Gods of Sagittarius by Eric Flint, Mike Resnick

This book was a bit of a travelogue of weird places.   Two very different groups are looking for the weapons repository of the “old ones”.   The old ones may be mythological or not.   The two groups are searching for divergent reasons and yet they end up working together.

My favorite character was the Warlock Variation drive.  The driving force on this book was “trekkie” type humor.   There was a lot of tongue in cheek and sarcasm.  It was convoluted, weird and somewhat humorous.  I would characterize it as Stainless Steel Rat type of humor.

It is worth reading but know you are not walking into a “normal” plot.

This book may have been received free of charge from a publisher or a publicist. That will NEVER have a bearing on my recommendations.

Darkness Falling, Andromedan Dark: Book Two by Ian Douglas

Altered Starscape is book one of this series.  Prior to it the  last book I read from Ian Douglas was Star Corpsman: Bloodstar back in 2012.  It was good, not great but good.  Altered Starscape was the first in a new series and it was excellent as was this one.  It has obviously been impacted by other good Sci-Fi but how do you divorce you mind from your reading experiences. Earth has met aliens and is going to their capital.  Their arrival is fraught with peril and they find themselves far from where they had anticipated.

 That was book one and book two the aliens get even more alien.  The plot gets thicker.

St.Clair is the military commander of the humans and Adler is the political leader.   Douglas illustrates a less than complimentary attitude regarding politicos and realistically with today’s political climate, how could he otherwise proceed.   The political machinations don’t stop even when the entire ship compliment is threatened.  It is a good example of self serving politicos.   Lisa, St.Clair’s emancipated self aware robot, adds a side bar of equal rights thinking to the book which is once again, thought provoking.  As much as we would like to think that Asimov’s 3 laws of robotics actually might exist, Douglas thinks otherwise and even more so in book two. 

In spite of the advanced technology of the current crew of aliens, humans offer a new and powerful prospective to civilizations that may have become far beyond hidebound.

Once again, I found the author provide some interesting concepts to contemplate.   Gasp!, he actually encourages you to think! 

I really enjoyed the book and I recommend it.

Body of work of <a type="amzn"> Ian Douglas </a>

Web site: www.whkeith.com

This book may have been received free of charge from a publisher or a publicist. That will NEVER have a bearing on my recommendations.

The Transall Saga by Gary Paulsen

This is a delightful book of survival targeting the YA market.  Mark, finds himself somewhere else while hiking in the desert.  It is definitely not Kansas.  There are strange animals and people and he is in a savage, primitive time.

The story is about how Mark grows, learns and survives.  He makes allies, friends and enemies and discovers a great deal about himself.   There are some surprises in the book but the best feature is the depiction of the growth and maturity of a young man.

I enjoyed the book. 

This book may have been received free of charge from a publisher or a publicist. That will NEVER have a bearing on my recommendations.

The Seventh Decimate by Stephen Donaldson

It has been years since I have read any of Donaldson’s books.  I remember Thomas Covenant fondly for his enormous self doubt.  That theme seems to be in this book as well.  Prince Bifalt shares a similar lack of self esteem or perhaps more accurately a doubt as to his abilities.   He sees himself as a soldier, doesn’t regard himself as terribly bright and cognizant of his diplomatic shortcomings. His kingdom, Belleger, is locked in a generational dispute to the death with Amika.   Both kingdoms are suffering and apparently suicidal.  The Prince is tasked by his father the king to find a solution to the perceived one sided stalemate.  

The Decimates are magical tenets or perhaps spells, I was not entirely sure which.  The evoking of the Decimates are the primary cause of the catastrophic loss of life when the two kingdoms battle. The Prince’s goal is to find the Seventh Decimate which supersedes the previous six by nullifying them.

I did not find the Prince as likeable as Thomas Covenant, not that he was eminently likeable either.  The book seemed more simplistic than I recall Donaldson.  There were not a ton of nuances or thought provoking scenarios.   My most frequent reaction to some of the Prince’s behavior was “what the heck is wrong with you.”   That feeling was tempered by the acceptance that generations of death and destruction would raise cynicism to a new high.   I felt this was more YA than A as far as the plot and flow were concerned.

I recommend it but I don’t think it is of the same caliber as the Covenant series.

Web: http://www.stephenrdonaldson.com/

This book may have been received free of charge from a publisher or a publicist. That will NEVER have a bearing on my recommendations.

The Sea People by S. M. Stirling

This book is set in a post Apocalyptic world where technology has been truncated by some unknown source.  I have no idea what number in the series this is.   It is entirely too long since I have read anything in this series.  This is sometime after the initial characters have kids and those kids are sending out their own children into a world fraught with peril.  The peril is a dark, evil force trying to twist mankind to evil purposes.  The good guys have their own forces for good providing their champions with magic swords. 

I must have missed too many books because this book only made vague sense.  It jumps all over which I referred to in my last review of this series.

Polytheism is a staple throughout the series and some explanation of such is provided in this book.   I said in my last review based on the way the story jumped from one time and location to another, it often felt like a book of short stories.

I really enjoyed the first few books in this series but the last few have left me feeling cold at best.

Website          http://www.smstirling.com/

This book may have been received free of charge from a publisher or a publicist. That will NEVER have a bearing on my recommendations.

Skullsworn by Brian Staveley

This may offend the author but this was really a primer on the myriad meanings of love disguised as a fantasy novel.   It is not a romantic fantasy with heaving bosoms or sex starved virgins but a thought provoking look at what does love actually mean in the context of a medieval type of culture.

The skullsworn, a name they dislike, are pledged to the god of death.   They believe it is their duty to kill in the name of their god.  This isn’t religion by the sword but a more individual killing that seems to, in some cases, right some wrongs.  The main characters are Ela and Kossal, priestess and priest, and Pyrre their priestess to be.   Pyrre is on a quest to undergo her trial to be a priestess by killing seven people in fourteen days.  The victims are not just the first seven people she sees but chosen through the format of the trial.  

Ruc, who Pyrre decides will be one of her victims, is unaware of her religious leanings.  The interaction between the characters, the various gods and Pyrre’s drastic methods of achieving her goals provides the process of the story.

This was an interesting look at love and death.

I enjoyed it.

Web: http://brianstaveley.com/index/

This book may have been received free of charge from a publisher or a publicist. That will NEVER have a bearing on my recommendations.

Altered Starscape, Andromedan Dark: Book One by Ian Douglas

The  last book I read from Ian Douglas was Star Corpsman: Bloodstar back in 2012.  It was good, not great but good.  This book is the first in a new series and it is excellent.  It has obviously been impacted by other good Sci-Fi but how do you divorce you mind from your reading experiences. Earth has met aliens and is going to their capital.  Their arrival is fraught with peril and they find themselves far from where they had anticipated.

St.Clair is the military commander of the humans and Adler is the political leader.   Douglas illustrates a less than complimentary attitude regarding politicos and realistically with today’s political climate, how could he otherwise proceed.  The proliferation of AI adds a equal rights component to the book which is thought provoking.  As much as we would like to think that Asimov’s 3 laws of robotics actually might exist, Douglas thinks otherwise.

I found the author provide some interesting concepts to contemplate.   Gasp!, he actually encourages you to think! 

I really enjoyed the book and I recommend it.

Body of work of <a type="amzn"> Ian Douglas </a>

Web site: www.whkeith.com

This book may have been received free of charge from a publisher or a publicist. That will NEVER have a bearing on my recommendations.