Sol

Silver Ships #5

by S.H. Jucha

Sol’s warships paid the ultimate price for threatening the Haraken and New Terran worlds. Now, Haraken President Alex Racine and his Méridien partner, Renée de Guirnon, are engaged in a desperate gamble to stop a war between their worlds and United Earth’s (UE) massive forces before it starts.

What’s Alex’s grand plan? He hasn’t a clue, but his people believe in him and hope he will find a way to protect them. Alex does have powerful assets: the Haraken space fleet; the genius SADEs, mobile Haraken digital intelligences; and the defected UE scientists, who are providing a wealth of intelligence about their home world.

Arriving at Sol, Alex discovers the perfect opportunity to make his statement to the UE Supreme Tribunal in the form of the aging Idona Station, which has fallen into disrepair as UE militia and rebels battle for control. Alex explains his unorthodox plan when he says, “The UE tribunes will succumb when we overpower them with prosperity.”

The Harakens work to meld Idona’s militia, stationers, and rebels into the Haraken’s view of the world, one based on peace, purpose, and equality. The Tribunal is at odds over the Harakens’ interference in their system, forcing the rifts in the UE’s political structure to widen into chasms.

In the exciting conclusion to Haraken, the series’ previous book, Sol is the story of a clash of cultures and ideals as Earthers struggle to find a way toward a successful new future.

Genres: Science Fiction, Space Opera, Audiobook, Fiction, Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy, Space

331 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 14, 2016

About the author

From my early years to the present, books have been a refuge. They’ve fueled my imagination. I’ve traveled to faraway places and met aliens with Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, Herbert, and Le Guin. I’ve explored historical events with Michener and Clavell, and I played spy with Ludlum and Fleming.

There’s no doubt that the early sci-fi masters influenced the writing of my first two series, The Silver Ships and Pyreans. I crafted my stories to give readers intimate views of my characters, who wrestle with the challenges of living in space and inhabiting alien worlds.

Life is rarely easy for these characters, who encounter aliens and calamities, but they persist and flourish. I revel in examining humankind’s will to survive. Not everyone plays fair or exhibits concern for other beings, but that’s another aspect of humans and aliens that I investigate.

My stories offer hope for humans today about what they might accomplish tomorrow far from our home world. Throughout my books, humans exhibit a will to persevere, without detriment to the vast majority of others.

Readers have been generous with their comments, which they’ve left on Amazon and Goodreads for others to review. I truly enjoy what I do, and I’m pleased to read how my stories have positively affected many readers’ lives.

If you’ve read my books, please consider posting a review on Amazon and Goodreads for every book, even a short one. Reviews attract other readers and are a great help to indie authors, such as me.

The Silver Ships novels have reached Amazon’s coveted #1 and #2 Best-Selling Sci-Fi book, multiple times, in the science fiction categories of first contact, space opera, and alien invasion.

Reviews

[Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Harakens with President Alex Racine and Renee de Guirnon have arrived in the Sol system in the hopes of preventing a war. They take over the dilapidated Idona space station. They get the rebels and station Militia to work together. The corruption is stopped. Maintenance on the station begins with reasonable fees posted and fast, clean, safe service to ships. They also get the ore processing station open for business. The ships are returning to the station. First come the freighters and the ore haulers, then the passenger ships. Workers are paid and treated fairly and the Idona station becomes self-governing and most of all the economy is surging. The tribune that represents the Judiciary on the Tribunal Council orders an attack against the Harakens. The Harakens defeat the Judicial Naval force. The political battle for the UE widens. Can the Harakens help the citizens of Sol solve their problems and prevent a war with Haraken or a civil war?

The book is well written. The plot twists and turns with lots of action and suspense. There is lots of personal interaction amongst the people as well as with the political leaders. There is subtle humor throughout as well as an upbeat attitude and hope. The book is easy to read and is most enjoyable.

I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. The book is twelve hours long. Grover Gardner does an excellent job narrating the book. Gardner has a voice that is very easy to listen to. Gardner is a multi-award-winning audiobook narrator.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has got to be one of, if not the best, science fiction series ever written! That probably doesn’t sound like much coming from me, but let me tell you, I don’t think you have ever had the opportunity to read such compassionate, thoughtful, and down-right beautiful stories book after book. If you haven’t read the first book in this series, “The Silver Ships, #1”, you must go back and start at the beginning. It starts there and continues exactly as it should through this book #5.

I don’t know what makes these books so enjoyable. They are a mixture of military and science fiction unlike any other science fiction books I have read. The people created in these books are what humans should be, can be if we just tried.

