Katie Kincaid Admiral

Katie Kincaid #7

by Andrew van Aardvark

Katie continues to defend humanity in the 23rd century.
She's made Admiral and thought she'd soon get to retire.
The Grrumm Empire had other ideas.
Katie faces her greatest challenge yet against the near invulnerable Imperial ships.
The fate of Earth is uncertain.
The only certain thing is that her defense is going to cost.
Cost heavily, in both treasure and blood.

Genres: Science Fiction

325 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 23, 2023

Reviews

[Per Gunnar]

I more or less binge read books one to six in this series some months ago. As I wrote in my review I found the books in the series ranging from not very good to mildly interesting.

This book is no different. It is just enough to keep my interest at a level were I probably will read the next one when it comes out.

What keept (keeps) me reading was that I liked the story. Young girl fights to get into the rather smallish space navy of Earth, slugs through the naval academy, rises in ranks and so on. All while fighting politics, prejudice, pirates etc. etc.

The books, including this one, is somewhat amateurishly written but still not too bad.

Unfortunately in this book Katie, although she has become an Admiral, is constantly doubting and second guessing herself. She used to have clear goals but now it is like she has lost her purpose and tries to regain it.

This makes this book feel a bit like a “in between” book or a interlude. That was a wee bit disappointing.

Still, there is a bit of advancement and a fair amount of fleet action. I do hope that she regains her confidence and purpose in the next book though.

P.S.
I wonder, assume actually, that the author’s name is a pseudonym. Who the hell names any one Ardvaark?

[Tony Hisgett]

There is a slow build up to this story and the author has a tendency to tell you something, then tell you again, which is maybe why I found the first half of the book a little boring. Also Kate wasn’t as interesting in this book, she usually ‘lifts’ the book, but she was subdued and unimaginative in her decisions.
The excitement should have increased as Kate meets the Grrunm fleet, but the author doesn’t seem to like interesting tactics during battles and in the initial contact ended up resorting to kamikaze tactics very early in the fight. Unfortunately the next battle was also even more disappointing;
Kate just flies straight at the enemy fleet and gets shot to pieces, doing hardly any damage in return, even the final battle is only won because the Grrunm’s technology fails.

It’s probably just me, but I prefer a good space battle to have clever manoeuvring, novel tactics and imaginative use of a variety of different weapons, unfortunately this had none of these.

[Bob]

For me, a brief respite of entertainment to finish the year while keeping two other books temporarily on pause. Katie does well as admiral. Saved the human race, defeated the Grrumm expeditionary force. Plenty of aliens with odd morphology and mostly logical thinking. Plus, there is the more civilized core (so called gated) communities. Those aliens are not yet fully described. I suspect we will see Katie as politician and diplomat (maybe in reverse order) in the coming episodes. Fun entertainment.

[Bernard]

A boring ending to a boring series. Up to this point it really hasn't been all that interesting. The tradition continues.

The Admiral... What can I say? She is perfect and can not make mistakes. An honest emotion would be a freaking miracle.

The side characters are cannon fodder that can appear whenever we need a little energy. What could possible go wrong with such a brilliant formula?

Don't, just don't.

[Richard John Wozencroft]

What Katie did next on steroids!

Tour de Force on a galactic stage beautifully characterised grittingly plotted and full of life's little foibles and not so little Blousieness of interstellar politics. Rattling good read.

[Bob C.]

Admiral Katie totally rules!

This book is an awesome example of an underdog military giving it all to defeat a superior and very experienced military opponent. The dangers of hubris are also clearly shown. Great space warfare book. Read it. You WILL be glad! :)

[B]

Fantastic !

Space battles, futuristic weaponry, strong characterizations this installment has them all. The demise of many favorite characters does not diminish the triumph in the end. This series deserves to be read from beginning to end.

[Bonny Fuller-Fells]

The Grum are coming

An elder race of aliens believe that Earth should be punished for conquering the lizards. Katie is sent out to stop them.

[Jim Purcell]

A good series but a sad ending. I was hoping that they would stumble upon peace without the final battle