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Vicky Peterwald #5
Implacable
Grand Duchess Victoria Peterwald wants her Empire back. If you're the one who's holding any part of it hostage, you really want to be somewhere else. Quick!
Vicky has cleared Dresden of the so-called Security Specialists of the Bowlingame crime family. Every Redcoat is dead on that planet … and good riddance. Vicky thought she had killed that family first when the Empress and her dad died at the Battle of Cuzco, then when she captured all the uncles and brothers who'd done their best to keep the government going.
Still, the snake of that kleptocracy refuses to die! If Grand Duchess Vicky wants her Empire back, be she an autocrat or a constitutional monarch, she needs to root those snakes out of every hole they've crawled down. The only question is where to go next.
While her army prepared for the invasion of Lublin, Vicky figured Oryol would only be a small police action. Yes, the planet had dropped off the net, but all they have are a regiment of Redcoats without tanks.
What happens when a police force faces no resistance . . . and goes bad? Just how sick and depraved can men become when they are the law, and no one can stop them from satisfying their every vicious whim?
Worse, what price will a Grand Duchess pay to put an end to that wretched hive of scum and villainy?
Read By Dina Pearlman.
Vicky has cleared Dresden of the so-called Security Specialists of the Bowlingame crime family. Every Redcoat is dead on that planet … and good riddance. Vicky thought she had killed that family first when the Empress and her dad died at the Battle of Cuzco, then when she captured all the uncles and brothers who'd done their best to keep the government going.
Still, the snake of that kleptocracy refuses to die! If Grand Duchess Vicky wants her Empire back, be she an autocrat or a constitutional monarch, she needs to root those snakes out of every hole they've crawled down. The only question is where to go next.
While her army prepared for the invasion of Lublin, Vicky figured Oryol would only be a small police action. Yes, the planet had dropped off the net, but all they have are a regiment of Redcoats without tanks.
What happens when a police force faces no resistance . . . and goes bad? Just how sick and depraved can men become when they are the law, and no one can stop them from satisfying their every vicious whim?
Worse, what price will a Grand Duchess pay to put an end to that wretched hive of scum and villainy?
Read By Dina Pearlman.
287 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 1, 2019
58 people are currently reading
102 people want to read
About the author
Mike Shepherd
78 books563 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 - 18 of 18 reviews
October 18, 2020
I have read this series from the beginning. I have watched Vicky go from bad guy to good Empress.
The book is well written and the pace is fast. I had the feeling Shepherd has lost sight of his goal, or interest in the series, or maybe just got hung up in urban warfare. I hope he gets back on the trend of changing the monarchy into a democracy. In this book the bad are very, very bad characters.
I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. The book is seven hours and fifty-three minutes. Dina Pearlman does a good job narrating the book. Pearlman has been the narrator for the entire series. I think it is important for a series to maintain the same narrator.
The book is well written and the pace is fast. I had the feeling Shepherd has lost sight of his goal, or interest in the series, or maybe just got hung up in urban warfare. I hope he gets back on the trend of changing the monarchy into a democracy. In this book the bad are very, very bad characters.
I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. The book is seven hours and fifty-three minutes. Dina Pearlman does a good job narrating the book. Pearlman has been the narrator for the entire series. I think it is important for a series to maintain the same narrator.
November 10, 2019
The adventures of Grand Duchess Victoria Peterwald aren’t my favorite spinoff from the Kris Longknife universe, but they’ll do. There are no grey areas in this book, everything is black and white. That tends to be true in all the books in these series, but never more so that in this one. The good guys are nothing but good and the bad guys are absolutely bad with no redeeming qualities.
I think, if you were a woman who has been abused by a man, you might find this book rather satisfying as it contains several fairly graphic revenge fantasies against the sort of men who like to rape and torment women. One caveat to that is that, other than the Grand Duchess and her two assassin bodyguards, the women in this book come across as mostly weak and pathetic.
