Review: A Rising Thunder, by David Weber

The book is A Rising Thunder by David Weber; published by Baen Books on March 6, 2012. The price is $26.00 US or $15.60 on Amazon.

After a peaceful resolution to years of war between Manticore and Haven, tensions and even armed conflict between Manticore and the Solarian League ships lead to a greater threat of war.  Now the Manticorians have to forge an alliance with their former enemies to stave off an even greater interstellar war.  However, the Solarian League makes way too many mistakes unless another enemy is pulling the strings.  In this book, the starting volleys of this war began.

This military science fiction story is a tale of politics, negotiations, backroom deals, Chicago corruption, a vast conspiracy, telepathic treecats using sign language.  There are also plenty of missile battles in space.  The characters, both good guys and bad guys, become your friends.  There are honorable people on both sides; however there are also many characters that are truly villains.  Some of the bad guys in previous books are good guys in this one.  There are even citizens of the Republic of Haven who have treecats on their shoulders.  This speaks of great attention to detail as too many authors ignore the bad guys or make them melodramatic villains.

This story is classic David Weber in his Honor Harrington series.  It is difficult to put the book down, so make sure you have plenty of time available.  I read the entire book in one sitting. For readers new to the Honor Harrington series, this book is not a good place to start the series, as a lot of the plot hinges around what happened in previous books.  However, many of the Honor Harrington hardcover books in the past came with a CD containing e-books of the previous books in the series.

I enjoyed this book and encourage you to read A Rising Thunder by David Weber.

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.

Review: Death's Daughter by Amber Benson

The book is Death’s Daughter by Amber Benson; published by Ace books in March 2009. The price is 7.99 US and 8.99 Canadian

Death's Daughter follows the story of Calliope Reaper-Jones, the daughter of Death. She works a as a personal assistant at House and Yard, Inc in New York City. Her only concerns are finding organic dim sum for her boss and hiding her solitaire playing habit.

However, she has a strange past. Her father is Death and her mother is as beautiful and ageless as Helen of Troy. She wanted a normal life so much that she cast a spell on herself to forget. She gets a rude awakening when she is informed that her father was kidnapped and she is the only one who can become Death. Only Death has the power to rescue her father and to do this she has to do three tasks that make her Death and give her what she needs to rescue her father.

The story has gods and goddess from many religions and pantheons, dancing assassins, evil demons, and a cute little puppy. A lot of thought was put into the characters. I could never guess how it would end. It is a quick an easy read; I finished it in two days. It keeps you up late at night turning the pages.

The author, Amber Benson was also an actress in the Buffy the Vampire series. She also coauthored the Ghost of Albion series. Death’s Daughter is the first book with the Calliope Reaper-Jones character. Pick up this book today. I look forward to the next one as well.

Review: Peacekeeper

The book is Peacekeeper by Laura E Reeve; published by ROC books in December 2008. The price is 6.99 US and 7.50 Canadian.

Peace keeper follows the story of Ariane Kendros, a pilot of a prospecting ship and a reserve major in the Armed Forces of the Consortium of Autonomous Worlds. She does her normal job on the prospecting ship, but every so often she is recruited by her boss to do a secret military mission.

Fifteen years ago, Kendros’s ship had been sent on a mission to an enemy system. On that mission they deployed a temporal displacement weapon that destroyed the system’s sun. The enemy declared her a war criminal so her own government gave her a new identity.

The war is over. Temporal Displacement weapons are being phased out due to a treaty. The treaty allows for inspection teams from her former enemies to inspect for Temporal Displacement weapons as part of the phase out of the weapons. Kendros is stationed at her old command to remove classified material from the inspectable areas of the station. One of the inspectors is the person who swore to kill the crew of the ship that launched the Temporal Distortion weapons. Only Kendros and two other remain alive. The rest have been found and murdered. Her real mission is to find the person responcible for the murders and to protect the commander of the station who is also on the hit list.

The story has Minoan aliens, engaging subplots and an unexpected ending. There are many heroes and villains, each of which has their own goals and aims which make it hard to guess how the story ends. I could not put the book down and read it in one day.

The author, Laura E Reeve used her experience in the Air Force with the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty as inspiration for the book. Peacekeeper is just the first book with the Ariane Kendros character. To insure there is more to come, I recommend you pick a copy of Peacekeeper today.