The Hot Gate

This book follows on from Live Free or Die and Citadel. This time we focus solely on Dana as she is transferred to a new unit. The story is interesting, although perhaps it focusses on the dysfunction of the Latin American countries a little more than is really necessary. More interestingly, the book ends the series (as best as I can tell) in an unusual manner for a book like this, with the humans not winning a simple out right victory — moral or otherwise. Overall, a fun light read.

The Hot Gate Book Cover The Hot Gate
John Ringo
Fiction
Baen
April 24, 2012
560

New York Times best seller in hardcover. Armed forces veteran and seven-time New York Times best-selling author John Ringo delivers the third entry in his blockbuster Troy Rising SF series. Humanity fights back against a devastating Trojan-horse-like alien invasion of Earth and takes the fight to the stars by creating a vast battlestation as large as a planet. The third entry in the best-selling Troy Rising saga and follow-up to blockbuster Citadel from multiple New York Times and USA Today bestseller and military SF master, John Ringo. When the orbital gates first materialized in the outer Solar System, all seemed well, but a devastating invasion ensued. Now humans have battled back from the conquest by a tyrannical alien species to become a force to reckon with in the galaxy. On a crash-building course, humanity has created a near-impregnable battlestation of Deathstar proportions to prove it. But the enemy is remorseless and to survive humans must take the fight to the heart of their empire and prevail–a feat no previous species has ever accomplished. Instead, the bones and burnt hulks of those who have tried litter the star-ways. But these galactic imperialists have never contended with humans, a foe who is their match in sheer ferocity and desire to win. About the Troy Rising series: “[I]nfused with plenty of old-fashioned two-fisted can-do attitude . . .” –Publishers Weekly “[I]rresistible action-sf . . .[filled with] Ringo’s amazingly fertile imagination.” –Booklist About John Ringo: “[O]ne of the best…practitioners. . .of military SF.” –Publishers Weekly "[F]ast-paced military SF peopled with three-dimensional characters and spiced with personal drama as well as tactical finesse" –Library Journal “[Ringo’s work] “attains a terrible beauty not unlike that of the Norse Eddas…” –Publishers Weekly "If Tom Clancy were writing SF, it would read much like John Ringo.” –Philadelphia Weekly Press

Citadel

This book follows on from Live Free or Die. I like the approach of this book, as it follows a couple of relatively normal people trying to get by, and how the main protagonist from the last book’s actions affect them. Its an engaging read, while still progressing the overall arc of the series. I really enjoyed it.

Citadel Book Cover Citadel
John Ringo
Fiction
Baen Books
October 25, 2011
560

Hostilities escalate between the Rangora Empire and Earth defenders who seek to recapture the Sol system, a conflict that prompts military and civilian forces to render the Troy battle station an interactive war engine.

Live Free or Die

This book is useful. When the Earth is invaded by evil aliens intent on stripping us of our heavy metals, I now know how to fight back using just Maple Syrup and a Death Star I just happen to have hanging around. That’s education right there. This book is delightfully not sexist compared with some of Ringo’s other books, which makes me happy. It does lack strong female characters, but at least they’re not being used for titillation (refer to Cally’s War for an example of how this isn’t always true). I enjoyed this book.

Live Free or Die Book Cover Live Free or Die
John Ringo
Fiction
Baen
October 26, 2010
608

First Time in Paperback. Beginning a New Series by a New York Times Best-Selling Author. Will the People of Earth Bow Down to Alien Overlords—or Will They Fight Back? First Contact Was Friendly When aliens trundled a gate to other worlds into the Solar System, the world reacted with awe, hope and fear. When the first aliens to come through, the Glatun, turned out to be peaceful traders, the world breathed a sigh of relief. Who Controls the Orbitals, Controls the World When the Horvath came through, they announced their ownership of us by dropping rocks on three cities and gutting them. Since then, they've held Terra as their own personal fiefdom. With their control of the orbitals, there's no way to win and Earth's governments have accepted the status quo. Live Free or Die To free the world from the grip of the Horvath is going to take an unlikely hero. A hero unwilling to back down to alien or human governments, unwilling to live in slavery and with enough hubris, if not stature, to think he can win. Fortunately, there's Tyler Vernon. And he has bigger plans than just getting rid of the Horvath. Troy Rising is a book in three parts—Live Free or Die being the first part—detailing the freeing of Earth from alien conquerors, the first steps into space using off-world technologies and the creation of Troy, a thousand trillion ton battlestation designed to secure the Solar System.

Starquake

The sequel to the very excellent Dragon’s Egg, this book covers the continued interaction between the humans and the super cute Cheela. Unfortunately for the Cheela they suffer a major natural disaster which destroys society. I love an author who is willing to kill of characters when it progresses the story, and there is lots of that happening in this book. Really enjoyable.

[isbn: 0345312333]

Jupiter

This is the first book of Ben Bova’s that I’ve read. Before that I’ve only read “The Nonmetallic Isaac or It’s a Wonderful Life” in Foundation’s Friends. I bought this book randomly because I had run out of things to read on a business trip, and I don’t regret it. The book is well paced, interesting and fun to read. It also explores alien life in a way which is particularly believable (unlike many other SF books I encounter). This book reminds me of Dragon’s Egg without being so hard-SFy. A very good book.

[isbn: 9780812579413;0812579410]

Speaker For The Dead

This is the second book in the Ender’s Game series, and is better than the novelized Ender’s Game, although it is impossible to beat the short story version. Ender has grown a lot over the time between this book and the last, and the story is compelling and believable. I really enjoyed this book.

Speaker for the Dead Book Cover Speaker for the Dead
Orson Scott Card
Science fiction
Orbit Books
1986
382

Science fiction-roman.

The Coming

This book wasn’t as good as I hoped it would be — some of Joe’s other work has been excellent (The Forever War, Forever Peace and Marsbound being examples). However, some of his other books are very weak, such as Forever Free and There Is No Darkness. This book is an interesting experiment in story telling style, where many different very short chapters are told by different characters. Each chapter follows on directly from the previous one. However, this style makes the story confusing to read until you can remember the names of all the characters. Worse than that though, the idea behind the story isn’t terribly strong, and the resolution is weak as well.

Overall and ok read, but not Joe’s best work and not a book I would recommend.

The Coming Book Cover The Coming
Joe W. Haldeman
Fiction
2001

Science fiction roman.

Dragon’s Egg

This book was strongly recommended by a friend, and has been sitting on my shelf waiting to be read for a while. Its my first real taste of “hard” science fiction, and I enjoyed it. The story is surprisingly fast moving given it has to cover the entire development of an intelligent species, and the process is interesting. There are strong parallels with our own past, which I guess isn’t that surprising a thing for an author to do. I’ve seen complaints that the human characters in this book are a bit one dimensional, but I think that’s unfair. The book isn’t about the humans, and they are there only to progress the plot. I think the human characters are fine. If you want to see poor character development, checkout Robot City and Robots and Aliens series.

[isbn: 034528349x]

The Robot City, Robots and Aliens Series

This series follows on from the Robot City series set in Asimov’s Foundation Universe but written by other authors. Overall that first series was weak, and I think the same is true for this series as well. There are a few here that are better than the others, but I’d only recommend this series for those who are obsessed with Foundation universe completeness.

Isaac Asimov’s Robot City: Robots and Aliens: Humanity

This book is actually the best one of the two robot city series (Robot City and Robots and Aliens). Unfortunately I had to wade through 12 not very good books to find it, and its still not stellar. I’d recommend giving both these series a miss unless you’re obsessed with completeness in Asimov’s Robot universe.

Humanity Book Cover Humanity
Jerry Oltion
Fiction
Ace Books
1990-10
177

Amnesiac Derec, on a galaxy-wide quest for his identity, stumbles upon Ariel Burgess and Dr. Avery, the same man who had obliterated his memory