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Kris Longknife #18
Indomitable
Grand Admiral, Her Royal Highness Kris Longknife, commander of the Iteeche Imperial Combined Fleets has the enemy on the run. Literally. The last time she entered a rebel system, every disloyal ship picked up its skirts and ran.
So why has she been ordered, as in requested and required, to make a formal report to the Emperor? Ron the Iteeche and his two young Iteeche Counselors have little to say on the subject except that some Iteeche think Kris is winning too much, too fast.
What human combat commander has ever heard those words?
Worse, when Kris returns to the capital, no one wants to sell her a ticket on the space elevator. Driving the streets is dangerous . . . not two roadside bombs but three detonate! Now she's got her embassy in sight and she can't get in!
What kind of games are the clan lords playing? What threats are being hatched against the young Emperor? Even more pressing, how does Kris get back into her embassy and back to her kids?
The Iteeche Empire claims it has a ten-thousand-year history and traditions for every possible situation. However, they've never run into Kris Longknife Indomitable.
So why has she been ordered, as in requested and required, to make a formal report to the Emperor? Ron the Iteeche and his two young Iteeche Counselors have little to say on the subject except that some Iteeche think Kris is winning too much, too fast.
What human combat commander has ever heard those words?
Worse, when Kris returns to the capital, no one wants to sell her a ticket on the space elevator. Driving the streets is dangerous . . . not two roadside bombs but three detonate! Now she's got her embassy in sight and she can't get in!
What kind of games are the clan lords playing? What threats are being hatched against the young Emperor? Even more pressing, how does Kris get back into her embassy and back to her kids?
The Iteeche Empire claims it has a ten-thousand-year history and traditions for every possible situation. However, they've never run into Kris Longknife Indomitable.
466 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 25, 2019
155 people are currently reading
189 people want to read
About the author
Mike Shepherd
78 books564 followersA pseudonym used by Mike Moscoe.
Mike was born in the Philadelphia Navy Yard Hospital -- and left that town at the age of three days for reasons he does not presently recall. But they had to draft him to get him back there. He missed very little of the rest of the country. Growing up Navy, he lived about everywhere you could park an aircraft carrier.
Mike was one of those college students who didn't have to worry about finding a job after graduation. In 1968, his Uncle Sam made him an offer he couldn't refuse. Two days into boot camp, the Army was wondering if they might not have been a bit hasty. Mike ended the day in the Intensive Care Unit of the local Army hospital. Despite most of Mike’s personal war stories being limited to "How I flunked boot camp," he can still write a rollicking good military SF yarns.
Mike didn’t survive all that long as a cab driver (he got lost) or bartender (he made the drinks too strong) but he figured he could at least work for the Navy Department as a budget analyst. Until he spent the whole day trying to balance the barracks accounts for paint. Finally, about quitting time, a grinning senior analyst took him aside and let him in on the secret. They'd hidden the money for refitting a battleship in that little account. Slowly it dawned on Mike that there were a few things about the Navy that even a kid who grew up in it would never understand.
Over the next twenty years, Mike branched out into other genres, including instruction memos, policies, performance standards and even a few labor contracts. All of those, you may notice, lack a certain something. Dialogue ... those things in quotes. In `87, Mike’s big break came. He landed on a two year special project to build a digital map showing where the trees, rivers, roads, Spotted Owls and other critters were in western Oregon. The list went on and on with no end in sight and two years became ten.
Since there was no writing involved in his new day job, Mike had to do something to get the words out. He signed up for a writing class at Clark Community College and proudly turned in a story ... Star Wars shoots down the second coming of Christ.
Two years later, Analog bought "Summer Hopes, Winter Dreams" for the March, 1991 issue. Four years later he sold his first novel. In the ten years since then, Mike’s turned in twelve novels and is researching the next three.
Mike's love for Science Fiction started when he picked up "Rocket Ship Galileo" in the fifth grade, and then proceeded to read every book in the library with a rocket sticker on its spine.
Mike digs for his stories among people and change. Through his interest in history, he has traces the transformations that make us what we are today. Science launches us forward into an ever changing universe. Once upon a time, the only changes in peoples lives came with the turning of the seasons and the growing wrinkles on their brows. Today, science drives most of the changes in our daily lives. Still, we can't avoid the pressure of our own awakening hormones or hardening arteries. Mike is happiest when his stories are speeding across thin ice, balanced on the edge of two sharp blades, one anciently human, the other as new as tomorrow's research.