In book 5, Alex and his closes band of Harakens, set out to visit Earth’s solar system. They are doing so because Earth has already visited them in their system and the visit did not go well, especially for the “Earthers”. The Earther’s came as conquers with their armed to the teeth scout ship and then their gigantic battleship. They demanded the Méridiens become subservient to the government of Earth and were there to enforce this new rule. It did not go well for the Earthers when they came up against the Harakens led by Alex Racine. Their gigantic battleship was destroyed and the scout ship sent home. Knowing there was a possibility that the Earthers would return in force, Alex decided to visit Sol to see if he could bring some reason to these strange humans.

This book is not about battles and skirmishes. It almost all about how to win friends and influence your enemies. Sol, led by Earth is not in very good shape. There are constant struggles between the government militia and the rebels. Earths government has become greedy and is using an unjust judicial system to almost enslave their own population in order to get anything done. What Alex Racine and his Harakens do is simple take over a decrepit space station and turn it into the most profitable venture in the system. He does this by getting all the people on the station to stop hating each other and working together, not because they have to, but because they want to. And it works beautifully!

Now the Earth government and the Tribunal have a problem. How they solve this problem could mean the end of the small, but deadly group of Harakens. You’ll have to read what happens next. It’s typical Haraken with Alex Racine as their undisputed leader!

Now the best part. There is another book coming called, “Espero”. I cannot wait, but, I guess I’ll have to!

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enjoyable, the whole series is.

[Jesse Fort · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

Alex Racine saves another world again. Politics and tactical space battles galore. While the battles are actually very short, the planning is. Very detailed. Some could say the the high judges resemble Trump and his cronies. I'm a republican btw. I am not one to spoil a story that you are sure to enjoy. New friendships are made, and enemies are revealed. This novel really stands out on its own. You can almost read it without having read the previous 4. But why do that, if you haven't read them, you should, because they are just as well written as this one. I found a few editing errors but they are so few and far in between that it may be that my understanding of proper grammar sucks. I read he last 50% of this book in one night, and I sit Here at 1:00AM local time writing this review. Yeah, it was that good that I had to finish it. Hook, line and sinker. More please! Thanks.

[Mary Foster · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful characters and interactions.

This is a great futuristic portrayal of doing what is right and just. That life is to be lived to the fullest, but never at the expense or detriment of others. That everything good comes only with effort, thoughtfulness, cooperation, dedication, and many times sacrifice. Hope for humanity?

[Releanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just love the Silver Ships tales!
They would also make a great TV series (may I hope?)

[Pip · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

[Lexxi Kitty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like leaving something in these boxes so I can remember what I thought about a story (well, more so I could remind myself what the story was about.

So, let me see - cast of billions. Author seems competent enough. Likes doing what some best-selling authors like to do, like Harry Turtledove, so I can't really fault him for doing it. Though it is also the reason I stopped reading Turtledove. I'm being vague. It's the part where you end up with a cast of thousands, and some pop up, get a brief character sheet made up for them, they do something for a few pages, and then never again are they seen. Drove me insane with Turledove, but meh. Wasn't as bad here, just, annoying.

So - in the last book the forces from Sol (i.e., Earth), invaded . . . um . . . the Haraken space area. They got into a fight. Haraken's handily defeated the Earth people. Then followed them back. This book involves President Racine, and his fleet, zooming into Sol system to make sure Sol realizes it would be stupid to attempt to attack his people again.

Ah, the early days of this series. I liked some of the characters. They kind of got fitted out with little checklists like scenes to check off. Like Renée de Guirnon used to be her own character. Now she's just around to smile, rub her husbands back and occaionally glare at people. And even less often, give speeches. She was something of an equal partner to Alex at some point. I have a feeling that she still is, but it is very hard to tell in this book. She acts kind of like a trophy wife in this book.

No matter. The action that occurred was entertaining enough to pass the time. I enjoyed being able to read the book. Just . . . at a roughly 3 star level.

July 10 2016

[Paul Doyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read all of these books since the initial publication, but this one left me a bit flat.

I continue to enjoy the characters, but as I read this book, it started seeming familiar. I think Mr. Jucha has a formula, and like many series, perhaps he has repeated the formula one too many times for my taste. Location has changed, but many plot elements are the same.

I hope the next one gets better again.

[Gyula · Rating 2 out of 5]

I know this is fiction, but how can a few people change the goverment of a solar system in a month?

[Tom Steele · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pollyanna foolishness - but kind of fun

So this was a relatively fun book, but some of it was so unrealistic that it required some Herculean efforts to suspend my disbelief in the story. The idea that Alex and his crew could undo CENTURIES of “way of life” and beliefs in months is just so unbelievable that I had to stop reading and come up with a plan to dismiss my incredulity.

The author abuses the idea that a working and profitable space station would instantly convert an entire society into accepting a completely new structure in which some people who are in power now would lost their power and people who had been in the lowest ranks would be suddenly successful in a matter of months, and less than a year or two ultimately is absurd beyond imagination.

The author seems determined to avoid as much conflict as possible, which is a shame because that is often the most exciting parts of the book.

There is also the absurd amount of sex in the books. It started off pretty good as the relationship of Alex and Renee proceeded at a modest pace and established a relationship that was solid and believable. It was endearing how she would often fall asleep in his bed just to be near him and there was nothing sexual about it.

As it progressed we began to be given far too much information about their private sex life and Renee eventually began to be somewhat of an exhibitionist. It’s just not necessary or desirable in a book series like this - at least not to me and not typical of the genre. I skip past it, and begin to have a lesser opinion of the characters. Why even do this? I’d rather focus on the heroic exploits and the good that these people do for humanity and the various sentient races and intelligences they represent, than know what kind of kinks they have in bed. Why?

Also, there are far too many rude comments that drag the momentum of the book down. Comments like, “I was getting to that” when talking to an Admiral in the Navy. Why not say it politely. If nothing else, it didn’t sound accurate as to how someone would really behave in the situation. This happened a lot at one point. I didn’t see how it helped things.

That also leads to conversations that wouldn’t have really happened the way they are written. People used to immense power and respect allowing relatively low “social totem pole” residents to speak disrespectfully to them without umbrage. Not realistic.

Right away we see the militia and the rebels begin to quickly get along after centuries of the militia holding a boot to the neck of the rebels and the rebels attacking militia when they could - it was so unrealistic that it undermines the story almost completely.

Captain Lumley is given unbelievable freedom and is unpunished by the same society that produced the sociopathic terrors that entered Meriden space with the intent to subsume and rule over the Meridiens, New Terrans and Harrakens without any conscience whatsoever.

That’s another thing, battles are frequently described poorly making the reader believe the battle is going one way only to find out that one of the ships in the battle is nearly invincible and although they have beaten dozens or more “destroyers” and other ships, that the capital ships could easily wreak havoc on their fighters, and inexplicably the capital ships then turn and retreat.

Also, the rules change frequently. In the first book the Dark Traveler / Silver Ships were able to fire NUMEROUS times on the Meridien ships, yet when Alex and his company were able to finally use the Silver Ships to their own advantage, suddenly they could barely fire more than once without finding a gravity source and recharging in a way that was NEVER shown when they were on defense. It was so inconsistent as to ruin most of the battle stories.

And I realize I am being inconsistent when I said the battle scenes were part of the better sections of the book. But even with those flaws, they often are.

The SADES are also inconsistent, sometimes being almost Godlike and when convenient to increase the tension, they encounter difficulties that make the heroes work harder to achieve their goals.

This is a fun space opera. No hard sci-fi and no incredible epiphanies, but a moderately fun ride with interesting plot and a fairly good batch of characters even though there are so many now that it can be hard to keep up with them all. But this and the previous book are skirting territory that makes me think that the author is struggling to keep up new material. I’m still here, but I’m finding myself increasingly able to put the book down and do other things far more than I was able to do in the first couple of books in the series.

I hope things improve but I’m afraid I may not make it to the end of the series if things continue to develop as they have.

[Tony Hinde · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I'm enjoying this series, I had a few concerns with this outing:-

1. We know, (from prior books), that the big, bad aliens are still out there and they know one of their ships has been destroyed, but no-one seems concerned. Personally, I'd be soiling myself and then doing all I could to shore-up the defences, set up pickets and investigate the enemy.

2. The majority of the leaders of Sol, a violent totalitarian regime, embrace the Harakens simply because they face economic collapse in two decades. That threat doesn't seem sufficiently imminent to motivate the power obsessed, and I felt the behaviour was wildly unrealistic. I can think of several ways the Sades could have subverted true autocrats, rather than rely on their change of heart.

3. Admiral Portland! In his first campaign against the Harakens he learned they had an area-denial weapon that could dissolve entire fleets. So, naturally in his second campaign he concentrates his fleet into a tight wedge. What? He is certain that the enemy is sending waves of asteroids toward his fleet, but doesn't know why. Oh well, I'll keep the fleet on the same heading rather than creating a cushion from the unknown danger. Oh, my entire fleet has been disabled or deserted, I'll go mad and attempt a suicide mission on a non-strategic objective. That's just lazy writing,

The strength of these books is in the characters and the action, which are getting better - not worse. But please S.H., make an effort to keep things believable.

[John Cheeseman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to read this immediately after Haraken as it left in the middle of a cliffhanger. Again the story was believable as all the other books have been, plus the warmth and humanity of the author and all the characters shines through. Their are some interesting philosophical ideas pondered as to the nature of humanity and sentience as well as society, rebellion and dictatorship but really there is just a lot of compassion.
The writing might be a bit basic and unflowery but it is really enjoyable to follow the adventures and I look forward to what is going to happen next and how they will evolve.

[Brook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alex travels to Earth's system, and, well you know what to expect.

Another entry into this series, and it's very much "by the numbers" silver ships book. Someone pisses Alex off, Alex goes to take care of them, he finds out that everyone involved (except a small number) wants a change and his help, he helps and the small number are taken care of.

It's an entertaining read, full of the characters we've come to expect and the romance that goes hand in hand with these books. Space fights, talking, planning, mild jokes, the lot.

If you're a fan of the series, you'll like it.

[Douglas E Wiegmann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good story

There are a number of changesof the the ability of Alex's group's ability to defend/attack. The economic/political situation on Earth seems in contrast to the events in the previous book. I found myself skipping large portions as fluff.
That being said I was glad I read the story, and will continue reading the series.
The series was the reason I signed up for Kindleunlimited. Without that I wouldn't be continuing.

[Giuseppe Turitto · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book to start to read and non stop until the last word

This is a book packed with a lot of action and full of moments that you just want to keep reading just for the out come. To prevent a war with his people Alex foments a Civil War with in the Sol system and at the end he left leaving things a little bit better than when he arrived. I expected some creation of new collaboration between the systems, but the doors where left open for the future.

[Craig Dean · Rating 5 out of 5]

As our Heroken's return to their ancestral home, the juxtaposition of a true fascist state places our protagonist in a much more favourable light. Meanwhile, the increased political complexity allows for a much larger canvas for the narrative to shine. Finally, in 'Sol', Jucha's series reaches an excellent blend - not really worthy of 5 stars when compared to some of the better examples of the genre, but certainly worthy of the encouragement.

[Bob Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another exciting book

Some very cool unique ways to defeat a larger force in this book. Each book in the series adds new wonderful characters to the series’ universe. Definitely loved this one. I continue to love the fact that in general the bad guys introduced in a book are dispatched in that book or soon thereafter. I find it more entertaining to meet new adversaries in each new book.

[Tony Hisgett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favourite book of the series so far, it’s just a feel-good Space Opera. I enjoyed the developing relationships, the planning and organising and there was enough action to keep me completely interested during the whole book.
My only slight concern was that the author was relegating Renee to being the trophy wife.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well Done

This book 5 does a good job of bringing together all of the so far unresolved story threads and finding resolution for the majority of them. Some new characters are introduced and familiar friends abound. There are a the expected tense moments and a few emotional tugs, as well.

[Warren W. · Rating 5 out of 5]

All I can say is, “Wow!”

I loved this book for several reasons. Yes, the characters are wonderful and well written. It has an exciting story. But the biggest reason is how well he describes how a socialist government would be and how its corrupt nature poisons everything it touches.

Got it, Bernie?

[Pablo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm conflicted in this one even more than the ones before. I feel humans change their minds at an unrealistic rate all across the galaxy in the Silver Ships universe, including switching allegiances at the drop of a hat.

Then again, it's lovely to see humans changing their minds and not being stubborn about something that's been proved to be wrong. The opposite of current society.

[Matthew Eichinger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Manufactured Plot Holes

I love this series and the characters.

However... I cannot stand plot holes just to increase the excitement of the narrative.

There are a lot of them but the worst is the final fight for the station.

I'm still going to read the series but the plots in all of the books is becoming very annoying.

[Todd Lindstrom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic Sci-Fi Series

This series is really good. I like the author's writing style and the complex character development going on. Fast-paced action. Looking forward to reading the next book in this series.

[odedo1 Audio book worm. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still one of the best series ever !!!
S. H. Jucha and his Silver Ships series is amazing writing and imagination.
Grover Gardner narrating is as perfect as he have done on the previous audiobooks in this beautiful series.

Full heartedly recommendation !!!!

[SamGH · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun read!

I can’t believe I’ve just finished the 5th book in this series!
I am so hooked! I love the characters and am amazed at how much depth there is to the universe he has created!
Can’t wait for more!

[Douglas Owen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Actually 2.5. Story is good, but the protagonist is too perfect and wins without even trying.

Repetition, POV issues, and grammatical problem tell me the work was not professionally edited. Probably a 20 books try.

[Mark D Bernarde · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great reads.

This is excellent sci fi. Character development is top notch. It captures the ingenuity of the human spirit given extraordinary circumstances.

[Mark Zodda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Better than the previous book in the series as there was far less of the tactics of space battles that made previous books difficult for me to read.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still pretty good!

Pacing is about the same though the climax was a little underwhelming this time. Keep improving and I'll keep reading!