Antares Passage

The Antares Series #2

by Michael McCollum

After more than a century of isolation, the paths between stars are again open and the people of Alta in contact with their sister colony on Sandar. And yet, the opening of the foldlines has not been the pure blessing the Altans had supposed.

The reestablishment of interstellar travel has brought with it news of the encroaching Ryall, an alien race whose goal is the extermination of humanity. If they are to avoid defeat at the hands of the alien forces, Alta must seek out the military might of Earth. The only suitable path, however, requires a journey into the heart of a supernova...

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

300 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Michael McCollum was born in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1946, and is a graduate of Arizona State University, where he majored in aerospace propulsion and minored in nuclear engineering. He is employed at Honeywell in Tempe, Arizona, where he is Chief Engineer in the valve product line. In his career, Mr. McCollum has worked on the precursor to the Space Shuttle Main Engine, a nuclear valve to replace the one that failed at Three Mile Island, several guided missiles, Space Station Freedom, and virtually every aircraft in production today. He is currently involved in an effort to create a joint venture company with a major Russian aerospace engine manufacturer and has traveled extensively to Russia in the last several years. In addition to his engineering, Mr. McCollum is a successful professional writer in the field of science fiction. He is the author of a dozen pieces of short fiction and has appeared in magazines such as Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, Amazing, and Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. Mr. McCollum is married to a lovely lady named Catherine, and has three children: Robert, Michael, and Elizabeth.

Reviews

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

2024 reread
3⭐
The middle book of a corny, military space opera trilogy about genocidal alien lizards threatening humanity.
The book has a mid 20th century feeling to it, like bargain basement Heinlein, without the originality or the strong characterization. The depiction of women characters is truly cringeworthy.
Still, I love my corny space opera, one of my favorite quilty pleasures. -30-

[Alex Shrugged · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is written in the classic SciFy style when men were men and women were Doris Day. Compared to modern SciFy novels I would rate it as 3 stars but compared to novels of the time, I rate it as a 4.

The story continues with the human Altans and Sandars joining forces to find a path to Earth to combine their forces against the alien Ryall. For over 120 years the Altans have been cut off from the rest of human space after the star Antares went supernova. Now that Antares had settled down it seems possible that they might be able to pass through fold-space through Antares without being destroyed. Once reaching Earth they must convince them to join the Altans and Sanders in a coordinated attack on the Ryall.

Any problems with the story? Any complaints I have are the same as for the previous novel "Antares Dawn".

Beyond that is the plan to keep a certain secret from Earth in order to obtain better leverage. But it is difficult to use a secret as leverage until the other side knows that you have a secret they might want to know, and a general idea of what it might be. There is an additional logic problem in keeping this secret that makes no sense, but I can't tell you what it is because it will give away a small spoiler. Bethany Lindquist is forced to keep the secret even though she is not technically part of the crew. By oath, she is a representative of Earth... not Alta, nor Sander. She is pressured to sign what amounts to a non-disclosure agreement, but she could have avoided signing and maintaining her oath, but refusing to provide the jump codes for the Earth-Fleet ships which were still under control of the Altan hereditary ambassador of Earth.

Any modesty issues? Somewhat. It is clear in the first few pages that Bethany and Richard are sleeping together. They have promised to marry, and this seems normal to all the characters involved if somewhat embarrassing to mention. The narrative talks about Richard stroking her back, and later, other parts of her body, but the description of these actions is no more detailed than what I have just done.

This is my second reading of this book. I've been looking forward to the third book in the series... "Antares Victory". Gee... I wonder how it will end? :-)

[Kevin Phyland · Rating 4 out of 5]

The star Antares had been of vital importance to the colonies of Earth due to its position as a nexus for foldlines - the gravitational grooves in space-time that allowed faster-than-light travel. When Antares went supernova a number of foldlines vanished, isolating two major colonies - Alta and Sandara - from Human space for 125 years. This occurred during an escalation of a war between humans and the centaur-like Ryall, who have as their only goal the extermination of humankind. When an Altan ship manages to navigate an Antares foldline through the expanding nebula it enables a surprise capture of a Ryllan colony and prisoners who accidentally reveal strategic information about their home system. The humans head for Earth to use this data as a bargaining chip to get aid from the Terran fleet, little knowing just how badly the war had been going in the last century, and with far too much trust in Terran promises. Second book of a trilogy but can be read as a standalone, Michael McCollum has written an entertaining political/military adventure with a promise of a conclusion in the third book.

[Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

More generic space opera. I bought this after finishing the first book in the series (Antares Dawn), which I enjoyed despite its genre stereotypes and simplistic characterizations. The plot in this book is a bit better and a little less generic but not by much. The space combat is still pretty well done and its an easy read which suits the platform I am reading it on just about perfectly (I'm reading it using Kindle on my Android phone). I can pick it up, read a few pages during some "down time" and not feel like I am forgetting anything vital to the plot. Overall, a decent read.

[Jeffrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the writing is an improvement, but most of this book is just shuffling characters around. Could be skipped in the series.

Glad that the author's later works are less cringe inducing when talking about women, this one and the third book could have benefitted from a critical beta-reader.