It seems that somewhere in this fictional universe is a factory rolling out thousands of identical copies of the same sadistic psychopath and then sending them out to torment entire planets. Victoria Peterwald comes to the rescue of one such planet in this book and the results are a bit repetitive. There’s also, for some variety, a nice little space battle.
I can see the appeal of this book for the folks that figure that the only solution to a bad guy with the gun is a good guy with the gun. If only the real world for that simple.
The big picture seems to be working itself out. In the case of this book, the Peterwald Empire is slowly being whipped back into shape while Kris Longknife is busy fixing the Iteeche and Admiral Santiago minds Alwa. It seems to me that this is all leading up to the ultimate confrontation with the genocidal, humanlike aliens and their moon-sized base-ships.
All in all, this wasn’t my favorite book even in this series but it wasn’t terrible. I can see why it might be considered a necessary addition in order to show us just how depraved the bad guys are.
I enjoyed it well enough.
I think, if you were a woman who has been abused by a man, you might find this book rather satisfying as it contains several fairly graphic revenge fantasies against the sort of men who like to rape and torment women. One caveat to that is that, other than the Grand Duchess and her two assassin bodyguards, the women in this book come across as mostly weak and pathetic.
It seems that somewhere in this fictional universe is a factory rolling out thousands of identical copies of the same sadistic psychopath and then sending them out to torment entire planets. Victoria Peterwald comes to the rescue of one such planet in this book and the results are a bit repetitive. There’s also, for some variety, a nice little space battle.
I can see the appeal of this book for the folks that figure that the only solution to a bad guy with the gun is a good guy with the gun. If only the real world for that simple.
The big picture seems to be working itself out. In the case of this book, the Peterwald Empire is slowly being whipped back into shape while Kris Longknife is busy fixing the Iteeche and Admiral Santiago minds Alwa. It seems to me that this is all leading up to the ultimate confrontation with the genocidal, humanlike aliens and their moon-sized base-ships.
All in all, this wasn’t my favorite book even in this series but it wasn’t terrible. I can see why it might be considered a necessary addition in order to show us just how depraved the bad guys are.
I enjoyed it well enough.
October 24, 2019
I enjoyed this story, although I thought the removal of the ‘Redcoats’ from the occupation of ‘Oryol’ did get a bit repetitive and the author did dwell on the suffering of the captive women. Also I still think this newer version of Vicky has lost something.
After reading the last book I wrote;
I couldn’t help thinking that Vicky is turning into a version of ‘Kris Longknife’. To many readers this might not be a problem, but I think the books have lost something now Vicky has become a ‘conventional goody’.
Vicky had that bad/naughty edge that made her a bit different, now she is a heterosexual, monogamous, married women, embracing democracy and using a AI computer to get her out of trouble.
However I still thought the book was worth four stars.
After reading the last book I wrote;
I couldn’t help thinking that Vicky is turning into a version of ‘Kris Longknife’. To many readers this might not be a problem, but I think the books have lost something now Vicky has become a ‘conventional goody’.
Vicky had that bad/naughty edge that made her a bit different, now she is a heterosexual, monogamous, married women, embracing democracy and using a AI computer to get her out of trouble.
However I still thought the book was worth four stars.
April 8, 2020
I know Mike Shepherd started off with a warning about the "over the top" content, but
wow, he was not kidding. What happened! This book was a turn-off. I only finished it because
I have read everything Kris Longknife related. Mike Shepherd is a very talented writer, but the
violence and gore was way too much. I feel like re-reading Mutineer or Resolute just to clear
my head. I hope the stories calm down. To tell you the truth, I will probably continue to read KL books, but not for a while.
wow, he was not kidding. What happened! This book was a turn-off. I only finished it because
I have read everything Kris Longknife related. Mike Shepherd is a very talented writer, but the
violence and gore was way too much. I feel like re-reading Mutineer or Resolute just to clear
my head. I hope the stories calm down. To tell you the truth, I will probably continue to read KL books, but not for a while.
