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I don’t mean to go off on a rant here, but you can’t be Space Amish.  To be Amish is to shun modern technology, but to live in space is to embrace this technology as it allows you to live.  The two are mutually exclusive, I don’t care how cool a beard you have.  Anyway, where was I…

Glass Fleet reminds me a little of the Star Trek movies, because it seems that every odd volume is garbage.  I thought the series had solved it horrid passing problems, but alas, the story still movies forward as if it was encumbered by one of the outrageous dress worn by the female cast members. (Picture the biggest dress you’ve ever seen, but imagine the designer wasn’t hindered by gravity.)

There are four episodes in this volume, this first of which deals with the childhood of the would-be emperor antagonist Vetti, and while his tragic past is unsettling it does little to move the narrative forward.  The next episode is what could have been the final battle of the people army vs. the ruling aristocracy, and while we are treated to a rather large battle, the majority of the episode is devoted to the political double talk happening behind the scenes of the battle.  Even at the end of the episode when Cleo and Vetti have their showdown, the whole fight is filled with the same footage from their first fight, which I wouldn’t have noticed if the third episode was a clip show featuring almost the entire fight in question!  The clips continue until they catch up to the battle we just finished watching, highlighting exactly what moves were recycled between the two duels.  The final episode is a flashback episode, showing what the crew has been doing while we were busy watching a clip show.  Turns out they all got captured while we weren’t looking. 

I want to like Glass Fleet, I really do.  It still combines soft sci-fi (which I like) with a Victorian Age vibe (which I also like.) The continued problems with pacing are killing my enjoyment of what could be a very interesting show.  Somewhere in all of this phallic imagery is a cool story about the uprising of the lower class against an oppressive ruling class, as told through the eyes of a revolutionary that would cast away her very life for the cause.  Or at least that is what they are trying to tell me about; maybe all they really want to do is give the slash writers something to do when they get tired of Ed/Al or Heero/Duo, or whatever gives the them their jollies these days. 

Perhaps I’m being too harsh, and it could very well be that the next volume will be better simply by virtue of being even.  I withhold judgement on the series until I can put it all together, but as for Volume Three: pass until we can venture a gaze at Volume Four

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