In his opinion, Humankind could no more give up war than he could give up the ability to think.
This concludes both the Inheritance Trilogy and the MarIn his opinion, Humankind could no more give up war than he could give up the ability to think.
This concludes both the Inheritance Trilogy and the Marines in Space series.
There is a case to be made that this is a somewhat odd entry in the series. It takes place more than 800 years after Galactic Corps, in which the Xul threat was apparently conclusively dealt with, so it does occasionally come across as a bit of a footnote to everything else that went before.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed it. There is a lot of exotic new tech on display here, and the differences between the “old” and “new” Marine corps makes for interesting dynamics.
“Even so, the astrophysicists are calling it a microquasar. It won’t scour the Galaxy of life, fortunately, but they estimate the total light output from our Galaxy will more than quintuple, and probably set the astronomers in Andromeda to scratching whatever they use for heads.”
Again, expect some big drama and even bigger explosions. I am also currently reading the Star Carrier series, so drawing comparisons is inevitable. Notably: the difference between the Xul and the Sh’daar, and the way that Artificial Intelligence is portrayed.
Similar in tone, but some different concepts. The one thing that stood out for me in this specific series (Marines in Space), is the mythos that the author has created around extra-terrestrial life and how it has affected humanity over the ages (such as being worshipped as gods and being responsible for key events in human history and evolution – without revealing spoilers).
In fact, Earth’s sun was so intrinsically faint as to be invisible to the naked eye at a distance of only thirty or forty light years, and he was looking for it across a gulf two thousand times greater than that. Each and every one of the stars he could see was brighter by far than Sol, and for every star he could see there were tens of thousands that he could not. Earth’s sun, and its worlds, was lost within that unimaginable immensity.
The story takes place over vast distances and on a truly interstellar scale. I found there to be a surprising amount of “Sci” in this author’s brand of Military Sci-Fi, and more sense of wonder than I would typically associate with this kind of thing.
I have already mentioned the exotic tech described in this entry (and previous entries). Concepts like reality editing and the Quantum sea (a quantum base form with possibility waves that can affect reality) had me scratching my head a bit. In a good way, mind you, that’s why I read this kind of thing in the first place.
All in all, I found Semper Human to be a satisfying wrap up to the series.
He seemed to be within the eye of a storm, a vast and powerful storm of blue and violet light and mist, of half-glimpsed, half-sensed shapes and masses and unimaginable energies....more
Clever title aside, this is another solid entry in the Marines in Space series. It is also the second book of theThey were such a long way from home.…
Clever title aside, this is another solid entry in the Marines in Space series. It is also the second book of the Inheritance trilogy.
Thirty seconds to go … an eternity in the lightning-quick stab and parry of space-naval combat.
As in the rest of the series, the author really does come up with multiple ways to conceivably make use of Marines in space combat, using a whole array of high tech weaponry, armor, tools and craft. From ship, or base-, boarding to sneak-and-peak reconnaissance missions and infiltration, to full out warfare in just about any environment. It’s all here.
And within that relatively tiny volume of space, compressed by the inexorable laws of gravitation, the mass of two million or more stars warped the laws of space and time into bizarre and wildly twisted new shapes. The external shell, the Dyson sphere, appeared to span some ten million kilometers, just large enough to accommodate the super-massive object inside.
“Okay, so why a Dyson sphere around a black hole?” “That’s the question, isn’t it?”
The 1st Marine Interstellar Expeditionary Unit is undertaking a mission here that is magnitudes bigger in scale than any of the previous books. Douglas is very dependable when it comes to this kind of thing - or at least, I haven't been disappointed yet.
What’s more, there is equal amounts of time and effort spent on space (naval) engagements and marine combat.
“How in the hell do we fight something like that?”
The author has a remarkable way of describing the environments of battlespace. The vistas of the void, if you will. He also makes excellent use of the way the attributes of a particular battlespace would affect the outcome of engagements.
