Review of Ebook Terms of Enlistment – Book 1 of the Frontlines series by Marko Kloos #Brainfluffbookreview #TermsofEnlistmentbookreview

Marko Kloos is one of the authors that Himself has mentioned more than once, so when I asked for more science fiction reads for Sci Fi Month, he suggested I read this series.

The year is 2108, and the North American Commonwealth is bursting at the seams. For welfare rats like Andrew Grayson, there are only two ways out of the crime-ridden and filthy welfare tenements, where you’re restricted to two thousand calories of badly flavored soy every day. You can hope to win the lottery and draw a ticket on a colony ship settling off-world, or you can join the service. With the colony lottery a pipe dream, Andrew chooses to enlist in the armed forces for a shot at real food, a retirement bonus, and maybe a ticket off Earth. But as he starts a career of supposed privilege, he soon learns that the good food and decent health care come at a steep price…and that the settled galaxy holds far greater dangers than military bureaucrats or the gangs that rule the slums.

I really enjoyed this one. Kloos is clearly a talented and experienced author, who gives us a sympathetic, slightly taciturn protagonist with something of an edge, especially when things were going wrong and that edge turns into dark humour. Grayson tucks into boot camp and prepares to tough it out – not that he finds it too much of a struggle, given the dire conditions in the tenement where he grew up. I’m a sucker for school/learning environments, given what a pressure cooker they can be and was perfectly willing for the whole thing to last a lot longer than it did. When the story moved on and Grayson progresses from being a trainee to becoming a newbie, I enjoyed it. The action is engrossing and feels authentic, with the detailed worldbuilding.

And then came a pivotal moment in the narrative when it all hits the fan and the story takes a left turn into something completely different. I couldn’t put it down. My heart was beating and my palms sweated as I read one of the best battle scenes I’ve encountered during a sortie that goes terribly wrong…

As I came to the conclusion of the scene, I looked at the book, surprised we weren’t closer to the end of the book – surely this was the climactic showpiece to this slice of the story? No – what Kloos then does is change the pacing again and take the story off into another direction. Grayson is then given a different set of challenges that give us further insights into his character, before finishing this excellent start to the series. I’m looking forward to getting my teeth into the next book.

Highly recommended for fans of military science fiction adventures.
10/10

#Sci Fi Month Review of INDIE Ebook Into the Dark – Book 1 of the Alexis Carew series by J.A. Sutherland #Brainfluffbookreview #IntotheDarkbookreview

I had asked Himself for recommendations for more military space opera in honour of Sci Fi Month and he immediately suggested this one…

At fifteen, Alexis Carew has to face an age old problem – she’s a girl, and only a boy can inherit the family’s vast holdings. Her options are few. She must marry and watch a stranger run the lands, or become a penniless tenant and see the lands she so dearly loves sold off. Yet there may be another option, one that involves becoming a midshipman on a shorthanded spaceship with no other women.

This is essentially Hornblower in space – and very well done, too. Sutherland has taken the idea of solar sails and provides some vivid space battles that are reminiscent of the 17th and 18th century man o’war tactics. To be honest, some suspension of disbelief is required – I happily believed that the solar sails were useful and that they needed human crews rather than robot labour, but there were a few touches that stretched my credulity.

However, the plight Alexis faces if she stays on the planet is inescapable – she will be forced to marry someone she hates and despises. She is a tough energetic girl, caught up with the day to day running of the holding and takes to the rigour of life in the Navy like a space duckling takes to zero gravity. I like her straightforward character and the fact that Sutherland is mindful not to make her too much of a Mary Sue – she struggles badly with navigation.

What she has in spades is plenty of physical energy, the ability to think quickly on her feet and a fundamentally nice disposition without it becoming sickly, which is harder to do than Sutherland makes it look. Did I believe in her ability to handle the situations that she is confronted with? Yes – she is raised in a tough, colonial environment. As a historian, I have read accounts of what young men and women achieved when homesteading in the States, or working on a small farm in the UK and their physical fortitude and strength puts us all to shame. Nothing to say that can’t happen again…

I very much liked the story development and overall the worldbuilding – though I do find it difficult to believe that flogging would still be a thing in a futuristic setting, given that we know the faultlines that ran through the Royal Navy of the time and why they needed to use such extreme brutality. It was a reflection of the harsh social situation for most people at the time – I’m not sure I’m so convinced that prevails to the same extent in this particular future world.

It doesn’t stop me being keen to pick up the second book in this entertaining series as I want to know what happens next to Alexis, given there is a real twist right at the end of the book.
8/10

#Sci Fi Month – Review of INDIE Ebook The Scent of Metal – Book 1 of the Argonauts of Space series by Sabrina Chase #Brainfluffbookreview #TheScentofMetalbookreview

Himself reads a lot more than I do – and when I asked him for more science fiction adventures to read in order to celebrate Sci Fi Month, he recommended this book, and given that it’s by the author who has written the enjoyable Sequoyah trilogy – see my review of The Long Way Home here, it was a no-brainer that I’d tuck into this offering.

The expedition ship Kepler races to Pluto, intent on uncovering the secrets of the alien structure recently discovered under the ice. Computer scientist Lea Santorin can’t wait to figure out the alien technology. Instead, she wakes it up … and it continues its long-interrupted journey across the galaxy, taking Lea and Kepler with it.

I really liked Lea, which is important as she is the character that we are connected to throughout this adventure. Chase does a good job of thoroughly establishing Lea’s personality in the opening stages of this book, which I increasingly appreciated as stuff became seriously weird. Lea somehow becomes linked to the alien entity which is Pluto, and there is a nicely creepy section where we are unsure exactly what is going to happen next. I do enjoy space opera adventure when it goes down this path, however, the catch with upping the stakes so that we are increasingly invested in discovering what is going on is that the reveal has to be worth the journey. I’ve read far too many of these types of books where it wasn’t. Fortunately Chase is too experienced and skilful to fall into that trap, so that as the adventure progresses and we get to know more about what is going on, she keeps providing sufficient twists and turns. I love her explanation for why Neanderthals disappeared so abruptly from our planet…

There is also another plotline involving the military detail assigned to look after Lea and the other scientists investigating Kepler, which also gives this adventure more of a military sci-fi feel. The two plotlines merge nicely towards the end and I definitely want to know what happens next, given the rather chilling threat that is revealed at the end of the book.

Chase provides plenty of thrills, spills and nicely nuanced characterisation that held me until the end and definitely makes me want to read on – in short, all the ingredients that make me such a fan of modern space opera. Highly recommended for fans of the genre.
8/10

#Sci Fi Month – Review of INDIE Ebook Star Nomad – Book 1 of the Fallen Empire series by Lindsey Buroker #Brainfluffbookreview #StarNomadbookreview

In honour of Sci Fi Month, I asked Himself for recommendations and this was one series he mentioned – he really is a keeper…

The Alliance has toppled the tyrannical empire. It should be a time for celebration, but not for fighter pilot Captain Alisa Marchenko. After barely surviving a crash in the final battle for freedom, she’s stranded on a dustball of a planet, billions of miles from her young daughter. She has no money or resources, and there are no transports heading to Perun, her former home and the last imperial stronghold. But she has a plan…

I love it that the reason driving our gutsy heroine is a desperate drive to be reunited to her daughter, now living with her sister-in-law. Once more I’m enjoying that it is family relationships pushing the plot forward in this space opera adventure. It immediately made me sympathetic to her mission, especially in that fabulous opening sequence in the feral scrapyard, inhabited by all sorts of nasty critters – including rats the size of small dogs, as well as the more unpleasant two-legged scavengers.

Alisa isn’t alone, though. Her partner is fellow soldier and brilliant engineer, Mica – and next to Alisa, Mica is my favourite sidekick. Her snarky, deadpan take on the world is both funny and insightful – while being unswervingly loyal to Alisa, even though she often doesn’t agree with some of Alisa’s riskier moves. Because one of Alisa’s early decisions in this book is to throw her luck in with the cyber-soldier who has taken up residence in the abandoned spacecraft, where she left it after her mother’s death.

Leonidas, the name the cyber-soldier eventually gives Alisa, was part on a lethal, elite unit who fought for the Empire, against Alisa and the Alliance. He clearly still isn’t happy to have been on the losing side and Alisa regrets having him on board as a passenger. You won’t be shocked to learn that their travel plans don’t work out. The research laboratory where Leonidas wants to be dropped off presents some unexpected, unwelcome surprises and the action was well-handled to the extent that I couldn’t put this one down. I haven’t read anything by Buroker before, but obviously I’ve heard of this prolific writer – and I now know why she is so popular.

I’ve been reading a shedload of sci fi, space opera during the last few weeks, but this one stands out for all the right reasons and I’m very much looking forward to reading the next one in this series. Very highly recommended for those who love good quality, character-led space opera adventure with plenty of humour.
10/10

#Sci Fi Month – Review of INDIE Ebook Battle Cruiser – Book 1 of the Lost Colonies series by B.V. Larson #Brainfluffbookreview #BattleCruiserbookreview

I spotted this one on my Kindle while looking for a good sci fi read and dived in. I’m so glad I did – and I’ll be linking it up with this month’s reading challenge – Sci Fi Month…

A century ago our star erupted, destroying Earth’s wormhole network and closing off trade with her colonized planets. After being out of contact with the younger worlds for so many years, Humanity is shocked when a huge ship appears at the edge of the Solar System. Our outdated navy investigates, both curious and fearful.

This is fun! William Sparhawk is an interesting protagonist. Rigid and an unbending follower of the rules, he isn’t your average swashbuckling rebel – or is he? When you put him into the context of a stagnating society with his father the head of one of the main political parties who are arguing hard to cut back on the Star Guard who patrol the solar system. William is expected to serve as his father’s intern, ready to position himself as his father’s successor – after all, he had been partly cloned from his father’s genes. Instead, he joins up the Guard, persisting in serving despite the obvious and continued hostility from his superior officers who are convinced he is spying on behalf of his famous father. However, he isn’t – he genuinely believes in the values and purpose of the Guard and the obstacles placed in his way only harden his resolve to continue serving.

And then a particular mission takes a left turn into the weird… Larson is an experienced, skilled writer and it shows. The pacing, character progression and blending of action and explanation of the world works really well. To be honest, for those who like their worldbuilding detailed, this one will feel a bit fractured as we only see it from William’s viewpoint. But I’m fine with that – this is, after all, a trilogy so there is clearly more to come.

The action sequences in space work really well and as the classic fight against all overwhelming odds kicks off, Larson makes it both believable and gripping. I was genuinely relieved when some of the supporting characters also made it through, as I have a hunch that Larson won’t mind too much if a couple of said characters don’t make it through. As for the romance – I wasn’t quite so invested in it as I didn’t particularly warm to the object of William’s affections. However, that may well be intentional. I’ll find out in the next book – because I’m definitely going to be tracking down the next book in this entertaining series.
9/10

Review of INDIE Ebook The Long Black – Book 1 of The Black Chronicles by J.M. Anjewierden #Brainfluffbookreview #TheLongBlackbookreview

I’ll be honest – the main reason this one caught my attention was the striking resemblance to my own cover for Running Out of Space. Looking it up on Goodreads showed that it had garnered a lot of positive reviews, so I decided to check it out for myself and have linked my review up to Sci Fi month…

Morgan always assumed that if she could survive growing up in the mines of Planet Hillman – feared for its brutal conditions and gravity twice that of Earth – she could survive anything. That was before she became a starship mechanic. Now she has to contend with hostile bosses, faulty equipment, and even taking care of her friend’s little girl. Once pirates show up, it’s a wonder she can get any work done at all.

I thoroughly enjoyed this one. It’s science fiction after my own heart – featuring a strong female protagonist with a rocky start and faced with all sorts of challenges in an interesting world where lots can go wrong very quickly… Firstly, Morgan – because she is the engine that drives this book forward and if you can’t care for her, then it simply doesn’t work. I very much liked the fact that she had loving parents who wanted the best for her – and that best becomes taking a huge risk on her behalf… Her tough early years and the family’s plight quickly drew me into the story, so I was invested in the character and found myself turning the pages to find out what happens next.

I like the fact that this didn’t plane out exactly like so many other science fiction tales – family issues still dominate this book, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I can’t recall when childcare is a major deal in a space opera adventure and it was a delightful change to find it was a problem that Morgan finds herself coping with.

However, I don’t want to give the impression that this is sci fi kitchen sink drama – it isn’t. There are still many of the classic themes space opera fans relish – ftl travel; arriving on different planets and acclimatising to other worlds; hostile attention; bad people with bad intentions… they are all here.

The worldbuilding was enjoyable and worked as a strong backdrop to Morgan’s adventures and there is also an interesting cast of supporting characters, who I’m hoping will continue to develop alongside Morgan in the future. I’m delighted to see there is already a second book out in this series – indeed, I’ve already got hold of it. Highly recommended for fans of character-led space opera.
9/10

Teaser Tuesday – 20th November, 2018 #Brainfluffbookblog #TeaserTuesday

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by The Purple Booker.
Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This is my choice of the day:

Star Nomad – Book 1 of the Fallen Empire series by Lindsey Buroker

1% A dark shape scurried through the shadows ahead, disappearing under the belly of a rusted spaceship. Alisa Marchenko halted, tightening her grip on her old Etcher 50. Rustling sounds came from beneath the ship, along with a low growl. Alisa hoped it was just another of the big rodents she’d seen earlier. Those weren’t exactly friendly, but at least they didn’t endanger anything higher up than her calves – so long as she remained standing.

BLURB: The Alliance has toppled the tyrannical empire. It should be a time for celebration, but not for fighter pilot Captain Alisa Marchenko. After barely surviving a crash in the final battle for freedom, she’s stranded on a dustball of a planet, billions of miles from her young daughter. She has no money or resources, and there are no transports heading to Perun, her former home and the last imperial stronghold.

But she has a plan.

Steal a dilapidated and malfunctioning freighter from a junkyard full of lawless savages. Slightly suicidal, but she believes she can do it. Her plan, however, does not account for the elite cyborg soldier squatting in the freighter, intending to use it for his own purposes. As an imperial soldier, he has no love for Alliance pilots. In fact, he’s quite fond of killing them.

Alisa has more problems than she can count, but she can’t let cyborgs, savages, or ancient malfunctioning ships stand in her way. If she does, she’ll never see her daughter again.

I’ve heard a lot about this author, but never got around to reading her, so I’ve taken the opportunity to download this offering, along with other space opera adventures in honour of Sci Fi Month. The blurb hooked me and I’m looking forward to tucking into this one.

Friday Faceoff – Always do what you’re afraid to do… #Brainfluffbookblog

This meme was started by Books by Proxy, whose fabulous idea was to compare UK and US book covers and decide which is we prefer. This meme is currently being nurtured by Lynn’s Book Blog and the subject this week featuring on any of our covers is something SCARY, so I’ve selected The Woman in Black by Susan Hill.

 

This edition was produced by David R. Godine in December 2001. While I’m never a fan of boxes containing the artwork, I think this one gives a sense of the period in which this creepy book is set. I’ve seen this on the stage at it is mesmerising – the haunted look of the man in the picture very accurately reflected the way the marvellous actor played the main character. And please don’t judge this by the dreadful film starring the hapless Daniel Radcliffe…

 

Published in 1998 by Vintage, I really like this stylish offering. The diffuse sun shining through the fog… the woman wandering alone… and the looping font all give a real sense of the book. I also rather like the decorative scrolling around the edge. Does it give a sense of menace? I think so, but maybe I’m biased, given that I know what an issue that fog is to the story…

 

This edition, published by Vintage Classic in October 2007 has called my bluff. I am always moaning about cluttered covers and how much I’d like to see a more minimalist approach. This one, however, has gone too far the other way. The outline of those tangled branches is wonderfully menacing, but would it have killed them to actually give Susan Hill her full name? Or maybe – perish the thought – actually lend a bit of style to the painfully plain title font.

 

Produced by Profile Books in September 2011, this is also a very attractive offering. I like the purple and black colour scheme and the Victorian woman walking alone. And then they go and over-egg it by having an owl flying overhead… I can’t recall if there is a hooting owl – while the sound of that rocking chair is one that I’ll never forget – the problem I have with its addition, along with the colour scheme, is that it now looks like a shapeshifting paranormal fantasy cover…

 

This edition, published by Vintage in October 2011 has so much going for it. I love the fog-shrouded forest and the lovely looping title font. And then they go and completely spoil it by putting a lot of chatter on the cover about the dreadful film! Otherwise this one would have been my outright favourite. As it is, it ties with the second cover. Which is your favourite?

#Sci Fi Month Review of INDIE Ebook On Silver Wings – Book 1 of the Hayden War Cycle series by Evan Currie #Brainfluffbookreview #SciFiMonthOnSilverWingsbookreview

I’ve enjoyed Currie’s writing – see my review of Heirs of Empire – and this is a series Himself has been nagging suggesting that I read for a while now, so I’m linking my review with Sci Fi Month…

In the future, mankind has colonized other worlds, mined asteroid belts, and sent ships so far into the blackness of space that light from their drives won’t reach Earth for centuries. Through it all, life has been found in almost every system we visited and yet we’ve never encountered another intelligent species. Until now.

When the Colony on the planet known as Hayden’s World stops transmitting on their CASIMIR FTL system, a Solari Fleet Task Force is sent to investigate. When they arrive there are enough oddities in the situation that they in turn send in a special operations unit to contact the colonists and determine what happened. Only one of those operators survives to make planetfall. Sergeant Sorilla Aida finds herself against an alien force of unknown power and capability. Her only assets? A depleted suit of power armor, her rifle, basic kit, and a few hundred Hayden born civilians looking to take back their home. Just what she was trained for.

That is the starting point of the book and the opening sequence is punchy and full of drama. I love Sorilla and the cool high-tech toys she has to play with. I also enjoy the fact that the medical tech is also very whizzy and high-functioning so we don’t have a single soldier going up against a powerful alien enemy with a collection of serious injuries when by rights she shouldn’t be moving from a hospital bed. That’s a scenario I get a tad tired of in this sub-genre at times. Currie is careful to ensure the physical limits of his super-soldier are sufficiently realistic so that while I’m sympathetic and concerned about her pain – I’m not rolling my eyes at being yanked out of the story at the unfeasibility of it all.

Currie also handles the scene changes and inevitably wide cast of characters that have to be involved in this type of scenario without holding up the pace with lengthy info-dumps or those wincing, ‘As you know, Bob…’ conversations. I found some of the early engagements both exciting and the aftermath genuinely poignant. The outcomes matter – not just on an epic Earth-is-at-stake scale, but on the personal level where friends and lovers are lost.

There is plenty of action and tension to make me continue turning the pages in order to find out what happens next in this exciting military sci fi adventure. One of the reasons I wanted to continue turning those pages was to find out more about the mysterious aliens and their terrifying weapons. Currie’s deft handling of the steadily increasing bank of knowledge about these creatures was a major contribution to this enjoyable opener to this series. I now know why Himself kept banging on about it.

Highly recommended for fans of epic and engrossing military science fiction.
9/10

Review of KINDLE Ebook Windhaven by George R.R. Martin and Lisa Tuttle #Brainfluffbookreview #Windhavenbookreview

While I cannot get on with his sprawling epic, A Song of Ice and Fire, I am a real fan of much of Martin’s writing – see my review of Tuf Voyaging here, and I also enjoyed Lisa Tuttle’s The Curious Affair of the Witch at Wayside Cross – see my review here. So it was a no-brainer that I would pounce on this one when I spotted it. I’m so glad I did – and I’ll be linking this review to Sci-Fi Month.

The planet of Windhaven was not originally a home to humans, but it became one following the crash of a colony starship. It is a world of small islands, harsh weather, and monster-infested seas. Communication among the scattered settlements was virtually impossible until the discovery that, thanks to light gravity and a dense atmosphere, humans were able to fly with the aid of metal wings made of bits of the cannibalized spaceship.

Many generations later, among the scattered islands that make up the water world of Windhaven, no one holds more prestige than the silver-winged flyers, who bring news, gossip, songs, and stories. They are romantic figures crossing treacherous oceans, braving shifting winds and sudden storms that could easily dash them from the sky to instant death. They are also members of an increasingly elite caste, for the wings—always in limited quantity—are growing gradually rarer as their bearers perish. With such elitism comes arrogance and a rigid adherence to hidebound tradition. And for the flyers, allowing just anyone to join their cadre is an idea that borders on heresy. Wings are meant only for the offspring of flyers—now the new nobility of Windhaven. Except that sometimes life is not quite so neat…

The story charts the fortunes of Maris, who we first meet as a small child, foraging for anything of value on the beach when she makes a life-changing encounter. She meets a flyer called Russ who picks the child up and treats her dream of being a flyer as something more than just the imaginings of some land-bound brat. He eventually adopts her and trains her – until unexpectedly, he has a son. Maris helps to bring the motherless boy up, until the terrible day when she is forced to hand over the wings she has been flying with. For she is not entitled to keep them – they belong to Coll, Russ’s son, even though he yearns to be a singer and has already caught the eye of one of the best professional singers on Windhaven, who wishes to train him. But tradition says that Coll must follow Russ as a flyer, despite his inability to feel the wind.

As we follow Maris and her battle to continue to fly, we also learn of the original colonists and how they accidentally encountered Windhaven. The worldbuilding is excellent with wonderful descriptions of the storms that regularly sweep the planet and the air currents that generally keep the flyers in the sky – and occasionally fling them into the sea. It is a hard, dangerous life and flyers keep to themselves, forming close ties with each other, while despising those who are not able to fly.

A particular decision is made that overturns a tradition that has begun to cause problems – and in a less nuanced, clever book, we would get a variety of adventures involving talented flyer Maris and that would be that. However in this book, decisions have consequences that no one foresaw. The rest of the book continues to follow what befalls Maris, while also exploring the fallout from those decisions and how they impact upon the traditional way of life on Windhaven for both flyers and land-bound alike. I love the way this plays out and how the previous faultlines in society are not only heightened but previous prejudices are also strengthened.

This is a clever, thoughtful book that nonetheless also delivers an engrossing story full of adventure and incident, featuring a sympathetic and believable protagonist. Highly recommended for fans of quality colony adventure… quality fantasy… quality books, basically. Read it and you’ll see what I mean.
10/10