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…
Tag: combat
The Complete Hammer’s Slammers Volume 3
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…
The Compleat Bolo
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…
Bio of a Space Tyrant: Refugee
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,…
Amtrak Wars
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:…
Earth Thunder
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…
Death Bringer
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
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 Riftwar Series
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…
Bill the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Bottled Brains
(Edited by Harry Harrison.) This book started off better than Planet of the Robot Slaves, but I found the random Star Trek and Star Wars rip offs in the middle of the book intensely annoying. This isn’t so much a satire it is a disjointed list of ideas. I’m disappointed to be honest. [isbn: 0380756625]