Downbelow Station

 A great book I read this month...

This month I read a great book. It was called Downbelow Station, by C.J. Cherryh.

Like I have had to say many times, this is not the first time I have read this book. I read it soon after it came out in 1981 and fell in love with the whole universe she had created. This is probably the third time I have read it and I think I enjoyed it more this time than either of the others.

I believe this book was the first written in this universe but there are many books in this series and I have enjoyed all of them. This novel takes place on a space station that is caught in the middle of two interstellar empires trying to control the only station that has a habitable planet beneath it.

Earth and her forces on ebbing in power and just trying to hang on to the empire they have built, including Pell Station and Cyteen is pushing back against Earth and trying to take everything and force Earth back to their own system and nothing more. And Pell is stuck in the middle of the struggle.

The people from Earth and Cyteen both have their own cultures but the stations have also developed their own culture over the centuries as well as those who inhabit the trading ships that move between the distant stations.

The author does a magnificent job of creating these separate worlds and their individual desires and the conflicts that go with them.

There is a reason that nearly all of the books on two of the shelves in my library have the name CJ Cherryh on them.

She is the best at creating worlds and stories.

If you have the chance to read it, please do it. You will enjoy it.

 A great book I read this month...

The Jasad Heir.
This month I read another great book.
The book that I selected this month was The Jasad Heir. by Sara Hashem.

I met this author at WonderCon this year at an Author panel and was very impressed with her. As a result I went out and found her where she was signing her books next to Tricia Levenseller, who is a lifetime friend of my daughter. I talked with her for several minutes and was even more impressed with her and liked her so I bought her book and read it. 

Her main character is forceful and directed and the book is well written. I believe this is her first book, but I could be mistaken. If so, it is exceptionally well done for a beginning author. Her characters are well developed and likeable. Her world is well designed and complete and the story pulls you through the mysteries and adventures without giving too much away or adding too much confusion.

I really liked this book and will read other books by this author as I see them. Watch out for them also.

If you haven't read this book before, I would recommend it.

Marque and Reprisal- A Book You Ought to Read

 A Great Book I Read This Month...

I had the opportunity to read a great book last month.
The book is entitled 'Marque and Reprisal' by Elizabeth Moon
This book is the second of a series and I have to admit that you could start with this book but you would be better off to start with the first book in the series. Trading in Danger. There are a few details that you will pick up in the first book that are explained in the second book but you will probably understand better if you read the entire first novel.

As you might have noticed, I have read many of Elizabeth Moon's books. I recommended her Remnant Population several months ago.

As with many of this author's novel, it is a military sci-fi story and the adventure starts immediately and keeps moving throughout the book. She is great at displaying the characters and showing their strengths and flaws. This was my second time through this series and I enjoyed it just as much this time around. The main character in this book has been kicked out of her planetary naval academy and put onto a family trading ship. While there, her family shipping company has a major emergency sending all of the ships into chaos and pirates are erupting in every system to try to destroy the established systems. Through this the young captain must fight her ship and mske new decisions without help from the corperate directors or any family. She seems to jump from emergency to emergency. Making whatever decision seems right at the time, trying to hold on until order is restored, if it ever will be.

As I mentioned, I have read other books by this author and enjoyed them all.

I enjoyed reading this book. If you get the opportunity to read this novel, do it. It is worth your time.

Of Kings, Queens and Colonies.

 A great book I read this month...

I had the opportunity to read a great book a couple of months ago.
The book is entitled 'Of Kings, Queens and Colonies' by Johnny Worthen
This book is the first of a trilogy. I had the opportunity to meet the author last fall at FanX in Salt Lake and talk to him for a little bit. He was very excited about this book and I have to say that after reading the first in the series, I am excited also. The descendants of earth have landed on a series of planets that surround a sun that has devastated the planets and all shipping in the system. Their technology has degraded to where they have just enough to be able to get by, although they have managed to maintain ships that can move from planet to planet.

The interweaving politics that drive the story are much like the 16th century explorations on Earth which drove those nations to explore and conquer.  Each planet tries to conquer the others and become the dominant polity and religion in the system. 

The story continues to build from the beginning to the climactic end and leaves you waiting for more.

The author has done a great job of creating great, believable characters, with real needs and wants.

I enjoyed reading this book. If you get the opportunity to read this novel, do it. It is worth your time.

But that is just my opinion.

Conviction- Scattered Stars: Book 1

 A great book I read this month...

I had the opportunity to read a great book last month.
The book is entitled 'Conviction: Scattered Stars, Book 1' by Glynn Stewart
This book is the first of a series and I plan on reading all of the books that are available. I have read several books by Glynn Stewart and have enjoyed most of them. His Agent of Mars series has been great.

This book hooked me from the first chapter and kept me entertained and excited as the heroine worked her way through conflict after conflict.

The plot is complex and entertaining and the action is non-stop. The characters are also deep and fairly complicated and they keep developing as the story goes on.

The story begins as our heroine is trying to escape from her home planet. They have just gone through a peace treaty and unknown to her or her teammates, her government sold them out to the victors in the treaty. All of the other pilots in her group are dying, one by one, including her commander and mentor. His last instruction was to get out to the fringe and try to protect the rest of her team.

She finds that he had prepared a nest-egg for them all and she starts to set up a new home. The problem is, few of her team still survive to live there and their enemies are not done hunting them.

I really enjoyed reading this book. If you get the opportunity to read this novel, do it. It is worth your time.

The Guns of the South- Good Alternate History

The Guns of the South

One of the books that I finished this week was The Guns of the South by Harry Turtledove. I haven’t read a lot of books by Harry Turtledove in the past but the ones I’ve read have all been good. His books have all been a twist of history. An alternate history where some part has been changed in some way so that history was changed.

In this book, time travelers came back to the Confederacy and brought General Robert E. Lee a supply of AK-47s just before he was about to lose the civil war.

As a history buff, I was interested to see what the events would be if the South never rejoined the Union. I was interested to see the great study the author made of the actual persons who were a part of the story and the choices they would probably have made in the new circumstances they found themselves in. There was great research done to use the real characters who were a part of our history but also to create fictional characters and weave them into this time and place without any apparent seams.

I greatly enjoyed this book and will read more by this author the next chance I get.

But that’s just my opinion.

-Jeff

Battle Cruiser - Missed my Mark

I just finished reading Battle Cruiser by B. V. Larson. I have to say, I was a little disappointed. I have read his Undying Mercenaries series and really enjoyed them so I was looking forward to starting a new series but this one didn’t hit the mark for me.

That isn’t to say that it was a bad story. I would give it a solid 3 or 3.5 out of 5 but he usually hits much higher on the scale than that for me.

The story was good; Earth has lost her capacity to go to the stars through a solar calamity and the Star Guard is struggling to survive on smaller and smaller budgets as the Earth becomes isolationist and retreats inward. Into this arena a young captain is forced to overcome the odds and inertia of politics when he discovers that one of the Colonist’s ships has returned and the single ship out guns all of the Earth’s fleet by itself.

The problems for me come with the characters, who are not as well developed as they could be, and the plot was not as fleshed out as it could have been. There are some really good characters here that I would have liked to know better.

The plot felt rushed and had few twists or turns. I had real trouble with the romantic connection between the main character and his girl. He met her once and they were both willing to make major sacrifices for each other. I felt there needed to be more development there also.

As I said earlier, I enjoyed the story, but I probably won’t finish the series.

But that's just my opinion.

-Jeff