Overhead, the sky had gone impossibly strange … dominated by a vast, three-armed spiral. He was reminded of the spiral form of the Galaxy as seen from Cluster Space … but this one was more open, more distinct, and the colors were reversed—with sullen-glowing reds in the spiral’s outer reaches shading to an intense blue-white near the center. To one side, the central cluster, a knot of carelessly spilled, radiant blue jewels imbedded in twisted nebulae; several nearby suns showed tails like comets streaming away from the fierce radiations of that central star swarm.
I highly recommend these books to anybody who enjoys Military SF with a focus on all aspects of combat, from tactical decisions right down to the Search and Rescue efforts after the fact.
Another big plus: these books have some very good sense of wonder elements going for them, as the author keeps introducing some pretty spectacular ideas.
Flaring pinpoints like tiny, blue-white stars dropped in long, curving arcs into the event horizon in evenly spaced groups, each growing brighter as it neared the gravitational point of no return. Those flares, he thought, were too evenly spaced to be natural....more
Runner is set in a far, far future. After the fall of a big star faring empire (following the assassination of the emperor)Interesting setting alert.
Runner is set in a far, far future. After the fall of a big star faring empire (following the assassination of the emperor) planets are isolated when the sentient A.I. governing the star gates disappears (absconds, if you will).
With planets cut off from the historical seat of power, knowledge, economy and governance (and more interested in their own ideologies and factions, and in fighting over the titbits of their own crumbling corners of the galaxy, than with general housekeeping) things are going to pot. Society (such as it is) is sliding into technological barbarity as time goes on.
Ancient ships governed by aging AIs still follow pre-programmed routes between planets. Annual planetary arrival of these ships is treated as a holiday or religious event, or at least until the day inevitably comes that there is no arrival, since many of these ships eventually retire themselves by dropping into orbit around stable planets and placing their ailing systems on standby.
The knowledge of “how things work” seems to have faded into obscurity, so to speak.
People from different planets still make use of these ships, using them as a hop-on, hop-off transport between worlds, but it is a dangerous undertaking with no real guarantee that they will reach their destination(s).
All of the above make for a rather fun backdrop for planet hopping adventure across an assortment of environments.
Add to this a rather ruthless protagonist (of the shoot first, ask questions later variety) and you have a rather fun read dealing with different factions looking for the missing star gate AI, the spirit of the dead emperor and a boy who may, or may not, be a reincarnation of the most important spiritual leader of the empire.
The Grand Tour novels are a (fairly) near future series dealing with the expansion of humanity into (and eventually further than) the solar system. ThThe Grand Tour novels are a (fairly) near future series dealing with the expansion of humanity into (and eventually further than) the solar system. They don’t appear to have been written in chronological order. At the time of my writing this, some of them are very hard to come by in hardcopy format (especially the “newer” ones that I don’t own yet). I am not sure if this has anything to do with Bova’s passing in 2020 (whether there are some contractual / intellectual property issues still being resolved with the estate).
The Precipice is the first book in the Asteroid Wars sequence. This event is referenced in some of the other Grand Tour books I have read.
If you’ve read any of these novels before, you will have a good idea of what to expect. Bova gets positively preachy about environmental issues here, and was clearly an advocate for some of the ideas he puts to paper (such as looking to move industrialization away from Earth). Obviously, there are some severe technical challenges for most of what he proposes, but this is hard Science Fiction, so the author does present plausible theoretical solutions to at least some of what is going on here.
Many of the characters are recurring, having popped up elsewhere in the series. It’s also worth mentioning that Bova isn’t averse to killing off his characters, especially the sympathetic ones.
He dreamed of floating helplessly in space, slowly freezing as the Sun glowered at him.
The Precipice features a caricature of a villain (against whom everybody seems to be frustratingly powerless), and a protagonist on a self appointed crusade to save earth from itself (who is portrayed as a somewhat naïve and tragic figure, a depiction that is somewhat at odds with his previous portrayals).
Bova writes about both the advantages and pitfalls of nanotechnology, and introduces some fun ideas (eg diamond hulled space ships) as well as cool settings (eg Selene, which is a self sufficient , independent colony on the moon). And, then, of course, the asteroid belt itself.
”There is vast emptiness out there.”
Like the other Grand Tour entries, this novel features some intrigue, some cool ideas and some action/adventure. These stories aren’t difficult to dig your teeth into.
