The Cruel Stars

Ark Royal #11

by Christopher G. Nuttall

A stand-alone set during the Ark Royal Era. The Royal Navy never expected to fight a full-scale interstellar war. Everyone knew the Great Powers would never risk everything on armed conflict, when there was plenty of room for everyone in outer space. But when a hostile alien force stumbles across humanity’s handful of colony worlds, the Great Powers must set aside their differences and fight to preserve humanity from utter destruction. Desperate for starships and manpower, the Royal Navy embarks upon an ambitious plan of converting freighters into makeshift carriers and recruiting reservists and criminals to fill the ranks. Classed as expendable, the small carriers will be given the most dangerous missions to slow a remorseless alien foe ... ... And the pardons their crews have been offered will be meaningless if they die.

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

370 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 6, 2017

Reviews

[Per Gunnar · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am sorry to say that this is one of the few books from Christopher Nuttall that I was not overly thrilled about. As usual there is nothing wrong with the writing itself. It is as good as I have come to expect from Mr. Nuttall. I guess that I just expected a different story.

The story revolves around a female merchant captain who gets dragged into the war when the navy realizes that they do not have enough hardware to meat the new threat from the aliens. You know, the usual story of politicians skimping on defense and using the money to buy votes instead.

What I expected was a story telling the events of the alien attack on Earth and the desperate attempts to repel them while Ark Royal was away kicking alien arse elsewhere. Unfortunately this is not what this book is about.

The book is much more about the characters themselves and the action is mostly skirmishes and “guerilla warfare” against the alien supply lines. The better part of this book is about the lives of the two main characters and the war serves more as a backdrop for this story.

Now, as I wrote above, it is a good and well written story. If you like this kind of story you will find the book excellent. Personally I liked the original Ark Royal story better. It is more about the war, the aliens and action. This one was not so much my cup of tea.

But then, given how many great books I have read from Mr. Nuttall, it is perhaps not so surprising that there would be one or two not to my liking. I have 67 books from Mr. Nuttall on my bookshelves, I have rated almost all of them at four or five stars out of five and none of them less than three.

[Daniel Winegarden · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Royal Navy and allied Great Powers are desperate to buy humanity time to counter a technologically superior alien adversary. Earth's combined fleet of fleet carriers were brushed aside and destroyed by the aliens' energy weapons. Building a new battle fleet takes time. Time Earth may not be granted. To stall the alien advance through humanity's star systems requires the Navy to take the battle to enemy held systems. Merchant ships are taken up into service and converted into makeshift escort carriers. The starfighters are crewed by Navy pilots but the escort carriers remain crewed by their civilian crews. Like some merchant marine escort carrier from WWII's wet navy. Cruel Stars follows the crew of a particular escort carrier charged with a deep penetration raid to knock the aliens off balance. Easier said than done. Commerce raiding and destroying enemy infrastructure and logistics make sense. Both both require avoiding tangling with the enemy's bigger, more poweful capital ships. Starfighter pilots are brave, but an escort carrier can only field a fraction of the wings of a larger fleet carrier. And combat losses are high. Starfighters are plenty dangerous and deadly even when aliens aren't shooting plasma bolts at them. And trained pilots are in short supply. . . Something has to give. Cruel Stars continues the story of the First Interstellar War from the Ark Royal universe. Author Christopher Nuttall crafts another compelling Military SciFi story.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another retrospective tale to cover the worse defeat in human history. You already know the outcome but the pages are populated with believable characters and plot.

Earth is desperate, hastily converting civilian freighters into escort carriers and assigning military convicts.

The main character is one of my favorites ever. He killed his cheating wife and trusted friend. He has regrets but not big whiney ones. Given command under a civilian captain he is hard nosed navy to the core.

Redemption? Who cares he's here to fight.

[Richard Schleiffer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better than I expected

I recently finished “The Cruel Stars” and I was pleasantly surprised when I did. Being an out of series book, I have been disappointed by the type in other series. But I was not here. Chris did an excellent job of showing what others were doing during the war with the Tadpoles outside of the Ark Royal and her crew.

Plus I have to admit, the conclusions/discussion in the Author’s Note were spot on.

[Shane · Rating 3 out of 5]

The problem with generating a character driven story, is that your characters need to be interesting. These aren't. There is some excitement from short conflicts but this really is a lot of hurry up and wait while rehashing events that have already been covered in other books in the series.

This isn't bad, it just isn't very good either.

[A D Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my cup of tea.

Very hard read. I lost interest a number of times and considered erase it from my kindle. I do not recommend this book to any one. Great disappoint compared to the other books by this author. Hopefully. It will not be followed by more of the same as I enjoyed his other books.

[Horace Lovett · Rating 5 out of 5]

ANOTHER great adventure inn this series!

This series keeps you moving forward to the next chapter, to see how these characters work together to face a common threat to all mankind. I'm really looking for the next installment!

[T.S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun read

The Earth's Navies have proven no match for the encroaching Alien forces. After an early major defeat, humanity must dig deep to survive. Expendable crews on eggshell ships must hold the line.

[Anthony Romain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

Wasn't sure I'd enjoy this as much as I did. But it seemed to have a reasonable assumption behind it which makes it work. I actually finished wishing we might get to see more of the lead characters in a later series.

[Joer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rapidly becoming the master of the space opera

Wondering when Amazon or Netflix will take notice and give us an epic TV series based on Mr. Nuttall’s Ark Royal books. This is one of the few series that I follow religiously.

[michael field · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another theatre

I liked the idea of filling in some of the gaps in the war not mentioned in the main plotlines of the series. Knowing how the war ended, and how the aliens think, was interesting in knowing why some of what happened in the book happened.

[Gary Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent but

Get ready to do a little speed reading to keep you awake as the story sometime droans on while the characters thougts and options are presented. But it has a good ending.

[Carl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent as always

Another cracking good read from Chris Nuttall. Great to see another side of the war, and to get a different view on the politics of the Ark Royal universe.

[janice moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

My review

Excellent book and the plot was unique. Needed more info on the aliens though. When will the next book be available?

[Marcello · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked it because......

War observed in a different perspective... Focused mare on the characters than on the big picture. Sometimes it could be a good brake in a main story.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another go back an fill in a part of the war only seen briefly from the main series. Enjoyed it very much.

[Geoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable read

Very much enjoyed the characters and the story, lots of little human things made the tale take a more personal touch.

[Warren · Rating 5 out of 5]

An event

Compelling story and characters. Truly an asset to the storyline, though this a standalone (says the author).
Highly recommended for all.

[Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

Forced to type words

Stupid app stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid app book is ok kindle app awful.