Review: BRAVO, BRAVO, BRAVO!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 6, 2012
It has been a long while since I read a (hard) science fiction novel with such scope, complexity, and humanity as this bravura performance by T. Jackson King. I understand, and appreciate this author's resume now...he is not only a fine fellow, but a long-time member of the SFWA, an archeologist, a traditionally published author, a one-time anarchist, and a science fiction writer of the highest caliber!***Spoiler Alert!***Matthew Raven's Wing Dragonaux is a cyborg. Once human, he is now irrevocably linked to the living dreadnaught, Mata Hari. His mission as a Vigilante? To bring justice to the weak and helpless, in an unlawful and uncaring universe.A half-human-half alien Derindyl named Eliana Themistocles has asked Mat for help. The Halicene Conglomerate is strip mining her planet, leaving nothing behind except for massive global destruction. Although the spaceship, Mata Hari is perfectly capable of blasting the stripper to smithereens, it can't because of deadly, planet killing microbes that are programmed to release in the event of attack. Prime Dominate Three, an evil griffin-like creature, hold's the planet in a death-grip. What's worse, political maneuvering on the planet itself between the pure-blood Greek colonists, the native Derindyl, and a new species of hybrid Human/Derindyl cross-breeds threaten Mat's best-laid plans.***end Spoiler Alert***There are spaceships, cyborgs, aliens and clones...there is high-tech weaponry, amazing integrated spacesuits and stunning space battles... all the things that make hard science fiction buffs drool...but most of all- humanity runs deep within this wonderful novel, and within the heart Of Matthew Dragonaux, who all but forfeited his humanity to the memory of his dead wife, and the self-aware spaceship, Mata Hari.By the end of this adventure the reader feels real hope for the future of the star vigilante. But a new terror looms... the Destruction Device Six Hundred and Forty Seven, of the Ninety-Ninth Imperial, of the Ti'Chak Imperium has awoken. Can Mat and his suit prevail against this new threat! I can only wait with baited breath to find out!Again, a resounding five stars to T. Jackson King, and his novel, Star Vigilante!