Review: Solid Entertainment
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 31, 2014
Want a military sci-fi book that gives you all of the value of a Baen book at less than half the price?  This book is for you.  I really have no idea why Baen isn't publishing Christopher Nuttall's books.  The Outside Context Problem trilogy has it all, and it's less than $10 for 1606 pages.  Of course, there are plenty of self-published authors who write tomes of junk - but there's one thing Nuttall is as a writer, and that's competent.  Also, consistent.  That's two things - but it's two things you can rely upon.  He reminds me of early David Drake.This review is for the whole trilogy.  Given that it's one story in three books, I'm only writing one review.  I've given this book four stars, but it's really just shy of four and a half stars. I detract slightly more than half a star because it bogs down a bit in the middle.  Nuttall's Democracy trilogy has the same issue.  His standalone books, however, are all five stars in my experience.  The Empire's Corps series, the Bookworm series, and Royal Sorceress series are all good novels without any real pacing issues.The alien enemy in this trilogy is well-conceived, a reasonable adaptation of the invasion of pre-Columbian America by the Europeans, mixed with other reasonable historical comparisons.  He's clearly a student of history.  Nuttall is very good at keeping his plots logical.  What ought to happen, happens.  Plans fail, people fall short, and you learn quite quickly that you can't rely on any character staying alive.  I felt tension up to the end.I'm not going to tell you that these are the best books evar.  But they are well-edited and well-written, if a little formulaic - and it's a formula that works.  You can always rely on a Nuttall book to give you a reading experience worth more than what you paid, and these don't fall short.Takeaway:  If you are a fan of military science fiction, buy this book.  But buy the Empire's Corps series first.