Soul Hunter (Night Lords) Review

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(More customer reviews)It has been quite some time since Simon Spurrier's very enjoyable "Lord of the Night", and finally, the Night Lords Legion is deigned with another novel dedicated solely to them. Somewhat different in tone and atmosphere from much of the Warhammer 40,000 fiction, "Soul Hunter" is a well written, atmospheric romp centering on this enigmatic Legion that is a real page-turner.
Your enjoyment of this novel will likely be heavily based on three things. First, it requires you to be somewhat steeped in Warhammer 40,000 lore, and is not a very good introduction to the universe from someone not already familiar with it (I would point you to Dan Abnett's "Eisenhorn" omnibus as a good first introduction to Warhammer 40,000 universe instead). If you have never read a novel based in this universe, many references integral to the enjoyment of this book will be lost, or will break the flow of the book as you attempt to look them up. Therefore, it is a great Warhammer 40,000 novel, but perhaps not a great general science fiction novel, especially for those not familiar with the universe. I have rated "Soul Hunter" as a Warhammer 40,000 novel, since probably 90% of the readers looking at this entry have arrived here because it is one, but had I not been a universe affictionado, the rating would have probably been somewhere around 3 stars, as it holds far less appeal to the general public outside of the fans of the universe.
Second, while "Soul Hunter" is not a direct sequel to "Lord of the Night", it does throw in more than a few Easter eggs to those who have read the previous Night Lords novel. It should be noted that reading "Lord of the Night" is not necessary for you to enjoy "Soul Hunter", but it does enhance the experience (not to mention that "Lord of the Night" is a very enjoyable novel on its own merits).
Third, while there are numerous action scenes, the overall pace of the novel can be a bit slower at times, as the characters are often brooding and pensive, spending quite a bit of time in flashbacks, thoughts of the past, or pondering on their future. Personally, I find it to be a refreshing change from some of the faster paced Warhammer 40,000 fiction, but if you are looking for constant, non-stop action, there are many introspective parts within "Soul Hunter" that may not be to your liking.
Now that the basic criteria is out of the way, I shall spend a little time discussing the plot. Talos, a former Apothecary turned de-facto sergeant of the 10th Company of the Night Lords Legion is afflicted with a prophetic ability, which makes him valuable to both the leader of his warband, and to Warmaster Abaddon, the leader of the fractuous forces of Chaos Space Marines. Throughout most of the book, Talos is subject to the manipulations of his immediate superior, as well as powerful Abaddon, which place him and his warriors in mortal danger time and again.
The portrayal of the main character is rather sympathetic, and the many flashbacks give him depth, while parts written from the perspective of human serf Septimus provide for a good contrast with the Space Marine sections. The portrayal of the degenerate, disintegrating remains of the Night Lords 10th Company is handled very convincingly, and the novel succeeds in maintaining a gloomy, "grimdark" atmosphere that is a trademark of Warhammer 40,000 universe. Talos' struggles against the slow descend of the warband and the Legion into Chaos worship and corruption are portrayed well and with sympathy, The quotations at the beginning of each chapter are appropriate to the story, and add more to the ambience of "Soul Hunter" without being too predictable.
My only issue with the book was the ending, which felt like it left a lot of loose ends, and had some rather uncharacteristic behavior from one character (who shall not be named for the fear of spoiling the surprise). I understand that it is supposed to be a first novel in the series, and it does make me wish to see the series continued soon, but some of the events feel almost a bit rushed, their potential not fully realized (for example, the impact of Malcharion appears to have been much smaller than the earlier parts of the novel led me believe). At the same time, I hope that the sequel will resolve those lingering issues, so that they are seen as lead-ins into the next book in the series.
Overall, if you are a Warhammer 40,000 or Night Lords fan, I would highly recommend "Soul Hunter".

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The Night Lords are one of the most feared legions of Chaos Space Marines. Remorseless hunters and killers, they relentlessly battle the Imperium of Man to avenge the death of their Primarch Konrad Curze. Their dark crusade takes them to the valuable world of Crythe Primus, where they will fight Imperial forces to claim the planet. But will the allegiance with their cohorts in the Black Legion last long enough for them to be victorious?

