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Warstrider #3
Jackers
FUTURE UNCERTAIN — Once he was the gaijin champion of a cruel and oppressive Empire. Now Dev Cameron is a military commander for the rebellious, newborn Confederation -- and at tentative peace with the galaxy's all-powerful rulers. — But treachery has shattered the uneasy truce, as the Imperial lords prepare to rain destruction down, upon the outpost of New America -- delivering the final death blow to the still young revolution. And now only one incomprehensible act can save Dev Cameron and his cause: a miraculous link with an alien self that could change the course of the future...by transforming a man into a god.
Audio CD
First published November 1, 1994
14 people are currently reading
138 people want to read
About the author
William H. Keith Jr.
126 books179 followersBill Keith was raised in the mountains of western Pennsylvania, and served in the Navy as a corpsman for many years. In addition to writing fiction and non-fiction works, he is an award-winning illustrator/artist.
He has also published under the psuedonyms:
Ian Douglas (SF series: Heritage, Legacy, Inheritance, Star Carrier, Andromedan Dark)
H. Jay Riker (SEALS:The Warrior Breed series)
Keith Douglass (Carrier and Seal Team 7 series)
Bill Keith
Keith William Andrews (Freedom's Rangers series)
Robert Cain (Cybernarc series)
He has also published under the psuedonyms:
Ian Douglas (SF series: Heritage, Legacy, Inheritance, Star Carrier, Andromedan Dark)
H. Jay Riker (SEALS:The Warrior Breed series)
Keith Douglass (Carrier and Seal Team 7 series)
Bill Keith
Keith William Andrews (Freedom's Rangers series)
Robert Cain (Cybernarc series)
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
September 13, 2022
Edit, reread 9/22. Keith entered the literary scene publishing some novels in the Warbots series and the striders here show more than a passing resemblance to be sure. And yes, the Warstrider series is equally action packed, but Keith adds a political dimension here (albeit a loose libertarian one) of colonial rebels seeking 'freedom' and 'liberty' from the oppressive and decadent Japanese Empire. The alien Nagas (known before as Xenophobes) are in a way the 'hole card' of the rebellion, as they have already established communications with them (or at least a few isolated ones on planets) and have the means to contact more.
New America is the seat of the fledgling colonial rebellion but they know the Empire is coming, and coming hard. So we have a classic 'Star Wars' of rebels versus the Empire trope here, but Keith runs with it well. This series is pure popcorn, but tasty popcorn! With Jackers, Keith moves into existential territory in a big way as well, with the introduction of 'subhumans' genengineered as servants and alien consciousness challenging the idea of what it means to be human. Fast and fun, but do not expect much to ruminate on after reading. 3 striding stars!!
New America is the seat of the fledgling colonial rebellion but they know the Empire is coming, and coming hard. So we have a classic 'Star Wars' of rebels versus the Empire trope here, but Keith runs with it well. This series is pure popcorn, but tasty popcorn! With Jackers, Keith moves into existential territory in a big way as well, with the introduction of 'subhumans' genengineered as servants and alien consciousness challenging the idea of what it means to be human. Fast and fun, but do not expect much to ruminate on after reading. 3 striding stars!!
June 2, 2015
ABR's full Jackers audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.
The Warstrider series continues with the confederation fighting for its survival, desperately underpowered and undermanned. A series of strategic blunders almost wipes their tiny rebellion out of existence. But don’t worry, they don’t go away that easily and neither do the Xenophobes.
Book three picks right up where two left off. Dev Cameron is admiral of their only warship, while working hard to get more ships. Katia, back on New America, is leading a campaign to defeat the invading imperial forces. There are more exciting battles between incredibly enormous and ponderous war machines, some as big as large buildings. Don’t ask why they are so big, just enjoy the ride. Katia picks up an unusual band of engineered humans along the way, Genies (gene manipulated slaves), who want to help and are as interesting as they are misunderstood.
Douglas has hit his stride in book three. The action continues, but we also get a deeper understanding of the Imperium, what makes the Japanese “tick.” Their cruel and ancient hierarchical society is as believable as it is oppressive. The listener gets a kind of “Dune” feeling to the story. The heavy hand of an ancient tyranny that has institutionalized torture and slavery and used high technology to protect its power at all costs. One early scene is especially chilling: a bioengineered plant/person is kept in the art room of one of the imperials as a kind of living sculpture. The poor creature is in perpetual pain, with just enough mental capacity to know that it is in pain and can never escape, silently screaming for the unknown length of its life.
David Drummond is the same narrator as the first two books and continues to do his excellent work. He is more than capable at his delivery. He sometimes gives high whiny voices to minor warrior characters, but that is easily overlooked. More importantly, he does an excellent job with all the Japanese voices, words and phrases, which is critical to the story.
It is not really fair to judge book three against the first two, it is part of a much larger story and does its job well. If you have listened to book one and two (why would you be reading this review otherwise), and enjoyed them, you will like book three even more and look forward to book four.
Audiobook provided for for review by the publisher.
The Warstrider series continues with the confederation fighting for its survival, desperately underpowered and undermanned. A series of strategic blunders almost wipes their tiny rebellion out of existence. But don’t worry, they don’t go away that easily and neither do the Xenophobes.
Book three picks right up where two left off. Dev Cameron is admiral of their only warship, while working hard to get more ships. Katia, back on New America, is leading a campaign to defeat the invading imperial forces. There are more exciting battles between incredibly enormous and ponderous war machines, some as big as large buildings. Don’t ask why they are so big, just enjoy the ride. Katia picks up an unusual band of engineered humans along the way, Genies (gene manipulated slaves), who want to help and are as interesting as they are misunderstood.
Douglas has hit his stride in book three. The action continues, but we also get a deeper understanding of the Imperium, what makes the Japanese “tick.” Their cruel and ancient hierarchical society is as believable as it is oppressive. The listener gets a kind of “Dune” feeling to the story. The heavy hand of an ancient tyranny that has institutionalized torture and slavery and used high technology to protect its power at all costs. One early scene is especially chilling: a bioengineered plant/person is kept in the art room of one of the imperials as a kind of living sculpture. The poor creature is in perpetual pain, with just enough mental capacity to know that it is in pain and can never escape, silently screaming for the unknown length of its life.
David Drummond is the same narrator as the first two books and continues to do his excellent work. He is more than capable at his delivery. He sometimes gives high whiny voices to minor warrior characters, but that is easily overlooked. More importantly, he does an excellent job with all the Japanese voices, words and phrases, which is critical to the story.
It is not really fair to judge book three against the first two, it is part of a much larger story and does its job well. If you have listened to book one and two (why would you be reading this review otherwise), and enjoyed them, you will like book three even more and look forward to book four.
Audiobook provided for for review by the publisher.
March 18, 2024
Warstrider tome 3 : Jackers
Lu en anglais
Un roman de science-fiction militaire et de cyberpunk.
Quelques centaines d'années dans le futur, la puissance dominante est le Japon impérial, auquel est subordonnée l'Hégémonie, une fédération de 57 nations et de 78 mondes. Aux frontières, l'insurrection est débutée en réaction au contrôle et au racisme de l'empire qui veut réserver les postes les plus importants à des Japonais. Et il y a les Xénophobes, des extraterrestres atypiques qui menacent tout vie.
Tout commence par une action de commando des insurgés, menés par Dev cameron, sur un chantier spatial pour renforcer sa minuscule flotte. Ce qu'il ne sait pas, c'est que l'Empire a envoyé une flotte importante contre la planète principale des insurgés.
Des batailles spatiales, mais surtout des batailles de marcheurs de guerre (Wastrider). Les insurgés sont complètement dépassés en puissance et en nombre. Mais Dev cameron a une carte cachée dans son jeu.
Des humains connectés, des univers virtuels, des liaisons homme-machine, des extraterrestres mystérieux. Une histoire inspirée de la révolution américaine. Tout cela écrit par un ancien vétéran du Vietnam, ce qui ajoute de la crédibilité à l'environnement militaire, aux tactiques et aux combats, sans compter une science plutôt crédible. Plusieurs de ses romans sont publiés sous le pseudonyme Ian Douglas.
Enfin, beaucoup plus d'action et des revirements de situation surprenants.
J'ai beaucoup aimé même si le roman est un peu gâché par une fin à la Deus ex machina.
Lu en anglais
Un roman de science-fiction militaire et de cyberpunk.
Quelques centaines d'années dans le futur, la puissance dominante est le Japon impérial, auquel est subordonnée l'Hégémonie, une fédération de 57 nations et de 78 mondes. Aux frontières, l'insurrection est débutée en réaction au contrôle et au racisme de l'empire qui veut réserver les postes les plus importants à des Japonais. Et il y a les Xénophobes, des extraterrestres atypiques qui menacent tout vie.
Tout commence par une action de commando des insurgés, menés par Dev cameron, sur un chantier spatial pour renforcer sa minuscule flotte. Ce qu'il ne sait pas, c'est que l'Empire a envoyé une flotte importante contre la planète principale des insurgés.
Des batailles spatiales, mais surtout des batailles de marcheurs de guerre (Wastrider). Les insurgés sont complètement dépassés en puissance et en nombre. Mais Dev cameron a une carte cachée dans son jeu.
