Oblivion

Starfire #8

by Steve White, Charles E. Gannon

WHITE AND GANNON RETURN WITH A NEW ENTRY IN THE STARFIRE SERIES, co-created by New York Times best-selling authors Steve White and David Weber. STAND AGAINST THE ALIEN INVADER APOCALYPSE! The war with the profoundly alien Arduans has ended, and the Arduans have come to call humanity their allies. Most of them—the Arduan warrior caste refuses to accept defeat. Now known as the Kaituni, they are waging a war of extermination against all members of the pan-Sentient Union, human and Arduan alike. What’s more, the Kaituni have an unexpected weapon in their the alien Arachnids, once thought driven to extinction. The Kaituni drive the Arachnid fleet ahead of them, inflicting untold damage. The war has been marked by retreat on the side of the pan-Sentient Union. It seems the best they can do is minimize their losses. But now the Arachnids and the Kaituni are at the doorstep to the Heart Worlds, Sol, and Alpha Centauri. The odds look bleak. But Admiral Ian Trevayne and Commodore Ossian Wethermere have faced down long odds in the past. It’s time to take a stand, for Earth, for humanity . . . and for the pan-Sentient Union! At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). About “Vivid. . .Battle sequences mingle with thought-provoking exegesis . . .”–Publishers Weekly About Steve White and David Weber’s The Shiva “[Leaves] the reader both exhilarated and enriched.” –Publishers Weekly About Steve “White offers fast action and historically informed world-building.”–Publishers Weekly About Charles E. "The plot is intriguing and then some. Well-developed and self-consistent; intelligent readers are going to like it."—Jerry Pournelle "[A] strong [writer of] . . . military SF . . . [much] action going on in his work, with a lot of physics behind it. There is a real sense of the urgency of war and the sacrifices it demands." —Locus Vietnam veteran Steve White is the author of numerous science fiction and fantasy novels including Wolf Among the Stars, St. Anthony’s Fire, and Blood of Heroes and the coauthor of Exodus, the immediate prequel to Extremis. With David Weber, White collaborated on Starfire series novels Insurrection, Crusade, In Death Ground, and New York Times bestseller The Shiva Option. Charles E. Gannon is the author of Compton Crook Award winning, Nebula nominated Fire with Fire, Trial by Fire, and Raising Caine, in the Caine Riordan series. He is the coauthor with Eric Flint of 1636: The Papal Stakes and 1636: Commander Cantrell in the West Indiesin Eric Flint's best-selling Ring of Fire series. With best-selling Steve White, Gannon is the coauthor of Starfire series entries Extremis,and Imperative. Gannon is also the author of multiple short stories. He is a member of SIGMA, the "SF think-tank" which has advised various intelligence and defense agencies since the start of the millennium. Chuck lives near Annapolis, Maryland with his wife and children.

Genres: Science Fiction, Space Opera, Fiction

336 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2018

About the author

Born in 1948.
Steve White is an American science fiction author best known as the co-author of the Starfire-series alongside David Weber.

He is married with 3 daughters and currently lives in Charlottesville, Virginia. He also works for a legal publishing company. He previously served as a United States Navy officer and served during the Vietnam War and in the Mediterranean region.

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Wh...

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the eighth book in the Starfire series. This one is by Steve White and Charles E. Gannon. This is Military Science Fiction at it's finest. There is plenty of action and the battles are on a suitably massive scale, if anything even larger, than in the previous books. The Kaituni are the major enemies in this one but the "Bugs" once again play a part in the fighting also. The destruction of Earth itself is at stake in the final battle of the war between the Kaituni and Mankind and his allies. Great planning and a slight advantage in tech will be all that will enable Earth's survival. The series appears to be at a crossroads at the end of Oblivion. The Ian Trevayne storyline could be satisfactorily closed or it could be continued in yet another book. There are still elements of the Kaituni as well as the Bugs to be stopped in many star systems. It remains to be seen which characters will return and which will not but whoever it is I for one am looking forward to the next book in the series.

[Joshua · Rating 1 out of 5]

We'll start with the grammatical errors, of which there are MANY. And I'm not talking about things that a spell-check wouldn't find, I'm talking about missing words (verbs and nouns), that make sentences lack any sense.

Then, the laziness of the writing. Hmmm, how should we do a recap of events in previous books? I know! Let's have one of the characters give a fleet wide speech to his entire fleet, where he explains the plot of the last THREE BOOKS! It was so ham-fisted I was actually said 'Really?' verbally when getting to this part. Idioicy like this continues.

Then let's talk about convenient details that the author leaves out. The Arduans figured out 2 books ago it was significantly more efficient to pilot fighters by remote-selnarm (it allowed them to maintain experience as opposed to dying, and allowed the fighters to have better performance without having to support a living being). But that detail seems to have been forgotten in the battle for Alpha Centuari.

The Bugs, relegated to a single starting colony a Century or two ago in book terms, now have managed to put together a massive fleet, and invade Human space. How? Who knows!?!?

The Star Union has been destroyed, because they had demilitarized. The Star Union, which spent centuries creating a reserve in previous books because they MIGHT have to fight against the Bugs again, decided they didn't need a Navy... yeah... right...

We have a very intelligent Weathermeare, who cannot understand the idea that others can be speciate/bigoted. REALLY?

I suspected, given the last book, that this book would be terrible going into it. I loved the first 3, particularly In Death Ground and Shiva Option, enough to continue. I love the world those books created. This will be the last of this series I read. Utter Garbage, I can't even think of a reedeming feature.

[Joshua · Rating 1 out of 5]

We'll start with the grammatical errors, of which there are MANY. And I'm not talking about things that a spell-check wouldn't find, I'm talking about missing words, verbs, and nouns, that make sentences lack any sense.

Then, the laziness of the writing. Hmmm, how should we do a recap of events in previous books? I know! Let's have one of the characters give a fleet wide speech to his entire fleet, where he explains the plot of the last THREE BOOKS! It was so ham-fisted I was actually said 'Really?' verbally when getting to this part. Idioicy like this continues.

Then let's talk about convenient details that the author leaves out. The Arduans figured out 2 books ago it was significantly more efficient to pilot fighters by remote-selnarm (it allowed them to maintain experience as opposed to dying, and allowed the fighters to have better performance without having to support a living being). But that detail seems to have been forgotten in the battle for Alpha Centuari.

The Bugs, relegated to a single starting colony a Century or two ago in book terms, now have managed to put together a massive fleet, and invade Human space. How? Who knows!?!?

The Star Union has been destroyed, because they had demilitarized. The Star Union, which spent centuries creating a reserve in previous books because they MIGHT have to fight against the Bugs again, decided they didn't need a Navy... yeah... right...

We have a very intelligent Weathermeare, who cannot understand the idea that others can be speciate/bigoted. REALLY?

I suspected, given the last book, that this book would be terrible going into it. I loved the first 3, particularly In Death Ground and Shiva Option, enough to continue. I love the world those books created. This will be the last of this series I read. Utter Garbage, I can't even think of a reedeming feature.

[Haakmed · Rating 2 out of 5]

So I have been trying to put my finger on what the second half of this series did wrong compared to the first half. What I have decided is that these last 4 books of the series just lack a true sense of scale. What I mean by that is that the Weber books give you a true sense of what the world your reading is all about. You read Crusade and the conflict is small scale, the entire Theban war has something like 300ish ships that are used throughout the entire conflict. You read the second and third books and the Bug War has many thousands of ships across the 6 factions taking part in the conflict. The Arduan conflict lost all of the scale. Gone are the minor factions like the Gorm and the Star Union. Fleets are no longer "X number of Monitors and Y cruisers" and its just now "The Arduan Armada". Everything became vague and nebulous.

The one twist these books were able to come up with was wasted due to there being no follow up on it. The final battle of the book gets to a crescendo and then just finishes with a "and then the battle was over" and some wrap up lines about how the enemy fleet just fell apart do the the events that were happening 2 pages earlier.

The narrator does a fantastic job with the book and does carry the book on his shoulders. The story certainly does not help him in that regard. It has been 4 years since the release of this book and there is still more stories this universe has in it. We might get another book in the next couple of years from the writing of this review but if it is more like these last 4 books then it probably wont be worth the paper its written on.

[Aaron Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

The ending wasn't that satisfying, but it was ok.

The Bugs were left utterly up in the air. We got to see them still existing, and that they didn't just let themselves be herded for no reason, that they had their own plans. But they were left as just an open threat.

Also, it was pretty annoyingly expected that the main Admiral's wife survived and they found her. Why can't authors just let characters die, or if they can't do that, why seemingly kill them off in the first place? Sigh.

[Mark Whelan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The End of The Line

Oblivion is the last book in the series. I started the series years ago, before the last several books were complete. Now that I finally got to read the whole series from beginning to end, I am sorry to see it end. So much material left unresolved, there is definetely room for eight more volumes in the story. Here's hoping they get written.

[Skolia · Rating 3 out of 5]

An "ok" book tying up loose ends from the previous but doesn't really have much in the way of twists or really anything really cool and interesting.

[Marco Paganini · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book to be somewhat hard to rate. Oblivion is the eight book in the Starfire series, picking up after things didn't end up oh-so-well for the good guys in Imperative. The authors did a good job re-introducing the reader to the characters and the "problem" at hand. The style is clear and direct and the characters are mostly good.

What's not to like then?

The problem here is that Starfire (the series) is becoming more like a soap opera than anything. It will never end. It's looking more and more like the Honor Harrington series. So much in fact that I thought David Weber was writing this one.

Let's see:
- Cult of personality plot, centered around one or two "heroes"? Check.
- Characters lack nuance. The good ones are completely good. The evil ones are ridiculously evil. Check.
- Old British navy fandom, applied to space? Check.
- Space tactics based completely in Warp Points ? Check.
- Endless meetings discussing tactics and strategy? Check.
- Massive space battles, described in a lot of detail? Check.
- Battles are always decided by some new tech that is released on the last quarter of the book? Check.
- Alternation between bad guys kicking butt and good guys kicking butt? Check.
- Guess what? The thing didn't end and it never will? Check.

So, basically, it's space battle sci-fi, but a bit too predictable (and it gets somewhat boring at times), with a lot of officer meetings to boot.

I'd give it a 3.5 because it kept me entertained during long travels, but I'm rounding down to 3.0.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

The eighth (and perhaps final) book in the Starfire series. I have enjoyed these wonderful military science fiction epics, filled with lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of planets being wiped out, missile duels, desperate battles, viscous genocidal aliens, warp point assaults, and politics. This particular episode was a bit too heavy on the technical side, but the story was compelling and exciting. I will miss these characters and their universe.

One interesting aside: military science fiction tends to be very politically conservative in its orientation. The military characters--fighting, dying, sacrificing--are portrayed as honorable and noble, while the politicians are almost always venial and petty and self-serving. Governments are all most always described as corrupt, incompetent, and a source of weakness. It is the soldiers in these stories who understand the ideals that governments are supposed to epitomize, and who are willing to give their lives to protect and uphold these ideals while the politicians plot and preen and try to exert control.

So it's actually quite accurate, minus the three-eyed telepathic aliens.

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

Action filled space opera is normally my forte. Superficially action packed space opera is what this must theoretically be. While there are various strategies discussed, tactics and actual combat is almost entirely missing. The myriad number of characters are woefully underdeveloped and difficult to even keep track of. What action there is - is something akin to reading boring after action reports. Hundreds of years in the future and missiles are still one of their primary weapons - really? The story was so dull, I really struggled getting through it, hoping against hope it would improve - it didn't. This sort of book gives space opera a bad name. Actually deserves a rating of about -4.

[Stuart Dean · Rating 5 out of 5]

The climactic battle of the Kaitani/Hooman war. The giant Bug fleet followed by the giant Kaitani fleet are about the invade Alpha Centauri, the last system before Earth. Admiral Trevayne is setting up a defensive position while Commodore Weatherman is secretly following the enemy. Everything is set for the big showdown.

And that's what it is. There are still some preliminary intel gathering moves and some shifting of forces, but it's really all about the invasion of Alpha Centauri. Massive battles involving thousands of ships with maneuvers and subterfuge and even a little treachery. The most desperate battle yet in the entire Starfire series.

Bestest warporn ever.

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't like this one as well as I've liked some of the other ones in the series, but it was still a decent read, and a definite read for anyone following the series, or who likes space battles or aliens, or warp travel, or any number of other things that take place in science fiction books from Steve White. Good stuff as always.

[Vincent Archer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good solid milfi.

A bit too classic. There's not a lot of surprises there, and the association of White and Gannon hasn't produced a major gem. But just because it's not a polished gem doesn't mean it's not worth reading; it absolutely is. Below 5 stars, but good enough.

[Daniel Hamad · Rating 3 out of 5]

At this point they're just giving summaries of what's going on.

[Kevin Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

The victory of hope. Not without tears or death but still the victory of hope.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

More of a 'big picture' story that leaves much more to come.

[Thomas Sandvik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good enough, but felt a bit forced. To mutch action and little characther evolution. If you are looking for an action read go for it, but as a close to a bookseries it is disappointing

[Dregj · Rating 2 out of 5]

Much like the last two books the readers are really ,really missing david weber.
More plot holes ,incredibly clunky dialogue and WTF moments than you can shake a stick at.

[CJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fine-ish, but not my preferred genre.