A battered but undefeated AllianceA war they cannot win by forceA plan to turn the tide of history!For two years, the Castle Federation and the Alliance of Free Stars have stood against Marshal James Walkingstick of the Terran Commonwealth and his mission of conquest. Battles have been won and lost, worlds have died, and soldiers like Admiral Kyle Roberts have been forged on the anvil of war.But the Alliance cannot win. The Commonwealth has more worlds, more ships, more soldiers. They claim their victory is inevitable. That history is on their side.Refusing to accept the Commonwealth's future, the Alliance embarks on a do-or-die mission to end the war in one strike. If Kyle Roberts's plan works, the Commonwealth will break.But if it fails the Alliance will be broken.
Glynn Stewart is the author of over 60 books, including Starship’s Mage, a bestselling science fiction and fantasy series where faster-than-light travel is possible–but only because of magic.
Writing managed to liberate Glynn from a bleak future as an accountant. With his personality and hope for a high-tech future intact, he lives in Southern Ontario with his partner, their cats, and an unstoppable writing habit.
I'm thrilled - A series ending that I did not hate or find anti climactic. And it actually ended, instead of going on and on and on like so many others .
I also figured out the historical basis / inspiration for this series, the way Honor Harrington was Napoleonic War in Space.
A fitting end to the Castle Federation series. As well-written as all of Glynn Stewart's books with engaging characters who you want to see succeed - even when they're on opposite sides! We leave an interesting universe with all of the main plotlines resolved.
The downside of this book and series, as has been noted by other reviewers, is that if you have read any FTL military sci-fi before then much of the plot and setting, and more than a few of the characters, will be hauntingly familiar. There is not much that is truly unique. Despite that I still rate the book as four stars for the great storytelling and characters as well as avoiding most of the traps of the genre.
Hands down the best book in the series so far. Full of action and stakes so high they're unimaginable.
I was growing tired of this series, it began to feel stale and mildly repetitive. With a number of grammatical and continuity errors throw into the mix as well (nothing that really hampered the story or anything, just enough to be annoying) but while this book had a few of those things, the plot just stands above the rest.
I typically only ever rate books in .5 increments, but I rated this 4.2 because it stands above a number of different books I've rated as 4 stars this year, but is below the threshold I have set for 4.5 and 5 star ratings.
Edit: turns out the next 4 books "in" this series is a prequel novela and a trilogy where we follow the baddies from the original castle federation series, deal with the ramifications of what happened in this book. Unfortunately, I will not be reading those, so my time with the series ends here. What a way to end it, though.
This was the final book in the “Stellar Fox” series. The writing has remained good throughout the entire series with well developed characters that grow and develop during the entire series. This was a well plotted final book that provided a satisfactory end to the series. I find that I am sad that I will not be able to look forward to more about the characters I have spent 6 books growing very attached to. Very recommended, but start with the first book and read them all in order.
Pretty nice ending to this military sci-fi that even sets the stage for possible future novels in this universe. Love the characters and the action scenes and the way the story develops. It'll be interesting if we'll have some future books set a generation later.
Looking forward to more from Glynn Stewart.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
My problem with a lot of military science fiction is the illogic in the military, science and fiction parts.
The navy that only fields super ships that are relatively easy to destroy makes no sense to anyone, I hope. The job of screening ships, is to extend the life of the heavy hitters from cheap close in attacks delivered by enemy attack craft, stealth craft, and others. You can't hold a system with no ships, no fortresses and no planetary space defense installations.
The destroyers, frigates and corvettes are tasked with that close in defensive role but unopposed a group of them could be a lot more dangerous than a small group of attack craft. It makes a lot more sense to have a battleship that can swat the other guys super carriers while the battleship itself is screened by destroyers, frigates and corvettes. Your own single function carriers can be far behind the battleline (protected by more of those destroyers, frigates and corvettes) launching and retrieving attack craft to help defend the big hitters and hitting the super carriers of the other side.. That would be ever so much more fun.
If on the other hand, you are stuck with your energy mounts, missiles, etc. on the same ship that is trying to launch and arm and repair and retrieve attack craft, that doesn't seem like it would be nearly as much fun. The single function carrier would have the advantage of carrying a much larger and wider variety of attack craft. I didn't figure any of that out just now. That's pretty much current aircraft carrier doctrine and practise in all surface fleets in a nutshell.
If you copy current surface fleet ship types, then copy their use, nomenclature and armaments. It's not rocket science. It's kind of hard to scout enemy systems when all you've got to work with are aircraft carriers. It's kind of hard to hold systems when you field so few ships that they can't cover all the vulnerable systems with at least one ship (which is kind of dumb).
The above makes all the naval action in the series silly. It's a poorly understood representation of modern carrier warfare. When the action is silly, the characters are going to be stereotypes on the better pages. The cocky but undisciplined, fighter jock is the first. The tough CAG, who alone of all naval officers understands the fighter jocks. The admiral who doesn't command a force but fights his own ship with grit, determination and canny. Everyone else is the scenery. Ground forces are irrelevant and fortresses are unheard of.
I think that covered all the characters, their attitudes and warfighting understanding. Now you can jump to the last chapter and read about the brilliant victory by the good guys over the bad guys and mourn the four fighter pilots who died in the titanic battle.
Some people like that and this series delivers it. If the illogic and weak characters seem less than real it's because they are. In that case, try the Honor Harrington series.
I liked this book. I also liked this series and would recommend the whole six books. There were some things that had been overdone throughout the series and were a little worn out by book six but overall it was a good book to finish a good series. I liked the ending because it felt like, well, an ending worth reading with a bit of historical flair. It was not an overly surprising ending but it felt good nonetheless likely because all major series and book plots had been given a conclusion. I have to be honest, that fact alone was somewhat refreshing despite the fact that life is never truly that neat and tidy.
I have always appreciated that logistics were heavily taken into account throughout the series and this book is no different. Logistical planning was included in almost all aspects of the decision-making processes of the leaders at all levels and had a mostly realistic impact in the capabilities of both sides in the conflicts. This too was refreshing. While there might have been some "hand-waving" to make new missiles and starfighters appear, that hand-waving took the form of logistical capabilities. They were just convenient logistical capabilities. Either way, it was occasionally overwhelming to keep track of the number of missiles and torpedoes but those are real considerations and it was nice for them to be written as such.
Now, there were a few annoying things throughout the series that became glaring in this book. I'll only bother to cite one in particular. People, I truly don't think that every person refers to groups of people as "people" in their daily conversation. Do you understand what I'm saying, people? Sure, the gender neutral language was appropriate but it got annoying when it seemed to dominate the dialogue of every major character. Honestly, people? It didn't add anything to the conversations, people, and would have been better without.
I recommend this book and this series for: -military scifi fans with a taste for logistics. -fans of the classic conquering, intergalactic empire -readers who like deep characters (if a bit unoriginal ones) worth rooting for on both sides of the conflict -fans of lots of action scenes and space explosions...so. many. space explosions.
Avoid this book and this series if you: -don't like unoriginal plots (it really isn't original, heck, even the series ending is based on a real historical occurrence) -don't like the character who is so clever they never lose and even when they do it is still typically a win for the greater good (seriously, it's almost but not quite annoying) -get frustrated by unnecessary references to the attractiveness of characters' coworkers, subordinates, superiors, and just about everyone else they interact with
I think this is the end game of the series, and the war between the Alliance and the Core. One thing that this book has that the others don't is a well established military plan the characters are executing. This was lacking in all the other books, and it's refreshing to have it in this one. It allows us to follow what is going on, and to know that is for all the cookies, not just a holding action like everything else in the series.
One thing I wanted in other books finally happens here. Kyle does get a chance to just kick some ass. Of course nothing can just be good...to my displeasure. There is heavy cost, and it is annoying but it is what I've come to expect from this series. I'd still just like a good ol' fashion ass kicking, but I'll have to turn to a different series for that.
Finally in this book when there is character loss it feels like it is for a reason and serves a purpose. This hasn't been handled very well in other books, but it is here...at least for me. People die in these books, that is something anyone who has gotten this far knows. I haven't seen any reason for the losses, but it happens nevertheless. This is the first time it seems to happen for a reason, and it is something I'm okay with.
This book has a better military structural plan and that makes it much more enjoyable for me. It isn't just go to a place and do something and we'll hope for the best. With a concerted offensive plan this book has more to offer me. I enjoyed this more than all the others. The only bit I'm confused about is the very ending. I thought this was the last in the series, but I guess there has to be more. Either way I'm off to read the The Duchy Of Terra series before anything else.
A fitting conclusion to the series. Overall I really liked this series and was a little sad that it came to an end. It was definitely an entertaining ride though.
I liked that it didn't glorify war. People died. People's lives were uprooted. It wasn't fun. But what had to be done was done.
I also liked that while there were liberties taken with the laws of physics, they were consistent throughout and still contained reasonable constraints.
My main nitpick had to do with the repeated explanations of how things worked in the universe. Part of that is forgivable to the degree that people might pick up book #3 instead of book #1 to start... but who are those people? Or maybe the books came out with enough time between them that you'd forget. But I'm pretty sure the same concept was sometimes explained more than once in the same book. Those words could have been better spent on something else.
In contrast, a technical detail about not being able to turn or (maybe) even stop to change direction while travelling faster than light wasn't really explained until the end of the series. I think that would have been better handled earlier in the series, possibly even shown why it wouldn't work.
But those are nitpicks. We don't go watch action movies because we expect the car chases to be realistic, and similarly here, those details don't get in the way of the action.
A good ending to what I hope is only the first saga, since there is a good setup for future novels. I still think this is one of the author's weaker series and none compare to Starship Mage, but it grew on me in the last few books, despite still being unimpressed with the world building. Also, I think the author painted himself into a corner with his Alcubierre-Stetson drive. Good military fiction is also about large scale maneuvers. The in-system battles were exciting, but the inability to impose a geography on the wider universe because star travel is impossible to intercept or disrupt leads to wasted opportunities for good military fiction. This is used to great advantage by the protagonists in this book and a previous one but it begs the question - why stress over naval bases and marginal systems when you can assemble your largest punch and dive uninterrupted straight towards the capital of your enemy?
The Vorkosigan saga with its fixed wormholes as single means for routine interstellar travel and the Honorverse, with its large FTL travel times and key wormhole bottlenecks create a believable fiction of troop movements and geopolitics. This series missed the opportunity to do that. Still, would read any other follow-up books.
What??!!I cannot believe it need that way! Idk how in the world that could happen rather than what was suppose to happen!!?? I guess this allows the story to continue but seems like a bit of a stretch. This book was written pretty well and the edits have certainly improved with each book. I love these characters. I wish we could have gotten to know them better but when there's so much action going on its hard to get character building in there. But I think it's really important. I'm really glad a few of the characters took their relationships to a deeper level in this book too. About time! Lol like i said there's lots of battle action, lots of people dying :-( but the Alliance finally gets some paybback, but mostly their fighting for a chance to end this war, completely. LOVE this series!
Operation Medusa is yet another entry in the Castle Federation series, and it's a really good one. In this one, we see just how cunning the alliance can be, just how clueless the earth faction is when it comes to understanding the systems they've conquered, and overall, just how much depends on communications. It's truly a major turning point in this universe. I'm looking forward to reading the next book in this series. This one was very well done.
I’ve had a few ‘ups and downs’ with this series but I am sad that it has ended, overall it has been an enjoyable read over the last couple of years. I thought that this book was a bit too focused on battles, but I supposed this is to be expected as the war between the Commonwealth and the Alliance is finally resolved. What I was pleased about is the author didn’t try to make some literary statement and kill off all the heroes I have been following through the series, especially as some of the earlier books have been carnage.
A great ending to the amazing series (Castle Federation) there is everything you can possibly imagine and more. This was a really great book sort of predictable but in a good way. I am happy that Glynn Stewart didn't decide to drag the series out, because as good as it was there wasn't much more to do with it. Thank you Glynn Stewart for yet another great series!!! You are without a doubt one of my top 5 favorite authors in Fantasy/Sci-Fi. If you haven't yet check out Glynn Stewarts (Starship's Mage) and (ONSET) series they are both great and I highly recommend them.
No one is surprised that the Stellar Fox is the chief architect of the plan to end the war. Not even the enemy. Valor, honor, and competence on both sides are the hallmark of this series. The characters are well written and realistic. The Fox chief among them. Walkingstick the enemy commander is a great foil to the Fox. A lot of people lose their lives but infinitely more are saved.
This series has managed to bring new elements into each book in the series: story lines that feel new, not just reworked copies of the original book in the series; new characters; and of course, new challenges for the team. While the stories all have space warfare at their core, enough is new in each book, and key players do die in battle, that the reader remains engaged.
I have read everything that Glynn has written, and if he ties up, yet leaves the door open to a sequel, his other series this way, I will be quite pleased. This series was great, and this was a monumental capstone to it.
As much as I hate to see Castle go, this was a great send off.
There's nothing like finishing a series with a bang. This was an incredibly satisfying wrap-up to the Castle Federation series - with room left open for a spin-off series. Like the previous books, this was action-packed and suspenseful (I love how Stewart handles his space battles), with some nice emotional touches.
Glynn Stewart continues to impress through this series. People die, lots of people die, but Stewart manages to convey for the most part the reasons for their deaths. While his ears are the grist of all space opera you get clear view of its consequences, both intended and unintended
The book is a pretty good conclusion to the Castle Federation series. The story like the rest of the books in the series was fun and enjoyable. There are several errors that should have been fixed in editing but were not, such as using the wrong pronouns for some male or female characters as well as some grammatical errors. But they are pretty minor overall.
I immensely enjoyed this series and this book. If you like space battles intrigue action adventure and character development read this book. I enjoyed this authors materials very much and have bread additional books by him. Can’t wait for his next offering.
An excellent action warfare filled space opera. A bloody book with thousands of people killed during the course of the war. As usual The Stellar Fox was the principal character and carried the book. Certainly not possible as a stand alone. The series almost must be read in order to get the full experience
I found this series to be nonstop action and a great story! It took me 9 days to read all the books in the series. Well written great characters with interesting personalities and relatable true to life problems and emotions. You like action,great story, interesting characters,then this is the series for you!
What a grand 6 book space opera. One of Glynn’s best. Is has it all, massive space warfare, politics, intrigue, and the human side as well. From the beginning of the Alliance’s war with the more powerful Terran commonwealth thru the to the end. What a great story.
I hope Glynn continues this series I would Like to see The Stellar Fox Married with a couple of kids trying to Juggle them and his duties to the Federation. This is a great finish to this series!!! (if Glynn decides not to continue it)
Realky enjoyed the book in fact really enjoyed the whole series. Infact I enjoyed it so much I think that I will read them all again from the beginning. I hope that thevseries will be continued in some form as there a lot of opportunities left waiting to be expanded on.
Solid action has characterised this series. Conflict in space and in the halls of power brings two skilled admirals to conclude an interstellar conflict of massive scale. But is it truly the end....
This was a 3.5 upgraded to a 4. It wasn't bad, it wasn't amazing. The main character was still kind of fun, but virtually every other character feels 2-dimensional. I wonder if this is it for the this world/universe or if there will be more.
Well the Stellar Fox came up with a plan to end the war. But can he pull it off? The author Mr Stewart has give us the readers a excellent series, and I think that we have all enjoyed reading it. I think that we have not seen the last of Walkingstick yet.