Des humains connectés, des univers virtuels, des liaisons homme-machine, des extraterrestres mystérieux. Une histoire inspirée de la révolution américaine. Tout cela écrit par un ancien vétéran du Vietnam, ce qui ajoute de la crédibilité à l'environnement militaire, aux tactiques et aux combats, sans compter une science plutôt crédible. Plusieurs de ses romans sont publiés sous le pseudonyme Ian Douglas.
Enfin, beaucoup plus d'action et des revirements de situation surprenants.
J'ai beaucoup aimé même si le roman est un peu gâché par une fin à la Deus ex machina.
September 23, 2017
Although I am failing terribly at breaking my almost non-stop space opera reading, I just had to know what the hell happened. Looks like things are looking up for Dev and Katya, at least as their relationship goes.
Interesting twist with the Naga towards the end, did not see that coming. It was awesome watching the symbiote Dev/Naga smash the Emperials (cue the Empire Strikes Back music). If Katya can work with the Naga as well as Dev did they will have an incredible advantage over the Empire.
I can get why a lot of people of Japanese descent do not like these books. The Warstrider books emphasise many of the things that are bad in the Japanese culture while highlighting very little of what is good. I would point out though that these Japanese are militant Emperials who just assassinated the emperor to put a puppet on the Sun throne.
The genies were an interesting twist, when they were first mentioned I assumed they were referring to the Rom, or Travelers as they are known.
Interesting twist with the Naga towards the end, did not see that coming. It was awesome watching the symbiote Dev/Naga smash the Emperials (cue the Empire Strikes Back music). If Katya can work with the Naga as well as Dev did they will have an incredible advantage over the Empire.
I can get why a lot of people of Japanese descent do not like these books. The Warstrider books emphasise many of the things that are bad in the Japanese culture while highlighting very little of what is good. I would point out though that these Japanese are militant Emperials who just assassinated the emperor to put a puppet on the Sun throne.
The genies were an interesting twist, when they were first mentioned I assumed they were referring to the Rom, or Travelers as they are known.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 11, 2017
This is the 3rd book in the Warstrider series by William H. Keith Jr. a.k.a. Ian Douglas. In this one the war between the newborn Confederation and the Empire is heating up. The Confederation fleet lead by Dev Cameron attacks an Empire shipyard and steals several ships to aid in their upcoming battles. Meanwhile on New America Katya and the rebel leaders fight an attack by the Empire. They are forced to escape and they meet Dev at a planet with a known Xenophobe presence in an attempt to make a new ally. This book is another great read in this series and I recommend it.
January 14, 2022
I only came here for the mecha. The combat as usual was good. Got the starship combat book 2 missed out on. Finally got to see the xenophobes in action again alongside humans. The alien link up was surprisingly good. Everything else just kind of fell short. Still had a bunch of exposition info dumping. Unearned relationships. Weird military role dynamics that break convention. Enemies were cut-out debauched men in positions of power. The storyline about the genies kind of went nowhere. The bad stuff kind of outweighed the good stuff.
May 30, 2020
Recent Reads: Warstrider Jackers. William H Keith Jr's space opera puts rebellion at risk, as Imperial Earth attacks the heart of the fledgling Confederacy. Can a handful of soldiers change the ride by contacting the very alien threat that lives under their worlds? Evolve or die.
March 16, 2019
Interesting world building.
March 11, 2023
Not the best book in the series when it comes to character development, but it is fast paced and action packed. Solid cliff hanger to setup the next book
November 19, 2014
I said already when reviewing the first book in this series that mechwarriors is not my favorite subgenre of science fiction but that I have liked several other book series from this author so I wanted to give this series of his a try when it was re-published as ebooks. Well, that still goes. I also found this book a bit of a mixed blessing. Still, in the end, my opinion is that it is a good read and for those who do fancy mechwarriors it is probably a very good read.
The book continues more or less right away after the second book in the series. The Japanese are rather quickly turned even more into the bad guys in this book, some more than others of course, than in the previous ones and the campaign to eradicate the new Confederation starts to move quite quickly and brutally when the huge Hegemony war machine is put in gear.
That is not to say that the Confederation is not entirely without success but they are of course seriously outmatched in terms of naval power and thus, not surprisingly given the name of the series, a lot of the action is on the ground with or without Warstriders.
The aliens are pretty much out of this book until near the end when the xenos plays a crucial role. The Dalriss are really not present at all. The ending of the book was expected but still I liked it very much. At least up until Dev goes all mushy and starts to blab about…well I cannot really tell you because it would be a huge spoiler but if you read or have read the book you know what I mean. Whether you agree or not is a matter of personal taste I guess. One thing that I do quite like is how the author depicts these aliens with a totally different view of the universe and way of thinking. The monologues of the xeno entity is very well done in my opinion.
There is also a part in the middle of the book where the “genies” are introduced. I was not too thrilled about that. First the entire concept of them was rather revolting to me and I doubt that, even as bad as the Japanese are depicted in these books, that it would be a concept that would be accepted by a human population. Well, that I could live with. It is fiction after all. However the silly debate between the genies in the middle of a war zone and later the authors attempt to introduce some discrimination and racism stuff in the book just felt unnecessary and not very enjoyable to read.
Bottom line though is that it is a good book as far as I am concerned.
The book continues more or less right away after the second book in the series. The Japanese are rather quickly turned even more into the bad guys in this book, some more than others of course, than in the previous ones and the campaign to eradicate the new Confederation starts to move quite quickly and brutally when the huge Hegemony war machine is put in gear.
That is not to say that the Confederation is not entirely without success but they are of course seriously outmatched in terms of naval power and thus, not surprisingly given the name of the series, a lot of the action is on the ground with or without Warstriders.
The aliens are pretty much out of this book until near the end when the xenos plays a crucial role. The Dalriss are really not present at all. The ending of the book was expected but still I liked it very much. At least up until Dev goes all mushy and starts to blab about…well I cannot really tell you because it would be a huge spoiler but if you read or have read the book you know what I mean. Whether you agree or not is a matter of personal taste I guess. One thing that I do quite like is how the author depicts these aliens with a totally different view of the universe and way of thinking. The monologues of the xeno entity is very well done in my opinion.
There is also a part in the middle of the book where the “genies” are introduced. I was not too thrilled about that. First the entire concept of them was rather revolting to me and I doubt that, even as bad as the Japanese are depicted in these books, that it would be a concept that would be accepted by a human population. Well, that I could live with. It is fiction after all. However the silly debate between the genies in the middle of a war zone and later the authors attempt to introduce some discrimination and racism stuff in the book just felt unnecessary and not very enjoyable to read.
Bottom line though is that it is a good book as far as I am concerned.
February 25, 2015
I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone who likes military science fiction. I have always wondered why some of the fans of this genre are turned off by politics and social commentary. Is not that what all war stories are ultimately about? The questions this series raises about technology imperialism and humanity are provocative. The addition of genies, basically manufactured clones with below average intelligence was brilliant. I also find that a lot of military science fiction authors love military culture but also love individuality and small government, talk about cognitive dissonance. I highly recommend these books lots of action and thought stimulation.
September 11, 2016
What a great series!
I'm devouring these, they have jumped to my beloved favorites list because everything about them is entertaining, interesting and compelling.
The narrator is wonderful especially with all the japanese words that I would have stumbled over if I was reading..
I'm downloading everything I can find by this author.
There's just enough of everything to make sense, offer an explanation...without bogging the reader down in the theory at work. I even enjoy the military aspect! Just a wonderful story and read...
I'm devouring these, they have jumped to my beloved favorites list because everything about them is entertaining, interesting and compelling.
The narrator is wonderful especially with all the japanese words that I would have stumbled over if I was reading..
I'm downloading everything I can find by this author.
There's just enough of everything to make sense, offer an explanation...without bogging the reader down in the theory at work. I even enjoy the military aspect! Just a wonderful story and read...
November 15, 2016
Summary: I thought book 3 was better than book 2, good take on the aliens, good military SF, good plot, highly readable, a good book.
Plotline: Sort of works possibly could have been strengthened, a few things didn't quite work, but nice flow
Premise: Generally good, but again some weaknesses
Writing: Simple descriptive, highly readable.
Ending: A little predictable, but wow.
Pace: Never a dull moment!
Plotline: Sort of works possibly could have been strengthened, a few things didn't quite work, but nice flow
Premise: Generally good, but again some weaknesses
Writing: Simple descriptive, highly readable.
Ending: A little predictable, but wow.
Pace: Never a dull moment!
March 17, 2015
We're back to a fun, light action adventure. Big, stompy robots and weird aliens. Well, less of the stompy robots, but still enough to keep me interested. I'll almost definitely get around to reading the next book.
July 12, 2015
The series just keep getting better and better!!! What happens when you merge a human and a xeno.....this one tells the tale.......oh in about 7 pages [not quite sure with the exact count].
Can't wait to start on the next book!!!
Can't wait to start on the next book!!!
May 20, 2016
back on track. better than book 2, I enjoyed this one.
May 18, 2015
fun read moving on to the rest of the series
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews