combat – Page 8 – Made by Mikal

On Basilisk Station

Post author:mikal
Post published:February 28, 2009
Post category:Book

I bought this book because it was cheap a while ago, and only just got around to reading it. Its a pretty standard science fiction story of one naval officer's plight -- incompetent seniors; inadequate equipment; and evil neighbors. The story revolves around a young naval officer named Honor Harrington, who the Internet tells me has her career based around that of Admiral Nelson. This book was an interesting enough story, and doesn't collapse under the weight of cliche like some others do. It was entertaining and I will probably read the rest of the series. [isbn: 1416509372]

Without Warning

Post author:mikal
Post published:February 24, 2009
Post category:Book

LibraryThing, of which I am a member runs a program where members are shipped early copies of books for free, with the preference for them writing a review when they're done reading the book. The books are shipped by the publisher directly to the reviewers. This isn't that uncommon in the publishing industry -- both of my books have experienced a similar process, although less formal. A pre-release version of this book was provided by this mechanism. The pre-release had some quite annoying typographical and grammar errors. I assume they are corrected in the final published version. I am a little conflicted about this story. On the one hand, the author comes from my home town, as do about 0% of popular authors. You can see he's Australian in the text -- several of the main characters are Australian, Greg Norman gets a cameo, and Tasmania is a hiding place of preference for refugees. On the other hand, I found this book a slow read. The story is good, and the ideas very interesting. The story is good too, with most chapters ending with a hook to keep you going. On the other hand, I just couldn't get into the…

The Complete Hammer’s Slammers Volume 3

Post author:mikal
Post published:February 11, 2009
Post category:Book

This book consists of three paperbacks combined into one volume, and follows in from Volume 1 and Volume 2. I'll cover each story separately: The sharp end: this story is a little different from the other Hammer's Slammers stuff. To be honest, its a bit less grim. Normally the stories are about how war is in the end just a bunch of guys trying to not die (for the grunts at least), whereas this story is a little bit more hopeful than that. Then again, there is still plenty of the negative side of war in this story. Paying the piper: I've seen other people complain that this book is disjointed, which is a fair comment. Concepts are reintroduced several times, even though they've already been covered. I wonder if this was originally a set of short stories in a series? Its a good read however. The darkness: a much shorter story, which is a lot more like the ones in Volume 1 and Volume 2. [isbn: 9781892389800]

The Compleat Bolo

Post author:mikal
Post published:January 15, 2009
Post category:Book

I read this book on flights. This book is a collection of several Bolo short stories, as well as two longer stories. This was a pretty common technique it seems with early science fiction, and it works ok here as long as you remember that the chapters are unlinked short stories. In fact, several of them are inconsistent with others in the collection, but I think that's a minor annoyance. Year Title Notes 1963 Night of the Trolls This story appears in Battlefields Beyond Tomorrow as well 1961 Courier This is a Retief (Laumer's other major series) story which includes a Bolo. This is my first encounter with Reteif, and it felt a little like a Stainless Steel Rat story, but where the hero isn't a criminal, and without the requirement to suspend disbelief as much as you need to for the Rat. 1966 The Last Command 1969 A Relic of War 1960 Combat Unit 1986 Rogue Bolo Book 1 1986 Rogue Bolo Book 2 No relation to the Rogue Bolo Book 1, despite Overall I enjoyed this book, and have now read it several times over the years.

Bio of a Space Tyrant: Refugee

Post author:mikal
Post published:January 3, 2009
Post category:Book

I'm not really sure what I think about this book. Its well written, and very readable, but depressing. The book starts with a sexual assault, and then moves on to describe what its like to be the minimum wage labor in a space colony. The short answer -- its not much fun. Worse than that, when you try to escape your oppression, you end up being abused by both the authorities who have power to help, as well as assorted criminals. This is not a feel good book. [isbn: 0380841940]

Amtrak Wars

Post author:mikal
Post published:December 12, 2008
Post category:Book

A post apocalyptic struggle between the three groups of North American survivors -- a military society called "The Amtrak Federation", the mutes (the survivors of American poor neighborhoods), and Ne Issan (former Japanese who sailed from Japan when their islands were flooded). 1983: Cloud Warrior 1985: First Family 1987: Iron Master 1988: Blood River 1989: Death-Bringer 1990: Earth-Thunder

Earth Thunder

Post author:mikal
Post published:December 12, 2008
Post category:Book

This is the last book of the Amtrak Wars series. I'm much less comfortable with Steven's character in this book -- he's always been a bit mixed up, and I don't blame him for that given his background, but in this book he's actively disloyal to those he loves, which is something new. That made the first 50 or so pages of this book quite hard to read, because I find it hard to read books where I hate the main protagonist. A lot of people complain about the ending of this book, especially as its the last Amtrak Wars book written, but doesn't resolve the main plot line. I didn't think it was that bad though, although perhaps that's because the coda didn't appear in earlier versions? The coda resolves a lot for me, and although the ending is sad, I thought it was fair. I liked this book overall. [isbn: 0747400024]

Death Bringer

Post author:mikal
Post published:December 4, 2008
Post category:Book

I feel sorry for Jake Olsen. It must be hard having the ensign-in-the-red-shirt role. This book is as good as the rest of the series, and the First Family truly are bastards. I really liked this one. [isbn: 0747400016]

Blood River

Post author:mikal
Post published:November 30, 2008
Post category:Book

This is the fourth book in the Amtrak Wars series. Its pretty good, about the same level of writing as Cloud Warrior and Iron Master, which I guess means it was better than First Family (which was mostly a connector between the first and third books in the series). In this book we learn that the first family are even more nasty than previously disclosed, and that Cadillac is possibly the most annoying person on the planet. This book must not have been very popular in the US, because I've never seen it for sale in the US, but its reasonably common in Australia. That's a shame because the copy I have is about to fall apart, which means I'll have to wait until next time I am back home to try and find a replacement copy. Overall this book was quite readable, and I enjoyed it. [isbn: 0747400008]

The Riftwar Series

Post author:mikal
Post published:November 16, 2008
Post category:Book

This series follows to young kids who grow up in a rural castle on the edge of an empire. Pug ends up being the greatest Magician to ever live, and Thomas ends up being merged with an ancient being of massive power. Its a good series, even if people accuse it of being steeped in cliche. 1982: Magician (later sold as Magician: Apprentice and Magician: Master) 1985: Silverthorn 1986: A Darkness at Sethanon