Finished Seven More Books!

I was on vacation last week so I got a lot of reading done.

First was the next five books in Christopher Nuttall’s Ark Royal series of space operas. These five books are broken into two separate but related story arcs. Warspite, A Savage War of Peace and A Small Colonial War cover the adventures of HMS Warspite and her involvement in a war between Great Britain and India over a planet that is home to the second race of aliens encountered by humans. This time the aliens are less technologically advanced that humans, stuck roughly in our 14th century or so.

The second set, Vanguard and Fear God and Dreadnought are the first two books in a three book set covering the Second Interstellar War fought between Humans and “Tadpoles” (the first aliens encountered by humans and their antagonists in the First Interstellar War) on one side, and a couple of other races, one of which sort of resembles large bipedal Earth foxes and one of which sort of resembles Earth cows. In this case, the aliens have slightly more advanced technology than humans or “Tadpoles”.

Both series are well executed and I enjoyed all five books, in fact I can’t wait for the third book in the Vanguard series to come out. The author has done an interesting thing with the series that I’ve not seen before. First, he was jumped each series ahead five years or so after the previous one, second, several characters appear in more than one series, sometimes shifting roles between minor characters in one series and major characters in another. Anyway, I’m quite enjoying them, and, if you’re into space navy sci-fi, I recommend them highly.

Next up was the second installment in Bill Hargenrader’s Mars Journey: Call to Action series, this was, for those of you keeping track, the second book, and still nothing much happens. The plot, a consortium putting together a manned mission to Mars, overlaid with the redemption of a alcoholic ex-astronaut and a (perhaps) evil genius led corporate conspiracy, is still there, and we’re a bit further along, but considering that this is the second of three books in the series, not far enough to make me read more. Anyway, I read it, it sucked, now you don’t have to.

Finally there was James McPherson’s War on the Waters: The Union and Confederate Navies, 1861-1865 an outstanding overview of naval actions during the ACW. It was, as everything else I’ve read of his, outstanding. It is well written and researched, copiously footnoted ,and there is an excellent bibliography. There is one small issue, the subtitle, “The Union and Confederate Navies, 1861-1865”, isn’t really justified given the content of the book. Honestly, there wasn’t much here on the CSN, certainly not the same level of detailed coverage given the USN. But that’s really the only nit, I have to pick. This would be an excellent introductory volume to motivate further reading.

73 for the year.

A Busy Week

Over the past week I’ve finished 6 books.

A Call For the Dead and The Looking Glass War are a pair of John LeCarre’s early novels, in fact, Dead was LeCarre’s very first novel. Both deal with the Cold War and both feature George Smiley, although his involvement is fairly peripheral in the second book. I quite enjoyed both books, both are fairly dark ( Looking Glass more so then Dead) and the characters, plotting and description of the environment is top notch in both. If you’re looking for an engaging read that will focus your attention, these two are just the ticket.

Mars Journey: Call to Action: Book 1 by Bill Hargenrader is the first book in a series about a multi-national corporate sponsored attempt to reach and colonize Mars. The book is a kind of a blend between a standard sci-fi Mars novel and a standard corporate conspiracy action novel. The first book didn’t do much more than establish the basic plot (the aforementioned trip to colonize Mars), the protagonist (a has-been US astronaut who crawled inside a whiskey bottle when his wife, who was a big proponent of the Mars trip, died) who desperately needs redemption, and the antagonist (a shadowy international conglomerate which is up to something). Honestly, if the book weren’t included in the Kindle unlimited program, I probably wouldn’t continue with the series, but since it is, I will. Stay tuned before buying any of them.

Finally, there were the first three books in the Christopher Nuttall’s Ark Royal series; Ark Royal, The Nelson Touch, and The Trafalgar Gambit. These books tell the story of an interstellar war between humanity and the first sentient species of aliens. The universe in the books is one where man has discovered interstellar tramline based jump FTL and the great powers of Earth have all developed separate interstellar empires. The book focuses on the British Royal Navy and its obsolete carrier Ark Royal, which because of a quirk in alien technology, turn out to be the most powerful ship in the collected fleets of humanity. The only problem ? Ark Royal is commanded by an overage, alcoholic, washed up has been, who only has command because he was knighted early in his career and no one wants to spend the political capital to fire him. As with the protagonist in Mars Journey, this guy is desperately in need of redemption.

The series is very enthralling. Its well plotted, the aliens are very alien, the characters are good, all the plot developments are, within the context of the milieu, consistent. I was engaged enough that I bought and read all three books within the space of two days. If you’re into “space navy” sci-fi, this is an excellent series. One thing I liked is that this series seems very self-contained, telling the full story of the war. The author has another series of three books, the Warspite series, dealing with the aftermath of the war. I can’t wait to get started!

66 for the year.