Review: good military space fiction at reasonable price
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 5, 2014
While it not critical you read the entire trilogy it adds to understanding and enjoyment to read series in order.  These are not deep philosophical readings but they are fun.  The author slips some of his philosophy in there but you can ignore it. He obviously does not like the press, has mixed feelings about aristocrats (I think he secretly wants to be one), dislikes social climbers, and has little respect for career politicians.Most of this novel is a political spy thriller but it does have some space battles.  The climactic battle is a very good but not a great battle scene.  Without giving away any spoilers somehow i felt the emotional engagement could have been higher for the battle and some of the deaths involved.I felt the authors assumption that aliens may be as divided into sub groups as we are was a great approach.  We have to reach out to the group that doesn't attack us but be very careful not to tip them into joining the war as they would easily overwhelm us if united.  Both humans and aliens have their factions that want a war to the death, both assuming it will be the other side that dies.  The Ark Royal is caught up in this factional war and even if one faction is neutralized can they stop genocide attacks from both sides?  The author continues to price books very reasonably, easily sliding this book to five stars for pricing.David Weber and Steve White do this type of military fiction slightly better but I have read all their older published books and they are getting excessively greedy with their latest books. If you like this type of book try try their books In Death Ground, The Shiva Option, The Stars at War, Honor Harrington series, or Posleen War series by John Ringo, , Empire by Michael Hicks... But this book is inexpensive and a fun mindless read. Not as good military space opera as some of those mentioned but still mindless romp through galactic battles at a very attractive pricing.