Books I've Read Lately

Deceiver by C.J Cheryh

admin — Thu, 20 May 2010 01:39:44 +0000

This is the 11th book in the foreigner series. The writing continues to be superb, the story engaging, and the plot involved. This volume finds Bren at his home on the coast with the dowager and her grandson in residence. Things quickly head south as the neighboring estate had been infiltrated by agents from the Marid and now Bren needs to track down who is actually plotting against who to avoid an all out war. I don’t like to give too many story points away in these short summaries, so I’ll avoid the exact ending but the story doesn’t conclude as much as it just ends. It’s rare to read an 11th book and find it as engaging and as hard to put down as the 1st. I can’t wait for number 12 and hopefully 13,14, and 15.

Crystal Healer by S.L Viehl

admin — Wed, 19 May 2010 23:57:18 +0000

Although enjoyable, this volume wasn’t as enthralling as the previous editions. The pacing was very slow and few if any story revelations occurred. The one semi-twist was telegraphed early and often, but wasn’t revealed until the last paragraphs. I’m sure the series will continue and my hope is that it can return to its roots. This book didn’t even have a medical mystery.

Lost Fleet: Victorious by Jack Campbell

admin — Thu, 06 May 2010 14:25:11 +0000

Things I noticed about this book:

#1 - It now says NY Times Best Selling Author at the top of the cover. Apparently his last book Relentless sold enough copies to make the list so congrats! It’s very well deserved as these books are thoroughly enjoyable.

#2 - They dropped the whole book 6 of 6, with this volume. in further research and directly from the authors website, we have the following news:

“I have contracts for two follow-on series. One will be called The Lost Fleet - Beyond the frontier. These will continue to follow Black Jack and his companions as they deal with events following VICTORIOUS. The other series (The Phoenix Stars) is set in a formerly Syndic star system as the people there cope with the ongoing collapse of the Syndicate worlds.”

Unfortunately, however there is no release date information on either series.

#3 - This book wraps up the story lines form the previous 5 books pretty well. Alliance beats the Syndics and Alliance meets the aliens.

Honor Harrington series by David Weber

admin — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 01:13:27 +0000

This is going to be a short review as I’m not really in the mood to be loquacious. I really liked this series overall. It’s a space navy opera, with all the twists and turns. The main issue I had with the series is the authors desire to do lots of overly complicated math about ship distances and missile speeds. I just skipped through paragraphs whenever he went into his calculations.

Star Born By Andre Norton

admin — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 04:00:41 +0000

Not sure if I picked this up from Project Gutenberg or BAEN free books, but it was a free read on the nook. One of Earth’s lost colonies has gone native and evolved to fill a niche on it’s new world. The only problem is their world, isn’t just theirs. Two other intelligent races a fighting a desperate battle to survive, each however has completely different problems. Now a new spaceship has arrived from Earth and neither the colonist nor the explorers know the other is there. Each group of humans have unwittingly allied themselves with the different alien races, and now both sides are racing towards an abyss.

January Dancer by Michael Flynn

admin — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 04:33:02 +0000

This book grew on me but still never got to the point where I couldn’t put it down. It was a very confusing book and probably required more attention than I gave it. The characters names changed as they took on new identities and none of the aliases were Bob or Jim. The book was obviously written to have prequels and sequels. I think if their were fewer characters and we skipped the harper and old man telling a story transitions if would have been better. I guess I’m just much more suited to the low brow space opera type of sci-fi.

Vatta’s War Series by Elizabeth Moon

admin — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 04:14:08 +0000

I read these on my Nook and I can say I throughly enjoyed the experience. The books are excellent and I’m not going to review them individually or give you too much of a summary. Here is the short version, space pirates have joined together and now not only threaten interstellar shipping but planetary governments. Their first act was to cripple the interstellar communication network, their second was to almost completely wipeout the leadership of the family owned Vatta enterprises, their only problem was the missed a few. Down but not out the Vatta’s are now striking back, led by the young impetuous Kylara Vatta.

Time Travellers Never Die by Jack McDevitt

admin — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 23:46:59 +0000

Just got my nook so you will probably see a few books upcoming from the free project gutenberg project or from the BN store before I return to regular print copies.

This book is hard to review for me. I so enjoy McDevitt’s novels and their setting, this book however is more of a highlight of great historical events than a comprehensive novel from start to finish. I have virtually loved and gushed about all his former books and I’m not sure I can do that with time travellers. I liked the book, I appreciated the history, I enjoyed a freshing take on the paradoxes created by Time Travel, that being said I hope this is a one shot and not a beginning to a new series. I understand that writers get tired of the same old characters, but I’m not ready to move on from Priscilla and Alex.

I would still recommend this book especially to young adult reader, in the hopes it will foster an interest in the history and further explore it. Here is the gist of the novel, Shel the son of Michael Shelbourne a famous physicist receives a strange message from his dad after his mysterious disappearance. In the course of looking at his life with his father, Shel has to roam through history using a time travelling device in an attempt to find his dad who appears to be lost somewhere in the past. As he and his friend Dave explore history they find new insights into their own values.

odd girl out by Timothy Zahn

admin — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:04:16 +0000

I believe my last review said I’ll give this series one more book before giving up, and that being said this book was much better. The first book did some much needed character development that really sets the stage for the 2nd and 3rd novels. I don’t think that a reader picking up this book without reading the prior two could follow the story as Zahn really doesn’t do a lot of recapping.

As always you have the Quadrail, the Modhri and Frank Compton and Co. This story centers around the Modhri’s search for what it calls the abomination. It will take some time for you to figure out what the abomination truly is and it’s origins. As always these novels are two parts mystery/detective novel and one part science fiction, odd girl out fits this mold. I really can’t do much more of a plot synopsis without giving away too much, so….

Mars Life by Ben Bova

admin — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:04:40 +0000

This is a quick read just like all of Bova’s novels. This is the third book in the Mars series. The Navaho’s have staked their claim to Mars and now it is up to Jamie Waterman to solve Mars mysteries while protecting it’d delicate ecosystem. Meanwhile the New Morality is trying to shut down the research into the alien village and the immoral research. They have completely cut off government funding and are putting pressure on donors not to contribute to the Mars Foundation. The book is pretty cut and dry with no surprises but some character development. It seems to me like another sequel is in the offing.