A Call to Duty by David Weber & Timothy Zahn

Growing up, Travis Uriah Long yearned for order and discipline in his life . . . the two things his neglectful mother couldn't or wouldn't provide. So when Travis enlisted in the Royal Manticoran Navy, he thought he'd finally found the structure he'd always wanted so desperately.

But life in the RMN isn't exactly what he expected. Boot camp is rough and frustrating; his first ship assignment lax and disorderly; and with the Star Kingdom of Manticore still recovering from a devastating plague, the Navy is possibly on the edge of extinction.

The Star Kingdom is a minor nation among the worlds of the Diaspora, its closest neighbors weeks or months away, with little in the way of resources. With only modest interstellar trade, no foreign contacts to speak of, a plague-ravaged economy to rebuild, and no enemies looming at the hyper limit, there are factions in Parliament who want nothing more than to scrap the Navy and shift its resources and manpower elsewhere.

But those factions are mistaken. The universe is not a safe place.

Travis Long is about to find that out.

There are a few writers who I will read without fail when they release a new book and David Weber is one of them. A Call to Duty, co-written with the legendary Timothy Zahn, was a nice departure, taking his Honorverse universe back in time slightly to the early years of Manticore and showing a Royal Navy dealing with very different problems – a lack of enemies means that internal pressures are about to see the RMN fold completely, left with only a small number of ships to protect its borders. 

As usual, A Call to Duty has a large cast of characters, but the main storyline centers around Travis Long, a young enlisted whose out of the box thinking brings him both opportunities and major problems. Your reaction to A Call to Duty is likely to depend entirely on how you feel about the rest of Weber’s work – the book has the same long descriptions of hardware, political intrigue, space battles and lack of aliens. I for one love the universe Weber has created and Long is a worthy successor (predecessor ?) of Honor Harrington. The ending has all of the trademark action and tension as one expects from David Weber and sets things up nicely for the sequel whenever that may be.

I gave A Call to Duty 4 stars. 

Star Wars A New Dawn by John Jackson Miller

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Disclaimer: This electronic copy was provided by the publisher in return for an honest review.

In the aftermath of the Clone Wars, the Republic has fallen, replaced by the Empire. The Jedi were betrayed and slaughtered, leaving only a handful of survivors to eke out a quiet existence on the fringes of galactic power. But as the Emperor tightens his grip, even those fringes have begun to fall under the iron rule of the Empire. Hidden amongst those who live in the outskirts are those whose lives were destroyed by Palpatine's plans, those who have begun to question his means and motives. On the far off world of Gorse, a handful of such people, including Kanan Jarrus, a former Jedi padawan and Hera Syndulla, an agent provocateur with plans of her own, will stand together against one of the Empire's most fearsome enforcers... with the fate of an entire world in the palm of their hands. 

Few people interested in pop culture will have failed to notice the intense discussion that broke out a few months ago when Disney announced that the Star Wars Expanded Universe - the vast collection of novels, short stories, comics and games that had so far formed the unofficial canon of the galaxy far far away - was being wiped clean, replaced by a brand new canon that would be just as official as the movies. Starting with the Clone Wars cartoon, this new canon would also include new novels, the first of which - A New Dawn - sets up the cartoon series Rebels. 

A New Dawn does a nice job of setting up the main characters of the series, while also telling an interesting, exciting, but slightly disappointing story involving mining, terrorism and the fight for freedom. Centered around two main characters - both of whom are featured on the cover - A New Dawn is no revolutionary new beginning for the Star Wars galaxy. While it does manage to keep your attention thanks to a race against time plot and a reluctant Jedi forced to embrace his powers once again, it is hard to hide the fact that this is designed to get the characters into their positions ready for Rebels to begin in October. The addition of a handful of secondary characters, including a very well realised villain, does add some spice to the story, but it is difficult to develop any real interest in Kanan and Hera. Hopefully the upcoming novels, one of which will centre on Grand Moff Tarkin, will do more to ignite this new expanded universe. 

I gave Star Wars: A New Dawn 3 stars

The Girl in the Road by Monica Byrne

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 The world begins anew, starting now.