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Echo (Alex Benedict) Review

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(More customer reviews)Just two months ago, I had never heard of Jack McDevitt. I was browsing in a bookstore and came across a title which caught my eye -- "A Talent For War", the first of the Alex Benedict novels. It was both a science fiction and a detective novel, and the basic premise really intrigued me.
I picked up all four of the Benedict books and plowed through them, and then read the six Priscilla Hutchins novels for good measure. I am thoroughly hooked on the works of this author. A couple of his standalone works are also top notch.
Alex Benedict is an antiquity dealer who, along with his assistant Chase Kolpath, lives some eight thousand years in the future on a planet called Rimway. With faster-than-light travel a routine matter, and a wealth of planets (including Earth) harboring the ruins of countless ancient human civilizations, there is no shortage of artifacts and memorabilia to buy and sell.
Every now and again, Alex comes across something mysterious which really captures his imagination, and he focuses an intense amount of his, and Chase's, time and energy into pursuing it. It's not about the money, it's more the thrill of the chase, the thirst for knowledge. The pair begin to receive death threats and even become the targets of diabolically clever assassination attempts. While Chase has reservations about the sanity of continuing the quest, Alex is undeterred. After all, if someone is willing to kill to keep a secret, it must be really, really big. The kind of stuff that can rewrite history books or even save huge numbers of lives.
Since all but the first book are narrated in first person by Chase, we can assume that she's going to survive to write about it, but we never know about Alex.
So, when "Echo" came out, I was very eager to dig in. In a brief prologue, we are introduced to two key individuals. The first is Somerset Tuttle, a maverick scientist who has devoted his whole life to finding an alien civilization. True, there is a telepathic race known as the Ashiyyur, nicknamed the Mutes. But they're old hat -- people want to find OTHER aliens. And yet, Tuttle has become the butt of jokes. Real scientists know the galaxy is empty. There are planets with life, but no intelligent life. "Found any little green men yet?" is a common question or maybe taunt hurled at Tuttle.
The second person we meet in the prologue is Rachel Bannister, a spaceship pilot for World's End Tours. She is very upset about something she saw out there, something terrible. But we won't find out what for the rest of the book. It's a bit of a surprise, nothing I would have guessed.
Chapter One picks up 28 years after the prologue. Tuttle has died and Rachel is no longer piloting. Alex and Chase are invited to pick up a peculiar stone tablet from Tuttle's old home. It's been sitting out in the yard, and the new owner doesn't want it. Alex is intrigued by the pictures because of its mysterious writing. It matches nothing known to humanity, and is unlikely to match anything Ashiyyur either.
But, before Alex can examine the stone, Rachel Bannister's relatives snatch it up and proceed to lead Chase and Alex on a merry, but fruitless hunt. Soon, the first assassination attempt takes place. True to form, Alex knows he's on to something big, and won't quit.
The burning question: Did Tuttle find an alien civilization? His old friends think the idea is preposterous. He would have shouted his discovery from the rooftops to prove his ridiculers wrong. But whatever he found, people are willing to kill to cover it up. Rachel clearly knows something, but won't say what.
Soon, both Chase and Rachel will be pushed to the breaking point as the pressure mounts, and the news media begin to have a field day.
I enjoyed "Echo" as much as its predecessors in the series, but noticed an interesting development. The other series, featuring Priscilla Hutchins, is set in the relatively near future, on Earth and nearby star systems. McDevitt extrapolates current environmental and political developments to their logical conclusion, and humanity's prospects look dismal indeed. People are beginning to give up space travel and are looking inward, and history shows that civilizations tend not to survive once they lose a crucial amount of dynamism.
The Benedict novels, in contrast, are so far in the future that they're completely detached from 21st century Earth's affairs. Human interstellar civilization has gone through two major dark ages, but things are currently pretty vibrant.
At least, they were for the first four books of the series. With "Echo", a certain malaise is starting to creep in, just like the Hutchins books. People are more interested in experiencing the universe virtually than in taking an actual star voyage. Hardly anyone goes exploring any more. What's the point, they ask. People are getting too soft and comfortable.
It will be interesting to see what happens with any future books. I'm hoping a certain amount of optimism remains.
What I really enjoy about McDevitt's writing is his matter-of-fact approach to the technological marvels surrounding the characters. When someone asks how antigravity works, Chase replies: "Push a button, and you lift off." The books don't get bogged down with technobabble.
McDevitt drops you, the reader, right into the local culture, with plenty of offhand remarks about popular writers, singers, restaurants and sports games. He mentions exotic (to us) pets in a casual way, and we get some idea that they're dog- or cat-like from general descriptions.
It looks like the Hutchins series has ended, but I'm certainly hoping there will be a few more Benedict books before McDevitt hangs up his quill.


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A new novel of the fantastic unknown by the national bestselling author of Time Travelers Never Die. Eccentric Sunset Tuttle spent his life searching in vain for forms of alien life. Thirty years after his death, a stone tablet inscribed with cryptic, indecipherable symbols is found in the possession of Tuttle's onetime lover, and antiquities dealer Alex Benedict is anxious to discover what secret the tablet holds. It could be proof that Tuttle had found what he was looking for. To find out, Benedict and his assistant embark on their own voyage of discovery-one that will lead them directly into the path of a very determined assassin who doesn't want those secrets revealed.

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Eisenhorn (A Warhammer 40,000 Omnibus) Review

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(More customer reviews)Eisenhorn, as the collected works are now known is the quite possibly best of Dan Abnett's work. Originally published as three separate paper-back novels named Xenos, Malleus, and Hereticus this new edition includes the unabridged contents of those three books as well as two "arching" short stories of about twenty pages that connect books one to two and two to three. This is an amazingly opportunity.
Covering a period of nearly three hundred years, Eisenhorn is an epic tale of the far distant future of humanity. The galaxy has been colonized by mankind and is united together in one glorious and dark Imperium that spans nearly forty-percent of the galaxy, untold trillions of human beings spread across thousands and thousands of worlds struggle for survival as the Imperium's tenuous hold on its territory and its way of life is threatened from without and within by forces both malevolent and ancient. Principle among these foes are the insidious taint of warp-spawned daemons and their corrosive chaos that corrupts the very soul of and body humanity, aliens who range from disdainfully arrogant to primordially evil, and the threat of insurrection from within the ranks of humanity itself.
Set in the Helican Sub-sector, Scarus Sector, Segmentum Obscurus, but a small part of the massive Imperium, Eisenhorn will sweep you away across a region of the galaxy which spans nearly two dozen worlds. Named for the central protagonist of the novels, Gregor Eisenhorn, this tale follows his life of as Imperial Inquisitor, a man who has the power to devastate worlds and commandeer virtually any of the forces of humanity in his pursuit of the purification of the human race and the eradication of the mutant, the alien and the heretic. It is a tale with more in common with the epic poems of the Norse and Greeks than with modern science fiction for not only does it cover matters military but it has more than its share of, intrigue, desperation, a vast cast of characters, poignant moments of drama, betrayal, hopeless odds, sacrifice and mad hope.
Abnett's setting and visuals almost leap out of the page and his characterization and storytelling is not only the best in the Black Library but one of the best in genre. Part Tom Clancy and part Robert Jordon, Abnett's tale of Gregor Eisenhorn from age 30 to nearly three hundred is a magnificent experience both sinister and sublime. You will not be disappointed.

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Inquisitor Eisenhorn is one on the most senior members of the Imperial Inquisition. With his warband he scourges the galaxy in order to root out heresy. When that heresy is found to infiltrate the hierarchy of the Imperium and the Inquisition itself, he must rely on himself alone to deal with it - even if it means making deals with the enemy. All three books of the Eisenhorn trilogy along with two short stories and Eisenhorn's case book and compendium are included in one big volume

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Mutineer (Kris Longknife) Review

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(More customer reviews)I kept saying to myself, 'this is really bad,' every page or so, but I finished the book anyway, so it does have something to recommend it.
Good points:
- Good characters, well portrayed.
- Good action scenes.
- A neat technology, 'smart metal,' which lets ships change shape depending on what you need them for. Though we never really see how it happens--we just see before and after.
- The protagonist was probably an alcoholic as a child, something I've never seen done in literature before, but again the camera blinks and we later hear that 'maybe it was just the pills her mother made her take,' and she occasionally has a drink, and except for some angst it doesn't affect her.
- The Palm Pilot equivalents of the future with personalities. It's been done before, but it's handled nicely here.
Bad points:
- The title is poor, since Kris is only a mutineer for a few pages, about 350 page into the book.
- The name Longknife is implausible enough, but a kris _is_ a long knife. That's just over the top...
- Enemies are sometimes straw figures. After an initially convincing setup they often roll over and play dead as needed. Allies too--why wouldn't her father, the Prime Minister of her planet, investigate attempts on her life?
- Technology often appears just to do some job, isn't explained, and then goes away.
- In a similar vein, her great-grandfathers are over a hundred and still active, but the longevity situation is never mentioned and there are no other old characters.
- Somewhat muddled politics, only explained gradually over the course of the book.
- The family relationships are also only explained hundreds of pages into the book.
- Both of Kris's paternal grandfathers are named Longknife. Either there's inbreeding going on or it didn't occur to the author how names are handed down.
- Quiet a bit of heavy-handed sermonizing, which I skipped over.
- Lots of minor errors, e.g.,
+ p.297 has Grandpa Ray storming Black mountain instead of Grandpa Trouble
+ we've been told it's the 24th century, but p.319 has a date in the 25th century
+ Kris is described as tall, but on p.364 we're told she weighs 123 pounds.
In a nutshell, it's a fun enough read if you don't take it too seriously, but it needed more editing.

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As a marine of Wardhaven, Kris Longknife has a lot to live up to and a lot to prove in the long-running struggle between her powerful family, a highly defensive-and offensive-Earth, and the hundreds of warring colonies. But an ill-conceived attack is bringing the war close to home and putting Kris's life on the line. Now she has only one choice: certain death on the front lines of rim space-or mutiny.

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In Her Name Review

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(More customer reviews)In Her Name is a superior science ficton novel, with intimate insight into its characters' thoughts and feelings, a fully realized alien culture, sweeping space battles, and fierce hand to claw combat.
Fans of Edgar Rice Burroughs may feel at home in the first part of the book. It features a blue-skinned race of alien female warriors and a lone boy who grows up with them, learning to fight as they do. In the process he becomes both more and less than human. It seems a bit like a cross between Tarzan and Barsoom.
But this is not your grandfather's pulp fiction. It is a complex (but clearly structured) tale that takes us through the life of Reza Gard. From his struggles on an orphanage planet to his capture and assimilation into the Kreelan race, to political twists and turns as his native and adopted races clash, the book grows along with him from adventure story to military science fiction, but never forgets to let us relate to the rich array of characters he meets. This is 21st century sci fi, with questions of personal identity and how one relates with the universe integrated with bloody combat.
Readers of the old pulps would also be surprised at the number of strong female characters. Although like everything else in the book, we know them primarily through their connections with Reza, they stand on their own as interesting people.
One word of warning: if this was a movie, it would be rated R. Not all readers will be comfortable with the harshness, the language, and the explicit nature of some of the plot elements. Those that are will see that they are a legitimate part of the drama, but others may find them distasteful.
Overall, this is a great example of the self-publishing that Amazon's Kindle enables. It's hard for any book to work its way through the traditional process that gets a paperback in your local store. Hopefully, one of the traditional publishers will become aware of the book here and release it to the (currently) much wider audience it deserves. For this reader, though, the Kindle was perfect for an epic that would otherwise be quite bulky.


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This is the omnibus edition of In Her Name, and contains the complete story that are also available as individual titles called In Her Name: Empire, Confederation, and Final Battle.As one reviewer said, In Her Name is 'a grand story of love, power, sacrifice and good versus evil" that seamlessly blends together epic fantasy, science fiction, and romance as it chronicles the coming-of-age of a young warrior hero torn between love and honor...The galaxy is at war. The Confederation of Humanity is a democracy fracturing under the strain of nearly a century of war with alien invaders, the warriors of the Kreelan Empire. Humanoids with blue skin, fangs and fingers that end in razor sharp talons, they have technology that is millennia beyond that of the Confederation, yet they seek out close combat with sword and claw, fighting and dying to honor their god-like Empress. For the Confederation, there is no negotiation, there is no surrender. There is only the fierce struggle to survive.On an embattled world, young Reza Gard finds himself face to face with Tesh-Dar, the greatest of the Empire's warriors. Born to a race whose recorded history spans half a million years, Tesh-Dar - a warrior priestess - is endowed with powers that are supernatural to human eyes. In Reza's eyes, the eyes of a boy whose parents she has just slain, she is a monster. Holding him off the ground, face to face, she is slowly strangling him when he lashes out with his dead father's knife, cutting her face across the left eye. Surprised and impressed with this young human animal, she bestows upon him a matching wound, a trophy of sorts, and inexplicably lets him live.Orphaned and alone, Reza is sent to the planet Hallmark. Supposedly a safe haven for war orphans, in reality it is little more than a slave labor planet. Toiling in grain fields under a burning sun, Reza leads a ragtag band of orphans doing the best they can to survive.But again, Tesh-Dar intervenes in his life. Leading an attack against Hallmark, she has been sent by her Empress on a special mission: to gather human children and return them to the Empire as part of an experiment to see if they have souls. Reza, along with thousands of others, is captured, with Hallmark left behind in flaming ruin.He awakens to the silver-flecked cat's eyes of Esah-Zhurah, a young warrior tasked with teaching him the language and customs of her people. At first beaten and caged, Reza gradually earns her grudging respect. Over the years that follow he not only survives, but thrives as he learns the warrior ways of the Empire, becoming both more and less than human. As the relationship between the two young warriors deepens, Tesh-Dar and the Empress wonder if Reza may be the One foretold in an ancient prophecy, who will redeem the Kreelan race from an ancient blood curse.As Reza's final challenge looms, Esah-Zhurah performs an ancient blood ritual that binds them together in body and spirit. For the first time the Bloodsong, the tie that binds every Kreelan soul to the Empress, echoes in his veins, at last making him one with the Children of the Empress.But his acceptance of the Kreelan Way leaves him with a dreadful choice: he must either make war against the humans, or - if he refuses - leave the Empire and Esah-Zhurah behind forever. The path he takes leads him toward a destiny set in motion millennia before, with the fate of both races hanging in the balance...

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Grimspace (Sirantha Jax, Book 1) Review

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(More customer reviews)I'm not usually a sci fi reader. Call me a wuss, but whenever I would try to read sci fi, I usually got too distracted by all the sciencey stuff to remain focused on the story. But I had seen Grimspace advertised on a website and the cover caught my eye. At that point my reaction was about as intellectual as "Ooo, pretty colors..." but hey, attractive covers are a plus. Then the book caught my eye again, this time in the bookstore, and lo and behold, it sounded interesting. I figured, what the heck? What I didn't know at the time of purchase was that it's something called "romantic" sci fi. This left me a little worried; I wanted what was promised to me on the back of the book, not a romance novel with spaceships and lightsabers.
Starting out, I really wasn't sure what to make of it. I found Jax to be inconsistent as a character at first and hard to empathize with. There were little quirks of writing style that drove me crazy, like the incessant use of the word "frag" as a swear and Aguirre's habit of leaving off things like proper nouns from the start of a sentence. For example, you'd get "Could have seen it" rather than "I could have seen it". This became really fragg--er, really frustrating pretty quickly. But for all of that, I found it pretty easy to keep reading. Okay, I suffered a major WTF moment on the planet Lachion. You've got gobs of space open to you and you choose to colonize a planet with packs of man-eating flying dinosaurian creatures that can rip through the plate armor on vehicles and smell blood in the air from miles away? Why!? I think perhaps that taking time for a little bit more history of these sorts of places would be good, and I think Aguirre could manage it fine without bogging her story down.
So about halfway through I suddenly realize that I'm rather enjoying myself. A short time later I notice that I'm really enjoying myself. The book is fun and witty, and those little quirks that were annoying me either thinned out or became less noticeable (hard to tell in the middle of reading). You learn more about Jax, which makes her character come together at last, and she's remarkably easy to empathize with. Her thoughts are often selfish, her first instinct tends to be about what is good only for her, but I could understand where she was coming from after a while. She's an interesting protagonist with a lot of potential, I think.
Grimspace is light on things like technobabble and scientific info dumps, which keeps it from bogging down. And the romantic element really isn't a concern. It's far from being the main plot focus and though it gets a little bit obnoxious towards the end, it never comes close to consuming the whole novel (I think some of this feeling has to do with the first person POV, which makes it difficult to get across the perspective of other characters). Being far from savvy when it comes to science, though, and sci fi for that matter, I wanted the opinion of someone who was; my fiance, in this case. He didn't find the romance element to be obtrusive either and the science that was there was mostly sound (he did question what precisely these dinosaur creatures eat when human flesh is unavailable, since that wasn't mentioned. Which I have to admit is a pretty good point). So that's a pretty strong recommendation from someone who has a clue what they're talking about.
I personally was a bit concerned with the end. I found it seemed a bit too pat, too perfect, and I really hope it will be addressed in the second one. Even with the few misgivings I have, I'm looking forward to the second one a lot. Good thing it'll be out in September. You can already see the cover for it on Ms. Aguirre's site. Ooo, pretty...


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As the carrier of a rare gene, Sirantha Jax has the ability to jump ships through grimspace-a talent which makes her a highly prized navigator for the Corp. Then a crash landing kills everyone on board, leaving Jax in a jail cell with no memory of the crash. But her fun's not over. A group of rogue fighters frees her...for a price: her help in overthrowing the established order.

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Live Free or Die (Troy Rising) Review

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(More customer reviews)Live Free or Die starts as a First Contact story. An alien race visits our solar system and "builds" a Gate for interstellar travel to and from our system to other Gates in the galaxy. The captain of the ship informs us that alien races, both friendly and hostile, can now travel to and from Earth using the Gate. The action starts during the subsequent five years when first a "friendly" race (the Glatun), engaged in interstellar commerce, arrives using the Gate. They are followed a few years later by a more predatory race, the Horvath, who use trade the same way the Mafia uses a protection racket. They destroy three cities, Mexico City, Shanghai and Cairo, to demonstrate how mean they are and then demand all of the stocks of Earth's heavy precious metals, mainly gold and platinum, as payment for the Horvath "protecting" Earth from hostile aliens.
Enter our hero, Tyler Vernon, who is struggling to survive in New Hampshire amidst the worldwide depression caused by the Horvath stealing Earth's precious metals. Tyler is an entrepreneur and seizes the opportunity when he meets a Glatun free trader at an SF convention. Just asking the question, "What could he sell the Glatun that would be valuable to an advanced alien race?" starts something big for him. How big was determined by a second question, "How could he become the indispensable source for that export item?"
As anyone who has traveled to New Hampshire knows, the motto for the State is "Live Free or Die." It's on every license plate. Tyler and a bunch of his neighbors take that philosophy seriously. What starts out as a commercial venture eventually turns into the war for Terran independence from the Horvath and Tyler Vernon leads the fight as the richest man on Earth from trade with the Glatun. How he manages to drive the Horvath from our solar system while saving Earth is a great start to multi-volume epic story. Don't worry, there is no cliff-hanger at the end to ruin the pleasure of an uplifting novel of human courage and ingenuity.
Ringo is writing SF the old fashioned way on a grand scale. The book harkens back to the best science fiction of the 1950's and 1960's. There is no ambiguity about who are the good guys in this story.
Live Free or Die cannot be pigeon-holed as a space opera. First, the book is about the importance of one indispensable man. Tyler Veron solves the practical economics of humans leap-frogging from NASA era technology to star-travel. If I tell you how it would be a plot spoiler, but it's great. The emphasis on the indomitable human spirit give a realism to this novel. Some things we must do or die trying. Second, Ringo cares about getting the science right, especially in how humans would exploit the raw materials of the inner solar system to build a space-faring civilization.
Historians in academia these days treat the great man theory of history with great distaste. So the fact that Charles Martel led the Frankish forces to victory at the Battle of Tours in 732 to stop the Islamic conquest of Europe is not supposed to be important for today's history students. Similarly, a student should not hold his breath waiting for a lecture on King John III of Poland ("John Sobieski") breaking the Siege of Vienna on September 12,1683 against a huge Turkish army. Sobieski was the acknowledged military genius of his age. He had a career of military victories that were the impetus for his being elected King of Poland. His leadership ended the threat of a Turkish military conquest of Europe.
The lessons we used to obtain from history are now being taught in the pages of science fiction novels.

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Earth Strike: Star Carrier: Book One Review

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(More customer reviews)A real page turner and entertaining read, however...
This author has done this storyline before. He is using almost identical plot lines and enemies as the previous stories. Heck, this story is set with a similar beginning as the last and in the same universe..The major change is a different enemy even they are also billion year old, galaxy-spanning, mega-bad-guys bent on the destruction of the human race. Hmm, sound like the Xul again.
I do enjoy the science though and will buy the next series. I just wish more effort was spent on creating a new universe and change of plot lines...
The plot lines in both series:
1.Politicians are idiots and only the military are smart enough to know what's best
2.Civilians are idiots and only the military are smart enough to know what's best
3.Civilians and politicians are proven wrong only after an attack on earth that kills billions
4.Only the Admiral/General of a battle group seems to have all the answers and no one listens to him
5.The billion year old enemy is too stupid or slow to use basic combat tactics or sensors and are constantly caught off guard by humans' creative genius
I wish the author would take note and put more effort into maturing the relationship dynamics between military, civilian, and politicos and NOT make them so stereo typical.
Enjoy

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The first book in the epic saga of humankind's war of transcendence

There is a milestone in the evolution of every sentient race, a Tech Singularity Event, when the species achieves transcendence through its technological advances. Now the creatures known as humans are near this momentous turning point.

But an armed threat is approaching from deepest space, determined to prevent humankind from crossing over that boundary—by total annihilation if necessary.

To the Sh'daar, the driving technologies of transcendent change are anathema and must be obliterated from the universe—along with those who would employ them. As their great warships destroy everything in their path en route to the Sol system, the human Confederation government falls into dangerous disarray. There is but one hope, and it rests with a rogue Navy Admiral, commander of the kilometer-long star carrier America, as he leads his courageous fighters deep into enemy space towards humankind's greatest conflict—and quite possibly its last.

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Center of Gravity: Star Carrier: Book Two Review

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(More customer reviews)If you haven't read Book 1 of this series, I highly recommend you read Earth Strike: Star Carrier: Book One first to make sure you are up to speed on the characters and their background as the author draws on a lot of the personal relationships, as well as to make sure just who the heck the bad guys are.
This book pick right up where the first one left off, and it is pretty much non-stop action with good character dialogue. I also like how he brings you along on the technological front, which makes the light drive systems more believable. You know you're reading an intriguing . thought-proviking book when you dream about some of the technologies like I did - I wouldn't mind having a replicator!
About the only drawback I have with the book is the different alien names as it was hard for me to keep them all straight. There is a lot of repitition to his other series with idiotic politicians and similar characteristics of the soldier heroes but it's not that big of a deal to me.
Bottom line is this is a good story - well worth the investment on my Kindle. Now, how much longer do we have to wait for the next book in the series?

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In the evolution of every sentient race, there is a turning point when the species achieves transcendence through technology.

The warlike Sh'daar are determined that this monumental milestone will never be achieved by the creatures known as human.

On the far side of known human space, the Marines are under siege, battling the relentless servant races of the Sh'daar aggressor. With a task force stripped to the bone and the Terran Confederation of States racked by dissent, rogue Admiral Alexander Koenig must make the momentous decision that will seal his fate and the fate of humankind. A strong defensive posture is futile, so Koenig will seize the initiative and turn the gargantuan Star Carrier America toward the unknown. For the element of surprise is the only hope of stalling the Sh'daar assault on Earth's solar system-and the war for humankind's survival must be taken directly to the enemy.

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