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The Battle for the Solar System #2
The Third Side
Simon Dodds has had his wings clipped. Shot down over the luxurious holiday planet Mythos and separated from his wingmates, he is quick to discover that the once-popular sun-soaked paradise has been transformed into a nightmarish war zone, swarming with armies of seemingly unstoppable black-suited soldiers. The Pandoran war machine is on the move, preparing to advance The Mission and deal to the rest of the galaxy the same fate it did the Mitikas Empire.Unaware of what fate may have befallen his friends, the young pilot attempts to make his way through the dangerous streets of the war-torn city of New Malaga, as he waits for the CSN to rush to the rescue.But from out of the chaos emerges something far more terrible; and if Dodds can somehow survive the next 24 hours, he might finally see beyond the lies he has been fed and hear a side to the story that no one wants him what really happened to the Imperium, who the black-suited warriors are, what the ATAFs were built for...... and what his purpose in all of it is. Whether he likes it or not.There are three sides to every story.But sometimes the truth is the hardest side to believe.---THE THIRD SIDE is the second book in the BATTLE FOR THE SOLAR SYSTEM trilogy, and the follow-up to the enormously popular HONOUR OF THE KNIGHTS.---148,000 words~ 500 print pages
- GenresScience Fiction
418 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 20, 2011
18 people are currently reading
91 people want to read
About the author
Stephen J. Sweeney
13 books37 followersStephen J Sweeney is an author, software developer, and video game designer. He currently resides in England.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
March 12, 2017
unbelievably bad
Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Third Side (Battle for the Solar System, #2) (The Battle for the Solar System Series) (Kindle Edition)
This is simply awful. The grammar, punctuation, plot, etc. are that bad. The 1st vol., THE HONOUR OF THE KNIGHTS, was poorly written but I wanted to know the answers to some of the riddles in that volume. The answers are mundane or unrealistic. WARNING. I am about to reveal three of the answers in an attempt to save the readers' money.
1. The "Enemy" consists of humans who are controlled by erroneously programmed nanites. This was done by the Imperial Senate. Unfortunately, the programming can be countermanded only by the particular senators who gave the orders. Unfortunately, they are dead. Fortunately the admiral commanding the "Enemy" may be able to do it, but he is controlled by the nanites. There is also the small problem of capturing him. Who could have guessed that they were humans controlled or altered by something.
2. More ATAFs (only five in existence) have not been built, even though they are the only effective weapon against the "Enemy", because, wait for it......"the ATAF wasn't built to be a star fighter". Never mind that one ATAF can apparently destroy hundreds of Enemy fighters, as well as large warships in every battle. They weren't built to be star fighters, so we aren't going to build any to be star fighters. The fate of all humanity hangs in the balance. Oh. Well, never mind.
3. The horrible, terrifying secret of Operation Sudarberg, which makes strong men and women quake and desert, is (insert drum roll) that it is a suicide mission. For five people.
I gave Sweeney's "Honor of the Knights" one star. This is much worse.
Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Third Side (Battle for the Solar System, #2) (The Battle for the Solar System Series) (Kindle Edition)
This is simply awful. The grammar, punctuation, plot, etc. are that bad. The 1st vol., THE HONOUR OF THE KNIGHTS, was poorly written but I wanted to know the answers to some of the riddles in that volume. The answers are mundane or unrealistic. WARNING. I am about to reveal three of the answers in an attempt to save the readers' money.
1. The "Enemy" consists of humans who are controlled by erroneously programmed nanites. This was done by the Imperial Senate. Unfortunately, the programming can be countermanded only by the particular senators who gave the orders. Unfortunately, they are dead. Fortunately the admiral commanding the "Enemy" may be able to do it, but he is controlled by the nanites. There is also the small problem of capturing him. Who could have guessed that they were humans controlled or altered by something.
2. More ATAFs (only five in existence) have not been built, even though they are the only effective weapon against the "Enemy", because, wait for it......"the ATAF wasn't built to be a star fighter". Never mind that one ATAF can apparently destroy hundreds of Enemy fighters, as well as large warships in every battle. They weren't built to be star fighters, so we aren't going to build any to be star fighters. The fate of all humanity hangs in the balance. Oh. Well, never mind.
3. The horrible, terrifying secret of Operation Sudarberg, which makes strong men and women quake and desert, is (insert drum roll) that it is a suicide mission. For five people.
I gave Sweeney's "Honor of the Knights" one star. This is much worse.
October 21, 2011
I'd probably go closer to 3.5 stars, but I do really enjoy the characters here and there were some very good scenes in the story. My problem is that in a portion of the book instead of being shown you are told what happened and at one point, after a very descriptive and suspenseful section, it is wrapped up with nothing but a descriptive explanation that comes a full chapter later in all of one sentence. Aside from these two big gaps, the story as a whole is well worth reading.
January 12, 2012
The second part of the saga, again following the White Knights follwing the build up to the impending war. The reasons for their specialist starfighters and traning and the origins of the "Black" clad soliders become clear. Once again an excellent read, and now to check out when the final book will be available.
April 5, 2013
This is one of those books that I'm kind of torn about. Some of the story is really good, but then other things kind of drag me out of it such as how some of the characters act. For seasoned military people they seem to have a pretty high disregard for following orders (after a very slight bit of coercion from fellow teammates) and one in particular seems a little squeamish to be a crack fighter pilot. Another thing is that as I read through it, the major machine adversary has my brain screaming about replicators from Stargate in the background. There are times in the story when I'm really drawn in and at other times it seems like the author is just dragging things out for word count and I find myself wandering off. The good news is that I was able to finish it so it's not horrible and I'm even kind of curious how it all may end in the third book. I just don't know if I can trudge my way through the third book just to satisfy that curiosity. So I've given it three stars. There are parts I really enjoyed and parts that completely snapped me out of the story due to the lack or realism. Military science fiction has to have just the right mix for me and I'm not sure that the characters in this book are up to the task at hand.
Review originally posted at: http://tjsbookblog.blogspot.com/
Review originally posted at: http://tjsbookblog.blogspot.com/
December 4, 2011
For the first book I was unsure whether it deserved 2 or 3 stars. In the end I gave it three because I thought it was well written.
Well, it doesn't matter how well written this one is, nothing will save this disaster from a one star rating from me.
I'm very disapointed. The story is just crap. The more the plot reveals itself the more it's just full of nonsense, totally unrealistic, decisions. I will not enumerate all the totally idiotic events and plot elements here since they would be spoilers.
Just to make sure everything really goes to hell the totally ignorant dumbass polticians are brought in, taking over the decision making, in the last chapters of this crap. I almost threw the book out the window at that point.
Well, it doesn't matter how well written this one is, nothing will save this disaster from a one star rating from me.
I'm very disapointed. The story is just crap. The more the plot reveals itself the more it's just full of nonsense, totally unrealistic, decisions. I will not enumerate all the totally idiotic events and plot elements here since they would be spoilers.
Just to make sure everything really goes to hell the totally ignorant dumbass polticians are brought in, taking over the decision making, in the last chapters of this crap. I almost threw the book out the window at that point.
July 17, 2012
This book did not start anywhere near where I was expecting it to, which made me nervous about where the story was going. However, once I got into things, it became clear that this was a brilliant choice on the author's part. It brought me in thinking "What's going on?" and "How did we get here?", and the story continued to draw me in all the way through the last page. Yes, when I said "through" I meant it. I am really excited about the next book because of where this one left things. I highly recommend this series.
February 16, 2012
This is the second book of the trilogy and I totally enjoyed it. It started where book one, The Honour of the Knights, left off with non-stop action. This is a well written series with great charactor and story development.
If you like fast paced action and believable charators this is a series for you. This is a three part series and you need to read the first installment first.
I highly recommend this book and the entire Battle for the Solar System series.
If you like fast paced action and believable charators this is a series for you. This is a three part series and you need to read the first installment first.
I highly recommend this book and the entire Battle for the Solar System series.
November 6, 2016
Simplistic plot but easy reading
It's easy reading but the full of plot holes and the as the story unfolds with increasing simplisticism you just have to suspend disbelief at the idiocies. It's by no means good and the twists are all obvious in advance but it is easy reading!
It's easy reading but the full of plot holes and the as the story unfolds with increasing simplisticism you just have to suspend disbelief at the idiocies. It's by no means good and the twists are all obvious in advance but it is easy reading!
November 7, 2011
Really enjoying this series of books. Come on... write the next one!
May 4, 2012
A fantastic adventure and sequel that makes you come begging for more.
More please.
More please.
March 28, 2012
Simon Dodds and his team mates are again desperately scrambling to get ahead of the Pandorans. But the Enemy is stronger and far more numerous than the Independents and Conferacy put together.
I have enjoyed the series so far. it's been a long time since I have read science fiction, and this
series put me in mind of Robert Heinlein's Starship Trooper (written many, many years ago), in its style.Forgive me, if anyone disagrees - it has been a long time since I read it, and memory fades!!!
But to me this series reads like a young adult novel - though the characters are in their late 20s and 30s, there is a depth missing to the narratives, a lack of maturity to the characters' behaviours and emotions. Men and women in the armed forces DO have emotions; they probably experience emotions to far greater levels than the rest of us! But that depth, brought on by the close proximity of death just isn't there.
As a woman, I do slightly resent the idea that the weakest characters are female - Kelly with her ditzy "blonde" moments and Estelle who is indulging in a bitchy, self obsessed nervous breakdown. Quite frankly, how anyone would promote such an individual and leave her in charge of the lives of other human beings really does stretch the imagination to the realms of fantasy rather than science fiction.
I will read the last of the trilogy; as said before, I have enjoyed the series. The idea of the story really is good; and I really hate to leave a story untold.
I have enjoyed the series so far. it's been a long time since I have read science fiction, and this
series put me in mind of Robert Heinlein's Starship Trooper (written many, many years ago), in its style.Forgive me, if anyone disagrees - it has been a long time since I read it, and memory fades!!!
But to me this series reads like a young adult novel - though the characters are in their late 20s and 30s, there is a depth missing to the narratives, a lack of maturity to the characters' behaviours and emotions. Men and women in the armed forces DO have emotions; they probably experience emotions to far greater levels than the rest of us! But that depth, brought on by the close proximity of death just isn't there.
As a woman, I do slightly resent the idea that the weakest characters are female - Kelly with her ditzy "blonde" moments and Estelle who is indulging in a bitchy, self obsessed nervous breakdown. Quite frankly, how anyone would promote such an individual and leave her in charge of the lives of other human beings really does stretch the imagination to the realms of fantasy rather than science fiction.
I will read the last of the trilogy; as said before, I have enjoyed the series. The idea of the story really is good; and I really hate to leave a story untold.
September 7, 2012
Another good read by Mr Sweeney. A lot of the same things I said about "The honour of the knights" are true here. It's the book equivilant of an action movie. I found it perfect reading for short bursts, like lunch breaks and commutes, but maybe not for a long evening curl up. But that may be just me.
Again more time is given over to action, though this time it mostly has a more ground based twist than last time. At times it can get quite muddy and confusing then suddenly clear itself up into brilliance. For example, I really like the evacutation and "sled ride" bit and remember more of that than the entire end space battle. It sometimes seems like Stephen can really do well on the bits he is interested in but can quickly lose focus on the joining narrative.
It's similar with the characters. It's weird that when compared to the first book that the focus has changed somewhat. Of the "knights" the supporting cast from the book all now have interesting quirks and personalities. They have been developed quite well and now all show a bit more dimension. However Dodds has kind of faltered and remains quite bland and very cookie cutter.
That being said, I still enjoyed the book as another fun bit of action. I'll certainly be buying the next book as I am actually very curious over the overall plot. Give the series a go!
Again more time is given over to action, though this time it mostly has a more ground based twist than last time. At times it can get quite muddy and confusing then suddenly clear itself up into brilliance. For example, I really like the evacutation and "sled ride" bit and remember more of that than the entire end space battle. It sometimes seems like Stephen can really do well on the bits he is interested in but can quickly lose focus on the joining narrative.
It's similar with the characters. It's weird that when compared to the first book that the focus has changed somewhat. Of the "knights" the supporting cast from the book all now have interesting quirks and personalities. They have been developed quite well and now all show a bit more dimension. However Dodds has kind of faltered and remains quite bland and very cookie cutter.
That being said, I still enjoyed the book as another fun bit of action. I'll certainly be buying the next book as I am actually very curious over the overall plot. Give the series a go!
September 5, 2016
A great improvement over The Honour of the Knights, The Third Side is far more captivating and ramps up the suspense far more than it's predecessor. Gone is the protection of their seemingly indestructible starfighters, and hunted by Pandoran soldiers across a battle-scarred planet, the Knights find themselves faced with insurmountable odds, and the very real threat of their own mortality.
August 4, 2015
Ths was a bit tedious. So many unanswered questions and frustrations.
After being stranded on a planet the crew must try to find a way back to Earth to get ahead of the army slowly destroying to world.
It took a while to get through this and although its packed with action it was quite boring at times and seemed to drag on.
After being stranded on a planet the crew must try to find a way back to Earth to get ahead of the army slowly destroying to world.
It took a while to get through this and although its packed with action it was quite boring at times and seemed to drag on.
September 22, 2012
Not quite as riveting as the first book, slightly slow to start but the plot picks up near the end and I am looking forward to the third volume
October 16, 2012
yada yada... very formulaic ... but I'll read the next one!
March 8, 2014
I didn't enjoy this as much as the first or the third book. I thought it was slower and less gripping than either of them. It suffers from the "middle of the trilogy" syndrome! Passable.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews