Abyss Deep

Star Corpsman #2

by Ian Douglas

From New York Times bestselling author Ian Douglas comes a new military science fiction series about the elite units of recon Marines and S/R Corpsmen who infiltrate alien worlds ahead of major military strikes and planetary invasion to gather intelligence on both the local environment and on the psychology and biology of the enemy

Genres: Science Fiction, Military Fiction, Aliens, Fiction, Space Opera, Military Science Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy

384 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 29, 2013

About the author

Ian Douglas is a pseudonym used by William H. Keith Jr..

Reviews

[Buzz Park · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining, Smart, Fast-Paced. 3.5 Stars

I enjoyed this second installment in the Star Corpsman series. Plenty of action but also some very enjoyable alien interactions. Plenty of military action with a good pace throughout the book.

Personally, I enjoyed the times in the book where the author got more detailed with the scientific details of certain technologies or medica/biological info. My only criticism is that the explanation of DNA vs. other alien genome equivalents became a little too repetitive.

This book is SIGNIFICANTLY better than the author's Star Carrier Book Four, which was so repetitive and had so many flaws in character development it ruined the book. I abandoned that series as a result. THIS book, however, is much more like the Ian Douglas (William H. Keith) that we know and love.

I will definitely read the next book in the series. 3.5 Stars

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice solid military SiFi book that includes a ton of good real science info throughout the story. The characters have a good real feel for being military characters. Recommended

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the 2nd book in the Star Corpsman series by Ian Douglas a.k.a. William H. Keith Jr. In this one Earth has lost contact with a party of scientists sent to a world of frozen oceans to investigate that there may be an intelligent alien race living under the ice. The U.S. Marines along with their Navel Corpsmen and civilian scientists are sent to see what has happened to the earlier expedition. When they arrive they find an alien ship belonging to the warlike Gykr in orbit around the planet. The ship immediately flees but leaves solders on the planet's frozen surface. When the Marines land they engage the Gykr in a battle and the Gykr escape beneath the ice in a submarine. The Marines discover that the base of the scientists appears to have been destroyed. They also have a submarine and decide to investigate under the ice to see if there is in fact an alien intelligence living there. This book was a great read with an unforeseen twist near the end. I recommend it to all fans of Military Science Fiction and fans of Ian Douglas a.k.a. William H. Keith Jr.

[Gilles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Série Star Copsman, tome 2 : Abyss deep

Lu en anglais

Une mise en bouche par une intervention des marines sur un astéroïde, en cours d'exploitation, qui a été capturé et mis sur une trajectoire de collision avec la Terre.

Ensuite, c'est l'envoi des marines, et de notre infirmier militaire, vers une lointaine planète sur laquelle la station de recherche ne donne plus signe de vie. Il s'agit d'une planète majoritairement liquide habitée par des monstres aquatiques de plus de deux cents mètres de long. Les chercheurs de la station cherchaient à établir si les monstres aquatiques étaient intelligents et, si oui, entrer en communication avec eux. Mais, sur place, les marines s'aperçoivent que la station a disparu et qu'un vaisseau d'une race extraterrestre guerrière survole la planète. Sans compter que la planète cache bien des mystères.

J'ai aimé et je l'ai trouvé intéressant avec un paquet d'informations sur les types de glace, la nanotechnologie, la génétique, les avancées médicales, etc. mais parfois au détriment du rythme de l'histoire. Il faut aussi dire que l'auteur a été infirmier médical pendant la guerre du Vietnam et connait le contexte des soins sur un champ de bataille.

[Sean McDonald · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is WAY to much going on in this book and WAY too much info dumping. Apparently the 'hero' knows EVERYTHING about EVERYTHING so we get pages and pages and PAGES of "so here's an explanation for what is going on. Imagine sitting in a troop carrier with someone who is into their 38th minute explaining how the engine, pumps, radios and turret works . . .sound like fun? No? Then don't read this. Every single planet and astronomical phenomena gets infosplained to you, every event gets outlined for you . . . . . . 150 pages in and EVERYTHING has been herosplained but we've only just started on our journey to bad planet. The hero is right about EVERYTHING, solves everything and is ALWAYS the first to arrive no matter the event. I'm skipping entire paragraphs because someone mentioned something and now we gotta have doc wiki explain what it is. I'm NGF this because I simply refuse to skip every third paragraph to avoid the data dump. Give me ANY Zahn over this, even the bad ones.

[Lee Yun · Rating 4 out of 5]

As usual, Abyss Deeps provides an immersing and enjoyable read for all those who enjoy the technical jargon that comes along with hardcore science fiction books. Much like the first Star Corpsman book, the story is told from the point of view of Elliot 'E-Car' Carlyle, a Navy Corpsman. Besides the medical science aspect of this book, a lot of focus is put onto the humans trying to decipher and understand how alien cultures would see the world and the impact on their psychology, which I found extremely interesting. As with all of his books, it comes across as slightly repetitive with jargon and explanations repeated everyone a certain incident or scene occurs, but beyond that anyone who appreciates detailed science will enjoy this book.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Douglas puts lots of facts into his speculative sci-fi. His stories can be quick read for the enjoyment of the action. You can also take your time or even reread to ponder the implications of emerging technologies. I like both. A good read.

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good. The new world and strangeness.
Bad. The protagonist "solves" everything.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite stories to listen to on audio book. Dying for a sequel.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was pretty mind- bending.

[OpenBookSociety.com · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://openbooksociety.com/article/ab...

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Sammy

In a nutshell with a quote from the book:

“I then proceeded to explain . . . and hoped to hell I wasn’t making their eyes glaze over. I was afraid I’d already done that with the exotic ice table.”

Yes, this was throughout the whole book so much detail and information that it was difficult to follow the story. I found myself skipping to where there was dialog. The ice table is in the book and while very interesting, if I wanted to do some studying, it missed the mark and went into information dump territory.

As did the nano-technology information splurge in the beginning, unfortunately this continues with most everything in the story.

Now, I love this genre and my favorite book and author is David Gerrold with The War Against the Chtorr series, so it’s not that I’m unfamiliar with this genre or just not my thing. With that said this book did not hit any high spots for me, yes it has action and interesting aliens, but it’s lost in all the information. I gave this book 3 stars because the story was only okay for me, but the writing is strong as is all the research so I upped it to the 3 stars.

The parts I found most interesting were there, here is an example, Doc thinks:

“I became more convinced than ever that they’d cut up Kari out of ignorance, unable to tell the difference between Marine armor, her skinsuit utilities, and her skin.”

This could have been a really interesting read. That’s what I wanted more of, what I got was more protocol on who would go down and investigate the alien life form. Then it would catch my interest again for a bit and back to blah, blah, blah, I’m sure you get the picture by now and I need not harp.

Would I recommend this book? Yes, to folks who like to read about military protocol, nano-tech, types of ice etc….in massive detail. I must add I did not read the first book in this series so perhaps it might have added information or not (shoulder shrug.

[Steven Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this is the second book concerning HM2 Carlyle. I wonder if there will be a third as this author appears to like trilogies.

The first book in this series was fairly good. This book is heavier on medical jargon and information - so much so that I thought at times I was reading a pre-med book. The long blocks of medical and technical jargon can be boring and I found myself skipping through some of the text.

The action is good as always, but I have to wonder if HM2 Carlyle has not become a Marty Stu for the author. How many times is this lowly Corpsman going to be the first to contact an alien species, establish a working treating with them, and save everyone's respective bacon (while delivering triplets this time - no less!). The action is good, the military jargon spot-on, and the last third of the book is decent.

I have another gripe about the fact that another lover, this time SGT Joy, has been killed and now is a zombie after a CAPTR reload. How many times is this poor bastard going to lose "the love of this life," have her reanimated, only to lose her because she does not remember him, as those memories were not saved to disk?

I can suspend some belief to allow for artistic license but only so much. I expect in the next book our lowly Corpsman is going to make first contact with another alien species, his lover Joy restored to all her carnal glory will fall madly in love with him again (probably joined by often lamented Patricia, in some kinky menage de quatre with new gal-pal Gina).

[Trey · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's Ian Douglas. So it's going to be complete over-the-top love of the Corps with plenty of references to past accomplishments.

One thing I really loved about this series thus far is it is fairly unique (at least to me) in that it focuses on a combat medic. Granted, the main character is still always in the thick of things but he is more concerned with saving lives than ending them. So that is kind of a fun change.

Although, HOLY SHIT MEDICAL TERMINOLOGY. I don't have the necessary background to understand most of the medical stuff in this book so I have to no idea if he is talking out of his ass or not. I think he could have cut about 80% of it out and it would have been fine. But again, the 2 series I have read by Ian Douglas tells me this type of stuff is just how he writes. He gets very indepth with the technical nonsense.

Overall I thought this book wasn't nearly as good as the first. I don't mind the main character being the hero and all but I thought the first book was slightly pushing the boundary between believable coincidences and super hero main character and this book he kind of went over the line.

[Henry Lazarus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ian Douglas has a second adventure for his Star Corpsman, Elliot Carlyle. His escapade in the first tale have left him a bit notorious so he is assigned to a small expedition to Abyss Deep (paper from Harper Voyager), a frozen planet with a deep liquid ocean filled with possibly intelligent whales. The research station there is out of contact. When they arrive they discover an aggressive alien species has arrived, and there is a hole were the research station was. It doesn’t help that the ships captain is disabled and the doctor in charge of the medics has gone insane. But with lots of fun excitement, Eliot finds the intelligence of the whales and what happened to the research station. Light fun and I hope his next adventure is just exciting. Review printed in the Philadelphia Weekly Press

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book much better than the first book in the series. Still the plot is a little predictable and the ending felt a little convenient. Also the only character that got any development was the main character which made the story one dimensional. Of course I was not looking for a great work of literature when I picked up the book in the first place I was looking for a fun escape and that is what I got.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. Found it to be better than the first one. I liked the story with a corpsman and a different view from a sci fi military book that swings in medicine as well. Interesting to see how interaction with aliens affects the different ways a corpsman operates on the ground. Hope to see another one soon.

[Steven Bragg · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fairly entertaining read. The author comes up with some interesting first-contact ideas, and the pacing is fast. There is also a generous helping of hard science (actually too much). The problems are a reduced level of characterization (if any), with most of the dialog concerning how the lowly medical corpsman saves the day yet again. Still, a pleasant read, and I will look for sequels.

[Heretic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Audiobook. Hard scifi with more nanotechnology, space exploration, meta-communication (how aliens think in order to provide a framework to communicate), and the nature of self when your body can be regrown, your memories stored digitally, and uploaded back to your body after "death". Good scifi. Rare to see hard scifi anymore, and I like the detail that the ice age has begun again.

[Theresa Cross · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ian Douglas always comes through with a good story, though he tends to go into lecture mode a bit too often and tends to repeat himself. If I weren't a total science nerd I might go a bit glassy-eyed at some of these very involved explainations, but his stories are generally really good as is his writing other than the aforementioned quirk.

[Dale (Aus) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I always enjoy this author and have always been and early purchaser. For some reason this book just did not hit the spot. It may be the first person perspective but I just did not enjoy the story as it unfolded.

[Michael Rutkowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

it was good even though there was a lot of science in this science fiction book.

[Ove · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still entertaining,but felt short and the info dumps where many.

[Michele Smith-Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

another great military sci-fi story told from the p.o.v. of a navy medical corpsman embedded with a space marine unit.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding story. Medical realism, advanced neuro-psychological concepts, first contact, action, great characters, one of the best of the year

[Jane Doe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Writing well done, information dumps many and tedious.

[Mark Jacobson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun sci fi read.

[Bill Brinkley · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent story. I read it in four days. The plot was engaging and characters were well developed.

[Sam Thomas 1955 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read

Damon fine novel. holds your interests and them some. been following the author from when he was writing. for the Sci fine frog Traveller.

[GaiusPrimus · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this one more then the first one. No lulls and not as many info-dumps.

Great work Sir.

[Peter Anthony Roland (PARoland) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent series!