August 1, 2023
Vicky Peterwald: Implacable is book #5 in the series. While the author gives a warning at the beginning of the book about non-consensual sex, that was not the most disturbing part of this book. I found the repeated graphic violence much more disturbing. I understand where the author was going with this; it was quite a change for the Gracious Grand Duchess who was beginning to enjoy her new role of helping people; so very different than prior Peterwalds. The gangs and red shirts on this planet had sunk to horrible levels and Vicky dispensed swift justice - a new role for her. This causes her some real personal agony and changes to her core. However, I believe this was well established by the taking of the first high-rise; the repeated graphic violence in the taking of the second high-rise could have and should have been omitted. The point was made and more did not need to be said. I found this book disturbing and it stayed with me for several days. (BTW, I love both the Kris Longknife and Vicky Peterwald series and have read them each a couple of times. This was my first time through the newer books #4 & #5.)
December 21, 2021
Starts with a caution
This was not as graphic as I feared it might be from the warning. Overall a good addition to the series. Proof reading needs to step up and catch more than just spelling. This seemed to avoid some of the basic physics mistakes, perhaps since most action takes place on a planet. The author still needs to tie a big rock to a little one and give them a toss. They just orbit each other maybe with a much smaller rock doing most of the orbiting. There is no "jig" caused by weight or balance. They instantly find a center. Similarly, an automobile tire becomes self-balancing by simply adding enough liquid or lead pellets. The material moves to the light areas as the tire spins up to speed with no wobble, computers or pumps needed.
This was not as graphic as I feared it might be from the warning. Overall a good addition to the series. Proof reading needs to step up and catch more than just spelling. This seemed to avoid some of the basic physics mistakes, perhaps since most action takes place on a planet. The author still needs to tie a big rock to a little one and give them a toss. They just orbit each other maybe with a much smaller rock doing most of the orbiting. There is no "jig" caused by weight or balance. They instantly find a center. Similarly, an automobile tire becomes self-balancing by simply adding enough liquid or lead pellets. The material moves to the light areas as the tire spins up to speed with no wobble, computers or pumps needed.
January 10, 2024
3.5 stars.
Vicky wants to get rid of the late Empress's family once and for all and has taken her fleet to find and destroy the Bowlingame fleet. But she's got to free a few planets that have already been taken over by the Red Coats security forces working for that family.
This one had a special trigger warning note penned by the author at the start. It probably should have been included in the audio version as well. There are stacks of graphic descriptions of rape and pillage where I pretty much had to zone out.
And I would like to warn that whilst not exactly a cliffhanger, this book is also not a conclusion to the Vicky Peterwald series, even though it's been a few years since it was released.
Vicky wants to get rid of the late Empress's family once and for all and has taken her fleet to find and destroy the Bowlingame fleet. But she's got to free a few planets that have already been taken over by the Red Coats security forces working for that family.
This one had a special trigger warning note penned by the author at the start. It probably should have been included in the audio version as well. There are stacks of graphic descriptions of rape and pillage where I pretty much had to zone out.
And I would like to warn that whilst not exactly a cliffhanger, this book is also not a conclusion to the Vicky Peterwald series, even though it's been a few years since it was released.
January 10, 2022
Shepherd, Mike. Implacable. Vicky Peterwald No. 5. KL & MM Books, 2019.
Vicky Peterwald, the sexy heroine of her own series spun off from the Kris Longknife adventures, has gotten married to a man who insists on monogamy. So, what is a writer to do? Ahh. Dial up the violence, of course. Vicky is now in the process of reunifying the crumbling empire, and that means invading planets to root out the usurpers. It is a bloody business, with building-by-building combat and some well-deserved on-the-spot executions. There is plenty of action, but the truth is I would rather read about her Kama Sutra skills than ability as a marine in combat armor. 3 stars.
Vicky Peterwald, the sexy heroine of her own series spun off from the Kris Longknife adventures, has gotten married to a man who insists on monogamy. So, what is a writer to do? Ahh. Dial up the violence, of course. Vicky is now in the process of reunifying the crumbling empire, and that means invading planets to root out the usurpers. It is a bloody business, with building-by-building combat and some well-deserved on-the-spot executions. There is plenty of action, but the truth is I would rather read about her Kama Sutra skills than ability as a marine in combat armor. 3 stars.
March 23, 2023
He was right.
This book has serious triggers for anyone who has been raped or tortured.
Those events are central to Vicky's character development and new self-awareness.
This book has some brutal hostage attempted rescue. While many are successful, some are not.
This book maybe necessary and the good win. But this may be the most brutal book by him I have read.
Obtw, I don't give 5 stars to anything that is not a Hugo/nebula winner. Excellent craft in writing here.
This book has serious triggers for anyone who has been raped or tortured.
Those events are central to Vicky's character development and new self-awareness.
This book has some brutal hostage attempted rescue. While many are successful, some are not.
This book maybe necessary and the good win. But this may be the most brutal book by him I have read.
Obtw, I don't give 5 stars to anything that is not a Hugo/nebula winner. Excellent craft in writing here.
April 24, 2020
Mike always writes a good yarn. This one is no exception.
The only comment I will make about his last few books is that the editing has not been of the quality I am used to with him. I hope it gets more consistent in the future.
The only comment I will make about his last few books is that the editing has not been of the quality I am used to with him. I hope it gets more consistent in the future.
May 19, 2020
Vicky Peterwald is turning out to be JUST as good a series for Mike Shepherd as the Kris Longknife series! Congratulations Mike!
November 6, 2020
She's freed one planet. Now she has to liberate another, and they won't make it easy for her. There's pretty nonstop action in this book as well, but he leaves us with another cliffhanger. {wail!}
April 28, 2021
More to come, PLEASE.
Justice is served on a platter. Thanks to “THE GRAND DUCHESS”.
Until the next time this is almost as good as KRIS.
Justice is served on a platter. Thanks to “THE GRAND DUCHESS”.
Until the next time this is almost as good as KRIS.
May 12, 2023
L'excès (et la répétition) dans la descriptions des agissements des "méchants" n'aide pas ce bouquin
December 14, 2025
This is in my opinion the worst book in the Kris Longknife series. The graphic misogyny is unnecessary.
September 2, 2019
Starts Strong but goes Grindhouse
This is my least favorite of the series. Vicki has to purge a planet turned into torture porn den by pirates. The pirates use naked girls as human sheilds while they continue to molest them. As a single scene thats works to demonize the pirates, but he writes 5 variations of the same set up and pogressively more graphic and disgusting. It finishes with a drawn out torture execution of the Pirate Duke.
This is my least favorite of the series. Vicki has to purge a planet turned into torture porn den by pirates. The pirates use naked girls as human sheilds while they continue to molest them. As a single scene thats works to demonize the pirates, but he writes 5 variations of the same set up and pogressively more graphic and disgusting. It finishes with a drawn out torture execution of the Pirate Duke.
September 11, 2019
4.5*. The Vicky Peterwald books always seem a bit grittier than the Kris Longknife ones. To me, Vicky had/has more personally to overcome; starting with her family history and culminating in the disasterous state of the Empire. Some of the reviews have criticized the amount of sexual violence in this story. I didn't see it as gratuitous and thought it was integral to Vicky's ephinany regarding the Empire's democratic future. Overall, another great entry in the Society of Humanity Universe.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 5, 2019
Implacable indeed
Though you know that Vicky is going to solve the problems and that she is not her father, she overcomes and persevered. Though she is always doubted she manages to weave her way through the skull drudgery of her opponents. An entertaining read. I always look forward to more.
Though you know that Vicky is going to solve the problems and that she is not her father, she overcomes and persevered. Though she is always doubted she manages to weave her way through the skull drudgery of her opponents. An entertaining read. I always look forward to more.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews