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Families War Cycle #1
Firestar
The United Families , a culture that is 98% women, have been at war for nearly 30 years. Losses and costs have been mounting, and they are desperate for a solution. They may have found one in young Corey Andersen, Family Red Ridges, She may just be lucky, or perhaps something more.
- GenresScience Fiction
452 pages, Paperback
First published December 9, 2011
6 people are currently reading
24 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 1, 2017
Brilliant story. Outstanding series. This is a great story and the start of a series. The story starts some 18oo years (as far as I could tell) in the future and focuses on, in this book, one character. The world she comes from is inside a nebula. Why is this important, well because that nebula is deadly to men, therefore, men in that world's society are kept protected, far underground, away from the deadly radiation that would kill them on the surface. Leading from this, the ratio of men to women is about 1:9 with the women living on the surface.
This story starts with a young space fighter pilot, called Cory (callsign - Crazy Cory), who is a member of the space navy. She with her wingman/woman(?), saves a unknown ship from their enemy, and in doing so, ends up meeting males for the first time in her life. What I especially liked was that the women in the series did not fall back to the standard position of so many in other books/TV/movies and play second fiddle to the male characters.
All the characters are well fleshed out, and contribute to the story. Over the course of the series (Families War Cycle) we meet different characters and situations. The author has done a great job with all of them, in that we really get emotionally involved with them, which makes reading these books so wonderful.
This is one of my favourite series', and can't recommend it enough. Unfortunately the author, Bruce Bretthauer died, I think, last year, so there won't be anymore in this series. However he did leave, as I understand it, though I could be wrong, stories with another author to finish. The Families War Cycle, is a complete series.
This story starts with a young space fighter pilot, called Cory (callsign - Crazy Cory), who is a member of the space navy. She with her wingman/woman(?), saves a unknown ship from their enemy, and in doing so, ends up meeting males for the first time in her life. What I especially liked was that the women in the series did not fall back to the standard position of so many in other books/TV/movies and play second fiddle to the male characters.
All the characters are well fleshed out, and contribute to the story. Over the course of the series (Families War Cycle) we meet different characters and situations. The author has done a great job with all of them, in that we really get emotionally involved with them, which makes reading these books so wonderful.
This is one of my favourite series', and can't recommend it enough. Unfortunately the author, Bruce Bretthauer died, I think, last year, so there won't be anymore in this series. However he did leave, as I understand it, though I could be wrong, stories with another author to finish. The Families War Cycle, is a complete series.
September 30, 2018
This was a very enjoyable book. For those who like military science fiction with a bit of space opera thrown in, this book will be tailor made for you. If you like David Weber's Honor Harrington series, you will like this book (but more on that later).
The story is about a fairly junior space fighter pilot and her rise through the ranks during her space-nation's long war with marauding space barbarians (who it turns out are really . What makes the story interesting is that the main character is a member of a space nation that is 98% women. They are a female dominated culture because they were forced to settle their world in a highly radioactive nebula with the consequence that in order to survive they had to manipulate the genetic code. This genetic manipulation enabled the colonists to survive but with the side effect that live births of males became rare. This is a good "hook" for the story and the author tells it well. The story moves briskly, the characters are well developed, and the space combat believable and interesting.
Now the book does have a couple of problems:
-- The first "problem" is the obvious derivative nature of the plot/story. I said that if one likes the Honor Harrington series one would like this book. That's because much of the story in this book is a clone of several Honor Harrington books. An isolated space nation is discovered by a larger empire, a space nation with a culture completely foreign to the space empire, and a space nation whose alliance with that empire contributes more than one would think given the small space nation's size. It's essentially the planet "Grayson" that is featured in most Honor Harrington books (the ideas I mentioned are not by any means the only similarities). Now this is only a "problem" in the sense that it is there. I didn't find it too troubling, it's far from being plagiarism, but purists out there might react differently. As it is, the high quality of the story telling makes made it easy for me to ignore this issue.
-- The second problem I had was the absence of sex. The issue is this: we have a society with 98% women, with the men hidden away and basically used a sperm donors, yet there is never any mention or even hint of how the women in this culture handle sex and romantic relationships. Do they have sex with one another? No indication they do. Do they fall in love with one another? No hint. There would have to be some kind of cultural adjustment...but there is no mention of it. Unless. Unless the culture's skilled geneticists bred out sexual desire. But there is no indication of that either, especially since the main character begins to be attracted to a male from a foreign space empire. Now I do not want soft porn in my reading. However, I found the believability of the entire book placed into question by the complete absence of any discussion of how this culture handles sex.
Now those two "problems" are minor given the overall good story telling in the book. Overall, I enjoyed the book very much and I intend to buy the sequel.
The story is about a fairly junior space fighter pilot and her rise through the ranks during her space-nation's long war with marauding space barbarians (who it turns out are really . What makes the story interesting is that the main character is a member of a space nation that is 98% women. They are a female dominated culture because they were forced to settle their world in a highly radioactive nebula with the consequence that in order to survive they had to manipulate the genetic code. This genetic manipulation enabled the colonists to survive but with the side effect that live births of males became rare. This is a good "hook" for the story and the author tells it well. The story moves briskly, the characters are well developed, and the space combat believable and interesting.
Now the book does have a couple of problems:
-- The first "problem" is the obvious derivative nature of the plot/story. I said that if one likes the Honor Harrington series one would like this book. That's because much of the story in this book is a clone of several Honor Harrington books. An isolated space nation is discovered by a larger empire, a space nation with a culture completely foreign to the space empire, and a space nation whose alliance with that empire contributes more than one would think given the small space nation's size. It's essentially the planet "Grayson" that is featured in most Honor Harrington books (the ideas I mentioned are not by any means the only similarities). Now this is only a "problem" in the sense that it is there. I didn't find it too troubling, it's far from being plagiarism, but purists out there might react differently. As it is, the high quality of the story telling makes made it easy for me to ignore this issue.
-- The second problem I had was the absence of sex. The issue is this: we have a society with 98% women, with the men hidden away and basically used a sperm donors, yet there is never any mention or even hint of how the women in this culture handle sex and romantic relationships. Do they have sex with one another? No indication they do. Do they fall in love with one another? No hint. There would have to be some kind of cultural adjustment...but there is no mention of it. Unless. Unless the culture's skilled geneticists bred out sexual desire. But there is no indication of that either, especially since the main character begins to be attracted to a male from a foreign space empire. Now I do not want soft porn in my reading. However, I found the believability of the entire book placed into question by the complete absence of any discussion of how this culture handles sex.
Now those two "problems" are minor given the overall good story telling in the book. Overall, I enjoyed the book very much and I intend to buy the sequel.
July 13, 2024
great start
A wonderful story about an interesting culture that we don’t normally see.
A cultural women with few men and the women in command.
This is only the start of the series and a great start at that
A wonderful story about an interesting culture that we don’t normally see.
A cultural women with few men and the women in command.
This is only the start of the series and a great start at that
August 12, 2020
Picture a damaged colony ship, occupied by some very sharp people, lost in a nebula that is radiation saturated. Electronics do not survive long in this environment.
Picture that population 100s of generations later where men, due to environmental circumstances where Y chromosomes do not do well, are less than 5% of the population. Understand, then, men are protected first and foremost. All men are housed deep underground to get as much protection from radiation as possible. Society’s survival depends on their survival. Most women, save the Family eugeneticists and Elders and the Families’ traders, have never seen a live male. Later in the series, the men’s life is described. Births are results of using precious male genome stock and are always three females or one male, the latter not so often. That threesome phenomenon is crucial to this book and the entire series. The culture has developed the finest genetics in the galaxy.
Their planet has been taken from little more than rock and ocean to an almost terraformed habitat. The culture is comprised of Families ranging in size from 60,000 to several million. Families are divided geographically. Each is governed by an Eldest selected in what manner is suitable to the family involved. The society as a whole is governed by a Council of Elders selected by each family to represent them. The Government has Navy commanded by an Admiral selected by the Council who is referred to as the Navy’s Eldest. In fact, anyone in a leadership position may be referred to as Eldest of that entity.
Picture that culture still under attack after 30 years of war.
The nebula can provide any and all resources the culture requires save for people.
Now add to this picture that people are still people blessed with all the idiosyncrasies people can exhibit.
We first meet the main protag, Corey Anderson, in the middle of a battle. She takes her squadron into a head on assault and brings them out alive. Her sobriquet is Crazy Corey because she does things that make sense only in her head. She feels the battle around her, uses that feeling to develop tactics, then implements them with amazing success. She will continue this functioning throughout this book and throughout the series. As the middle of a set of triplets, Corey encounters difficulties with the Navy, her Family, and her sisters.
Her next adventure involves aiding an unfamiliar ship fight off two ships of their common enemy. Imagine the consternation when the new friend is from a culture where no women are allowed in their Navy. Remember the Families’ homes are in the Nebula and the nebula is hostile to Y chromosomes. So, although the men of this new ally are involved in the action, only a handful ever see the women’s Home world. One of them, Alan Young, the commander of the ship in the fight with the two bad guys, becomes a major player
Corey attends Command and Staff College; she saves a convoy of settlers; she helps defend Home from a major attack; and she loses almost every battle with the clerks in Navy Administration. There is action, there is politics; there is Family togetherness; and there is humor. The latter is mostly but not entirely attributable to those damned clerks.
The science is soft but intriguing. Remember those geneticists. The plot is consistent and believable. And the writing is superb. For a series that is basically a war story in 8 chapters, you will be hard pressed to find a better specimen of the genre.
Picture that population 100s of generations later where men, due to environmental circumstances where Y chromosomes do not do well, are less than 5% of the population. Understand, then, men are protected first and foremost. All men are housed deep underground to get as much protection from radiation as possible. Society’s survival depends on their survival. Most women, save the Family eugeneticists and Elders and the Families’ traders, have never seen a live male. Later in the series, the men’s life is described. Births are results of using precious male genome stock and are always three females or one male, the latter not so often. That threesome phenomenon is crucial to this book and the entire series. The culture has developed the finest genetics in the galaxy.
Their planet has been taken from little more than rock and ocean to an almost terraformed habitat. The culture is comprised of Families ranging in size from 60,000 to several million. Families are divided geographically. Each is governed by an Eldest selected in what manner is suitable to the family involved. The society as a whole is governed by a Council of Elders selected by each family to represent them. The Government has Navy commanded by an Admiral selected by the Council who is referred to as the Navy’s Eldest. In fact, anyone in a leadership position may be referred to as Eldest of that entity.
Picture that culture still under attack after 30 years of war.
The nebula can provide any and all resources the culture requires save for people.
Now add to this picture that people are still people blessed with all the idiosyncrasies people can exhibit.
We first meet the main protag, Corey Anderson, in the middle of a battle. She takes her squadron into a head on assault and brings them out alive. Her sobriquet is Crazy Corey because she does things that make sense only in her head. She feels the battle around her, uses that feeling to develop tactics, then implements them with amazing success. She will continue this functioning throughout this book and throughout the series. As the middle of a set of triplets, Corey encounters difficulties with the Navy, her Family, and her sisters.
Her next adventure involves aiding an unfamiliar ship fight off two ships of their common enemy. Imagine the consternation when the new friend is from a culture where no women are allowed in their Navy. Remember the Families’ homes are in the Nebula and the nebula is hostile to Y chromosomes. So, although the men of this new ally are involved in the action, only a handful ever see the women’s Home world. One of them, Alan Young, the commander of the ship in the fight with the two bad guys, becomes a major player
Corey attends Command and Staff College; she saves a convoy of settlers; she helps defend Home from a major attack; and she loses almost every battle with the clerks in Navy Administration. There is action, there is politics; there is Family togetherness; and there is humor. The latter is mostly but not entirely attributable to those damned clerks.
The science is soft but intriguing. Remember those geneticists. The plot is consistent and believable. And the writing is superb. For a series that is basically a war story in 8 chapters, you will be hard pressed to find a better specimen of the genre.
June 2, 2014
This started out as a very David Weber-esque military sci-fi, recommended to me by my father because he knows I love Honor Harrington. I'm always in the mood for a good space battle; isn't everyone?
Unfortunately, I just wasn't into the gender politics and social mechanics going on here. It felt very gimmicky, too -- played up far past what I could find convincing and going over into what I could only perceive as comic, which just left me feeling frustrated that a series with good potential was lost.
Bummed to have to disappoint Dad, but this just was not my thing. He loves it, and that's what's important. It just wasn't for me.
Unfortunately, I just wasn't into the gender politics and social mechanics going on here. It felt very gimmicky, too -- played up far past what I could find convincing and going over into what I could only perceive as comic, which just left me feeling frustrated that a series with good potential was lost.
Bummed to have to disappoint Dad, but this just was not my thing. He loves it, and that's what's important. It just wasn't for me.
April 19, 2016
This is a great story and an amazing universe. Space opera at it's finest.
April 22, 2017
I love this series, found it first on a free stories site. Then when it was published on Amazon I had to buy them all even tho I had saved the free ones.
If you Love female heroes Bruce creates the best.
Bruce edited and had the books proof read before they were published on Amazon. I think there are some minor changes all for the good.
Some of the books (stoires) overlap each other in the time line, they each paint more detail to the story or make the transition from one part to the other.
If you Love female heroes Bruce creates the best.
Bruce edited and had the books proof read before they were published on Amazon. I think there are some minor changes all for the good.
Some of the books (stoires) overlap each other in the time line, they each paint more detail to the story or make the transition from one part to the other.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews