KCR: Live Free or Die (scifi, novel)

Cover of Live Free Or Die (Troy Rising)Live Free or Die is first book in John Ringo's new series called "Troy Rising", and the premise is simple. Some friendly aliens just jumped into the system and dropped off a jumpgate. ANYBODY can be coming through, they warned, and the gate will defend itself. Good luck. The first aliens were friendly. However, then the nasties came through, and nuked a few cities. Without sufficient tech to fight, Earth surrendered and paid tribute every year to the new overlords.

Then a guy came up with an idea... With a bit of trial and error, he found a resource that will make him the richest man on the planet, but he's not using his fortune for gain... but to create science and buy alien tech to create a battlestation called Troy, that will allow Earth to be free of the alien overlords, and be free.

Well, somebody's got to do it...

John Ringo have a knack of setting up utterly hilarious situations that'll have you ROFL, like the US declaring war on its citizen for a common breakfast item, or being the only hacker that figured out something that's truly alien. Again, this not-so-genius turned out to be the geek of all geeks, and his ideas may just be crazy enough to be able to defend Earth...

If you like Ringo's writing style (no ground action this time), you should give this book a try.

Rating: try it!

KCR: Kris Longknife, Intrepid (novel, scifi, space, adventure)

The more I read Kris Longknife, the more the stories blur together, and there is an itch in my head, about how I've seen this sort of plot before... then I realized.... This is a typical A-team plot... very often.

Why? Let's describe the setup for this book. The Wasp Q-ship is out on the rim, hunting pirates, but showing not much luck. They visit a planet of recluses, but there's hint that they are up to no good. They visit another planet, and promises to take one guy to a frontier colony along with his cargo. Upon arrival, they found the planet was taken over by a bunch of mercs. Kris Longknife and her marines, along with some volunteers, must defeat the mercs, and figure out how this may be tied into the planet's recluses and what nefarious plot they may be hatching.

Why did I say it's like A-Team? The Kris Longknife team did all sorts of tricks and tactics to hurt but not kill the mercs, right up to the point where the final battle is joined... Then things got deadly. Before then, they got goats and sheep as infra-red lures, firecrackers to disorient, snipers to kill trucks and tires... so on. Basically, she did everything to avoid casualties... and give the other side a way out, but they won't take it.

The problem with this book is it has two separate plots but almost no link between them . There's a secondary plot about that planet of recluses. Somehow when the primary plot, about the mercs, concluded, that secondary plot all of a sudden turned into a main plot. So the book feels... disjointed.

Still, all in all, not a bad read.

Rating: borrow it

KCR: The Tuloriad (scifi, adventure, space)

Image via WikipediaThe Tuloriad by John Ringo and Tom Kratman is perhaps one of the weakest books in the "Posleen series", IMHO. In fact, I wonder why the book's written at all, as it doesn't really fit in any where except to provide filler material for the other books later as teasers of this plotline.

The premise was that Earth was 95% destroyed by the invading Posleen horde. However, the horde was finally destroyed (at the conclusion of "Hell's Faire"). Only a few remnants of Posleen remained on Earth. One band was "rescued" by a slightly insane Indowy, supposed allies of Earthlings, and sent on a journey to rediscover the roots of the Posleen, and a human cruiser was sent to chase after them. The humans and Posleen end up fighting a war over... religion... on the ground, in hand-to-hand combat, with the Posleen (who look like Reptilian centaurs) with swords fighting the Swiss Guard wielding pikes. (yes, that's on the cover).

The setup was really really contrived, and madness doesn't offer a convincing explanation of why the Indowy would do such a thing, or even why the humans would sent a ship after this rogue Posleen ship any way. The setup to the battle is fine, but what lead up to it is not.

If you can get past the absurdness of the premise, then the book is enjoyable as sort of adventure, albeit a very... contrived one.

I mainly got this book to complete the series. I would have skipped it if it wasn't just for the collection.

Rating: Skip it (unless you need to complete the collection)

The Tuloriad (The Legacy of the Aldenata)  (on Amazon)

and just to mention the series...

Hell's Faire (Posleen War Series #4)  (on Amazon)

KCR: Kris Longknife, Resolute (novel, scifi, adventure)

Kris Longknife series by Mike Shepherd is a longstanding series where Princess Kris Longknife goes on various adventures around the universe, fighting pirates, slavers, other bad guys, and occasional fights against the Peterwald worlds. It's pretty much an adventure novel that has a lot of irreverent dialog.

In Resolute, Kris was shuffled off to a corner of the universe and given an independent command to the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately, trouble seems to follow her everywhere. The planet don't like her. The station was a ghost town. A pirate ship was caught mucking with jump point buoys. Chasing that down lead to a discovery that have serious implications for the whole sector...

Resolute is an adventure novel that usually have a few twists that is kept things light and humorous for the most part. The crew banter with each other. If you prefer a serious crew, read the Honor Harrington series by David Weber. This crew jokes and joshes with each other, with plenty of eyerolling. All of the crew seem to have secrets. The "maid" appears to be more of a bodyguard and tech whiz. The exec used to run the secret service detail (read: body guard). It's just a much lighter style.

Is it worth reading? Sure, give it a try.

Rating: Try it

Resolute (Kris Longknife) (on Amazon)

KCR: Starstrike, Operation Orion (novel, scifi)

Cover of Starstrike: Operation OrionStarstrike: Operation Orion by Kevin Dockery and Douglas Niles is a book in the "SEALS" series, where the ultra-commandos of Earth have some adventure among the stars, like shoot pirates, escort diplomats, and the like. Unfortunately, this book is a stinking piece of ****, and that may be insulting ****.

Kevin Dockery was historian and had written some definitive books on  US Navy SEAL, and he know special operations. So his battle scenes are realistic and exciting. Unfortunately, he can't write worth ****. The plot was contrived enough and the action boring enough that if you replace all the aliens with Terran names the action doesn't change at all. The pirates may as well be from Somalia instead of some alien planet.

All the aliens behave just like humans, albeit with funny names.

Frankly, if you want to read good action, I recommend the Starfist series. That, at least, is somewhat entertaining, esp. when the enemies really do put up a fight.

Rating: Skip it

Starstrike: Operation Orion (on Amazon)