Dark Run
Mike Brooks
Saga Press
Paperback $16.99
Ebook $7.99
This is space opera adventure the way it’s supposed to be done.
What’s that? Oh, you want details.
Okay. Here’s the skinny. Ichabod Drift is the captain of a tramp freighter, the Keiko, which does occasional side jobs, such as helping capture certain lawbreakers. For a fee, of course. When he and his crew aren’t breaking the law themselves, of course. Or even when they are. Continue reading
Torchship
Karl K. Gallagher
print $9.99
ebook $4.99
I’d like to thank Karl Gallagher for sending me review copies of his Torchship trilogy, of which Torchship is the first volume. I’ll definitely be reviewing the rest of the trilogy.
I had posted something about wanting to read more old fashioned science fiction, and he emailed me to ask if I would be interested in reviewing his trilogy. At first I declined due to other commitments, but then I thought it over and decided to accept his offer. I’m glad I did. This was a fun book.
Gallagher has imagined a future in which artificial intelligence becomes a reality, but it’s not a utopia. The AI’s try to wipe out humanity. They are partially successful. Earth and a number of colony worlds fall. The others take different paths to protect themselves. Some have computers along with extremely harsh laws against anything that even resembles AI, as in automatic death penalty harsh. Some forbid computers altogether. How would you like to pilot a starship using tables and a slide rule? Continue reading
Admiral
Sean Danker
Roc Books
Hardcover $26.95
ebook $7.99
I’d like to thank Ace/Roc Books for the review copy of Admiral. It was a fun space opera. I’m looking forward to further installments in this new series.
The unnamed narrator is the last of four people to wake up on a damaged freighter that’s stranded on an unknown planet. The other three people are all graduates of one of the Imperial military academies.
It quickly becomes obvious to them that our narrator is no admiral, even though the ship’s computer confirms he is an admiral. The Evagardian Empire has just won a war with another power, and one of the graduates (who happens to have the highest rank among the three) thinks he’s a spy.
But they’ve got other problems. The freighter’s crew are dead in an airlock. They don’t know where they are. The freighter has no power. The planet is not suitable for human life. Their air supplies are limited. And they keep hearing sounds from other parts of the ship, as though something is moving. Continue reading
Shooting the Rift
Alex Stewart
Baen Books
Trade Paper $16.00
Ebook $8.99
It’s spring, when a middle-aged man’s thoughts lightly turn to…space opera!
Alex Stewart has been writing the Caiphas Cain novels and stories under the name Sandy Mitchell for the Warhammer 40,000 franchise.
Now he’s branched out and writing another series. This is grand old space opera in the grand old tradition. Or to put it another way, it’s a heckuva lot of fun. Continue reading
Her Brother’s Keeper
Mike Kupari
Baen Books
trade paper $16
ebook $8.99
If you like good, old-fashioned space adventure, then you’ll want to check out Mike Kupari’s first solo novel (he’s previously collaborated with Larry Correia) is a strong debut that based on the ending will be the first volume in a series. At least if sales are good (such is the way of publishing). So go out and buy a copy, because I want to know the secret of that derelict starship they find.
Oh, you want more than that to go on before you buy it, do you? Continue reading
Slow Bullets
Alastair Reynolds
Tachyon Publications
Paperback, $14.95
ebook $9.99; audio $21.95
Slow Bullets is a short novel (180 pg) in an intriguing far future setting. I read it in one afternoon when I was in the mood for big idea space opera.
Scur is a soldier in an interstellar war. She’s captured by a notorious war criminal just after peace is established, who injects a slow bullet into her leg and leaves her to die a slow painful death. Slow bullets are little devices that are inserted in all soldiers. They not only contain biographical information from before the soldier entered the military. Insertion under normal conditions is quite painless.
What Scur is experiencing will kill her. She manages to cut the slow bullet out of he let, then passes out. When she wakes up, she’s coming out of hibernation on spaceship. The spaceship is carrying mostly war criminals, which for reasons Scur doesn’t know includes her.
