Review: Endless Blue by Wen Spencer

The book is Endless Blue by Wen Spencer; published by Baen Books on May 26, 2009. The price is 7.99 US and 9.50 Canadian

Endless Blue is a unique story in science fiction. The story begins when a warp drive from a long lost ship warps in near Plymouth Station. The drive, covered in sea coral, is towing a fishing boat full of bodies that obviously were not prepared for vacuum.

Captain Mikhail Volkov, prince of the Novaya Rus Empire and clone of Peter the Great, is called to investigate. From the drives logs, it had misjumped, so it was the only ship or part of a ship that returned from such an event. Mikhail purposely misjumps his ship to find out where ships go when they disappear.

He finds an ocean world with floating islands, where humans and aliens travel by boat and live in the hulls of crashed spaceships. What he meets in this ocean world is closer to home than he expects, and what he does will have consequences back home. I enjoyed this book and encourage you to read Endless Blue by Wen Spencer.

Review: Slanted Jack by Mark L Van Name

The book is Slanted Jack by Mark L. Van Name; published by Baen Books on April 28, 2009. The price is 7.99 US and 9.50 Canadian.

Slanted Jack is the story of Jon Moore, a lone courier and soldier-of-fortune who travels about human space in a small armored spaceship called Lobo. He has nanotechnology implants that allow him to talk to machine AIs, keep him young, and make him a target if his nanotech is discovered.

In this second book, Jon must team up with the untrustworthy Slanted Jack to save the life of a young boy from Jon’s home planet. He must outwit gangsters, a religious cult, and a small interstellar government all of which want the boy for their own purposes. All three groups also have a personal grudge against Slanted Jack.

The book has all the elements of a good science fiction yarn. There is intrigue, a final battle, and a well thought out universe. If there were anything lacking in this book, it would be the somewhat predictable ending, but it is a good read anyway.

If you want to know how this combination of events will work out, I encourage you to grab a copy of Slanted Jack by Mark L. Van Name. Even though this is book two of the series, you can read this without reading the first book.

Review: The Lost Fleet: Relentless by Jack Campbell

The book is The Lost Fleet: Relentless by Jack Campbell; published by Ace books on April 28, 2009. The price is 7.99 US and 9.99 Canadian

The Lost Fleet: Relentless continues the tale of Captain John “Black Jack” Geary. He had been cryogenically frozen at the start of a war and unfrozen a century later and found that the war was still going on. By the end of the first book, the admirals are killed and as the senior captain he commands the fleet on its mission to return home.

In this fifth book, Geary must continue the journey home. The enemy fleet is behind him; he has saboteurs in his own ships; and he is running low on food, supplies, and weapons. In addition to these problems, a system they are passing through has a POW camp that he must liberate. Can he free the POWs and still outrun the enemy fleet? You will find out if you read The Lost Fleet: Relentless by Jack Campbell.

The book has military science fiction, fleet and ground battles, military politics, and general action and adventure. I encourage you to pick up a copy of The Lost Fleet: Relentless and the previous four books in the Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell.