Review: Great Action & Good Science
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 12, 2013
Once again Tongue delivers in his Battlecruiser Alamo series. In the first two books Tongue established his universe, politics and its characters In this instalment Tongue now steps out from the solar system and in to a wider universe. In Victory or Death the Alamo is given her first true exploratory mission - go and find out what the Lunar Republic and the UN are up to in the space beyond Ragnarok, protect the Triplanetary Alliances interests and find and identify new resources, worlds and splinter colonies to bring in to the Alliance.Once again Tongue serves up great action mixed with a good understanding or realpolitik and some intriguing "just maybe" space technologies... and a good deal more besides.In Victory or Death, the crew of the Alamo are faced with a number of intriguing discoveries that hint at a much wider set of story arcs to come.Who for example are the ancients and why did they terraform as they did?What was their connection to the Neanderthals?What was the old pre-war UN up to in deep space and what happened to the Hercules?How much does the Lunar Republic - the successor state to China- know and how far will they go to secure further resources and territory?Which lost colony has the knowledge and resources to build particle weapons?How does the old pre-war EU figure in all this and who or what armed the French Foreign Legion?And just who among these lost colonies invaded who and why?So what did I especially like?In Tongue's universe and especially in Victory or Death, exploration ships are clearly rare beasts operating far from home, and  like a frigate of the 17th century, a single vessel in the right place at the right time can determine the future of its parent nation for generations to  come - a ship commander in Tongue's universe must be diplomat, invader, officer and scientist all rolled in to one. Equally good, Tongues universe is almost unique in the current trend of military SF - rather than using fantasy technologies or empires, his universe is clean, has a clear appreciation of modern science, distances and resource limits, and is bounded by a political system that appears to be a logical - and adult - extension of the politics of this world. Best of all, this isn't just a feature of this book, but an excellent feature of all the books in the series to date.The action in Victory or Death is fast, furious, engaging and sensible - large but well planned risks can mean huge rewards and the captain of the Alamo in this story is prepared to take them.There's a lot out there and the Alamo is the ship to go and see what it is. I for one can't wait to read the next instalment.