Only there’s a problem. They are at their target planet, but hundreds if not thousands of years later than when they should be. The planet is now in an ice age.
That’s not the only problem. Continue reading
Overkill
Robert Buettner
Baen Books
Mass market paperback $7.99
ebook $6.99
It’s been a while since I’ve read a Baen title, and I’d forgotten how much fun they could be. Baen has a large number of series books, and I wanted to start with a series that didn’t have a dozen or more novels in it. So I chose Overkill, not realizing that it’s the first volume in a new series that’s a sequel to another series from a different publisher. (Looks like I’ve got some catching up to do.)
Jazen Parker has been hired to help a wealthy businessman hunt a creature called the grezzen that’s reputed to be the most dangerous animal in the universe. He’s got a gorgeous guide to help, which is about the only plus to the situation.
Parker comes from a world where his very existence is illegal, since his birth wasn’t authorized. Simply existing is a capital crime. He’s been hiding from bounty hunters since the day he was born. He knows nothing about his parents. In order to keep him alive the midwife who raised him enlists him in the Legion, a group of government sanctioned mercenaries.
When a person’s term of service in the Legion is up, they have one year of amnesty before they can be pursued for any crimes they’ve committed. Parker’s year is almost up. He’s only got a few weeks to establish a new identity. If he doesn’t, he’s bounty hunter bait. He needs the paycheck from this job to pay for that kind of fresh start. Until he gets paid and establishes his new identity, he’s got to keep his secret.
But Parker isn’t the only one with a secret. His employer has one. The guide his employer hired has one. And the grezzen may have the biggest one of all. Continue reading
Linesman
S. K. Dunstall
Ace Science Fiction
mmpb $7.99 US, $10.49 CAN
ebook $5.99
Before I get started, I’d like to thank Ace Books for the review copy. Ace is one of those lines you should be paying attention to.
S. K. Dunstall is the collaborative pen name of sisters Sherylyn and Karen Dunstall. Linesman is their first published novel. It won’t be their last (the sequel hits shelves in February).
The story takes place at least 500 years in the future if I picked up on all the internal clues correctly. Interstellar travel is accomplished by means of lines. They’re some type of sentient energy, although the sentient part isn’t a widely accepted idea when the book opens. Without the lines, it’s impossible to travel faster than light. (Where they come from is a mystery that isn’t solved in this book.)
In order to travel and make use of the lines, a ship has to have a linesman on it. Lines are numbered one through ten, with nine and ten being the two lines that involve entering and moving through the void. Not all linesmen can interact with all the lines, so “tens” are at the top of the pecking order. That pecking order is about to be upset by an alien ship discovered in deep space. Continue reading
The Fortress in Orion
Dead Enders Book I
Mike Resnick
Pyr Books
Trade Paper $18.00, 300 p.
Ebook $11.99 Kindle Nook
Audiobook $19.95
audio clip (15 min.)
Mike Resnick is one of the most prolific and honored people in the science fiction and fantasy field. It’s easy to understand why. The man’s work is innovative, engaging, and one heck of a good story.
Probably his most significant body of work is the Birthright Universe, which first saw light in the 1970s in Birthright: The Book of Man. This was an outline of roughly 18,000 years, culminating in mankind’s extinction. That’s a lot of room to play in. Not surprisingly, most of Resnick’s novels and many of his short stories are set in this universe.
The Birthright Universe is divided into five periods, based on the political structure of the time: Republic, Democracy, Oligarchy, Monarchy, and Anarchy. The Fortress in Orion is set during the Democracy. It’s the start of what promises to be a solid series.
Colonel Nathan Pretorious is the kind of special forces operative you turn to when it’s already too late. He’s tasked with putting together a team to try and infiltrate the Traanskei Coalition, specifically a particular fortress in Orion. Once there, he and his team are to replace the leader, General Michkag, with a clone. If they can get out, they bring the original with them. If not, they kill the original Michkag and leave the clone in his place. The clone has been thoroughly trained to take over and will end the war within a year. Continue reading