Space Academy Dropouts takes places 300 years in the future. Humanity has taken to the stars and spread to countless worlds across the galaxy. Vance Turbo is a member of Space Fleet Academy. His Aunt Cathy is one of the galaxy’s greatest heroes, and Vance has much to measure up to. However, Vance has grown disillusioned with Space Fleet, and is doing what he can to get expelled from the academy. Ah, but fate has other plans for him. Vance is assigned to a highly classified mission into Neutral Space. A shipment of Sun Killer bombs has gone missing, and The Community need to covertly recover them. That is where Vance and his fellow misfits come in.
I had previously reviewed volume one of The Supervillainy Saga at the request of C.T. Phipps. He asked me if I’d be willing to review Space Academy Dropouts. I said yes, and here we are.
This is a C.T. Phipps books, so of course there’s going to be a lot of pop culture references. The biggest one is that Space Academy Dropout is one big Star Trek pastiche/homage, with a bit of Guardians of the Galaxy Thrown in. We’ve got an interplanetary federation that outwardly presents itself as utopian, and advocates for cross-cultural cooperation and understanding. There is an academy that trains cadets to explore strange new worlds, and boldly go where no one has gone before. Space Fleet is an obvious stand-in for Star Fleet. The Notha Empire oppose the Alliance, and build their society around uber-militarism and authoritarianism. This makes them stand-ins for the Klingons, but only in terms of function within the plot. Physically, the Notha look like a cross between lemurs and badgers. Though, their worldview isn’t too dissimilar to that of the Daleks from Doctor Who. Vance passed a supposedly unbeatable simulation test by hacking the simulation. This is a reference to how Captain Kirk beat the Kobayashi Maru simulation.
However, Star Trek isn’t the only source of pop culture references. Aunt Cathy’s physical description bares more than a passing resemblance to Honor Harrington, from the series of the same name. It is mentioned that Cathy once saved a planet named F-Sharp Bell. This a reference to the Green Lantern comics. One of the Lanterns is from a part of the universe that is totally devoid of light. So, they believe themselves to be part of the F-Sharp Bell Corps, because I guess that’s as close to the color green as they can imagine. There’s mention of a popular television series called Space Cadet Sally. It is aimed at adolescent girls, but is quite popular with men, to the point you can buy Space Cadet Sally sexbots. There’s some influences of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and the Brony fandom. Sally’s catch praise is “Friendship is Space Fleet.” However, the main heroine getting sexualized by the fandom brings shades of Sailor Moon.
Some humans dislike the Community, and have struck out to found their own colonies in Neutral Space. Many of these colonies evoke the old west with their supposed rugged individualism. However, they’re also home to many extremist ideologies. You’ve got Neo-Confederates, Neo-Nazis, Neo-Apartheid Afrikaners, and Anarcho-Capitalist Libertarians, among other things. These lunatics loosely identify themselves as Independents. This is a reference to Firefly, and how Joss Whedon got the inspiration for Firefly after reading a book about Confederate veterans in the Old West. Granted, Firefly was actually pretty apolitical overall. Yeah, there is some anti-government messages, but that’s because it is part of Mal’s character. He’s a bitter former solider who fought against a government he considers evil…hmm. Well, actually, when you put it like that, it does kind of sound like the sort of thing Lost Causers would say. So, I guess you could see the Independents as a deconstruction of the Confederate subtext within Firefly.
Though, I still maintain that the lack of Asian characters with speaking roles was a far bigger problem for Firefly. And I say this as someone who is a huge Firefly fan. It never made sense from a worldbuilding perspective. Chinese influence is everywhere from language, to clothing, to entertainment, but where are all the Chinese people?
Most of the aliens are genuinely alien. Most of the humanoid characters are descended from humans who were subjected to genetic tinkering. Apparently, the Ancient Aliens people were right all along. Advanced aliens came to Earth in ancient times, abducted humans, and seeded them on other planets. These lost colonies consider Earth important from a historical perspective, but tend to look down on Earth humans. The planet Albion is one such seeded world. Based on the name, it’s humans must have come from Medieval England. There’s a point where it is mentioned they were founded 1000 years ago, but then it say they’re celebrating Centennial, which is a 100 year anniversary. Apparently, the Centennial was the celebration of Albion’s independence from the Elder Races, so that wasn’t a typo. Albion has a royal family, who conspiracy theorists claim are space lizards. So, yeah, that just makes it even clearer that they are Space Britain. Albion even somehow created their own version of the Star Trek television show, but Vance considers their version inferior.
The planet Thor is another seeded world. Thorians look like humans with blue skin. There’s a Thorian on Vance’s team, and he is somehow Jewish. Well, blue is a color traditionally associated with Judaism. There’s a lot of franchises that use the concept of aliens abducting humans and then seeded them on other planets. However, the one that sprang to my mind was Stargate. There’s another race of seeded humans called Etherials. They are basically space elves, and their Elder Race was actually nice to them, unlike the Elder Races of most other seeded humans. The Etherials are an obvious reference to The Eternals.
There’s also mention of a channel called The Geology Channel. Unfortunately, they hardly ever play anything relating to geology anymore. These days, its all reality shows and conspiracy theory shows. Obviously, this is a reference to channels like Discovery Channel and History Channel that have largely abandoned their original educational content. Such is life. On the other hand, considering that Ancient Aliens turned out to be correct, perhaps Vance shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss the conspiracy theory shows.
Okay, enough with the reference hunting. I’ve been putting this off for as long as I can, so I’ll get straight to the point. When I reviewed The Supervillainy Saga, I said that I liked it, but I felt that I got my fill. I bring this up because Space Academy Dropouts is basically just The Supervillainy Saga in Space. Let’s see, our main character gets in trouble by hacking into his university database. He’s very snarky, and very knowledgeable about pop culture. In fact, at times he practically speaks in nothing but pop culture references. Despite being dorky, and not all that special, numerous women are lining up to have sex with him. Well, they do rib him and poke fun at him, but they still want to have sex with him. Yeah, Vance is pretty much just Gary Karkofsky, but as a space cadet rather than a supervillain.
The pop culture references also got very grating. As I noted when I review The Supervillainy Saga, C.T. Phipps has a bad habit of going way overboard with pop culture references. It felt like, whenever he couldn’t think of how to move a scene along, he’d insert another pop culture reference. Moreover, as the filmography of Aaron Seltzer and Jason Friedberg demonstrates, pop culture references alone do not a plot make. They also didn’t make any sense. Space Academy Dropouts is set 300 years in the future, but Vance in obsessed with pop culture from the 20th and 21st Century. That would be like someone from the present day being obsessed with pop culture from the 18th Century.
As for the supporting cast, well, I don’t really have much to say. They range from one-note to, at best, two-dimensional. You got the horny robot girl, the blue Jewish guy, the literal-minded space lizard, the wise space elf, the cute and sexy catgirl, and the snarky scientist. I know it sounds like I’m being a jerk, but that really does encapsulate their entire personalities. I feel that the cast was too big, and as a result, none of the characters got properly fleshed out.
Well, there was one character who stood-out. Vance’s former girlfriend Leah is a snarky Eurasian woman who is described as cute, and wears thigh-length boots. So, basically Mandy from The Supervillainy Saga. You know, come to think of it, in retrospect, the characters from The Supervillainy Saga weren’t all that fleshed-out wither. The main difference is that, since the characters from Supervillainy Saga are based on preexisting characters, my mind kind of filled in the blanks. So, it was less noticeable in their case. In Space Academy Dropouts, however, the characters don’t have any preexisting templates, so their lack of depth is more readily apparent.
I didn’t want a rehash of The Supervillainy Saga, I wanted something different. Any differences that Space Academy Rejects has are ultimately purely aesthetic and only skin-deep, if that. This made Space Academy Rejects have a very cookie cutter feel to it.
There’s a lot of interesting ideas in this book, but they aren’t explored as much as they could be. One of the planets in Neutral Space is called Rand’s World. It is a planet founded on the principles and teaching of Ayn Rand. It even has its own Galt’s Gulch. Just what would a world founded on Objectivist ideas be like? Perhaps it could be deconstructed along the lines of what Bioshock did. Science fiction is the literature of big ideas. Unfortunately, the authors mostly just take potshots at their political opponents, and don’t provide any interesting insights. Their critique, if you can call it that, basically amounts to “LOL! Libertarians are a bunch of inbred, low IQ, redneck hick freaks!”
The concept of humans being seeded on alien planets is also interesting. What time periods and cultures do they come from? What are their cultures like? In what ways do they differ from Earth humans? What was their technological and scientific progress like? How does their religion work? In fact, what is their history in general? Well, beyond a few tantalizing off-hand remarks, we get no answers.
The voice in Space Academy Dropouts is very similar to that The Supervillainy Saga. Not just in that it is told in first-person, and Vance is pretty much Gary in all but name. You see, Jeffery Kafer returns as narrator for the audiobook of Space Academy Dropouts. He has previously narrated The Supervillainy Saga. Unfortunately, that made the similarities to The Supervillainy Saga all the more glaring. At times I had to reminds myself that I wasn’t listening to get another entry in The Supervillainy Saga.
Ultimately, your enjoyment of Space Academy Dropouts will come down to if you enjoy The Supervillainy Saga, and if you want more of the same. I did not want more of the same, so I was rather disappointed. But perhaps you will feel differently.
So, there you have it. Space Academy Dropouts aims for the stars, but crashes and burns on the launch pad. I didn’t care for it, but perhaps you’ll feel differently.
Well, I think that should do it from me for now. I will see you guys next time.
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