Trained in International Relations and history, salary administration and bargaining, theology and counseling, Mike is having a ball writing about Kris Longknife ... coming of age while the world her grand parents built threatens to crash down around her ears. These are books I think you’ll love ... and my granddaughter and grandsons too!
Mike lives in Vancouver, Washington, with his wife Ellen, his mother-in-law and any visiting grandkids. He enjoys reading, writing, watching grand-children for story ideas and upgrading his computer -- all are never ending.
Mike was born in the Philadelphia Navy Yard Hospital -- and left that town at the age of three days for reasons he does not presently recall. But they had to draft him to get him back there. He missed very little of the rest of the country. Growing up Navy, he lived about everywhere you could park an aircraft carrier.
Mike was one of those college students who didn't have to worry about finding a job after graduation. In 1968, his Uncle Sam made him an offer he couldn't refuse. Two days into boot camp, the Army was wondering if they might not have been a bit hasty. Mike ended the day in the Intensive Care Unit of the local Army hospital. Despite most of Mike’s personal war stories being limited to "How I flunked boot camp," he can still write a rollicking good military SF yarns.
Mike didn’t survive all that long as a cab driver (he got lost) or bartender (he made the drinks too strong) but he figured he could at least work for the Navy Department as a budget analyst. Until he spent the whole day trying to balance the barracks accounts for paint. Finally, about quitting time, a grinning senior analyst took him aside and let him in on the secret. They'd hidden the money for refitting a battleship in that little account. Slowly it dawned on Mike that there were a few things about the Navy that even a kid who grew up in it would never understand.
Over the next twenty years, Mike branched out into other genres, including instruction memos, policies, performance standards and even a few labor contracts. All of those, you may notice, lack a certain something. Dialogue ... those things in quotes. In `87, Mike’s big break came. He landed on a two year special project to build a digital map showing where the trees, rivers, roads, Spotted Owls and other critters were in western Oregon. The list went on and on with no end in sight and two years became ten.
Since there was no writing involved in his new day job, Mike had to do something to get the words out. He signed up for a writing class at Clark Community College and proudly turned in a story ... Star Wars shoots down the second coming of Christ.
Two years later, Analog bought "Summer Hopes, Winter Dreams" for the March, 1991 issue. Four years later he sold his first novel. In the ten years since then, Mike’s turned in twelve novels and is researching the next three.
Mike's love for Science Fiction started when he picked up "Rocket Ship Galileo" in the fifth grade, and then proceeded to read every book in the library with a rocket sticker on its spine.
Mike digs for his stories among people and change. Through his interest in history, he has traces the transformations that make us what we are today. Science launches us forward into an ever changing universe. Once upon a time, the only changes in peoples lives came with the turning of the seasons and the growing wrinkles on their brows. Today, science drives most of the changes in our daily lives. Still, we can't avoid the pressure of our own awakening hormones or hardening arteries. Mike is happiest when his stories are speeding across thin ice, balanced on the edge of two sharp blades, one anciently human, the other as new as tomorrow's research.
Trained in International Relations and history, salary administration and bargaining, theology and counseling, Mike is having a ball writing about Kris Longknife ... coming of age while the world her grand parents built threatens to crash down around her ears. These are books I think you’ll love ... and my granddaughter and grandsons too!
Mike lives in Vancouver, Washington, with his wife Ellen, his mother-in-law and any visiting grandkids. He enjoys reading, writing, watching grand-children for story ideas and upgrading his computer -- all are never ending.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
October 2, 2019
This is book eighteen of the Kris Longknife Series. This book takes up where the last book left off. Kris is the Special Ambassador to the Iteeche Empire. The Emperor has asked her to command the Royal Naval Fleet as well as her own fleet. The Empire is in the midst of a Civil War.
The book is well written. The plot is interesting as are the characters. This book takes place on the main Iteeche home world. It is full of Iteeche politics, dirty tricks, as well as treachery. All of this is off-set by some humor provided by Abby and the children. My favorite character is Kris’s AI “Nellie”. In this book it is apparent that Nellie has become a sentient being. This book was hard to put down. I cannot wait for the next issue to come out.
I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. The book is fourteen hours and two minutes. Dina Pearlman does an excellent job narrating the book. Pearlman has been the narrator for all eighteen books. I think it is important for a series to keep the same narrator through-out the series.
The book is well written. The plot is interesting as are the characters. This book takes place on the main Iteeche home world. It is full of Iteeche politics, dirty tricks, as well as treachery. All of this is off-set by some humor provided by Abby and the children. My favorite character is Kris’s AI “Nellie”. In this book it is apparent that Nellie has become a sentient being. This book was hard to put down. I cannot wait for the next issue to come out.
I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. The book is fourteen hours and two minutes. Dina Pearlman does an excellent job narrating the book. Pearlman has been the narrator for all eighteen books. I think it is important for a series to keep the same narrator through-out the series.
July 15, 2019
Another installment in the adventures of Kris Longknife.
In this episode, we spend most of our time planet-side and there are no major space battles, just huge, city-wrecking land battles.
Kris continues her sabbatical from fighting the genocidal aliens with their moon-sized ships in order to completely remake the Iteeche Empire. No problem. She’s been lured to the home planet to report to the Emperor in a transparent attempt by her enemies to assassinate her and her entire embassy by any and all means available. She spends the book fighting them off. Thankfully, her technological advantages along with the less hidebound nature of human culture allow her to stay one step ahead of the bad guys.
As always, I found the story engaging and enjoyable. This entire series has come to epitomize the concept of go big or go home. It’s hard to believe, sometimes, that earlier in the series Kris was up to nothing bigger than reestablishing law and order on frontier planets. I think the author is going to have a hard time ratcheting it up from here, but I wouldn’t put it past him.
Stay tuned.
In this episode, we spend most of our time planet-side and there are no major space battles, just huge, city-wrecking land battles.
Kris continues her sabbatical from fighting the genocidal aliens with their moon-sized ships in order to completely remake the Iteeche Empire. No problem. She’s been lured to the home planet to report to the Emperor in a transparent attempt by her enemies to assassinate her and her entire embassy by any and all means available. She spends the book fighting them off. Thankfully, her technological advantages along with the less hidebound nature of human culture allow her to stay one step ahead of the bad guys.
As always, I found the story engaging and enjoyable. This entire series has come to epitomize the concept of go big or go home. It’s hard to believe, sometimes, that earlier in the series Kris was up to nothing bigger than reestablishing law and order on frontier planets. I think the author is going to have a hard time ratcheting it up from here, but I wouldn’t put it past him.
Stay tuned.
June 8, 2019
This is a long running series, especially in terms of time, for me. This book is number 18 in the series but the author does, thankfully, not spew them out at a rate of a couple a year. It was over a year since I read the previous installment and about seven years since I picked up the first one, which at the time when I picked it up was actually six years years old already.
I have quite liked this series. It is a series in much the same spirit as Honor Harrington although I have to admin that I like Honor Harrington better. This installment continues the story arc where Kris is “on loan” to the Itechee navy.
I do like the character Kris Longknife. She is a competent, don’t fuck with me, woman and the books have plenty of action. Both of the kind where Kris kicks bad guy ass personal and up front and the kind where she does it by throwing around stuff that goes boom from her ship(s).
It’s a good book and I enjoyed it quite a lot. There’s a fair amount of action and ass-kicking, good dialogue and I do like the main protagonist. However, I do have two gripes with the book.
One is this bloody “Smart Metal”. When it was first introduced it was fairly cool but now they use the stuff for bloody everything like some magic wand. It is really becoming over the top and not very realistic even for a sci-fi novel.
The second one is the Iteeche and their dumbassery. I mean come one! Their bigotry and racism is annoying in itself but their stubbornness and way of reasoning (I’m not sure words like reason can be used in the same sentence as Iteeche actually) which defies logic and time after time gets them into one shitty situation after another, their political games, their total inability (mostly) to learn and think about the common good is just pissing me off. Please end that story arc now and get on with something more intelligent!
It’s still a good book despite these gripes of mine but it could have been a five star one.
I have quite liked this series. It is a series in much the same spirit as Honor Harrington although I have to admin that I like Honor Harrington better. This installment continues the story arc where Kris is “on loan” to the Itechee navy.
I do like the character Kris Longknife. She is a competent, don’t fuck with me, woman and the books have plenty of action. Both of the kind where Kris kicks bad guy ass personal and up front and the kind where she does it by throwing around stuff that goes boom from her ship(s).
It’s a good book and I enjoyed it quite a lot. There’s a fair amount of action and ass-kicking, good dialogue and I do like the main protagonist. However, I do have two gripes with the book.
One is this bloody “Smart Metal”. When it was first introduced it was fairly cool but now they use the stuff for bloody everything like some magic wand. It is really becoming over the top and not very realistic even for a sci-fi novel.
The second one is the Iteeche and their dumbassery. I mean come one! Their bigotry and racism is annoying in itself but their stubbornness and way of reasoning (I’m not sure words like reason can be used in the same sentence as Iteeche actually) which defies logic and time after time gets them into one shitty situation after another, their political games, their total inability (mostly) to learn and think about the common good is just pissing me off. Please end that story arc now and get on with something more intelligent!
It’s still a good book despite these gripes of mine but it could have been a five star one.
June 24, 2019
The book starts with Kris being pulled back into the political intrigues of the Iteechian Empire and it seems even the supporters of the Emperor are ready to stab her in the back.
There are quite a few incidents as the Iteechian Clans try to get rid of Kris and the ‘human embassy’, but although this was fairly interesting, I found most of it a bit irritating as Kris was always just reacting to situations. I much prefer the stories when Kris is in charge.
Fortunately towards the end of the book Kris finally looses her patience with the Clans and dishes out some retribution.
If possible I would have given 3.5 stars.
There are quite a few incidents as the Iteechian Clans try to get rid of Kris and the ‘human embassy’, but although this was fairly interesting, I found most of it a bit irritating as Kris was always just reacting to situations. I much prefer the stories when Kris is in charge.
Fortunately towards the end of the book Kris finally looses her patience with the Clans and dishes out some retribution.
If possible I would have given 3.5 stars.
July 13, 2019
Good read, as usual.
Worth the wait! Looking forward to the next installment of this and related series. I want more, please, many, many more!
Worth the wait! Looking forward to the next installment of this and related series. I want more, please, many, many more!
March 9, 2024
Kris Longknife has been running a very successful campaign against the rebels who want to take over the Iteeche Empire. Some think even too successful. No one thought it would be as easy to capture ships and planets as Kris Longknife makes it look.
Then she is called home to make a report to the emperor and finds all sorts of problems. First of all, she faces delays getting to her embassy in the form of bombs and armed troops. Then she has trouble getting into her embassy which is being surrounded by a million or so protestors who seem way to well organized to be an actual spontaneous demonstration. Bombs and having multi-story buildings dropped on her are not enough to keep her away from her duty which has become finding a way to keep the emperor alive.
I enjoyed seeing the way Kris deals with the Iteeche and life the way she keeps running into ways that the Iteeche are alien in thought and custom. Kris becomes concerned that she won't be able to do what she was brought to the empire to do unless she manages to find a way to change the culture of the Iteeche empire. But that won't stop this Longknife from doing her duty.
This was an exciting episode in the long-running Kris Longknife series which lets everyone know that no one gets in of way of a Longknife who has a duty to perform.
Then she is called home to make a report to the emperor and finds all sorts of problems. First of all, she faces delays getting to her embassy in the form of bombs and armed troops. Then she has trouble getting into her embassy which is being surrounded by a million or so protestors who seem way to well organized to be an actual spontaneous demonstration. Bombs and having multi-story buildings dropped on her are not enough to keep her away from her duty which has become finding a way to keep the emperor alive.
I enjoyed seeing the way Kris deals with the Iteeche and life the way she keeps running into ways that the Iteeche are alien in thought and custom. Kris becomes concerned that she won't be able to do what she was brought to the empire to do unless she manages to find a way to change the culture of the Iteeche empire. But that won't stop this Longknife from doing her duty.
This was an exciting episode in the long-running Kris Longknife series which lets everyone know that no one gets in of way of a Longknife who has a duty to perform.
December 10, 2023
This one is not a winner. First, the moron still doesn't know how to use the trademark symbol (hint, not every time you type the friggin' word). Then it's rather repetitive. The part that drags it down below average space opera fluff is something that happens in the middle of the book (so, not a spoiler).
In only a short time when Kris and team leave their embassy, and though the author says they take a non-standard route back, the bad guys have mined four buildings to collapse on them. Did the baddies do all routes? Then, the magic metal somehow saves them from that much rubble? Yeah, right.
That was too much stupidity for anything more than two stars.
In only a short time when Kris and team leave their embassy, and though the author says they take a non-standard route back, the bad guys have mined four buildings to collapse on them. Did the baddies do all routes? Then, the magic metal somehow saves them from that much rubble? Yeah, right.
That was too much stupidity for anything more than two stars.
December 4, 2019
Grand Admiral Kris Longknife continues her campaign to protect the Emperor of the Iteeche Empire by subduing a rebellion and guarding his palace from attack. It’s not only the loyal forces she must protect. Her children are among the residents in her embassy, and woe behold anyone who threatens her children. Kris fulfills her duties while deciding if the ancient traditions of these people are worth changing or if she should leave them to fight their own battles. If you enjoy Kris’s exploits, you’ll savor this tale.
August 28, 2024
The author/s spout some absurd brain damaged whoppers in this book. It really gets bad around the time the MC gets buried beneath four small highrise buildings along with her procession and convoy.
I had a small accident with the last of my coffee, thankfully it was cold, when the narrator delivered one of these. I skipped the recording back a minute and found myself laughing just after having recovered from my coffee snort. Not to say that it was a good sort of laughter but more like the laughter brought about by utterly stupid nonsense.
I had a small accident with the last of my coffee, thankfully it was cold, when the narrator delivered one of these. I skipped the recording back a minute and found myself laughing just after having recovered from my coffee snort. Not to say that it was a good sort of laughter but more like the laughter brought about by utterly stupid nonsense.
June 6, 2019
enjoyed. The hell out of this book. The focus of this book made for a better read. I would really love an Abby book. I also would always want a little more of Abby and Cara. I just enjoy them. Bruce is always fun to hear from. Everything line up really well the story beats move the story. I'm just really impressed!
5 Stars
Would absolutely reread this book.
5 Stars
Would absolutely reread this book.
June 11, 2019
So good
Great to have you back writing. I hope all is doing better. I know that I live vicariously through your writings in the Kris Longknife universe and I truly missed them. This book answers questions about the Itichee and their clan culture. Very well written and caused me sleepless nights.
Great to have you back writing. I hope all is doing better. I know that I live vicariously through your writings in the Kris Longknife universe and I truly missed them. This book answers questions about the Itichee and their clan culture. Very well written and caused me sleepless nights.
May 19, 2021
Mike Shepherd's alien Iteeche come into focus in this book as truly alien, but with enough human characteristics to make them relatable, if not understandable. Shepherd's tale of palace intrigue and his battle scenes are exceptional.
April 27, 2019
Superb addition to the series
I enjoyed the new Kris book the plot was moved on and she and her crew are geting a habdle on the itchee
I enjoyed the new Kris book the plot was moved on and she and her crew are geting a habdle on the itchee
May 21, 2019
A good read, as always
Another one of Shepherd's "can't put it down" stories . Can't wait for the next installment and the next Vicki Peterwald. Keep them coming Mike!
Another one of Shepherd's "can't put it down" stories . Can't wait for the next installment and the next Vicki Peterwald. Keep them coming Mike!
June 26, 2019
A good read
It's a great continue of a great series. If you aren't familiar with the series, you should start with Mutineer the first in series
It's a great continue of a great series. If you aren't familiar with the series, you should start with Mutineer the first in series
July 13, 2019
Glad to see another entry in this enjoyable series.
January 23, 2020
Great, action packed continuation of Kris' life and leadership.
June 23, 2025
⭐️⭐️1/2
March 11, 2023
4 stars.
Mar 2023 - re-listened.
______________
May 2021
Kris is definitely slashing her way across the Iteeche Empire in her own indomitable way and introducing the Iteeche to human sensibilities to the carnage of war.
It's another action-packed instalment with both space and ground battles. It seems the teenage Iteeche Emperor is also willing to embrace change so it's going to be interesting to see what sort of pushback the remaining clan lords will make against Kris and the inevitable social changes.
As this is the last audiobook available for the series to date, it looks like I'll be having a break at this point. Luckily this book didn't end on cliffhanger even though the overall story arc is still ongoing.
Mar 2023 - re-listened.
______________
May 2021
Kris is definitely slashing her way across the Iteeche Empire in her own indomitable way and introducing the Iteeche to human sensibilities to the carnage of war.
It's another action-packed instalment with both space and ground battles. It seems the teenage Iteeche Emperor is also willing to embrace change so it's going to be interesting to see what sort of pushback the remaining clan lords will make against Kris and the inevitable social changes.
As this is the last audiobook available for the series to date, it looks like I'll be having a break at this point. Luckily this book didn't end on cliffhanger even though the overall story arc is still ongoing.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews