Stephen Sweeney

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The Third Side (Battle for the Solar System, #2) by Stephen Sweeney

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

3rdside

Original review posted Thursday, April 4, 2013

Book Description: Simon Dodds has had his wings clipped. Shot down over the luxurious holiday planet Mythos and separated from his wingmates, he is quick to discover that the once-popular sun-soaked paradise has been transformed into a nightmarish war zone, swarming with armies of seemingly unstoppable black-suited soldiers. The Pandoran war machine is on the move, preparing to advance The Mission and deal to the rest of the galaxy the same fate it did the Mitikas Empire.

Unaware of what fate may have befallen his friends, the young pilot attempts to make his way through the dangerous streets of the war-torn city of New Malaga, as he waits for the CSN to rush to the rescue.

But from out of the chaos emerges something far more terrible; and if Dodds can somehow survive the next 24 hours, he might finally see beyond the lies he has been fed and hear a side to the story that no one wants him to: what really happened to the Imperium, who the black-suited warriors are, what the ATAFs were built for…

… and what his purpose in all of it is. Whether he likes it or not.

There are three sides to every story.
But sometimes the truth is the hardest side to believe.

Review 3 of 5 Stars

This is one of those books that I’m kind of torn about.  Some of the story is really good, but then other things kind of drag me out of it such as how some of the characters act.  For seasoned military people they seem to have a pretty high disregard for following orders (after a very slight bit of coercion from fellow teammates) and one in particular seems a little squeamish to be a crack fighter pilot. Another thing is that as I read through it, the major machine adversary has my brain screaming about replicators from Stargate in the background. There are times in the story when I’m really drawn in and at other times it seems like the author is just dragging things out for word count and I find myself wandering off.  The good news is that I was able to finish it so it’s not horrible and I’m even kind of curious how it all may end in the third book. I just don’t know if I can trudge my way through the third book just to satisfy that curiosity.  So I’ve given it three stars.  There are parts I really enjoyed and parts that completely snapped me out of the story due to the lack or realism.  Military science fiction has to have just the right mix for me and I’m not sure that the characters in this book are up to the task at hand.

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