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Conquest!: Tales from the tribes of the Central Metropolitan Regions
As Task Force Draaken begins its months long mission, the historical drama 'The Praetor and the Second Alliance War' premiers across the supernets. For the first time, the entire CMR can see the story of the origins of the centuries old conflict. Everyone that is, except the crew of the AGRV Retnec. The war turned close friends and partners into bitter enemies and most citizens are not even aware of how. Now the officers, crewmen and marines of TF Draaken are enroute to seize this vestige of that ancient war. The story begins as the Aglifhate directs its expansionism towards the developed, enlightened tribes of the Nursery Crescent. Under the guise Conformance and Economic Co-prosperity, the Aglifhate unleashes Mistress Indira-vin to use subversion, piracy and trans-stellar war to achieve their aims of living space and servants. And at least for now, everything is going Indira-vin's way!
325 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 17, 2013
4 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 29, 2014
I read this, I don't have an audio version so I can't comment on the narration.
Having previously read the first book in the series, I had a good idea what to expect. I am not sure where to advise someone to start as this book seems equally as accessible and with its self-contained story. There is some strong language and adult behaviour from the start.
This is a grand space-opera spanning many worlds. There are various races under consideration but we see that no surprise, some of them want to dominate other races and use their resources, including the people themselves as slaves or, to be more polite, helots. The advanced spacefaring race Homostoioi try to annexe as many planets as possible, but are thrown back when the subject races turn out not to be suitable for off-planet work or have no immunities. They don't value these workers or consider their lives important. In order to simplify matters for themselves, a leader proposes offering a peaceful conquest to one planet in the Nursery Crescent while making a military example of another.
I liked specific well-imagined parts of the story: a girl who is supposed to marry at fifteen declares that she will remain celibate and devote her life to the deity Pygan. This is unheard of and girls are not supposed to have rights or wills of their own. So this Lady Roxanne is tried with the possibility of death for blasphemy. However the women across the planet take a stand and men start to feel a certain pinch. Accordingly Roxanne is pardoned as of unsound mind and shunted off to the care of monks, thus saving face all around.
I enjoyed the geography / astronomy descriptions too, like the following quote: "It was not generally known, until enlightenment that the drought cycles and the gradual, planet-wide, temperature fluctuations of plus or minus 20 degrees across cycles of 25 years were caused by the passing of nearby Narudis pushing Lucainus closer to Andolusia then Nevar pulling her back 25 years later."
The difficult part about reading this story is the same as in the first book; we have endless names thrown at us from page one, a barrage of rulers, admirals (some female), planets, systems, cities and ships, with little time to start to get to know them and figure out what is going on before we meet a whole new set. Politics, revolutions and military history are abundant, while typically self-interested leaders plan to make their own families exempt from slave levies.
A lot of the invention feels quite natural, such as grav-balance wear, amusingly worn by a man who also sports a neck-tie or by a woman who keeps sexier pairs in her apartment. Embassies, diplomats and journalists are given notice to leave a war zone, while we still use words like dragoon, cohort and platoon. The story then becomes heavily military, both planet-bound and at space station level, so that fans of space war stories will get a lot more out of this book than I did. The difficulty of navigating near gas giants and their satellites is a good point well made, and there is no doubt that the author Don Ciers has put a great deal of thought into his world-building.
This book will not suit everyone, and it will be best for those who like to jump in to a vast concept world with plenty of wars, manoeuvrings, and quasi-religious justifications of racism by those who happen to have the bigger guns.
Having previously read the first book in the series, I had a good idea what to expect. I am not sure where to advise someone to start as this book seems equally as accessible and with its self-contained story. There is some strong language and adult behaviour from the start.
This is a grand space-opera spanning many worlds. There are various races under consideration but we see that no surprise, some of them want to dominate other races and use their resources, including the people themselves as slaves or, to be more polite, helots. The advanced spacefaring race Homostoioi try to annexe as many planets as possible, but are thrown back when the subject races turn out not to be suitable for off-planet work or have no immunities. They don't value these workers or consider their lives important. In order to simplify matters for themselves, a leader proposes offering a peaceful conquest to one planet in the Nursery Crescent while making a military example of another.
I liked specific well-imagined parts of the story: a girl who is supposed to marry at fifteen declares that she will remain celibate and devote her life to the deity Pygan. This is unheard of and girls are not supposed to have rights or wills of their own. So this Lady Roxanne is tried with the possibility of death for blasphemy. However the women across the planet take a stand and men start to feel a certain pinch. Accordingly Roxanne is pardoned as of unsound mind and shunted off to the care of monks, thus saving face all around.
I enjoyed the geography / astronomy descriptions too, like the following quote: "It was not generally known, until enlightenment that the drought cycles and the gradual, planet-wide, temperature fluctuations of plus or minus 20 degrees across cycles of 25 years were caused by the passing of nearby Narudis pushing Lucainus closer to Andolusia then Nevar pulling her back 25 years later."
The difficult part about reading this story is the same as in the first book; we have endless names thrown at us from page one, a barrage of rulers, admirals (some female), planets, systems, cities and ships, with little time to start to get to know them and figure out what is going on before we meet a whole new set. Politics, revolutions and military history are abundant, while typically self-interested leaders plan to make their own families exempt from slave levies.
A lot of the invention feels quite natural, such as grav-balance wear, amusingly worn by a man who also sports a neck-tie or by a woman who keeps sexier pairs in her apartment. Embassies, diplomats and journalists are given notice to leave a war zone, while we still use words like dragoon, cohort and platoon. The story then becomes heavily military, both planet-bound and at space station level, so that fans of space war stories will get a lot more out of this book than I did. The difficulty of navigating near gas giants and their satellites is a good point well made, and there is no doubt that the author Don Ciers has put a great deal of thought into his world-building.
This book will not suit everyone, and it will be best for those who like to jump in to a vast concept world with plenty of wars, manoeuvrings, and quasi-religious justifications of racism by those who happen to have the bigger guns.
August 16, 2014
Although I am not too well-read when it comes to the Science Fiction genre, I am a huge fan of Science Fiction, having grown up on a steady diet of 1950s and 1960s Sci-Fi movies and television programs. And what little Science Fiction literature I have read, I have always admired the authors who can bring their vision and worlds alive.
The other reviewers have done an excellent job pointing out various elements of the story as well as the story line. I would like to focus on how well the author, Don Ciers, does with simply telling this grand space opera (to quote one of the reviewers) because that''s exactly what this is: a grand space opera that is both riveting and brilliant. Ciers is an excellent story teller and he shines in this book. I admire his work and highly recommend this book.
Jeffrey Miller,
When A Hard Rain Falls
The other reviewers have done an excellent job pointing out various elements of the story as well as the story line. I would like to focus on how well the author, Don Ciers, does with simply telling this grand space opera (to quote one of the reviewers) because that''s exactly what this is: a grand space opera that is both riveting and brilliant. Ciers is an excellent story teller and he shines in this book. I admire his work and highly recommend this book.
Jeffrey Miller,
When A Hard Rain Falls
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews