Princess Valeries War

The Tanith #2

by Terry Mancour

The Second Space Viking Sequel!Escape From Planet X!When Prince Lucas Trask of Tanith and seventy of his crew were captured by the Atonians, one of the “civilized” worlds of the Old Federation, things seemed he was tried in a secret court, paraded before the cameras for propaganda, and sentenced to “re-education” at the dreary secret prison known only as Planet X for the crime of being a Space Viking. Using interstellar space ships, high-tech combat troops and nuclear weapons to extort planets of their wealth (the Space Viking’s stock-in-trade) is frowned upon by the corrupt dictatorial bureaucracy of Aton – and Trask is in the way of their imperial aspirations, to boot. Once on Planet X, however, it becomes clear that Aton is involved in something far more sinister – a conspiricy going all the way to the distant Sword Worlds, five thousand light-years away! Lucas and his men discover clues to plots and conspiracies over a century old inside an ancient wreck on Planet X – could they also lead to a way to escape the miserable prison world?Meanwhile, back on Tanith, Lucas’ beautiful wife Princess Valerie is on the trail of Garvan Spasso, an old adversary who has tried and failed to kill the Trasks in the past – and succeeded in kidnapping their infant daughter, Princess Elaine. The beleaguered Valerie has ordered every resource at her command to find her daughter and punish her kidnapper, but Spasso’s ransom for the infant Heir is no less than the throne of Tanith, itself! Princess Valerie has her Admiral Harkaman, Count Valkanhayn, her fanatical Golden Hand guardsmen, and an embarrassing number of captured warships and enthusiastic Space Vikings. She also has the help of the mysterious Mr. Dawes, a very helpful emissary from the enigmatic figured known as the Wizard, whose reasons for helping Tanith are a mystery – and not necessarily a pleasant one. But she’ll need all the help she can get, with her charismatic husband lost among the stars. Tanith has plenty of the rival Space Viking world of Xochitl, the Sword Worlds of Gram and Haulteclere, and of course the despicable Space Viking turned would-be usurper Garvan Spasso. With her husband missing, her daughter gone, and her nobles grumbling about the state of the Realm, the former schoolteacher from civilized Marduk suddenly has to learn the difference between a reigning princess consort and a ruling monarch of a Space Viking planet in a time of war – Princess Valerie’s War!

Genres: Science Fiction

473 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 25, 2011

About the author

Terry Mancour is a New York Times Best-Selling Author who has written more than 30 books, under his own name and pseudonyms, including Star Trek: The Next Generation #20, Spartacus, the Spellmonger Series (more than 11 books and growing), among other works.

He was born in Flint, Michigan in 1968 (according to his mother) and wisely relocated to North Carolina in 1978 where he embraced Southern culture and its dedication to compelling narratives and intriguing characterizations. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he majored in Religious Studies.

Terry, his beautiful wife and three children live just outside of Durham, N.C. atop Red Mountain. He was nominated for the 2018 Audie Award for Best Fantasy for the audiobook for Spellmonger (narrated by John Lee), the first book in his Spellmonger Series.

He has plotted the Spellmonger Series for at least thirty books, in addition to his Spellmonger Cadet (young adult) series, stand-alone novels, short stories and novellas set within the Spellmonger Universe, all of which will be published by Podium as audiobooks. He is also the author of a series of sequels to Golden Age sci-fi master H. Beam Piper's novel, Space Viking, as well as original sci-fi novels.

Reviews

[Douglas Cahill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent continuation of H. Beam Pipers work.

From Space Vikings Throne to Princess Valerie's war the continued story of Lucas Trask of Tanith. Both are well conceived and thought out. I'm looking forward to the next in this series.

[Paul Millsted · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enjoyable more even than the first book, the adding of Valerie and several others as new POV characters added some valuable looks into the plot and who wouldn't like to steal a university?

It was a bit of an eye roll moment when the Marines showed up in all their awesome awesomeness, that is such a tired cliché it's not even funny and Piper had his own preferred armed service, but Terry Mancour managed it fairly well I must say and they were fun and interesting. Maybe managing to breath a little new life into a massively overused idea.

As with the first book I give all praise to Terry Mancour knowledge of Terro-Human Future History and how he manages to pack it into his stories, very much looking forward to catching up with the Kragans of Uller and finding out what they've been up to.

Waiting with baited breath for the hopefully soon to be released Trask's Odyssey.

[Will · Rating 3 out of 5]

Positive: an enjoyable experience of high adventure for those who want to see the Space Viking characters again, particularly watching Valerie Alvarath reinvent herself as a Space Viking Princess. And I await the third piece, even if I already anticipate the revelation of the "Wizards's" identity.

Negative: Proof-reading is wretched and carelss ("Cease" for "seize", etc), often bringing a reader up short, and continuity is handled inattentively. And "Jane's" still being published after the destruction of the Federation????