characters. Because each time a job ends, they will be the only thing keeping you reading.

Do we find this here?

Well, at the beginning of the book, the author does a good job when he introduces our main character, Jax. He’s a starship captain and something of a Han Solo-type...charming and skilled…but in a less cool way than Han.

Jax does all the roguish space adventuring stuff you’d expect, such as outsmarting more dangerous starships in combat, smuggling goods right under the nose of the imperial authorities, and of course...he’s a lady's man (or any gender’s man, I guess you’d say today.)

Or that is...he’s trying to be.

You see, it’s not easy because Jax is quite lazy...when not in combat, and his relationships fizzle out quickly. Mostly they are one-night stands.

You could say, that Jax gets into trouble fast...and repeatedly…on multiple fronts. And speaking of sexual innuendo, this lighthearted space opera is brimming with humorous sophomore vibes. If you like that sort of thing, you should immediately buy this book by clicking here.

If you'd like to know more about the SPSFC competition and our roles as judges watch this video.

The crew are AIs
At the beginning of the book, our space captain mostly interacts with the gallery of sentient AI droids on his ship (they do almost all of the work.) While each of these “tinmen” is likable and has a different feel, I did miss some human interaction while on the ship and some thoughts or dialogue around how it is to have one’s coworkers and friends being AIs. This would have helped make the droids more interesting, as they are too often nothing but comic relief or combat monsters.

On the upside of all this Jax-droid interaction, I got to know the droids well.

There are a number of other characters, and they are distinct. Some characters, like Naomi, even have something. But it just seems like more could been done to make her and others feel even more 3-dimensional.

This judge’s verdict
Overall, I liked the setting, which reminded me of both Firefly and Star Wars. I liked that many of the characters were easy to get to know and like. The odd jobs they performed were…alright.

Regarding the question I needed answered about whether the characters were strong and interesting, I’d say that Jax initially is, but becomes less interesting as the story progresses. I would have wished he’d become more interesting. I’d also have liked a stronger hand in letting me feel where this was all going. Even in a character-driven story, I’d like a visible plot.

Still, Jax's appeal, and that of the human and droid gallery of people surrounding him, kept me interested till about halfway through Any Job Will Do. Following a scene with Jax cleaning the space equivalent of a toilet, I simply stopped.

It's not that I didn't suspect that there was some cool stuff coming up (combat, acts of thieving, and so on, yay!) but I'm not that interested in space latrines, and so this became my place to put the book down. At this point, it had become clear that even though this is a fast and easy read, the story wasn't strong enough to become my pick for SPSFC quarterfinalist.

It could have been a contender if certain things were changed/fixed. Had I been the editor, my advice would be to compress the handful of scenes following the rescue mission to make the plot progress faster toward more interesting stuff. Give the characters extra attention (this is the first in a series of four books, so it’s important to get them right.) After the first few maintenance scenes, I'd tone down the maintenance stuff such as my personal bane...latrine duty. I mean, the first time you have a cooking or TV-watching scene it helps set the mood and build the world, but I just feel that when repeated, such scenes often drain the energy. I’d also either have toned down or toned up the “frat-boy mood” of the book.

That said, thank you for the story! I had fun.

(End note: I did later head back into the book to read some more and so far I’ve gotten to 61%. Time will tell if I get all the way through...)