In an unspecified future, two women are drawn together across two continents. In a world that has moved away from the former powers of Europe and America, and is now centred on Africa and Asian, the two primary continents are joined by a vast energy bridge. As one young woman flees her past in Asia by going on a foolhardy trek across the dangerous bridge, a young girl is saved by a group of missionaries and traders and carried off on a trip across Africa. Told in first person by both women, The Girl in the Road combines cutting edge science fiction with a mind-bending plot to tell the story of two unimitable women and the ties that bind them together...

I picked up The Girl in the Road as a Netgalley ARC, one that I was delighted to receive. I had been hearing good things about the book, described in numerous blogs as a mind-bending science fiction novel, dealing with identity, family, gender and the fallout of our own modern world. Set in a world where climate change has forever shifted the axis of power from the familiar Europo-American centre to an Africano-Asian combination, The Girl in the World describes what could be a logical future from our perspective. Monica Byrne does a great job developping her world, throwing in enough new technology to satisfy any sci-fi fan, while spending a lot more time on the social and political developments. This is a world in turmoil, chaos that both of our main characters are involved in.

The two main characters seem to be worlds apart in more than one sense as the novel begins. Meena is a grown woman, struggling with her past mistakes and her present fears, who decides after she is attacked in her home to go on a trek across the Arabian Sea on a vast energy bridge. Mariama, meanwhile, is a young girl whose prostitute mother told her to run and who finds herself crossing the Sahara with a disparate group of missionaries, traders and mercenaries. As the story progresses it seems clear  that the two women are linked, though exactly what the link is will probably surprise most every reader.

While the story is sometimes hard to follow due to diversions into hallucinatory visions, and can become bogged down in a series of encounters that Meena has on the bridge, the writing is such that the story is constantly propelled along, leaving the reader happily following the trail of breadcrumbs that Byrne has laid out. Byrne's imagination is at full throttle throughout and she makes great use of the technology she creates. Sexuality plays a huge role, either in flashback or more immediately during the journey, and Byrne does not shy away from confronting the complexity of sexual relations and desire. While both main characters are definitely female, Byrne creates a society where changed genders, transgenders and anything in between are frequent and accepted.

Social and political chaos plays a large role in the book, especially in the latter parts of the novel when Mariama reaches her destination. As she grows into a young woman, she becomes involved with riot and revolution, which eventually brings her into contact with the man who will change her life and cement her connection with Meena. It is trying to make sense of this connection that really propels the novel forward and the final revelation is well worth the wait. Though some of the connections still seem mysterious and uncertain by the time the book ends, it is hard to be disappointed considering the great ride the novel takes the reader on.

One of the most mind-bending, imaginative and unusual novels I have read so far this year, The Girl in the Road is science fiction done right, combining new technology with social developments, armed with an intriguing plot and two strong female characters. As the book progresses, mysteries are revealed and yet Byrne never loses sight of the story she is telling and the world she has created. An engrossing read that kept me turning the pages despite the occasional confusion, I gave The Girl in the Road 4 kreens out of 5.

Honour's Knight by Rachel Bach

"You said no?" the girl shrieked, crushing the letter in her fist. "You didn't even think you should ask me first?"

 

Following the events of Fortune’s Pawn, we find Devi Morris, the kick-ass mercenary who is the hero of the Paradox trilogy, recovering from a mysterious attack that has left her a fellow merc dead and some major holes in her own memory. As she struggles with her own issues (which include seeing things no one else can such as a black stain spreading across her hands whenever she gets angry), Devi tries to make sense of the people she is serving with and to close the gap in her memories.

Rachel Bach had been on my radar for a while through her alter-ego, Rachel Aaron and The Spirit Thief series. Although I have yet to actually read that fantasy series, I did read Ms. Aaron’s book on her writing process 2,000 to 10,000 and loved her voice as well as her great advice. So when I read on her blog that she had a new series coming out, that it was a self-contained trilogy to be released over a six-month period and that it was a space opera starring a mercenary... I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it!

I thoroughly enjoyed Fortune’s Pawn, which reads like a space opera revisited by an urban fantasy author. The collision of tropes worked a treat and when the story broke off on a HUGE cliffhanger, I couldn’t wait to get back to Devi’s weird, wonderful, complicated universe.

Honour’s Knight does not lose any of the momentum that Ms. Bach ended Fortune’s Pawn with. Instead, she picks up all of the story threads and launches them into orbit. I was a little worried that the entire book was going to be Devi trying to get her memories back, but thankfully that specific storythread was nicely wrapped up relatively quickly, allowing the book to explore a lot of interesting territory. We learn a lot about what is actually going on with Devi’s mysterious employer, the huge galaxy-wide threat he is facing and the lengths he is willing to go to fight off that threat, while putting Devi into a complicated moral conundrum – just how far is too far when it comes to sacrifying the few for the many?

Devi herself is put through the wringer in this one, from her complicated relationship with cook Rupert (a romance that is handled extremely well and very believably considering what each of them are willing and able to do the other as the story progresses without a pat solution at the end), to the shattering of her belief system as we get a glimpse at the deified royalty of Paradox mentioned in the last books. As all of this is going on, though, Devi continues to kick some serious ass, which is one of the great successes of this trilogy and a wonderful ‘steal’ from the urban fantasy genre: the depiction of a strong, powerful female character. Devi is not someone anyone should ever piss-off.

Alliances shift, surprises are sprung and things end with Devi and Rupert alone in the unknown, the book ending on another cliffhanger nicely setting up the third book, Heaven’s Queen, which is due in April. Honour’s Knight took everything that worked in the first book and shifted it into warp speed, continuing a fantastic space opera trilogy. I gave this 4 strange blue invisible bugs out of 5.

 

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From the Blogosphere:

The Book Smugglers

52 Book Reviews

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From the Author's Mouth:

Interview at Orbit Books

Influx by Daniel Suarez

"I'm gonna hunt you down like a rabid dog, Sloan." Albert Marrano clenched his teeth on an e-cigarette as he concentrated on a tiny screen.

As Influx begins, we are introduced to a young scientist who has just made a terrific discovery - a gravity mirror that can not only reverse but actually control gravity. On the cusp of this breakthrough, though, Jon Grady finds his lab attacked by a religious fanatic. A bomb is placed, he is tied up and a white light flashes...

What may seem like the end, though, turns out to be only the beginning as Grady is introduced to the world of the BTC - or Bureau of Technology Control - the secret agency to end ask secret agencies, charged with controlling the course of human innovation. Fusion generators, disintegration guns, gene manipulation, robotics, the cure for cancer, even immortality - they are all invented and utilised by the select few, who keep these technologies out of mankind's hands in order to 'protect' us.

I came across Influx on a blog list of upcominge novels a few months ago and was immediately attracted to the cover, as well as the quote on the front calling Daniel Suarez a “legitimate heir to Michael Crichton”. Although I’m not sure, based on this, that the quote is valid, I thoroughly enjoyed this tale of advanced technology, secret agencies, government conspiracies and chaos.

An obvious homage to the Count of Monte Cristo, Influx takes place over a few years of time, allowing the characters to learn and change without either of those actions seeming forced. Mr Suarez does a good job of creating rounded characters and even the villains are developed to a point where they do not seem like card-board cutouts or moustache-twirlers. One of the “villains” in particular has a really interesting character arc that takes her to some interesting places as she begins to question where her loyalties truly lie.

The stakes gradually get higher and higher and the dangers more and more real, allowing our hero Grady to rise to the occasion as he needs to. The advanced tech allows for some pretty impressive action scenes, especially towards the end. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, but if you liked the physics-defying fights of Matrix or Inception, you will love what they do with Influx.

One place where I can definitely see the comparison to Michael Crichton is that it is impossible not to imagine Influx as a summer blockbuster movie. The book practically begs to be adapted and I for one would be queuing up for tickets to see it.

Although the epilogue was a little bit of a let-down for me – I would have preferred for it to delve a little bit more into the larger consequences of the climax rather than giving us a coda to the characters – overall the book really worked. More of a sci-fi adventure than a Michael Crichton-esque thriller, it was still a rollicking read that I really liked. I gave this 4 shattered gravity mirrors out of 5.

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From the Blogosphere:
Random Thoughts
As A Matter of Fancy
Kayla's Reads and Reviews

From the Author's Mouth:
Interview (and review) at Geek Dad