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Displaying 1 - 11 of 63 reviews
February 2, 2016
This is more of what we've come to enjoy about the series. So I'm going to mostly leave it at that. The lower-than-usual rating is that I'm a little tired of the enemy that has taken over this series. Kris has been stuck in Alwa territory for a few books, now, and it's becoming more than a little tedious. I miss the human intrigue and all the setup in human space.
And I'm more than a little tired of the enemy, while we're at it. Shepherd has crafted an implacable foe with little reason and no emotional payload. They're relentless, unthinking, and completely evil and while that ramps up the urgency, it also kills every other possible plot avenue besides battle. There's some sign of mitigating that as Kris explores the history of the race but so far it just means they're every bit as bad as we thought they'd be.
So yeah, I may be winding down on the series. Still, I've already checked out the most recent one so I'll probably at least read one more...
And I'm more than a little tired of the enemy, while we're at it. Shepherd has crafted an implacable foe with little reason and no emotional payload. They're relentless, unthinking, and completely evil and while that ramps up the urgency, it also kills every other possible plot avenue besides battle. There's some sign of mitigating that as Kris explores the history of the race but so far it just means they're every bit as bad as we thought they'd be.
So yeah, I may be winding down on the series. Still, I've already checked out the most recent one so I'll probably at least read one more...
November 25, 2014
The books in this series just get better and better.
June 6, 2015
It seems Kris goes from one mess into another one in each edition of the series. Penny has returned after finding the home world of the raiders. Kris and squadron are off to uncover their secrets. Sampson and a group of mutineers steal a ship and set off on their own with Kris in pursuit. Kris is lead into a new mess, a system with a planet with cat people with nuclear weapons and several opposing clans are being attacked by what Kress calls “the bug eyed aliens” with the goal of wiping another sentient civilization out of existence. Kris and Squadron are ready to prevent total annihilation.
The book has lots of action including ship maneuvering and fleet combat. Kris’s role has changed with her promotion to Vice Admiral; she now controls the entire squadron rather than just one ship. As the book ends King Raymond sends more ships to help and a promotion for Kris to full Admiral. Nellie is still my favorite and she is as sassy and smart as ever in this story. I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. Dina Pearlman narrates the series.
The book has lots of action including ship maneuvering and fleet combat. Kris’s role has changed with her promotion to Vice Admiral; she now controls the entire squadron rather than just one ship. As the book ends King Raymond sends more ships to help and a promotion for Kris to full Admiral. Nellie is still my favorite and she is as sassy and smart as ever in this story. I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. Dina Pearlman narrates the series.
November 10, 2014
3.5 not currently rounded up
Hmmm. There's always problems with military characters - as they are promoted up the ranks their roles change and inevitably the action becomes less front and centre. That's only to be expected and is I think better handled by David Weber with Honor Harrington than is done here. Point one - Kris is now vicereine of the planet Alwa, the only rear admiral (and thus leader) of the combined military defence sector in that space, chief shareholder of the monopolous human enterprise currently operating in the locale. . . yet deems it suitable for herself to take an exploratory mission to reconnaissance a potentially hostile planetary base. .
So ignoring the antics enabling Kris to keep in the middle of things there was the exploratory mission itself. I'm not sure what we were getting at with Jacques anthropological shenanigans. In fact there was an oddly smirky sexual overtone throughout the book. I'm not sure if it arose because Kris and Jack are now married but it was odd - especially in it's vagueness. There was no outright mention of sex per se just a lot of innuendo and hint. It was out of character for the series. But back to Jacques. We've had the aliens' insularity and xenophobia hammered into us, including zero contact even between tribes. Yet on his first foray down a female attempts to initiate sex with him. Was there any point to this particular incident? I haven't the foggiest since it lead nowhere that I could tell. He and his wife had no argument so it wasn't to bring about a conflict there. I'm just bewildered.
Then there's the humanisation of the aliens, particularly the religious spiritual aspect. *rolls eyes* Of course! The aliens need to find God! Then they will be compassionate and stop destroying everything! Forgetting that part of it, the part of the aliens I found most disturbing and alien was the utter lack of comparative understanding and communication between humanity and them. With that gone they're just extremist zealot humans. Boring.
There were also a lot of "It would be", "Later she'd" and "She'd have more" type sentences all placed strategically at the end of chapters in a suggestive and knowing manner. It's good here and there but it was overdone and I felt oddly patronised and condescended to. Instead of thrilling me on after a bit I was left going "yeah, yeah" as I turned the page. And when the whole book ended like that I couldn't even be bothered getting interested or annoyed or anything. Which is a crying shame because when you check my reread reviews from earlier this year I gave the series near enough consistent 4-5 stars.
I feel quite disappointed by this book.
Hmmm. There's always problems with military characters - as they are promoted up the ranks their roles change and inevitably the action becomes less front and centre. That's only to be expected and is I think better handled by David Weber with Honor Harrington than is done here. Point one - Kris is now vicereine of the planet Alwa, the only rear admiral (and thus leader) of the combined military defence sector in that space, chief shareholder of the monopolous human enterprise currently operating in the locale. . . yet deems it suitable for herself to take an exploratory mission to reconnaissance a potentially hostile planetary base. .
So ignoring the antics enabling Kris to keep in the middle of things there was the exploratory mission itself. I'm not sure what we were getting at with Jacques anthropological shenanigans. In fact there was an oddly smirky sexual overtone throughout the book. I'm not sure if it arose because Kris and Jack are now married but it was odd - especially in it's vagueness. There was no outright mention of sex per se just a lot of innuendo and hint. It was out of character for the series. But back to Jacques. We've had the aliens' insularity and xenophobia hammered into us, including zero contact even between tribes. Yet on his first foray down a female attempts to initiate sex with him. Was there any point to this particular incident? I haven't the foggiest since it lead nowhere that I could tell. He and his wife had no argument so it wasn't to bring about a conflict there. I'm just bewildered.
Then there's the humanisation of the aliens, particularly the religious spiritual aspect. *rolls eyes* Of course! The aliens need to find God! Then they will be compassionate and stop destroying everything! Forgetting that part of it, the part of the aliens I found most disturbing and alien was the utter lack of comparative understanding and communication between humanity and them. With that gone they're just extremist zealot humans. Boring.
There were also a lot of "It would be", "Later she'd" and "She'd have more" type sentences all placed strategically at the end of chapters in a suggestive and knowing manner. It's good here and there but it was overdone and I felt oddly patronised and condescended to. Instead of thrilling me on after a bit I was left going "yeah, yeah" as I turned the page. And when the whole book ended like that I couldn't even be bothered getting interested or annoyed or anything. Which is a crying shame because when you check my reread reviews from earlier this year I gave the series near enough consistent 4-5 stars.
I feel quite disappointed by this book.
July 31, 2017
Book#12 in a series I read for the Endeavour Award. Basically military sf starring a young smart attractive Mary Sue. And yet the ideas around the big bad aliens are kind of interesting and different. And some of the technology choices are a bit different. Not a huge fan of the plot or the characters. The ideas themselves are a bit better whether it is the AIs or Smart Metal (and what you can do with it) or the all-body-combat-sock.
April 6, 2023
Having beaten back the alien attack on Alwah, Kris takes a small fleet to search for the home planet of the alien raiders. There they discover a large pyramid which holds trophies - 412 different planets the raiders have conquered and sterilized. They also find and capture some remnants of the aliens. Kris has always wanted to be able to talk with them, but they have chosen suicide over talk every time Kris has encountered them.
She brings her captured survivors back to Alwah only to arrive just as a ship is fleeing to get back to human space under the command of one of her bitter rivals. While chasing the ship, they discover a new race of beings and an outpost of the aliens.
Kris's small contingent of ships manages to defeat the aliens at the outpost but with heavy losses. Again they capture a small number of the aliens before they can commit suicide. Kris learns just how relentless the enemy is.
She decides to send a couple of ships back home carrying all they have learned about the aliens and a new discovery from Alwah which has great scientific potential, while she waits for the potential alien invasion.
This was entertaining space opera.
She brings her captured survivors back to Alwah only to arrive just as a ship is fleeing to get back to human space under the command of one of her bitter rivals. While chasing the ship, they discover a new race of beings and an outpost of the aliens.
Kris's small contingent of ships manages to defeat the aliens at the outpost but with heavy losses. Again they capture a small number of the aliens before they can commit suicide. Kris learns just how relentless the enemy is.
She decides to send a couple of ships back home carrying all they have learned about the aliens and a new discovery from Alwah which has great scientific potential, while she waits for the potential alien invasion.
This was entertaining space opera.
November 6, 2017
These last two Kris Longknife books have been good, but the Alwa setting is getting old. One of the things I liked about this series was the constant movement of the MC and entourage finding new problems. The author does a good job not mimicking Star Trek in its many forms, while still moving the MC around the galaxy. I hope that we see more of Granny Rita in the next books. I am wondering if Rita will ever return home and straighten her husband King Ray out.
November 21, 2017
I actually hate this series now and I've come to personally hate the author. It's been a long time since I read the early books but god almighty these books have deteriorated to the point of being absolute garbage.
April 20, 2019
The horror of war, learning more about your enemy while gaining new allies.
May 3, 2016
This is the 12th book in the Kris Longknife series by Mike Shepherd. In this one Kris is on her honeymoon but it is cut short when word comes that the hostile aliens home world may have been found. Kris and her crew set out to explore this planet and try to find as much information on the hostile aliens as possible. On the way they find a completely destroyed planet with clues leading to the hostile aliens home world. Upon arrival at the hostile aliens home world they find a house of horrors in the shape of a huge pyramid. They also find several tribes of primitive aliens who have been abandoned there by the hostile aliens. They try to make contact with these tribes and after a disastrous first try they recruit a small group to come to their ship and return to Alwa with them. Upon return to Alwa they find that a group of mutineers are escaping in a stolen space ship. Kris and her crew give chase and finally capture them in a star system where they also find a planet with a race of intelligent feline's. They also find that the hostile aliens are verged to attack and destroy the feline's planet. Kris uses her ships to destroy the hostile aliens, but at great cost to her crews and ships. After making contact with the feline's, two of them return to Alwa with her. This book is action packed and a great read. I recommend to all fans of Military Science Fiction/Space Opera and fans of Mike Shepherd/Mike Moscoe.
February 27, 2023
4 stars.
Feb 2023 - re-listened. Dina Pearlman has been really good as the narrator of this series.
__________
May 2021
Kris takes a trip after Penny believes she has discovered the suicidal aliens' mother planet in the previous book Defender. We have some anthropological investigation conducted by one of the secondary characters that I found quite weird . They discovered something on that planet that's quite horrific but was again just in time to save another planet with sentient "cat" people from being annihilated.
There's another space battle and Kris learned that those crazy aliens are getting more clever and learning from their previous mistakes but they also managed to capture a few live ones this time around.
There are a few dangling threads at the end of the book with some new plant discovery, the arrival of more ships from Earth, the alliance with the new sentients and the threat of more crazy alien ships coming their way. So I guess we're going to see more space battles with those monster aliens coming up in the next book.
Feb 2023 - re-listened. Dina Pearlman has been really good as the narrator of this series.
__________
May 2021
Kris takes a trip after Penny believes she has discovered the suicidal aliens' mother planet in the previous book Defender. We have some anthropological investigation conducted by one of the secondary characters that I found quite weird . They discovered something on that planet that's quite horrific but was again just in time to save another planet with sentient "cat" people from being annihilated.
There's another space battle and Kris learned that those crazy aliens are getting more clever and learning from their previous mistakes but they also managed to capture a few live ones this time around.
There are a few dangling threads at the end of the book with some new plant discovery, the arrival of more ships from Earth, the alliance with the new sentients and the threat of more crazy alien ships coming their way. So I guess we're going to see more space battles with those monster aliens coming up in the next book.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 63 reviews