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Starstrike #2
Operation Orion
SEALS–America’s best just got better.
On the heels of a bloody first contact comes Earth’s most important diplomatic mission in a summit meeting with the three alien empires vying for control of the galaxy. Assurance that Earth’s first extraterrestrial ambassadors aboard the spaceship Pangaea will be safe means little to Lieutenant Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. After all, a job’s a job. As escorts on the voyage, Jackson and his sixteen-man team of new-breed Navy SEALS (Sea, Air, Land, and Space) must be neither seen nor heard. Unless, of course, the op hits the fan.
While Jackson and his team respond to a distress call from an allied fleet, the Pangaea, with all its diplomatic passengers, goes missing, forcing the SEALS to follow the trail to an ice moon at the edge of the galaxy, a harsh environment crawling with crack commandos and hostile enemies. But for these warriors with their outrageous firepower, what seems an impossible quest is just another day in deep space.
On the heels of a bloody first contact comes Earth’s most important diplomatic mission in a summit meeting with the three alien empires vying for control of the galaxy. Assurance that Earth’s first extraterrestrial ambassadors aboard the spaceship Pangaea will be safe means little to Lieutenant Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. After all, a job’s a job. As escorts on the voyage, Jackson and his sixteen-man team of new-breed Navy SEALS (Sea, Air, Land, and Space) must be neither seen nor heard. Unless, of course, the op hits the fan.
While Jackson and his team respond to a distress call from an allied fleet, the Pangaea, with all its diplomatic passengers, goes missing, forcing the SEALS to follow the trail to an ice moon at the edge of the galaxy, a harsh environment crawling with crack commandos and hostile enemies. But for these warriors with their outrageous firepower, what seems an impossible quest is just another day in deep space.
- GenresScience FictionFiction
288 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
31 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 14, 2014
Bookworm Speaks!
Starstrike Operation Orion
by Kevin Dockery and Douglas Niles
Military Sci-fi is a subgenre of Sci-fi that has almost sub-genres unto itself. On one side their is patriotic pride fiction, such Starship Troopers by Heinlein, then there is cynical anti-war books such The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. Finally there is a third category, that while pro-military reads more like a western shootout that an analysis of the military lifestyle. Starstrike Operation Orion reads like the third category.
It is obvious that the authors are patrons of military history. The heroes of this book are Navy SEALS. Bookworm will admit the title for the heroes of the book is pretty clever. (SEa, Air, Land and Space) the people on the ship are referred to as sailors and the ranks used by the officers are accurate towards a naval vessel.
It is action packed though and the writers do a good job of accurately portraying what combat in space may be like, and the description of the tech that would be used seems plausible as well. The sheer excitement is what clings the reader to the book and it is exciting enough to know how it all ends.
On the other in other important aspects besides action, the book falls flat. The characters often are just named cut outs. A common feature in military science fiction for the inevitable cannon fodder, but almost all other characters are cut outs as well. The line between the good guys and the bad guys is clearly defined and of course the good guys prevail in the end.
The lack of meaningful character development can be explained away by the fact this story is not meant to really be about characters, it is fast-paced adventure story. That in of itself is not so bad but it can become a little too simple.
Also there is a complete lack of creativity in regards to aliens in this book. From what is to be gathered, there are identical to humans except their eyes are a different color. That is a level of laziness that that can be compared to Star Trek. At least Star Trek has the valid reason of a small budget. Mr Dockery and Mr Niles...you have no excuse!
The one saving grace of the text is that in spite of its flaws, it is rather harmless. Bookworm did not feel like his intelligence was being insulted while reading this. There is a certain innocence in big heroes save the day thing the writers have going on. It is kind of nice to read something simple like that after something deep and complicated.
Still the fact is, while an exciting space adventure...this is a very simple book.
Final Rating
Three out of Five Stars.
Starstrike Operation Orion
by Kevin Dockery and Douglas Niles
Military Sci-fi is a subgenre of Sci-fi that has almost sub-genres unto itself. On one side their is patriotic pride fiction, such Starship Troopers by Heinlein, then there is cynical anti-war books such The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. Finally there is a third category, that while pro-military reads more like a western shootout that an analysis of the military lifestyle. Starstrike Operation Orion reads like the third category.
It is obvious that the authors are patrons of military history. The heroes of this book are Navy SEALS. Bookworm will admit the title for the heroes of the book is pretty clever. (SEa, Air, Land and Space) the people on the ship are referred to as sailors and the ranks used by the officers are accurate towards a naval vessel.
It is action packed though and the writers do a good job of accurately portraying what combat in space may be like, and the description of the tech that would be used seems plausible as well. The sheer excitement is what clings the reader to the book and it is exciting enough to know how it all ends.
On the other in other important aspects besides action, the book falls flat. The characters often are just named cut outs. A common feature in military science fiction for the inevitable cannon fodder, but almost all other characters are cut outs as well. The line between the good guys and the bad guys is clearly defined and of course the good guys prevail in the end.
The lack of meaningful character development can be explained away by the fact this story is not meant to really be about characters, it is fast-paced adventure story. That in of itself is not so bad but it can become a little too simple.
Also there is a complete lack of creativity in regards to aliens in this book. From what is to be gathered, there are identical to humans except their eyes are a different color. That is a level of laziness that that can be compared to Star Trek. At least Star Trek has the valid reason of a small budget. Mr Dockery and Mr Niles...you have no excuse!
The one saving grace of the text is that in spite of its flaws, it is rather harmless. Bookworm did not feel like his intelligence was being insulted while reading this. There is a certain innocence in big heroes save the day thing the writers have going on. It is kind of nice to read something simple like that after something deep and complicated.
Still the fact is, while an exciting space adventure...this is a very simple book.
Final Rating
Three out of Five Stars.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 31, 2011
Starstrike Operation Orion by Kevin Dockery and Douglas Niles
Just as Starstrike Operation Mars was a military shoot-em-up so is this. SEALS, the extra S is for Space, strike terror in the hearts of our world’s enemies.
Regardless of the time frame and setting, it still is a somewhat simplistic and far fetched saga of a group of SEALS. The new SEALS as opposed to the original Navy Seals are space faring commandos. This rendition of the story has them facing some old enemies and reuniting with some old friends.
This is a quick, non-taxing read. It is chock full of action and heroics. It is the ideal intermezzo for deep thinking or long books. That doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it. Au contraire, I breezed through it with a grin on my face.
Although none of the characters are memorable as individuals as a group they prove themselves ferocious warriors. The arrogant aliens grossly outnumber, out gun the SEALS. The alien technology is superior. In spite of this the SEALS show the Aliens that we may be backward technologically but our spirit and ferocity are not to be underestimated. The story like the first one is a very entertaining, small unit combat novel.
I recommend the book.
Just as Starstrike Operation Mars was a military shoot-em-up so is this. SEALS, the extra S is for Space, strike terror in the hearts of our world’s enemies.
Regardless of the time frame and setting, it still is a somewhat simplistic and far fetched saga of a group of SEALS. The new SEALS as opposed to the original Navy Seals are space faring commandos. This rendition of the story has them facing some old enemies and reuniting with some old friends.
This is a quick, non-taxing read. It is chock full of action and heroics. It is the ideal intermezzo for deep thinking or long books. That doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it. Au contraire, I breezed through it with a grin on my face.
Although none of the characters are memorable as individuals as a group they prove themselves ferocious warriors. The arrogant aliens grossly outnumber, out gun the SEALS. The alien technology is superior. In spite of this the SEALS show the Aliens that we may be backward technologically but our spirit and ferocity are not to be underestimated. The story like the first one is a very entertaining, small unit combat novel.
I recommend the book.
December 1, 2023
Is it a decent book. Yeah. It has fairly interesting actions scenes but thats about it. Now this book is better than the first in the sense that it has better pacing and this book does correct for the unlimited ammo that the SEALS seemed to have in the first book but man does this one have issues. First off the alien races are just plain boring and paper thin. They are basically humans with different eye colors. Shamani have red, Elioui have green and Asian have blue. Two known of these alien races seem to have any military power besides one or maybe two ships in an area and thats it. These three races are suppose to be empires but very little projection of power. Three all alien tech can be overcome by human tech or ingenuity yet they are the more advanced race. Four certain equipment is basically God tier weaponry. Example is Baby carried by LaRue. Its essentially a rail gun that is used whenever something is needed to be blown up. This gun can basically stop anything. Five and this one irks the hell out of me is that even though there are alien races and humanity has been in contact for small time frame all alien races speak, act and behave the same as an ordinary human. Example is in the first book an Asian pilot is rescued by the SEALS team and short while later when helping them escape an alien planet makes a comment (paraphrasing "that'll happen when pigs fly"). Now how would this alien know that phrase and much less the context to use it. This book though "ok" feels it was written by authors who don't truly understand the subtle nuances of science fiction.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 11, 2023
Started a little slow but turned out it’s a really cool space action story
September 20, 2008
starstrike operation orion is a sci-fi war action book by Douglas Niles I choose this book because i read the first one (task force mars) and loved it, unfortunately the second one is not as good as the first but still is excellent. the plot takes place a couple of months after the first book. Lieutenant "Stonewall" Jackson and his elite soldiers the S.E.A.L.S.( sea, air, land and space) are back from an alien slaver planet controlled by the alien empire the Euloi, and are now tasked with escorting some diplomats to a peace confrere held by the 3 main alien empires. On their way there they get a distress signal from an allied alien vessel they board the vessel only to find it has been overrun by Euloi privateers they kill the privateers and rescue the crew finding out that the ship is lead by an alien diplomat named Char-Kane the same diplomat that they saved from the Euloi slave world. She tells them that she was taking a prototype shield generator to a Shamani (the name of her species) base world, the S.E.A.L.S. go to a privateer staging ground and steal the generator back from them. when their ship takes them back to the human diplomat ship they find its been captured by the Euloi and of course they have to get it back. the protagonist is LT. Jackson some supporting characters would be Derek Falco the marksmen La rue the heavy weapons specialist and captain Carstairs the antagonists would pretty much be the entire Euloi Empire. the central conflict is man vs society because Jackson has to fight an entire empire with just his 16 man S.E.A.L.S. team. the theme is sometimes you have to trust your instincts and not just do what your told to do. there really aren't any symbols in this book unfortunately, and not many motifs or other types of literary devices there are a few metaphors and personifications but that's about it. the author has a more technical writing style it shows more of whats going on than give complex analogies and other distracting things so for me at least it was a easy to read i recommend this book to anyone who wants a good time but doesn't want to have a thought provoking change your outlook on life type of book
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February 7, 2017This is the sequel to Task Force Mars (Starstrike #1) by Kevin Dockery and Douglas Niles. In this one the U.S. Navy SEALS (Sea, Air, Land and Space) are tasked with escorting a diplomatic ship, the Pangaea, from Earth to a peace conference in the far reaches of space. They are aboard a U.S. Space Frigate, the Pegasus, along with another Frigate, the Troy, whose duty is to see the unarmed peace ship to the conference. They receive a distress call along the way and from a Shamani ship and they leave on a rescue mission while the Pangaea and the Troy continue on to the conference. When they find the Shamani ship it is still under attack and they repel the attackers and board the disabled Shamani ship to look for survivors. They find aboard an old friend, Consul Char-Kane. They get her and her crew off the ship as well as a new prototype shield for spaceships, which is what the attackers were after. When they go to meet the Pangaea and the Troy they find the Pangaea missing and the Troy under attack. The Troy is destroyed before they can help and then if falls upon the SEALS and the crew of the Pegasus to find and rescue the diplomats from the Pangaea. This is another first rate example of Military Science Fiction and I highly recommend it.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews