Birds of Lore: (Book 1) Silver Paperback Edition by Ryan Durney
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Birds of Lore by Ryan Durney (nickle(digital)edition)
Birds of Lore is one of those disturbingly alluring books. Though I'm not sure that I would have bothered with it had I not found it on Scribd. The art brings it to a serious adult level while the nature of the stories seem more like myths and fables set out as though they are part of a journal.
This book starts with an interesting poem entitled Here there be monsters. It has a recurring line Here there be... that never quite finishes though we get the point. The interesting thing about the incompleteness of this line is that it should warn us about the book.
This is part of a series that begins with the first a one of two about birds. The first bird is from a dream giving a clue to her location at the Garden of Iriy which prompts our Mythologist to hop in his Machine: the Omni Inter-dimensional Traveler. In the blurb it mentions it is stolen technology, but there is no clue of that in the first part of this book.
For the second bird; he enlist help in locating them, this time the help of a necromancer because these birds are associated with death. In the story this does not go well for the necromancer and this sets the pace for the rest of the book; in that every helper he enlists seems to end up being as expendable as the next tissue in the box. From here the Mythologist moves forward to strange different mythological birds. Each bird associates in some way with an erotic image of a woman and the graphic depictions seem to confirm this. At some point along the way the Omni is mentioned and seems to be used to convey him on occasion in this journey.
Each creature in each leg of his journey pose a threat to the Mythologist though it seems mostly fatal to those who assist him and he is somehow able to escape harm. Up until now most of this seems to take place in some altered past where he can blend his reality with myths to meet these legendary creature. When thing seem to get too tough he decides to head to the future for some more technological help in finding his legends. We can only guess that the future he goes to might be a past to his origin.
Emerging technology in 2313 catches his eye and he enlists Cale Corbett, a college student, to help him break into the technology. It promises to be able to use a painting and his imagination to create a virtual experience with another legendary bird.
This first part of the book seems to be set up to showcase the Myths and the authors knowledge of the myths mixed with the creation of a strange story about these birds and Myths. And since the birds themselves show up in the interior art panels that seems to lend some weight to their part in the story. This sets the emphasis on the illustration and the myth rather than the prose. So far the style of the writing keeps us distanced from the narrator and we really learn little about this person other than he is a dangerous person to hang around. Things do not go well for Cale Corbett. It's very difficult to tell if it's the birds or the technology or himself that are to blame for this.
The Mythologist seems to back-peddle for the second chapter going for more conventional birds and their myths. It is hard to tell if this might be because of what happened or just the next progression in the character's search. After the somewhat brief respite the Mythologist is able and willing to search out the mind exploration technology again. Here he enlist two people-perhaps with the hope there is safety in numbers. Dr. Braxton and Ivy Lane come from the future well after the mind exploration technology has been replace. All three go back to a turning point in history where they can use some of the functional mind technology to help create a virtual world where they can meet some of the birds the Mythologist is searching for.
This is where the story slips into Alice and Wonderland mode as the Eph-(the mind device) and the three adventurers begin the strange journey. For me this is where the story really begins. The rest seems to be some sort of introduction to get you to this point.
Though I find the illustrations to be superior and the mythology to be of interest I have to admit that when it began to gain momentum into a full blown story I was at a loss as to try to figure out what the main plot was and even some of the subplots. Somewhere in here we get a better notion that the Omni Inter-dimensional Traveler might be stolen and we can't refute that because of the Mythologists propensity to purloin other technology for his purpose. There is mention (several times)of the phrase "much wants more and loses all." from the goose that laid the golden egg- so perhaps that is the theme that hatches the plot that's gone missing.
So there's the illustrations and the special take on mythology that I could give high marks for but the attempt to bring it together into a sort of story or overall fable falls short because the story telling pales to the rest. So this makes a nice picture book with fables and perhaps a cautionary tale buried somewhere within that could have been brightened up with slightly more characterization giving the reader more sympathy and investment into the Mythologist.
And though one could say that the illustrations and the take on mythology can carry the books, it would seem the books of the series are to be connected by the presence of the Mythologist ( But I don't know that for certain.)
The Time traveling technology thief using Mind altering technologies and traversing into alternate times and earths creates a fantastic backdrop for huge possibilities that I'm not sure were fully taken advantage of, but I recommend this to any of those who like to delve into thoughtful pieces of whimsy for entertainment and edification.
J.L. Dobias
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Mechanical by Pauline C. Harris by Pauline C. Harris
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Mechanical by Pauline C. Harris
You know you have a great thing going when you finish the story leaving the reader wanting more and you've left them with a soft cliffhanger and you have a trilogy planned. There is so much to love about this novel, the most important is that it's well written. This is one of those rare instances when I stumbled across this by way of a friend in Facebook who was a friend of the author.
The big question is what does it take to have a soul and what happens when man creates androids. Where do they fall in this equation. But this story has a bit more than that and a few twist along the way that, as a reader, I saw coming; but that just made the whole thing better.
Drew is young girl who is not a young girl because she's just been activated, or in this case reactivated according to her memories. She's set out on a mission for the Creator or creators in this case. She's everything that can be superior to her human counterpart. Or is she?
She and Yvonne have been friends for a long time, as much as a mechanical persons can be friends, but this time things are different and Drew is having some issues trying to figure out what's so different with Yvonne.
She's soon going to find out there are things different about herself. And when she learns that humans have souls, something a mechanical can't have, she discovers the one thing in her whole creation cycle that she's ever wanted.
To go any further would give away too much of this story. The reader gets to watch Drew go through a transformation through the narrative that comes from her POV. There are many other moral questions posed to the reader that make this one good thought provoking novel.
This is listed as YA and it is a great story for YA but it's also great for all fans of SFF and as Pauline C. Harris matures into her writing she's going to give us some stuff that will rival such greats as Philip K. Dick and his classic Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.
There is more to read after this one and all I can say is keep them coming.
J.L. Dobias
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Synchronicity Trilogy Omnibus by Michael McCloskey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Series: Synchronicity Trilogy, Omnibus (1-3) By Michael McCloskey
I wasn't certain how I would react to reading the same story three times. Thankfully it didn't feel so much like that. There was some overlap but since this written from West World block POV and East World block POV and then Alien POV it worked out quite well.
I think that internally the story stays true to the science presented and as has been pointed out there is a expectation of suspension of disbelief in some parts. But this is science fiction and most of that does expect some suspension of disbelief.
It was a bit difficult to find any single character or set of characters to empathize with or root for and I think that it falls back to part of what the story is all about. What each story has in common is that the people we meet are all living on the edge and in many cases dealing with things that leave them in danger most of the time.
There are the corporate espionage people and the UN police force and the Chinese special forces and then the aliens who seem to be game players who have lived on the virtual edge for so long they are having trouble dealing with reality and have only a marginal understanding of the dangers of living on the edge in reality.
Then there is the ultra intelligent AI's that they all deal with which are the most dangerous feature of their daily lives. They are also the best tools for the needs of each group so that that temptation will always be there even though they know that it could lead to something worse than skynet form Terminator.
The aliens represent a cybernetic human/machine hybrid and are far advanced in many ways and become the target of the greed of all these people.
There are a good share of ethical questions brought into the story with slavery and forced labor and the use of virtual worlds and mind control and then there's the aliens.
Although it could be argued that some of the situations seem too far out, the real point of the story is how each group of people are reacting to what is happening in this particular what if situation. The pace is good the writing might need a bit of polish; but overall it has to be pretty good, because I read all three straight through hanging on to see what happens next.
It has an interesting end.
Great SFF for those not too keen for the Simon Pure type and who like to do a bit of thinking about how they would react to these things.
I definitely would like to know what happens next in this strange universe.
J.L. Dobias
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Broken by Susan J. Bigelow
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Broken by Susan Jane Bigelow
This book truly blew me away. I was expecting a superhero type of novel with the usual get the villain save the day type of plot. Don't get me wrong this does have some of those elements the good versus the bad and such. But it manages to skirt nicely around the usual issue of Deus ex Machina that all superheros are susceptible to.
We start with the mysterious shattered hero living the life of a homeless person with a wish to die and being as they are a self healer that wish is constantly denied. She had a good life once but the things she valued the most have gone from that life.
Then we have Michael Forward the man who sees the future and it's a future that both looks bright occasionally and often looks horribly bleak. Michael is still quite young and not ready to handle all the responsibility that he's been given and now he has to protect a child whom he believes might some day be the man to save the world or the terror that will destroy it.
Michael already knows he will meet Broken one day and that together they have at least one possibility of giving Ian a chance to learn his full potential, but there will be a world full of people who want to use the child and they have to get past all of them to succeed.
Together they start the task which becomes a journey of self discovery or rediscovery for each, but as they grow closer to future Michael Forward is beginning to face the reality that he might not be able to pull this off. But the future is such a slippery beast.
This is a great YA SFF for those who like thought provoking stories with a few extra-ordinary characters.
J.L. Dobias
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Tesla's Stepdaughters by Wesley Allison
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Tesla's Stepdaughters by Wesley Allison
This book surprised me in a couple of ways. First it surprises me that there are no reviews for it and second it's a darn good read. The premise is nothing spectacularly new; that one side of the human race has almost been wiped out. This time there are mostly women in the world with small enclaves of men because of a man made virus that killed most of the male population.
The story starts when the Ladybugs arrive on tour in their dirigible and someone blows it up which brings the Science Police into the picture and our main character John Andrews who is the sole male officer in the force trying to make his way in an all woman world. The virus is still a potential threat but men have been slowly sifting back into society and out of the safe enclaves. John has become a Science Police officer and has been assigned to help protect the Ladybugs and investigate the case.
He, of course, becomes a distraction as he is the only man most places that he goes; and these women have not been around men and the male pheromones have an effect the first time women meet him, but once that happens they seem to be inoculated against the effect by that exposure. Not sure about any scientific basis for that but is kind of cool to have women swooning over him all the time.
With an all woman band and being the one man around it's not hard to do the math that equates to a strong distraction for John from his work. His partner Agatha has his back though while she tells him that it might work out well for the case if he becomes an extra target for the people trying to hurt the band.
So in this alternate earth where there are steam-powered dirigibles I suppose we could almost call this one a Steam-Punk novel. They also have and interesting thing called airflivvers that have wings like a dragonfly.
While John is having trouble concentrating on his job and becoming worried that he'll be tossed of the force because he's a male, the killer is drawing closer to the final act.
The novel is well paced and though it's written around John as the main character it seems to be mostly written in the third omniscient point of view. It works quite well written that way and I was able to get fully engulfed in the novel right from the very beginning.
This is a great SFF and SteamPunk novel for fans of both genre. And a thoroughly enjoyable read.
I will definitely check more of Wesley Allison's work.
J.L. Dobias
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Safety Tests by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is one more in my test drive of Scrb'd, it's a pity that the review I do here can't be placed also on smashwords where this came from, without buying this piece there; since I already checked it out of the library there. Yet another minus on the Scrib'd smashwords front. Also the window for the review is so tiny it's like I'm typing on to a ticker tape and there are only three lines of text while the thing wants to scroll five when it scrolls. As usual none of this counts against the work and this is a five star story.
Safety Tests by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
This is cute little SFF procedural drama comedy short.
This is the first I've ever read of Kristine Katheryn Rusch and probably not the last since I really did enjoy it. Comedy usually doesn't mix well for me because it's so subjective. But the main character, Devlin, has a specific attitude and comedic nature that brought the story to life.
The first part expresses Devlin's boredom with his 9 to 5 that seems to be somewhat dangerous; and how he and his assistant Connie try to control that. It reads like the typical nightmare of rules and regs that can send a first time driver into nervous fits when applying for a license to drive. In this case its a license to fly space craft. And Devlin and Connie are determined to cull the applicants down to as few if any for the real test.
But Devlin's about to get more than he bargained for and he probably deserves it in a small way though the reader can't be too upset with him when he seems to be right so many times when it comes to those qualified to fly.
The question is will he live to fly another day.
Great short in the SFF department with interwoven Procedural stuffing. A good place to start to get to know an author for the first time.
J.L. Dobias
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![Empire Dance 1: Echoes of War]()
Empire Dance 1: Echoes of War by Steven Poore
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
In my ongoing evaluation of Scribd. This book is available at Smashwords for a fair price and if you subscribe to Scribd you can read it there. The Scribd interface has pleasing elements of readability but it has no note or highlight functions nor do the usual internet lookups work so the reader has a bit of struggle looking things up or making notes and that is compounded by the inability to copy portions of text for notes because of a peculiar encryption pattern. Scribd is definitely not designed well for reviewers. As usual this portion has no effect on my rating.
Empire Dance 1: Echoes of WarSeries: The Empire Dance, Book 1 By Steven Poore
I really enjoyed the writing in this book and the author’s style of writing because it comes close to that of David Weber. What I think Steven Poore may have benefited most from would be to choose one story line that would stand out and dominate; so that the reader ends with a sense that there is a plot.
If you enjoy science fiction that has a lot of procedural element in it, this is the series for you to get to know. There’s world building and thankfully it is not quite as intrusive as what we see in the Honor Harrington series. But it still is enough like that series that it contains about 4 different story lines that don’t quite intersect that well and can be a bit confusing.
The story begins in the Kaleva Drifts with Captain Al-Azra hosting the Imperial and Irian representatives who are there to investigate the remaining wrecks from an apparent confrontation between their vessels. I suppose if we tried to make a plot for the whole it might be the notion of the conflict between these two super powers as demonstrated by their representatives in Kaleva Drifts space.
After that we have the Imperial Palace intrigue story line, the Irian fight against rebel smuggler story line, and the Imperial forces that are shaking down for battles with pirates. One thing I am sure of is that the intent is for all of these to come together. The problem is that none of these story-line plots seems to be resolved so in reality there is no plot that is resolved within the entire story. Or at least I missed that
Usually with a trilogy I don’t complain that much about the plot being resolve unless it becomes apparent that the stories have been broken up to create more books. Each story is about 50k words which is a health novella but not a novel. If they had some sort of resolution to them I’d be much happier, it’s when it’s evident that these could have all been put together to make a 500 page or less novel that it creates a problem. At least the first three could have been put together. The upside is that each novel is inexpensive enough to be in total: the price of a good novel.
I will have yet to see if the plot of the entirety completes.
One thing that uniformly exists throughout and is also something that at first confused me; is the LI (limited Intelligence) that seems to be in the structures and ships of each of these super powers. It took me a while to realize that one of these stories was the Irian’s story thread because they both seem to have these LI-s.
The book is well written with a good pace and a lot of procedural stuff and great world building. The characters take a back seat to this and are not as well developed as I would like but that’s just my preference and a lot of people I know love this kind of fiction.
The real problem I have is when the plot is difficult to define and in this case there end up being 4 stories told that swap chapters back and forth. Add that to the notion that four books could have easily been two books and it becomes one of those things like salt in a wound.
This is still great SFF for those who love the Political and Procedural world building and with the narrative that flows easily it shouldn’t take me that long to finish the 4 books that are offered.
This has an adult rating but I think it would work as YA. With a bit more character development and plot direction I could have given this and easy 5 star.
J.L. Dobias
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Zero Station by Amanda Hamm
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Zero Station (A Science Fiction Novella) by Amanda Hamm
This will be the first of several I intend to read from Scribd. This book is available at Smashwords for a fair price and if you subscribe to Scribd you can read it there. I'm just learning a bit about Scribd and its interface I'm pleased with its readability but it has no note functions to mark and notate as you read. So I've had to keep side notes which are devilishly difficult to do because of the encryption protection so I have type everything out into my notepad. So scribd is not very user friendly for my purposes but that has no reflection on the story.
Amanda has a pretty solid plot here from front to back and it's interesting that this is told in two parts with our Main Character Hazel in part one and the Aliens in part two.
Two alien races have already made contact with earth the first when Hazel was 7 the next 25 years later and this last a crash encounter is five years beyond that so that make Hazel about 37 years old and single. Hazel Brown is a linguist and is possibly a good choice for this job. Apparently because they don't know these aliens they are trying to find people with the fewest attachments to do the work in case something happens. And that's probably the thinnest part of the plot.
The Seedidites were the first race to contact earth after observing for a long time and the Vines were the next. These two races are important because they help determine some of the direction this contact group takes. Because this is a novella the reader gets less close third POV than I would like. There was a feeling of great distance between the reader and the characters. We have a majority of the story being told in an almost stale scientific manor which takes us to that thin spot again. Because the characters are not well established as to qualifications for being there, it become impossible for the reader to know why they have been chosen for this assignment. The few that do get a nod with larger pieces of personal or professional reasons are basically framed into the rest of the story in blocks. It effectively gets the job done quickly, as we need to know some of this because of the different reactions these people are having toward the aliens in the attempt to communicate.
Strangely as things unfold the team seems to work more efficiently as diplomatic team than a scientific team as they unravel a mystery and uncover the villains in the story.
The second part of the book is almost gratuitous in that it mostly reflects what has occurred previously, but from the alien perspective and since the mystery is uncovered by then it just adds a bit of extra insight for the reader. What I found distressing was the fact that it was handled mostly as recordings from the ship logs and mostly dialogues with few if any dialogue tags and a potential group of 14 aliens so it sometimes was impossible to tell who was speaking what. Thankfully the narrative hidden under that dialogue was easy enough to follow.
I could easily have given the whole 5 stars if there had been closer involvement with the characters and if the dialogue had had a few more visible cues. So I give it a 4 star.
Overall this is a good short or novella that has potential for being a lot more which would open the potential for that character involvement that I like so much.
I recommend this to those who appreciate SFF (very light procedural) Possibly YA SFF.
J.L. Dobias
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Mission of Honor by David Weber
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Mission of Honor (Honor Harrington Series #12) by David Weber
This piece is the crowning of a three book arc that leads into the next arc of stories in the never-ending story of Honor Harrington. David apparently had originally meant to kill off this main character somewhere along the line but she's a bit more stubborn than that and just like all Manticorans - they don't 'run scared' worth a damn.
There is a lot to love about this book as long as you are okay with all the political and military procedural exposition. It looks like the focus is on a new set of bad guys so that all our hero's on both the Manticore and Haven fronts will get a break if they can just piece together a bit of peace between them.
We have in this book a parallel to the Pearl Harbor in a lot of life lost to a sneak attack. There is on awesome piece where David Weber focuses on Hamish as he observes Honor for the first time ever he gets to see the Salamander. It leaves him both chilled and in awe but you have to read it. I'd worry about it being a spoiler but its the inside page blurb piece in my book.
We get to see Michelle Henke in action again and she is almost a good at this stuff as Honor, but she admittedly doesn't have the cool detachment that is evident in the Salamander.
So of the last three novels this one and the previous are real gems though the one before them is a bit of a speed-bump at the beginning. Overall the three make a nice set and can be considered some of David Weber's best or hardest to get through depending on what the reader is looking for. I love characters over the procedure and exposition but I have to admit that David has won me over to his way of thinking for these books.
Yet another set the reader can love or hate or love to hate.
Great SFF for fans of the Military Political intrigue and procedure.
When the editors away the author will play-but I think he deserves the chance.
J.L. Dobias
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Vitalis: New Beginnings by Jason Halstead
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Vitalis: New Beginnings By
I was not sure how much I would like this: especially considering the rocky beginning. The narrative is okay though sometimes it feels like the writing could be more polished. It also is difficult to tell if the glitches in the dialogue are deliberate though sometimes it seems more that there is a greater need for editing.
This novella also takes a bit of a leap toward being somewhat erotic which would tend to have me put in mature young adult if I were to consider it for young adults so from age 18 up with mature added.
It took about a quarter of the story for me to warm up to this story. It feels like we get a lax view of a star-ship crew at the beginning that makes us wonder how they might survive anything and then the Main Character turns out to have a second personality that puts her close to a Deus ex Machina planted into the story. Perhaps some bit of nod to the FireFly Series in a small way.
What this does have going for it are some interesting characters in a rather fantastic story where they manage to survive a number of attempts to pirate their ship from under them. I'm not really clear on the plot of the story because it seems to heavily lean toward the main character Kira who is also apparently Emily trying to come to grips with who she is and the fact that she leads a more interesting life than she believes.
Kira is uncertain how she lucked into this crew of misfits, but apparently Captain Sharp has been keeping his own secret: he was paid a handsome sum to take her aboard. But I won't go much further into that because you have to read this. As the author mentions himself you should read this one before you decide to continue to read on to find out what happens to our ship of misfits as they discover a new world.
This story standing alone makes a fair way for the reader to get to know the author and it's inexpensive enough that when you decide to purchase the omnibus which also, at the time I write this, is at a fair price: you won't have a lot invested into what turns out to be a fairly nice storyline.
This is great SFF for those who like their SF on the light side with a pretty even pace and my only speed bump was getting past all the erotica that seems to be there to accelerate a relationship between Kira and Eric.
I've already purchased the omnibus so I'm sure that explains enough about how I felt about the novella overall. That's saying a lot from someone not fond of having a story broken into little pieces to sell off for a few bits here and there.
J.L. Dobias
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At All Costs by David Weber
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
At All Costs by David Weber
I've now reached that place in this series where I am reading this one for the first time. I can honestly say that this is another of those turning points. Where the previous book War of Honor was long with few significant space battles, this book still has a lot of world building exposition pertaining to the arms race and the political intrigue, but I think David Weber wisely put a fair amount of action and space conflicts.
This book also is the first book to make it very clear that the message David means to send is that war is hell and no matter how hard the characters try to avoid it something or someone conspires to throw them directly into it and each character is now doing their duty on either side of the fight while resisting the whole process.
But when all is said and done when the battle arrives it is no holds barred and pulling out all the stops for either side to do their best. Still, because of all the time spent on building the readers knowledge of the armament being used on both sides with the bulk of description heavy toward Manticore it sometimes seems a foregone conclusion who will win and the true score card is the one that keeps track of which of Honor's friends will not come home from battle.
The Solar League plays heavy in things this time, though it appears they have had their hand in things from the beginning. So if it was hard enough to keep up with all the intrigue in Haven and Manticore now we add the Solar League and it's a real mess keeping up.
Once again and always I advise starting at the beginning of this series and work your way up the numbers to acclimate to David's style of writing and the Long Story that he creates. Although I will say this much if you want to start close to the end this one has the most coherent storyline to update the new reader to what's been happening and the best examples of the space conflicts David does so well. It's the best of most worlds and also contains all the juicy details about Honor Harrington and how she becomes Honor Alexander-Harrington.
The story begins where War of Honor left off. Haven has struck back into war from the belief that Manticore has been negotiating in bad faith, though the reader knows better from what we do know of what happened in that book. Now Haven's government and military must deal with the truth as it begins to unfold. The realization that they have dug themselves in deep because events have managed to isolate them from any probable chance of reinstating negotiations.
They still try but there are forces out there conspiring to make sure that negotiations never happen so the war must go on while the balance shifts back and forth with bold moves from both sides causing the enemy all sorts of trouble. Finally things escalate to a point where the ambitions of both sides have grown in proportion to the increasing deadliness of the arms. When everything hits the fan there will be no way to avoid mass casualties.
David Weber weaves a convincing story where no one can be the winner and no one can back down. Though some times gruelingly long this one continues the story begun in War of Honor and it looks as though it will continue into the Mission of Honor. Racking up a total of over 2400 pages of Honor Harrington history.
I recommend this to all fans of Honor Harrington and those who like SFF with political intrigue and suspense and some awesome world building.
Fortunately the next novel is available so when you get to the end and want to know more; you can just swing right into Mission of Honor. Good Reading to you.
J.L. Dobias
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The Alembic Plot A Terran Empire novel by Ann Wilson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The Alembic Plot (A Terran Empire Novel) By Ann Wilson
Of The three Terran Empire Novels of Ann Wilson that I can locate this one was by far the most difficult read. It is still done as well as all the rest but it contains an element that I don't particularly agree with. But one thing that some of the best authors do is put the reader in an uncomfortable situation specifically to take them out of the comfort zone.
The World that Mike Odeon lives in is a colony of worlds that have been kept far from the influence of Terra because they had left on bad terms. In this world there is a church organization that might be called similar to the Catholic Church, but is so far removed that it's easy to see how they could have left Earth on poor terms, although one point here is that the current Terran Empire seems much more tolerant of all religion than any past earth empires.
In Mike Odeon's worlds there is a fight going on between the reigning governing body and an organization known as the Brothers of Freedom. The BOF are ruthless and are terrorists and the only way to deal with them is to catch them and torture them to death and this is all made acceptable by offering them a chance to repent before they finally die. And it all smacks of the Spanish Inquisition, so its no stretch to understand that Mike belongs to the Inquisitors.
It is no surprise since Ann Wilson's Terran Empire has a thread of Honor and epic religious lore that is traveling through all her pieces, that this book is heavy on the religious and somewhat prophetic symbolism. What is interesting is that the church is undergoing some change and it soon begins to look like Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land and Valentine Michael Smith. Only this time it seems that it is all being started by a female figure. Joanie the heroin -think Joan of Arc- is a military person who is captured by the BOF and tortured and Raped and left to die, but she doesn't die and she's bent on revenge and becomes a high Inquisitor with almost a Carte Blanche authority. She not only becomes the best in torture but creates a whole new way for everyone to see their religion. But she's not the expected savior because she's just the Herald.
One thing that this book does have to it's detriment is too much description and time spent on the torture and there is an erotic element placed into it all so this is definitely an adult novel here. Some people might become offended over any number of the uncomfortable things in this book. Even with some of it left for the appendix at the end it is still a bit much and the stuff sent off to appendix could just have easily been left in or for that matter completely left out.
All things as usual will lead to some connection with the Terran Empire which in this case the players are reluctant to address until they have to. But it seems that the one the Herald is bringing in won't be revealed until contact is made with the Terran Empire.
This gets us to the most disappointing part of this story and that is that it mentions the next story in line 'Resurrection' and it appears that the book may once have existed, but as of the time of writing this it is lost and the only known possible internet electronic copy is unrecoverable. So though this book is complete in itself it is the stepping stone to the most exciting part, which might be lost.
This is a great read for Adult SFF fans and it truly shows the maturity of Ann Wilson's writing from her fan fiction roots to a well polished author.
J.L. Dobias
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Fearful Symmetry A Terran Empire novel by Ann Wilson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Fearful Symmetry (A Terran Empire Novel) by Ann Wilson
2568 CE
14 years after Hostage and 1 year before A Matter of Honor this novel tells the story that is recounted in A Matter of Honor. So there are spoilers if you read them out of sequence as did I.
In this story Ranger Esteban Tarlac is coerced into being taken to the home-world of the enemy. With a promise that there is a possibility to end the war and the threat that should he refuse his life will end right now; he finds he has little choice.
We start once more with the enemy, which seems to be a method of writing for Ann Wilson. It doesn't fail because we do need to build some empathy for the enemy in this story. The Captain of the Traiti ship does not agree with the notion of deception that will create the moment to capture a Ranger. And it's not just any Ranger but it Esteban Tarlac so the whole deception takes a lot of planning and forethought.
Tarlac finds out he has to join a Traiti clan and undergo an Ordeal which most likely will be his death. But should he survive it could mean the beginning to the end of the war.
In A Matter of Honor I felt there were some things including potential for inter-species romance that the author danced around and never developed and I had wondered if this was some personal preference of hers. This time there is no dancing around but there are some odd contingencies in this romance that you will have to read to understand. Needless it doesn't quite answer the burning question I had.
This novel does have a strong resemblance to a retelling of a Christ like story. Again you will have to read to see what I mean. There are also again elements that remind me of Babylon 5, which only enhance the suspicion that the published dates on these are not accurate, but if they are accurate it would be nice to know because that would make it all very curious.
We come narrowly close to a Deus ex machina solution at one point in the story, but overall it doesn't dominate the outcome and seems to work well within the story. There are enough bread crumbs spread throughout to help the reader think something like this is possible within this universe.
Once again this is a well told story with more tragedy and yet some hopefulness. Great SFF as usual with the caveat that it is not the Simon Pure variety.
So far with the Novels and short stories Ann Wilson has not disappointed me.
J.L. Dobias
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A Matter of Honor A Terran Empire novel by Ann Wilson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A Matter of Honor (A Terran Empire Novel) By Ann Wilson
This novel was a pleasant surprise and it seemed to only be available in a creative commons license format. I really enjoyed it both for entertainment value and some of the thought provoking themes.
The Irschchan are a bipedal catlike race that have developed Telepathy and Telekinesis as a form of combat and defensive discipline.
They were already in possession of rudimentary space travel technology when the Terran's came and began changing their entire sociopolitical structure.
The story begins with a group known as the White Order who are plotting to overthrow the Terrans. There's as strong belief that the Terrans are unsuited to running the Empire since they have no higher mental functions such as the Irschchan do.
But by this time the Terrans influence is so entrenched that the younger generations of Irschchan have long since been tutored under the rule of the empire, and that is how Corina was raised.
Through training Corina's mental abilities have almost equaled to her mentor and because of this she accidentally discovers her White Order High Adept, Thark, is plotting an overthrow of the Terran Empire. When she senses this she has to make a quick decision to follow the White Order or betray them to the Empire. Once she decides her loyalties are to the empire she is marked for death as the only honorable way for her to be dealt with according to Irchchan cultural beliefs.
The novel was written back in the late 1990's is almost a blend of Star Wars and Star Trek and maybe even some Babylon 5. They have a mix of technologies and the technology seems to take a back seat because the story itself is more about the people and and a matter of honor. It also seems to be a tragedy.
At the beginning it's difficult to see that Corina is the main character because we start with a lot of Thark's point of view and then we go onto the Terran Ranger James Medart's point of view. But this is Corina's story and how her decisions change not only her life but the the life of all the Irchchan.
An interesting aspect of this story is that Ann Wilson does some very interesting framing to bring in back-story and some of the world building. She even uses a framing device to show the effect of Corina and James having their minds patterned during her attempt to teach James better control of his mental abilities.(It turns out Terrans have abilities that have remained latent. )This is important because it's one of the reasons Corina finally decides to become a Ranger and that very act sets up the main plot to the story and to the true tragedy of the rebellion.
Ann Wilson writes this in a crisp and clear multi-close-third point of view that she manages to use well enough to keep the reader interest in the story. And though she crafts a potential for romance, she manages to dance around and eventually ignore the whole thing which might be annoying to anyone expecting sparks to start flying. Similarly she creates potential character conflicts that don't get developed beyond a sort of tease phase. Still the overall strength of the story is still there without those elements developed and there is plenty of real tension and conflict to keep the reader entertained.
The final resolution might be a disappointment to lovers of overt action and conflict, but I think that's because it's written more as a tragedy.
Great stuff for fans of SFF with lots of familiar elements and really interesting characters.
J.L. Dobias
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Thirsty Planet by Bob Tell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Thirsty Planet by Robert Tell
This is a classic example of why we shouldn't judge a book by it's cover.(of course now the cover for the e-book has changed.) This one brought to mind-a steamy romance. I usually read the blurb and then read the sample. So I must have read the sample-or since I do have someone who likes steamy romances maybe they downloaded it. In which case it's a good thing for me they judge a book by it's cover-not so good for them- but quite good for me. I really enjoyed this story and it was both thought provoking and entertaining.
Oddly though it began in a way I usually hate- We have a nameless character who gets killed at the beginning, or it looks that way. It starts in the year 2121 with a dystopic world and this squatter is drifting across the water toward home with his cargo of stolen potable water. In a world that's under water and suffering from the effects of global warming-life seems cheap. Next we move back in time closer to us in the year 2022 where Cassie and Paul Lopez fight the evil corporate world that is turning a blind eye to global warming. This book contains a lot of arguments that I can't say I particularly agree with but they do make the story interesting and move it forward.
We quickly jump back to 2121 where Keesha Leder is our next victim while her husband is away at work. Dr. Moss Leder works at Pulsarsoft where they are working to find solutions to the global catastrophe. (The reader will soon learn that corporations and politics are still as troublesome in the future as they are to Paul and Cassie in the past.) Moss is secretly working on a time machine as his belief is that the only way to fix things is to be sure they never happen. He's kept his work secret from even his lab assistant. Only he and his wife knew of it and now it's just him, which is why he decides he has to tell his assistant, Zoe Reuel.
This story touches heavily on the corruption of government in 2022 and the blind eye of most people to the global warming. What helps it is that the future has all the earmarks of there being a true dilemma. In 2022 Paul and Cassie are dangerous to the people in power and need to be silenced. In the future the time machine Moss is building threatens those in power who have taken advantage of the global situation to remain in power. This is how these two stories are on the verge of converging.
In 2121 most people have abandoned religion, but somehow Robert Tell manages to weave religion into the whole story with a multi-religious Zionist movement that decides to help the people working on time travel. Everything goes wrong on both sides of the time equation until the time machine is ready.
The story almost ends abruptly-but not badly. The ending makes perfect sense and leaves much for food for thought. You will have to read it to find out.
Great SFF for fans of the genre-not so much a romance-good book to make you think without getting too heady about it. There's a lot of room between the last two chapters for a whole bunch of story that the reader gets to infer so who knows maybe someday Robert will decide to Tell us a bit about it.
There are some weird formatting issues with this book where paragraphs get separated in the middle but it's not something that I feel should cause the star system to collapse.
J.L. Dobias
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Time Change Book Three: The Way Back by Alex Myers
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Time Change (Book Three: The Way Back) by Alex Myers
I think that Alex Myers writing is still quite solid in this iteration of the time series, but I have to side with the people who came out a bit disappointed. I think my disappointment might be hinging on some different factors.
The trouble with time travel novels is that once through the looking glass and then back to the future there are often changes that have rippled through the reality so unless you do as Marty Mcfly did and go further back you run the risk of immediately changing from a time travel novel to alternate history. Ultimately even after the first time through Mcfly was showing us altered history for at least portions of the story. The beauty of traveling forward is that you can do that with impunity and return to your own time with little change to worry about unless you change something through the influence the future had on you. Ah, the confusion of time travel epochs.
Even so as an alternate history this story didn't bother me and I enjoyed the chance to wrap up a few things with the characters and see some resolution. What blindsided me in this novel was that there were questions in my mind from the first novel that were presented by the prologue or first scene that don't fully get addressed or answered and I'd been under the impression that this was a trilogy so I was expecting some understandable conclusion for me to grip with my feeble mind.
Somehow I missed that and it disappointed me.
Still the end is good enough and satisfying enough that it's not a great disappointment that I might have to wait for more stories to come before all the answers arrive.
This is good solid writing for the SFF fan to grab onto and a great ongoing series in the now alternate universe of the Time Change novels.
J.L. Dobias
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The Beginning by Paul Vincent
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Beginning (Astronomicon)by Paul Vincent
I found this novel or set of novels to be entertaining. It has an interesting premiss that brings it close to notions captured in the novel 2001 Space Odyssey. But it starts out more like some typical first expedition chronicle. What I found difficult to swallow was the large cast of characters that are there in that hazy area characters get stuck in when dealing with a horror novel that promises to have a lot of scares and thrills.
In a way it's fitting that this is like a horror novel since the Astronomicon seems to derive out of the fictional term Necronomicon created by a horror classic great H.P. Lovecraft. So the first novel or part of this novel involves a long slow journey across a desolate cold planet woven together like a sort of mix of Eiger Sanction by Trevanian and Treasure of the Sierra Madre by B. Traven.
We start out on the Elysian-a vessel that will take a group of settlers of around 60 people to Proxima 3 around Proxima Centauri in the Alpha Centauri System(4.367 light year away). Everyone will be in stasis-frozen- for the thirteen year flight at speeds close to the speed of light. There will be three other ships headed out each for a different location. What is not really made clear is the reason mankind has chosen to send colonists that far and why split them up and why such a small number of settlers. The last might be explained in that there are more ships planned for later although you would think that if they were to be totally committed to this it would be cost effective to send as many as they can and send supplies in other ships. But you would also think they would concentrate on one planet at a time.
So to spice things ups and just like with the Jupiter 2 there is the threat of possible terrorist who want the missions to fail. These take the form of religious zealots-of course. So just before he gets into the freezer Chris our MC gets a message about a possible mole among the settlers which he can do nothing about at the moment but he's informed that Earth will notify him with more clues to help him when he thaws in approximately 13 years.
Just prior to entry to the system and readiness to slow to an entry orbit the Elysian suffers damage from what is supposed to have been a comet. Chris and a few others are brought out early and they lose one member to an explosion caused by a bomb. They thaw a few more people and hunt for more bombs as they speed toward their goal. They send the next bomb outside and possibly get some external damage when that blows. Then for some reason they seem to have no option but to land on the surface of the planet and send a distress signal although it would seem to have made more sense to just stay in orbit and wait there if help could come.
Nothing is definite because they have to communicate with Earth and somehow someone must decide if they should divert one of the other ships to rescue them Elysian so perhaps that drives the decision to land, which goes all way of bad and they crash, but not before they split the craft into three section and leave most of their survival gear strewn behind them. They have the entire group thawed out for the landing and the disaster takes a large portion of group.
This is where it starts to get like the Eiger Sanction. Chris and a group of the uninjured survivors must make a trek along the deadly terrain to retrieve the things they need to survive. Somehow after having been explosively separated during entry these parts may have survived the impact and remained intact so they can retrieve the supplies from them. Of course the terrain and the very cold atmosphere begin to slowly whittle down the team until they are down to a handful of which somehow the mole has survived. For me there was a bit of disappointment about who the mole was and then how dramatically they change from the character portrayed throughout. But it's all in the spirit of creating the conflict that leads to resolution and were close to the end of the first part which was called Voyage of the Elysian.
The second part(Discovery) departs from the excitement of the first and begins that quest that follows some parallels to 2001 Space Odyssey.
The colonists of the planet are from three of the four ships. One was destroyed and the other two were diverted to rescue the remnants of the survivors of Elysian. On this planet after a generation of new people are born; man finds an alien artifact.(I have some question as to why the first baby was born three years after they colonize, but that's just me.) Earth has ceased all colonization and the Colonist have been on their own and when they contact Earth about the possibility of alien artifacts they are not well received or believed. Earth is having it's own problems and even the colonization of the solar system is being backpedaled to Earth isolation.
This part of the story seems to be mostly filler and world building for the remainder of the books to come.
Both parts have strong stories that have been used before and have been successful in the past and this could well have maintained a 5 star for me if the second half could have survived the distancing that was set as the pace for the first half.
I think because the first was story of the rugged new planet and the survivors of a crash trying to survive the harsh environment the reader gets the planet as a major player and that eclipses the main characters. Add to that that one of those at the very least has to be the traitor and you have this distancing from the main characters that never really gets the reader into any of the characters leaving the plot the story and the scenes to carry the whole and it works well for the first story. It seems to stick with the reader into the second story and even though we Still have Chris and Kate from the first story there is no real settled character that the reader is allowed to zero in on. So once again the plot the story and scene and technology have to carry the story and this time the astronomicon just doesn't do it.
We have a monolith type block that seem impenetrable and a bit obtuse painting a picture where there is some great old race that created it and has seeded the universe with intelligent life for some obscured reason that we won't get cleared up about in these two parts. It all begins to sound like that shadow race of Babylon 5 who want to set the seeded intelligences against each other as the one means of survival of the fittest. Only so far it's not even that clear yet; only that there seems to be a goal of setting intelligent races against each other.
Meanwhile mankind is doing a fair job against itself in the solar system.
There are a lot of good ideas drawn together here in an ambitious stepping stone to a larger series which I will be interested in following.
This is good stuff for the SFF fans and even the (Simon purists) although there are some caveats with that; where realism is stretched a bit thin. There's at least one rapid decompression scene that's more reminiscent of Arnold's character in Total Recall than in reality. (honestly-do not hold your breath it will just make it more painful and damage more quickly.) Well to be honest I have not yet tried this so I can't say from experience.
J.L. Dobias
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Sentinel by Joshua Winning
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Sentinel by Joshua Winning
This is another of those books I can love to hate. You want to give it the benefit of the doubt because it really is a well told story in many ways. There are few if any problems with the grammar and though there is a small amount of hopping back and forth between characters it's not enough to drive you out of the story. And the story is a really nice story with well paced action and story development. What is missing is the heart of the story for me. I usually like the characters in the story more than the story itself. Especially when the story is one that's been told many times already. Unfortunately here we have a twice told tale with mediocre characters.
This story starts out sounding like Harry Potter. We have the orphaned boy- a bit older than Harry was when he was orphaned, but the boy is the main character and has a pivotal role that involves a nasty evil that wants to get its clutches on him. This story also talks of myths or legends or fables, often in a sort of tongue and cheek manner while trying to impress upon the reader that we are headed into the the gritty realism of these fables. As with the potter stories we have the division of factions some good and some evil and the tipping of the scales as some of the good are turned to the evil side.
There are many good and winning moments in the story and the telling of the story, but there is also a bit of deliberate withholding of information and obfuscation to deliberately mislead the reader perhaps in the same tone as some fable lead the reader down one path only to throw the moral or final outcome in their face as a sort of jarring reality. Much of the time Nicholas is asking for answer from people who have the answers but fail to give them not because they are dying before telling or they are too busy fighting for their survival (although that one is a close call), but mostly because they say it's not time. Which mean in this case it's not time to let the reader know what's going on and that's what hurts the most in this book. There are so many deliberate red herrings and misdirections and left off explanation that by the time the reader receives the picture it's really too late and it become almost the deus ex machina except in this book it works primarily toward the evil's benefit.
All of this would have worked for me if the characters had been allowed more dominance in the story, but I felt constantly that the story was what this was all about and the characters really didn't matter. That proves out by the ease with which the evil is often finally thwarted despite it's having all these godlike powers. Nicholas is constantly a so so character throughout the narrative and though many other support characters have the grit and determination that it takes for the task Nicholas seem short shrifted with just the distinction of being the one person who is suppose to help overcome the evil(he has a long way to go).
Even so this is a trilogy and we are left still wondering about what significant power Nicholas has or if his power might be that he has only little power. And once again I will emphasize that this would work if the reader were given as much a picture of Nicholas in all his timidity as they are the bloody battle scenes that he rarely gets to participate in.
There's definitely enough action and suspense to keep the story moving and for that I'm giving this high marks for entertaining with a fairly solid story and well paced suspense. Unfortunately characterizations and the ending reminded me a lot of the movie Howard the Duck.
This is still a good Young Adult Fantasy Fable type of story for those fans of youthful world savers. It has an interesting story that is a blend of several other stories and plenty of suspense for those who like the thrill of a chase. I will be checking to see how well Nicholas develops in the next two books.
J.L. Dobias
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Shifter Evolutions Bundle, Books 1-5 of SciFi Shifter Dystopia Romantic Suspense by Ami Blackwelder
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Shifter Evolutions Bundle, Books 1-5 of SciFi Shifter Dystopia Romantic Suspense by Ami Blackwelder
I really enjoyed reading this collection of books and my enjoyment is what saved it from being tossed to the side. This is one of those sets of books you can learn to love-hate. The story is a good tale well told in many ways, but there are style choices that seem constantly to be at odds with that and that's what kept it from being a five star collection for me.
The books themselves appear to have been written in a rather strange order. In this collection they show up chronological- which is good- but it seems they were written in a much different order. The last or fifth story was the first written while the first appears to be the last or fifth written. The third is the second written and the forth is the third and the second is the forth. But for sanity they are in chronological order to the dates of the occurrences in the story. The actual sequence they were written in serves mostly as a curious thing to keep in mind in regards to some of the style choices. For me the reason I highlight this is because I liked the last book in this series which was the first written and it is written in a different style from the others.
The fifth book, the one I liked the most, is written in first person POV from the character April. I think because it was easy to identify with her and what was happening to her and the realization of what was happening around her brought me more fully into the story than the other four books.
The four other books are written in what looks like close third or multi-third POV. If we were to subscribe the the notion of head hopping then I would think this book qualifies so for those who are annoyed by head hopping be warned. This seems to be the style choice for this set of the first four in the series and it took me a while to get used to it. Even more than that though is that there are times when the narration steps away and the reader is given more information than the present close third POV should know and it is close to being Omniscient Third POV. This could possibly be considered the subjectivity/objectivity axis and after I read for a while and understood what was going on it was easier to read. This style is unusual to what I normally read but it seems, from the little I have seen, to be used in many different types of Romance novels and a few of the Horror or Paranormal Genre. After getting acclimated to it, the choice does seem to work well for these stories.
The problem for me is that I couldn't get enough focus on any character to get into the story through the characters and had to rely on the story itself to draw me in. In this case the themes of prejudice and oppression of those who are different and the struggles for power within the oppressive government forces and even the interaction within those oppressed were all enough to keep the story interesting.
An easy comparison in the first story in this series would be to the Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I chose this because there is a similarity in the atmosphere at the beginning to that which was in both versions of that movie. Also the first movie from the 1950's could compare as a first person account whereas the more recent version seemed to have been produced as a multi close third type of story which is what this novels style took on. You have this same feeling that something has happened and something might be visiting our planet, but it is all quiet and mostly normal while the bits and pieces of evidence begin to pile up. This story-the 2020 timeline starts with Uri and Julie (Uri shows up later in other parts) and their friends. We will be introduced to Samantha and Raul (Who will be carried through out most of the series)Frenier, Marn, Dray, and Lane (all show up throughout)- Most of these are part of the SCM Shifter Counter-insurgency Military. Then we have a whole list of alien names that are relate to colors since they initially are identified by their different colors. Those alien's names will change when they take on human personalities.
Captain Raul who eventually becomes a general is insane for power and has an unreansonable prejudice against the Shifters. Samantha Croon is a scientist who lost her brother, she thinks that the Shifters killed him and she's out for revenge. A tragedy in the five stories is that she never finds out who killed her brother although the reader does.
Lieutenant Marn is important to the stories because he works under Raul and has a daughter, Melissa, who will also work for the SCM. Melissa shows up in all five stories. To go into too much more detail might give up too much to spoil the story.
The stories all contain an element of tragic love amid the atmosphere of hate and bigotry. The hate and bigotry drive Raul to lack any sense of morals or justice in his quest for power. Everyone caught within his wake is either captivated by mutual desires for power or out right fear of the mad man. It's interesting to note that his quest will ultimately lead him to becoming in all ways worse than his perceived enemy.
The aliens are mostly on a quest to survive although they get caught up in the tragedies just as much as all the humans. And the human population is stuck between with reliance on the military and Raul to guide them with accurate intelligence and superior power. The stories constantly pose that question of how far do we let our leaders take us before we become responsible for the criminal injustice that they commit.
Initially the aliens are also to blame because they approach life on earth almost in a Pollyanna or Candide type of naivete that causes them to treat the military threat almost like a game at the beginning. Once again in the middle are humanity and eventually the Hybrids that the aliens produce.
Ami Blackwelder has a lot of five star stuff in this piece and the thing that dissipates it for me is the style of the first four novels pushed me far enough away that I had to rely on every other element besides the characters because there was no single character that I could feel for or feel with throughout until the final story with April. I suppose that this does create the effect of more closely examining the issues that Ami is addressing in the stories, which is one plus to the style choice.
This is good thought provoking reading for any lovers of Dystopic Romances and some who like SFF and enjoy suspense thrillers.
I'm definitely looking forward to the next Shifter novel.
J.L. Dobias
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War of Honor by David Weber
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
War of Honor (Honor Harrington #10) by David Weber
The two times that I have read this I think I came up with the same problem. A person that is used to David Weber and his Honor Harrington series has to slog through about two hundred pages of stuff before things start looking up. One begins to wonder if it is a matter of having so many successes already that it seems important to beat a dead horse. The oddest part of all of that is that much of what is in those pages might be there as a sort of primer for the new reader. After all this is at ten plus book series now and there is a lot of back-story and world building that has taken place. So we do need some of this for background and it is nice to refresh our memories, even those of us who have been with Honor and David from the beginning.
I think I enjoyed this much better the second time through and that might be because I have been going through the series again trying to pay extra attention to the details that normally would put me to sleep. Unfortunately that means that it took about 5 days to get to page 200 and then there were still 680 pages to go.
I remember a long time ago I read Dumas. The Count of Monte Cristo, the Three Musketeers and the Man in the Iron Mask. I was fueled to read them by the movies I had seen and of course was expecting a lot of swash and some buckle in there. I think that the frustration of that experience might best explain the frustration of the experience of reading this massive volume. It's difficult to just say that much of this could have been said with fewer word. Much easier to just complain that perhaps it could have been more entertaining. The funny thing is that the parallels that are drawn from reality to David's Honor universe are in a different time which is one reason I have to wonder how it is it feels like they are coming from the era that Dumas was writing about.
I should be thankful that its not as comparable to the experience I had trying to read Don Quixote, but then I think that was a matter of things not coming through in translation.
Once this did kick in it got interesting to me and there were things I remembered from last time that I was paying particular attention to. The affair between Honor and Hamish for one thing, and the ever forgiving nature of Emily within the whole construct. And of course the increasing level of participation of the TreeCats in the whole mix. A little too convenient that Nimitz's spouse some how manages to adopt Hamish, but it does help heat that situation up a bit.
This book concentrates a lot on the politics of things and the dynamics behind the scenes and the reason that things fail on both ends of the negotiation table. Haven now has a brighter future in the choice of leaders and by an act of Haven the Star Kingdom has managed to have it's heads of state turned into addelbrains. Well they were already a bit off, they just were not in charge until this book.
The Andermani Empire is starting to show its muscle and looking to strengthen its position and to move the Star Kingdom out of its territory with action in the Silesian Confedracy which will bring Honor to Sidemore as she tries to remover herself from the public eye. Manticor's new government is dragging its feet at the negotiation table and infuriating her own allies, leaving an opening for Haven to do an end-run around them by enticing their allies way from them. There is an almost unbelievable comedy of errors with the communication back and forth from Manticor to Haven that's a bit hard to swallow but this will lead to resumption of war.
Possibly the biggest letdown is that the battles are mostly so so battles. This especially after all the time spent about the misinformation between both camps capabilities and their planning or lack thereof; the battles themselves just seem to fall flat.
The up-side to this is that the whole thing will finally position things where everyone is still at war and possibly the best people on both sides will have a chance to face off. The problem is that David Weber is weaving a tale that might have you rooting for both sides when everything finally hits the fan.
Still great stuff for SFF-Military Space Battle -Political Intrigue lovers. I suggest anyone new to these novels get their feet wet by starting at the beginning where it's only shallow because there are not as many pages involved.
J.L. Dobias
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