[Gary Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent character driven space opera

Continues the story of Antares Dawn while further developing the key characters and introducing many new characters. McCollum is a master.

[Liutauras · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good starwars book, just too many details that are not so fun to read

[Brett's Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

Second book int he series about a human colony fighting off an alien invader. If you didn't like the stock characters and simple triumph of the spirit story from the first book then you probably won't like this one either (and vice versa).

May 2022: I wish I could remember the first time I read this sci-if trilogy, ages ago, the 1990’s; I enjoyed the straightforwardness of the series then, and it’s allowed me to revisit it, and enjoy the experience all over again. This time a couple of things struck me. The first book is the best, laying out the basic premise of the book, the sci-if elements and defining the enemy. However, the overall all trilogy is plagued by a few problems. We don’t really learn much about future human society beyond a three worlds, and so the world building lacks. Second, the author ends up psycho-analyzing the heck out of the enemy aliens and ruining their mystique. Third, the unrealistic presence of the protagonist’s wife on the ship during missions and battles, totally ruins the military sci-fi setting. In fact, reading the trilogy this time I was surprised by the intensity of the romance between the two main characters, it felt distracting and out of place in these books. Finally, when I first picked up these books in the 1990’s I was areligious and thus, didn’t notice the author’s clumsy handling of Faith in this book. In the 1990’s Faith was still very much a part of most people’s lives, even a secular materialist, like Mr. McCollum, so he mentions faith, but mishandles it on the macro (it’s place in inter-planetary politics) and the micro (it’s place in ordinary people’s lives). The bottom line is that this trilogy does two things well: interplanetary travel sci-if, and hard sciencey space battles; everything else is clumsy or confusing. I only noticed these problems because I’m ten years older than the last time I read these books.

[Ed Tinkertoy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Book two of this three book series begins with a couple paragraphs repeating all the the information in Book one about what a supernova is and its effects. The book in my opinion is kinda like reading a text book. Lots of detail and a lot of people with long titles. The story has a love affair mixed in as Drake and Ms Linquist do get married and there is a chapter of their romances. The book seems to me to spend a lot of time preparing for a fleet to go through the nova to reach Earth. When they reach Earth its kinda anticlimactic. Then after securing the help of the people of Earth the book skips three years forward when the fleet is preparing to launch against the Ryall.

I am not sure whether I will read book three as it will probably be mostly a description of the war. And the title gives away the outcome, success.

[Bryan Ewert · Rating 3 out of 5]

This pace of this book suffers from characters discussing what we already know. As the Altan and Sandarian meet up with earth they relay their story from the beginning. As the Ryall meet up with other Ryall, and other humans, they each tell their story from the first book. Fleets relay their story to other fleets. Military relays their story to politicians. We get to hear the events from the first book at least four times. The second entry in this trilogy could be half its length if it were trimmed to only new events.

[Scott S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this second book in the Antares series and will be listening to the third book soon. It blows me away how sci-fi books written decades ago can still be so futuristic.


Side note: Mexico City! The main port of space travel for Earth?! The center of something other than corruption? Bwahahaha. Oh, sci-fi authors, you do make me chuckle sometimes.

[Julian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This second book in the series really hits the ground running and is a great, thrilling scifi novel. I really enjoyed this one even more than the first book. The tension is very well paced and the cliff hanger at the end makes you want to cry out for the next book to see what happens next. Book 3 is going to be big and I simply cannot wait....

[Tbloxham · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun book, but kinda the middle child of the series. I enjoyed the trip to earth, but felt that perhaps the political manoeuvrings seemed a bit forced. Still, fun pulp sci fi and made me enthusiastic for the final book

[Karl Smithe · Rating 4 out of 5]

See review of Antares Dawn. The Antares Trilogy is tightly linked. This book should not be read without reading Antares Dawn first. It is more of the same, neither better nor worse. If you didn't like the first one don't waste your time on this one.

[Joshua Kimble · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good, hard science-fiction book dealing with first contact. Nothing too original here, but it works and it reads quickly. My only complaint is that every single major plot point seems predictable, to me. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it.

[Mark Mcdaniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A worthy sequel to Antares Dawn.

This is the second installment of the Antares trilogy.. The book is is very good, but, this series needs to go read in order to get the most out of it.

[Allen McDonnell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book, one of the stack I periodically re-read. If your colony is cut off from Earth by hostile aliens what lengths will you go to attempting to restore contact? High adventure with a military but not militaristic feel.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

great book

[Mike Scalora · Rating 3 out of 5]

I totally agree with the reviewer who use the term "simplistic characterizations". The story is interesting enough to keep me engaged in the audio book while I hike but nothing special.

[Steven Musumeche · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommended. Awesome sequel to Antares Dawn, I can't wait to read Antares Victory.

[Christian Wainright · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, but maybe not great. I liked the first book much more.

[dennis lapointe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good author

A good book,little short but entertaining. ,I would 've liked it more if the author hadn't jumped from one chapter and then it was three years later.

[Mike Macon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun read. Light, but fun read.

[Kelly Nielsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still an awesome sci-fi series