Review: So you want to say hi to the Hocklyns?
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 19, 2014
This series got under my skin. I read the first short story and thought, "I want more." So here I am still plowing through author Raymond L. Weil's Slaver Wars series. One warning to first-time readers: The titles of the books don't really track. It goes like this: Moon Wreck, Moon Wreck, Moon Wreck, Slaver, Moon Wreck, Slaver. Weil puts a helpful chronology in the back of the book. But back to an actual review. Fleet Academy introduces Jeremy Strong, son of one of the two who made first contact with the band of humans who were just about wiped out by the nasty reptilian Hocklyns and their masters, the tentacle covered AIs. Strong kind of has a thing for the daughter of one of these off-Earth humans. But he's a total gentleman. She is too. Well, patient anyway. They build a relationship through this story. Another reviewer points out some holes in the bad guys' story. Yeah, OK. No big deal. I didn't really care. I just wanted Weil to kill them off. He doesn't disappoint. This is an old-style adventure. Weil's a storyteller. He gets under your skin. There remain some editing issues that I'd love to fix. And the characters come off a little two dimensional. But the story moves along pretty quickly. Fleet Academy is basically a set-up to the next book. It establishes the human motivation and brings the two populations -- the off-Earth humans and our guys -- together so they can deal with the real enemy. I'm hooked.