Nicholas Seafort Books In Order

Publication Order of Nicholas Seafort Books

Nicholas Seafort is a series of military sci-fi space opera by David Feintuch, the award-winning science fiction author. Feintuch became an author late in life having previously worked as an antiques dealer and lawyer. While he started out late, he turned out to be a very good author and by 1996 aged fifty, he received one of the most prestigious accolades from the World Science Fiction Society, the “John W. Campbell Award.” He is best known for the “Seafort Saga” series which is what made his name as one of the best science fiction writers of his time. He later ventured into fantasy fiction and wrote two novels in the “Rodrigo of Caledon” series. Shortly before his death in 2006, Feintuch announced that “Galahad’s Hope” the tenth novel in the Nicholas Seafort series was in the works though it is yet to be published. His novels have been translated into several languages including Czech, Spanish, Japanese, German and Russian. They have also been highlighted and recognized in the “Michigan Writers Series” by Michigan State University.

Nicholas Seafort Series by David Feintuch follows the life and times of Nicholas Ewing Seafort, the protagonist of the series who tells the story in the first person. The stories are set in the 22nd century, in a world governed by the United Nations. The world is governed on a form of theocracy that has wide support from the masses and the Reunification Church. While it is a theocracy, it is a democratic government and the chief executive and the legislature are elected by popular vote, though franchise is somewhat limited. Both the UN and the Reunification Church are Victorian like institutions with claims of divine right and draconian laws and punishment. It is a time of much unhappiness with the members of the urban underclass frequently moved to other planets colonized by humans, where they work as unskilled labor. Despite harsh punishments for those found guilty, it is a time of much corruption and lawlessness as the government is too lax rather than too strict despite its moral posturing. The first four novels of the series follow the same plot: There is an emergency that necessitates that Nick Seafort the young officer take charge and then save the day as he takes some ethically ambiguous action. In the first novel of the series “Midshipman’s Hope,” he is a teenage midshipman who had to take control of an interstellar ship after a shuttle accident kills all other line officers. Only one engineering officer is left but he does not have commission and hence cannot take command. In the second novel of the series “Challenger’s Hope,” Seafort saves yet another interstellar ship though he was meant to take over anyway. In the third novel he saves a planet colonized by humans from an alien race while in the fourth he is the savior of the solar system. The fifth novel tones down a bit as it is set in New York where Seafort’s son is in a fight to save Manhattan Island.

“Midshipman’s Hope” the first novel of the Nicholas Seafort series is set 200 years from the present, where humanity has been expanding to the stars. They have been using “N waves” to power interstellar ships that go anywhere in the Galaxy. Since “N waves” are known to result in a virulent form of cancer for persons that were not exposed to them during their teenage years, naval officers have to be recruited early and commissioned as midshipmen before puberty. The United Nations Navy operates all interstellar ships though it works on the principles that governed the operation of the 18th century British Navy. Nicholas Seafort is a seventeen-year-old midshipman on the UNNS Hibernia interstellar ship. There have been several accidents in space that have wiped out all the commissioned officer leaving him in charge and having to make all the difficult decisions. It is similar to “Master and Commander” though this is worse as no other senior officer is left. He resists all demands to abort his mission and ruthlessly and successfully deals with rebellious crew, mutiny on a space base, a potentially catastrophic mechanical failure, officers with major character defects, social complications at his destination and even worse a hostile alien race he discovers during his odyssey.

In “Challenger’s Hope” Nicholas Seafort is too young to be a captain but he assumes Command of the UNNS Challenger. He serves under Admiral Tremaine, who has several interstellar ships in his squadron. They have been charged with finding and dealing with the aliens that the UNNS Hibernia discovered near Hope Nation in the first novel. At the start of the novel, Tremaine does not think much of the young captain, Nick, as he takes over his ship and moves him to the UNNS Portia, a much smaller ship. But given that his ship is smaller and faster it will be preceding all other ships, which puts it in more danger. To make matters worse for the young captain, he also has to deal with the transient street people derogatorily referred to as transpops or “trannies.” The trannies are ill-educated teenagers and cause a lot of problems on board since no one wants to share the living spaces with them. On the ship are Seafort’s infant son and wife alongside an entire chain of command that he is now responsible for. He had a lonely childhood which had very little demonstration of parental love. He now needs to find a way to be pastor, commander, and father to an entire crew. It gets even harder when they are transferred to the UNNS Challenger that is badly damaged and highly vulnerable to alien attack.

In “Prisoner’s Hope” the third novel of the Nicholas Seafort series, Nick has proved himself a worthy captain. He had taken over a crippled ship and managed to bring it back home with its crew and passengers intact even though their food supplies were running dangerously low. Given his exploits, he is assigned command on a ship headed to the New Hope frontlines. A string of bad luck ends with Nick stranded on New Hope at a time when the Navy is losing ground to the increasingly ferocious aliens and is pulling back towards Earth. When the Navy pulls out, the local government is left to its own devices which leaves a situation ripe for a revolution. Smack bang in the middle of it all, Nick gets called upon to help put a stop to the revolution and in the meantime help protect the planet from aliens by rallying the populace to fight.