alien invaders

All posts tagged alien invaders

Short Story Review: Second Suicide by Hugh Howey

Posted by tjhapney on February 5, 2015
Posted in: Science Fiction, Short Story. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

SecondDescription/Blurb:

Eight days to planetfall, and I’m being transferred to Gunner. My tentacles slime in disgust.

Or is it fear?

If this is the last planet we ever conquer, I’ll be glad. Be nice to settle down somewhere, get off this ship, own a square of land, learn to love all that open sky.

Eight more days before planetfall. Eight days before we reach planet Earth.

Review 4 of 5 Stars

This short story from Hugh Howey was a fun piece to read. Despite some of the alien invader’s more serious issues, the story did not take itself too seriously. I found myself smiling at more than one point. The main character, Hyk, is an invading alien who finds himself transferred from a cushy intelligence job to a combat unit. Hyk is an entertaining character and I enjoyed reading about his experiences. Unfortunately our main character’s roommate, Kur, is essentially a 12-year-old with regard to his mentality, especially with regard to humor. I truly felt for our main character because of this, but not enough to want them to invade Earth. Although this story has a complete story arc, it is a short story and I wouldn’t want to ruin the fun. I enjoyed reading Second Suicide, got a few juvenile laughs from it and liked that it was told from the tentacled alien’s perspective. I won’t say it is Hugh Howey’s best story, but it was entertaining. If you have a spare dollar then you might want to take a look.

 

 

 

The Honour of the Knights (The Battle for the Solar System – Book 1) by Stephen Sweeney

Posted by tjhapney on May 31, 2013
Posted in: Science Fiction. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

knights

Original review posted Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Description:  When starfighter pilot Simon Dodds is enrolled in a top secret military project, he and his wingmates begin to suspect that there is a lot more to the theft of a legendary battleship and an Imperial nation’s civil war than either the Confederation Stellar Navy or the government are willing to let on.

Within weeks of being reassigned to the Confederate border system of Temper, the five would begin to untangle a web of lies and a cover-up that seemed to span the length of the entire galaxy. And it would not be long before they themselves would come face to face with that which destroyed an empire: an unforgiving, unstoppable, and totally unrelenting foe.

There seemed to exist only one glimmer of hope of driving back the darkness: The ATAF Project – a secretly developed set of starfighters that may well just harbour some terrible secrets of their own.

Review 4 of 5 Stars

All in all I guess the best recommendation that can be given to a book is that I enjoyed, was entertained and intrigued enough by the book to buy the second one in the series.  It was pretty much a fighter (ATAF) pilot story and the only real land-based scenes take place at the beginning on the Dodds’ apple farm.  Everything else is on a ship, space station, etc. so it’s very much about the characters and the story unfolding. Even after reading the book I really don’t know enough about the enemy or what’s going on in Imperial space to satisfy my questions so I’m hoping the second book will provide me with more of those details. Never fear though, there’s plenty to keep you interested as you move along through the story and lots of unanswered questions, which I appreciate in the first book of a series.  Simon (Dodds), Estelle, Chaz, Kelly and Enrique are the White Knights and after having not been chosen for the secret ATAF project they are later thrust into the middle of it with many questions of their own and not nearly enough answers from the brass.  Overall, I enjoyed the book and as I stated at the beginning I did buy the next one in the series as it caught my attention enough to make me want to know more.  There were some typos and incorrect word usage (and I don’t mean the kind that’s the difference between the US and UK) that tripped me up a couple of times (though not too bad), but the author suggests that if you’re going to read the whole series that you start with the second edition of this book instead of the first.  I read the first version which may account for some of the editing issues, etc. Either way, no reason to pass up a good story for a few mistakes.  Just roll right over it and enjoy the show.

Note: As I am moving my blog to WordPress, I am including the clarifying comment regarding the versions that the author made on my original post.

Thanks very much for the review!

The second edition of the novel is actually a rewrite, not just spelling and grammar fixes. It contains new chapters, an entirely new prologue, a new memoir style for Kelly Taylor’s journal (which is more consistent with that of the follow-up books), and more in-depth characterisation.

All in all, the second edition is about 20,000 words longer than the first!

The core story is identical, however, so it’s not like readers will fail to understand the second and third novels if they do not read the second edition.

Regard,

Stephen J Sweeney

Dead Soul (In Her Name: The Last War, Book 3) by Michael R. Hicks

Posted by tjhapney on May 31, 2013
Posted in: Fantasy, Science Fiction. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Dead SoulOriginal review posted Monday, August 13, 2012

Description: Three years after the brutal first contact encounter with the alien Kreelan Empire, the human Confederation is desperate for a victory. With over a dozen worlds under siege by legions of Kreelan warriors, President McKenna orders the Confederation military to deliver a victory to give humanity hope.

Ichiro Sato and his wife Steph, Roland Mills, Valentina Sikorsky, and the irrepressible General James Sparks are once again at the sharp end of the spear in a mission to take back the colony of Alger’s World from the alien invaders before the Kreelans have exterminated the human population.

But the overwhelming firepower that they plan to bring to bear on the Kreelans may not be enough. For leading the invasion of Alger’s World is Ku’ar-Marekh, a warrior priestess who is feared even among her own kind. With her spirit trapped between life and death, she is called Dead Soul…

Review 4 of 5 Stars

I was completely sucked in by the first two books.  Though I enjoyed this one, it wasn’t quite as much of a draw for me.  I wasn’t as drawn in by Ku’ar-Marekh, the Kreelan warrior priestess that was the Kreelan focus for this volume and I really don’t feel that I need to be told multiple times that she cannot feel any emotional attachment in great detail.  I got it.  I would have really liked to see more about Tesh Dar, the warrior priestess from the first book as she was a very interesting character and I had hoped she would be back in business by the last book in the trilogy, but we did get more time with the Empress this time and that was pretty interesting.  I will say that I read the prequel series first after having read Mr. Hicks’ Foreword at the beginning of Empire from the Redemption trilogy because I wanted to read the story in chronological order so there may be more of what I’m looking for in that story line later, but I can’t say at this point as I have just begun reading Empire. Additionally, things with the main human characters all wrapped up a little too quickly in the last chapter of the book like it was an afterthought.  Other than Ku’ar-Marekh and the final few pages, I enjoyed the read and continue with my recommendation of the series, but do have to say that the third book, in my opinion, wasn’t quite as good as the first two; however, that may not be the case for others.  I really like Mr. Hicks’ storytelling style and think he’s a very good writer. If you enjoy an science fiction adventure of the military flavor you could certainly lose yourself in the series for a couple of days.