As with the first entry in the Void trilogy, enjoyment of this novel is directly related to how much buy-in there is with the dream sequences.
Let me As with the first entry in the Void trilogy, enjoyment of this novel is directly related to how much buy-in there is with the dream sequences.
Let me put it this way. This novel doesn’t read like a 700-odd page Science Fiction novel. It reads like a 300+ page Fantasy novel and a 300+ page Science Fiction novel rolled into one. Everything is connected, of course.
The author does something surprising in this entry: there are some significant revelations about the nature of the void in the closing chapters. Very rewarding, but the kind of thing I would have expected in the final entry, or as part of the endgame. This really, really piqued my interest, to see where Hamilton is taking this, since there is obviously a lot of story left, and no doubt a few surprises.
As for the dream sequences. I think I found them a bit more enjoyable this time around. The Waterwalker is coming into a great amount of power here, in a setting reminiscent of the Renaissance or early/pre-industrial Europe (at a guess, Hamilton only reveals so much about Querencia). On the other hand, it did feel like there was more of this than in the first book (I didn’t count the pages so I can’t be sure, but it felt like the SF bits were taking a bit of a back seat). Having said that, this is still high concept Space Opera of the first order, and the way it sets up the final book, makes me believe there will still be whole lot of Sci-Fi in The Evolutionary Void. ...more
The colossal artificial planets had been spaced regularly about the outskirts of the galaxy, forming a dotted net round the great whirlpool of stars.
QThe colossal artificial planets had been spaced regularly about the outskirts of the galaxy, forming a dotted net round the great whirlpool of stars.
Quite a bedazzling book, spanning an array of concepts. At the heart of the story are the Arithmetic Shellworlds, vast artificial worlds with different levels (or nested spheres) on which different species live out their existence in different states of technological advancement before finally graduating to the Galactic arena.
However, even though these worlds are (for all intents and purposes) glorified ant traps, albeit governed by strict rules of interference / non-interference, they are also shrouded in mystery, since their original builders have vanished, and they weren’t necessarily designed for what they are being used for.
…with the aim, when they were all working in concert, of throwing a force field or shield round the entire galaxy. Precisely why this had been thought necessary, or even desirable was also unknown, though speculation on the matter had preoccupied scholars and experts over the aeons.
If ever there was someone who could make a rightful claim to being the king of Space Opera, Banks should be high on that list. There are many players in this book, on varying scales. Lots of manipulation and intrigue. Lots of mysteries, lots of wonder. In other words: a Culture novel.
The stage is small but the audience is great…
Like some other Culture novels, the book does take a while to build up some steam (no pun intended), but it inevitably does yield its plots within plots. Like Matryoshka, or nesting dolls.
Matter contains a nihilistic streak, and it is perhaps appropriate that I read it just after The Sirens of Titan. The two books seemed to complement one another in some weird way, even though they are vastly different (not to mention different authors).
Men felt appropriately tiny in the shadow of such manufactured vastness. In a place like this, the heads of even the most unimaginative of beings began to fill with questions, if not outright dread.
Expect absolutely massive ideas, cultures and concepts, juxtaposed against the tiny lives of individuals in tiny cultures. Just when does something start to matter? Or, in fact, stop mattering.
We are lost here, he thought. We might disappear into this wilderness of civility and progress and never be seen again. We might be dissolved within it for ever, compressed, reduced to nothing by its sheer ungraspable scale.
Which bring us to the title of the book. It references just about every meaning of the word, from the abstract to the literal. Or at least, that seems to be the case to me as a layman.
This is a battle for the destiny of humanity. Our soul will be decided by the outcome.
Hamilton's books tend to be very dense, in terms of both informaThis is a battle for the destiny of humanity. Our soul will be decided by the outcome.
Hamilton's books tend to be very dense, in terms of both information and page count. For me they tend to be a bit of a roller coaster ride, running the gamut between dislike and enthrallment.
The Dreaming Void is no exception. There were portions of the novel that I didn’t like, and then there were portions of the novels that I liked a lot. Given the fact that it is such a sprawling story with so many facets and factions, it is probably an inevitability. I will say this: I don’t think Hamilton cares.
The nest was full of enigmas, the mental poetry left behind by observers baffled by the terrible dark heart of the galaxy.
I was keen to return to the Commonwealth Universe, having really enjoyed Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained way back. I have been procrastinating, though; the idea of wading through another 1000+ page tome was just too daunting. I am therefore glad to announce that somewhere along the line the author has learnt to trim things down a bit (the Night’s Dawn Trilogy almost rendered me catatonic).
”Hello” And the Skylord answered.
As you would expect, it’s mostly good stuff. Big idea space opera with lots of ideas and tech.
I wasn’t overly fond of the dream sequences though, they read like any other medieval bildungsroman fantasy out there, and they feature quite predominantly throughout. It’s not that I don’t like fantasy (I really like fantasy), but the juxtaposition against the high-tech space sequences were a bit jarring.
All in all though, despite my gripes, everything comes together nicely. It's fairly typical Hamilton fare, so fans won't be disappointed.
Also, I should mention, the stakes in this one is quite high. 3.5 stars rounded up. Next up: The Temporal Void
[Their] planet-sized DF machines were flying into new positions. ”[They] are getting ready for the last fight,” he said numbly. “If they lose, that monster will consume the whole galaxy.”...more
The Warhammer 40k setting, in addition to being as bleak as anything you might come up with, is also purposely anachronistic and unique (in equal measThe Warhammer 40k setting, in addition to being as bleak as anything you might come up with, is also purposely anachronistic and unique (in equal measure). Consider: this takes place roughly 39,000 to 40,000 years in the future, but tanks (as massive and destructive as they are portrayed here) still run on diesel. Melee weapons, such as swords, often feature in combat. Mining on distant colony planets is reliant on manual labour, and so on and so forth.
This essentially sets the scene for the slaughterfest that is Necropolis. It is a rough and dirty and bloody business. Not totally dissimilar, I suppose, to the kind of Total War scenario of the Second World War, but condensed into roughly a month or so, and centered on a single (albeit incredibly large) city. The carnage depicted here is quite appalling. Now, I know there are Sci-Fi novels with higher body counts, but these usually revolve around space warfare and planet-klling weaponry, whereas Necropolis deals with infantry tactics, close quarter combat and tank warfare. Boots on the ground, so to speak.
It's powerful stuff, and Abnett is quite adept in dealing with multiple viewpoints and getting the reader to care for the different role players. Having said that: this is also where the novel gets challenging. There is quite a large number of divisions and regiments and units and companies and the like being shuffled around the board here, and trying to keep track of exactly what is going on can be a bit troublesome.
Add in some intrigue, back-stabbing between factions, politics, etc, and you get what is probably the best Gaunt's Ghosts novel thus far (this being the third book in the series, but the first (it seems) that was actually conceived as a stand-alone novel)....more
Hm. So this wasn't too shabby (it's a good series to be fair), but The Sagittarius Command didn't blow my hair back in the same its predecessor (Wolf Hm. So this wasn't too shabby (it's a good series to be fair), but The Sagittarius Command didn't blow my hair back in the same its predecessor (Wolf Star) did.
Possibly, part of the problem is the fact that, by this point, all the shipboard action against the Gorgons are starting to feel a bit same-y. Also, given the specific way that the previous novel ended, it didn't feel like The Sagittarius Command did a hell of a lot to move the story forward. By the last page, the status quo feels a lot the same as it did in the previous novel.
The positive aspects that I should point out is the way that the author continues to mess with the reader's head (given the way the chronology of the story was rebooted at the end of The Myriad) and the backstory revelations that flesh out some of the main characters and adds context to their actions and interactions.
I'm giving it 3 although 3.5 is probably closer to being an accurate rating. It is just that Wolf Star was really, really good, and I expected more of the same....more
So, Line War, in which the pawpaw hits the fan. Or, more accurately, in which battalions of fans rampage willy-nilly through the”Damage?” “Yes. Damage.
So, Line War, in which the pawpaw hits the fan. Or, more accurately, in which battalions of fans rampage willy-nilly through the pawpaw orchard. The last book in the Agent Cormac arc is an absolute delight of mayhem and intrigue.
”We’ve got a problem – there’s something else out here.”
The full cast, with the exception of characters who have met their demise (and not been resurrected in some way or the other) reconvene in Line War for the grand finale. If you have made it this far (and there is no reason why you shouldn’t have) you already know what the story is: extinction event, as Erebus and his fleet of Jain technology bears down on the Polity.
And over there, in the darkness at the utter limit of her perception, something tangled, hot and utterly alien encroached on reality.
But, things are not as they seem (when are they ever?) and the author sets the reader up for a fantastic curveball or two. Where the previous novels tended to deal with events from different viewpoints, sometimes in isolation, and even utilizing flashbacks, Asher here, quite literally, brings everything together. Expect a lot of revelations and expect a lot of carnage, as we are finally shown the big picture.
All in all a fantastic series, and a humdinger of a conclusion to the Ian Cormac sequence.
”Well, it has been a bit boring around here lately.” “I can promise you, that is about to change drastically.”...more
The Polity series is certainly one of the best out there. It has just about ever”Run to your ship. You cannot survive here.”
Once more into the breach.
The Polity series is certainly one of the best out there. It has just about everything you could ask for: big battles, big tech, big cosmos, big bad, big boom, etc. An edgy Hard Space Opera with trimmings of Military Science Fiction, Cyberpunk and Horror. I mean, come on, what’s not to like? The snarky war drones and ships are only the icing on the cake.
If you haven’t read any of this yet: it is like Iain M. Banks' Culture novels on crack cocaine, or Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy trimmed of all the fat.
Then it started.
Polity Agent is the fourth and penultimate novel in the Agent Cormac sequence (in which the story has just gotten bigger and the stakes higher with each instalment). While there are other Polity novels that can be read as stand-alones, these ones really have to be read in sequence, and it is particularly obvious in this entry. Asher is here starting to really bring the threads together and setting things up for the grand finale. We finally learn more about key characters like Horace Blegg and Dragon, and the enigmatic Makers. Not to mention the nasty Jain Tech. I daresay Polity Agent is so good it may actually succeed in isolation (on some levels), but as part of the bigger picture it really shines; the action here is also much more widespread, and on a bigger scale, than the previous novels in the sequence.
It’s just a bit awkward to try and review a book like this, while at the same time telling people to go back and start at the beginning (Gridlinked): if you’ve made it this far you certainly won’t be disappointed. Suffice to say, I think this is one of the best so far, hopefully that sums it up.
The entire craft rippled, emitted a tearing crash, and bucked as if someone had taken hold of the very fabric of space and snapped it up and down like shaking dust from a carpet.
Asher is pretty damn dependable. Line War looks set to be a doozy!
Just the thing to get my reading schedule for the year back on track, after a bit of a speed bump.
The Inheritance The Galaxy is a hellishly big place.
Just the thing to get my reading schedule for the year back on track, after a bit of a speed bump.
The Inheritance trilogy is the third (somewhat contained) trilogy of the Marines in Space series. As such, I suppose it can be read in isolation, but I did read the Legacy trilogy before this, and I have to say that it added a lot of dimension to the events depicted here.
For example: the alien races that are referenced fairly frequently here, as well as earlier dealings with the Xul, are described over the course of the earlier trilogies, and specifically the second one (Legacy). One of the aspects of this series that I have been enjoying, is the mythos that Douglas has created, going back to ancient history and much further, to the origin of humankind, and how that ties in to events in the bigger cosmic picture.
I don't want to get too long winded, though.
This novel takes place around 550-odd years after the events of Star Marines and the devastation of Earth. The Xul are re-emerging as a threat to humanity's continued existence, and, well, we all know what happens next. I won't go into details, other than to say that this is Military Science Fiction and that there are very, very big explosions (and then some).
Bonus stars for: Skybase, and Starwall.
The panorama was breathtaking, and magnificent. It was like looking at a towering cliff, but instead of rock the cliff face was made of stars, of millions, of billions of stars massed and piled high and thronging deep, a wall of blazing stars interlaced through with the snaking tendrils of black, obscuring dust clouds, and with the shining radiant clouds and delicately hued sheets of reflective nebulae, their tattered edges gilded by starlight....more
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