From New York Times best-seller and science fiction and fantasy mistress of adventure Mercedes Lackey, Book #4 in the pulse-pounding SECRET WORLD saga of modern-day humans with superpowers.
Destroying the Thulian North American Headquarters has not made life easier for ECHO, or the world. The Thulians continue their attacks, first in unpredictable incursions, then with another all-out assault on ECHO, orchestrated against ECHO headquarters across the world.
Dominic Verdigris has not given up on his effort to obtain The Seraphym for himself, in order to use her to avert his own fate at the hands of the Thulians. Nor have the heroes of ECHO and the CCCP found life anything but harder.
Belladonna's duties have increased a thousand-fold, and now she has responsibility for the lives of every metahuman in ECHO on her conscience. Obviously using the intelligence gathered from the raid on the North American Thulian base to find the main Headquarters is of paramount importance--but once it is found, can she manage to convince the armies of the world to follow ECHO into an all-out attack?
Then Red Saviour risks everything on a risky gambit of her own: send her wolves of the CCCP to find the Thulian Headquarters, despite the dangers, and despite the consequences of blowing everything on this hazardous gambit that could very well end, not in victory, but with the world in flames.
At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).
About World Divided, Book 2 in the Secret World Chronicle: "[C]omes together seamlessly. . .an awesome and lightning-paced story: read it on a day when you will not have to put it down."–San Francisco Book Review
About Mercedes Lackey: "With [Mercedes Lackey], suspense never lags..." –Kliatt
The Secret World Chronicle Invasion World Divided Revolution Collision
Mercedes Lackey is the New York Times best-selling author of the Bardic Voices series and the Serrated Edge series (both Baen), the Heralds of Valdemar series, and many more. Among her popular Baen titles are The Fire Rose, The Lark and the Wren, and also The Shadow of the Lion and Burdens of the Dead with Eric Flint and Dave Freer. She lives in Oklahoma.
Cody Martin is originally from Scottsdale Arizona and currently resides in Florida. An avid gamer, he spends his extra time chained to a computer, writing.
Dennis Lee was born in Seoul, Korea and grew up in Canada. He has a degree in pharmacology and is a cell biologist when not writing.
Veronica Giguere started off as the voice artist for the Secret World Chronicle podcasts then quickly proved her writing chops and was taken on as a series coauthor. Veronica remains active as a voice talent. An educator with a background in mathematics and ocean engineering, she has lent her voice to various research and campus promotional endeavors. She makes her home in Florida.
Mercedes entered this world on June 24, 1950, in Chicago, had a normal childhood and graduated from Purdue University in 1972. During the late 70's she worked as an artist's model and then went into the computer programming field, ending up with American Airlines in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In addition to her fantasy writing, she has written lyrics for and recorded nearly fifty songs for Firebird Arts & Music, a small recording company specializing in science fiction folk music.
"I'm a storyteller; that's what I see as 'my job'. My stories come out of my characters; how those characters would react to the given situation. Maybe that's why I get letters from readers as young as thirteen and as old as sixty-odd. One of the reasons I write song lyrics is because I see songs as a kind of 'story pill' -- they reduce a story to the barest essentials or encapsulate a particular crucial moment in time. I frequently will write a lyric when I am attempting to get to the heart of a crucial scene; I find that when I have done so, the scene has become absolutely clear in my mind, and I can write exactly what I wanted to say. Another reason is because of the kind of novels I am writing: that is, fantasy, set in an other-world semi-medieval atmosphere. Music is very important to medieval peoples; bards are the chief newsbringers. When I write the 'folk music' of these peoples, I am enriching my whole world, whether I actually use the song in the text or not.
"I began writing out of boredom; I continue out of addiction. I can't 'not' write, and as a result I have no social life! I began writing fantasy because I love it, but I try to construct my fantasy worlds with all the care of a 'high-tech' science fiction writer. I apply the principle of TANSTAAFL ['There ain't no such thing as free lunch', credited to Robert Heinlein) to magic, for instance; in my worlds, magic is paid for, and the cost to the magician is frequently a high one. I try to keep my world as solid and real as possible; people deal with stubborn pumps, bugs in the porridge, and love-lives that refuse to become untangled, right along with invading armies and evil magicians. And I try to make all of my characters, even the 'evil magicians,' something more than flat stereotypes. Even evil magicians get up in the night and look for cookies, sometimes.
"I suppose that in everything I write I try to expound the creed I gave my character Diana Tregarde in Burning Water:
"There's no such thing as 'one, true way'; the only answers worth having are the ones you find for yourself; leave the world better than you found it. Love, freedom, and the chance to do some good -- they're the things worth living and dying for, and if you aren't willing to die for the things worth living for, you might as well turn in your membership in the human race."
Thanks to Netgalley and Baen Books for giving me this book to review.
After Sera gives up her angelhood in return for John Murdock’s life, she is heartbroken to discover that he has lost all memory of her, his powers, and the Thulian invasion of Earth. Bella is still trying to come to terms with being the official leader of Echo, and Victrix is dealing with Overwatch now being an official part of Echo. How will all of them cope with their altered roles in post Invasion Atlanta?
I really enjoyed Collision; but whilst it was quite slow paced at the beginning, it more than made up for that with the end battle. However, the battle scenes took up an immense amount of the book which left less time for us to follow the characters.
I liked Sera in this book, as she is more human, and you can feel her pain at losing all that she had known, including John. I really felt for Victrix throughout the whole series, as she has overcome extreme adversity, and still suffers emotionally whilst still coming through for Echo and the CCCP. I did feel that this book focused on John and Sera’s problems to the detriment of other story lines, and would have liked to see more of the underlying CCCP, and Verdigris arcs be shown.
I really liked Collision and would recommend this series to readers of other Mercedes Lackey and Cody Martin books.
Collision: Book Four of the Secret World Chronicle Author: Mercedes Lackey, Cody Martin, Dennis Lee, Veronica Giguere, Larry Dixon Publisher: Baen Books Publishing Date: 2014 Pgs: 570 Dewey: F LAC Disposition: Irving Public Library - South Campus - Irving, TX via InterLibrary Loan from Hurst Public Library, Hurst, TX ======================================= REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS Summary: Destroying the Thulian North American Headquarters has not made life easier for ECHO, or the world. The Thulians continue their attacks, first in unpredictable incursions, then with another all-out assault on ECHO, orchestrated against ECHO headquarters across the world.
Dominic Verdigris has not given up on his effort to obtain The Seraphym for himself, in order to use her to avert his own fate at the hands of the Thulians. Nor have the heroes of ECHO and the CCCP found life anything but harder.
Belladonna's duties have increased a thousand-fold, and now she has responsibility for the lives of every metahuman in ECHO on her conscience. Obviously using the intelligence gathered from the raid on the North American Thulian base to find the main Headquarters is of paramount importance--but once it is found, can she manage to convince the armies of the world to follow ECHO into an all-out attack?
Then Red Saviour risks everything on a risky gambit of her own: send her "wolves" of the CCCP to find the Thulian Headquarters, despite the dangers, and despite the consequences of blowing everything on this hazardous gambit that could very well end, not in victory, but with the world in flames.
_________________________________________ Genre: Science Fiction Superheroes Metahumans Powers Comics Aliens Nazis Space Opera Adventure Dystopia War Mech
Why this book: Superheroes vs Nazis and Aliens…c’mon, if you know me, you know me. _________________________________________ The Page 100 Test: √◄ - good to go. ∞◄ - read on.
The Feel: This is good homage stuff. The character archetypes would fit in any comic book universe, even their own. Reading this feels like a huge comic book mega event, but not having to buy 56 issues of multiple different comics to get the whole story.
Least Favorite Character: Sera. Through the whole first act, she’s a one-trick pony pining away for Murdock and the loss of her celestialness, though how much of that she’s actually lost is up for debate.
Favorite Scene: Bulwark doing a combination of Wolverine’s Fastball Special and Speedball/Unus the Untouchable turning himself and Bella into a racing kinetic-powered hamster ball which he doesn’t know how to stop as they fall back in headlong retreat from Death Sphere and Kreiger Troopers.
Favorite Concept: Thru John Murdock's resurrection and Sera the Seraphim's problems, we are reintroduced to the world half destroyed by neo-Nazis and Aliens with superheroes battling to save what is left of it. Mostly John’s as Sera disappears into brushed aside anguish over John not returning her feelings and not being the same man anymore, sob***.
Hmm Moments: "It does not matter that people know we are fighting for them, Ms. Parker. It only matters that we fight." I like the line.
Meh / PFFT Moments: Sera's PTSD/loss of self/unrequited love/searching for herself and decision paralysis is going to wear if we return to it in depth over and over again. Twice already feels like too much. Though her sob*** over John is old too.
The battle at the ruins of Carter High School is badly coordinated from an authorial point of view. Could've been a quarter the length and much more focused. And the stratagem of the Kreigers and the wolf is asinine. We all get Magneto's the pawns go first idea, but failure to employ your assets in the battlefield until your ground troops have been chewed up is stupid.
The Sigh: Uhm the "we need to do on-site intelligence gathering" and then the next chapter, their first mission, they find their target. Sigh.
After just saying that she wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth, Saviour gives Sera and John the untrusting look after they revive Bear. [pinches bridge of nose] Not sure if that's a too many cooks situation or what. Story bible should've caught it. An editor should have caught it. Hell, it was less than a couple of pages apart
Turd in the Punchbowl: The Djinni-Dopelganger thing, I can't remember if the readers were aware of that in previous books. It's an unnecessary layer. There's been plenty of double-dealing. Really doesn't need more. Or is the D-D thing an actual thing? Are they really just one or the other? Or are both of them runing around? Or are one of them pretending to be the other one while the other one is around too? . ...shapechangers, so difficult to follow.
The Swiss Army Knife/Deus ex Machina aspect of John and Sera is a bit much. In any situation, they've got just what they need and the instinctual knowledge of how to use it.
Juxtaposition: As much as I disliked the Carter High School fight, I did like the reverse Fastball Special.
The Unexpected: And we finally see what Verdigris is afraid of, brain in a box indeed…and who is likely to put him there. _________________________________________ Last Page Sound: So the Penny subplot is left dangling. The Russian scumbag is a Russian scumbag. We're not sure what happened with the D-D thing. Belladonna's Independence Day speech at the end is all bluster. They don't know where they are. They've had since the end of WW2 to figure out what humans are made of and how well they stick together. I know the characters acted like it was an awesome and awe-inspiring speech, but it wasn't. Better to have closed on the fall of Ultima Thule and opened next on the Metisian episode instead of having it be denouement and anti-climax.
Conclusions I’ve Drawn: 570 pages a pop. I'm not sure that I'm in for more. Over 2200 pages deep in the story and not sure if I want to invest more time and effort. I like the characters. And some of the scenes are great. ...we'll see. =======================================
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
While I enjoy reading the Secret World Chronicles, the series has it flaws. Most notably among them is that the reader never feels worried for any of the characters. Most of the main characters are over powered. Whenever John, Sera, or Vickie get in a pinch, I know instantly that they will get out of no worse for the wear. (And characters around them will as well.) Another issue with this book in particular is that not all the plot points were tied into the main story. Several chapters deal with a young girl in captivity somewhere and that is never resolved. She's still captured by the end of the book. The only possible information to be gleaned is that another second string character might be captured as well. But this never pans out. I hope the next installment does a better job of tying all the lose ends together. That book, Avalanche, had a release date for January 3rd 2017 but seems to have never made it to shelves. I hope it was not delayed indefinitely.
An interesting shared world premise right from the start, though I believe some of the original authors have fallen by the wayside at this point. There's some pretty neat stuff here and I really hope they don't drop this series.
I love seeing the connections to the old CoH stuff, sure, this is its own world, but there's a lot of callbacks, the Kriegers are obviously a cross between 5th Column and Rikti, mostly 5th Column, (the Wolfpack robots now become literal robot wolves, the Steel Valkyries are the obvious inspiration for the robot eagles).
This particular volume is heavily focused on John Murdock and Seraphym, which is fine since their story is quite compelling.
This fourth book in the Secret World Chronicles is even better than the previous ones. I'm assuming that there is a lot of Misty in the writing, as it was so very much more compelling, emotionally.
Misty has always had a way of delving deeply into her characters lives, and this was full throttle in Collision.
I admit that war books, full of descriptive gore, aren't usually my thing, but the combination of authors has created a fully realised world, full of nuances that, throughout the whole series, has kept me glued to the pages.
I loved this, and can't wait to see what the last book in the series brings to the storylines, that are woven throughout!
Seemed rather messy compared to how "tight" the first two novels were. The authors tried to make everything bigger and badder and more "boom" but it took away from the characters. There was some resolution to one of the main relationships but this was not as good as I normally expect from Mercedes Lackey.
I enjoyed the first couple of these books, but in books 3 & 4 there is, in my opinion, WAY too much battle description which gets very old very fast. There was more 'story' in the first two books and less step-by-step description of fight scenes.
I am reading these as I found them, totally out of order, but they are just fun, fast moving superhero snacks to enjoy. Just my speed this far into the pandemic. I can totally disappear into this alternate future, enjoy the characters and relax.
Enjoyed it very much and there was tremendous character development.
the action scenes were superb and emotionally the book very much draws you in.
I have been reading this series since it started and though I am not disappointed in this latest episode I am not as thrilled as I have been overall with the previous efforts.
Much of the plot can be seen coming before it happens which is disappointing from the perspective of earlier books. Also some of the character turns seem more for the sale of the overall plot than what we should expect from things that have happened so far.
if you are already reading the series, you will definitely enjoy it. if this is your first venture in to it, don't
This started out really well, but by the middle of it I kept thinking this is going to be a l-o-n-g book. I did finish it, but probably won't read the next one. Too many characters with the authors using both their real names and metahuman names made this a little confusing.
In this book some of my beloved characters went thru some dramatic changes. The authors are quite willing to let characters I like change, and make terrible choices. It's hard, but it is also the reality of being human.
Mercedes and team take us through another hair raising adventure as the fight against the Thulians continues. And as my review title indicates, there better be another book coming.
I really like the Secret World Chronicles! I started on the podcast series and the last one ended halfway through this book. I already bought the books to read them after :) This book was really nice continuation of the story!