KCR: Cobra War Book 1, Cobra Alliance (scifi, war)

Timothy Zahn is a prolific author that had created the first Cobra trilogy a while back (1990's). He's probably better known for his Star Wars novels such as Heir to the Empire. He has decided to pick up his series again by writing a new trilogy about the Cobra warriors.

Background: when the Troft invaders came, the humans don't have the resources to fight the war in space. So they went the other route... they created the Cobras, undercover warriors with computer in their head, enhanced metal in their bones, weapons in their arms and legs and fingers... They will be the ultimate infiltrators and fight the war from within. After a long struggle, the Troft invaders were thrown off, and an uneasy truce developed.

Now the Troft invaders are back... A faction of Trofts invaded a neutral planet, and soon, the rest of the human worlds. The human factions, weary of war and the Cobras, have mostly confined them to one planet. The invasion was discovered when a pair of Cobras were summoned to that neutral planet... smack into an invasion. Troft have came up with some plans to deal with the Cobra... Will human spirit win through?

The problem with the Cobra books is it's not that scientific. The idea of implanted weapons is not new, but the amount of weapons implanted in the Cobras is staggering, even with alleged 25th century technology. Also, it doesn't make that much sense for humans to have no space defenses or space forces yet have technology to make the Cobras. Still, the combat is exciting.

Rating: try it (like from a library)

KCR: In Fire Forged, World of Honor #5 (Novel, Anthology, Scifi)

Cover via Amazon"In Fire Forged" is the fifth anthology of novellas and short stories when David Weber invited other writers to play in his "Honorverse", the world of "Honor Harrington" series. This time, Jane Lindskold and Timothy Zahn joins David Weber with three novellas, and David Weber further throws in a "technical manual" on how starships are armored in Honorverse (and how weapons damage such ships).

Jane Lindskold's story is about princess Ruth, but when she's very young, and when her mother have not married prince Michael yet. When the girl was kidnapped to force decision on Prince Michael. Clearly, both father and mother have a certain gift about spying, and the adventure is quite good.

Act of War by Timothy Zahn is about a con man who sold Republic of Haven some bad goods, and they want his new toy for FREE to start a war between Manticore and another star nation. Can he play both sides long enough to survive the encounter?

And finally, David Weber presents "Let's Dance" with a young Honor Harrington in command of HMS Hawkings getting news about a slave depot, and with help of some ex-slaves, smashed it, possibly ending her career.

The tech manual is pretty interesting as it gathers all the tech info in one place instead of inferences from various books.

The style of the novellas are slightly different, but they all read like Honorverse stories, and they all add another part of the picture. There was no detail on Princess Ruth and her parents... until now. Hawkings was mentioned before but again, not enough about Harrington's early career was known.

This book is clearly aimed at fans who want more, more, and more. As an introduction of Honorverse this is probably not the best book. I'd say start at the very beginning. For fans, this book is enjoyable, if a little short.

Rating: try it (unless you're a fan of the series)