Wolf Star (Tour of the Merrimack #2)
Starred Review.The American and Roman interstellar empires are still at war in Meluch's rousing far-future SF novel, set in a universe slightly altered from that of its predecessor,The Myriad(2005). Capt. John Farragut and the intrepid crew of the starship USSMerrimacktake on the Romans with the skill, flair and foul-mouthed witticisms one would expect from space-faring sailors and marines, escaping one trap after another as they seek a hidden space station. When they find the station, they're shocked to learn it's been ravaged by the Hive, voracious bug-eyed monsters who'd be right at home on a 1930s pulp magazine cover: they eat anything alive, fly faster than light and are heading straight for human-colonized space. America and Rome must make peace to face this nearly unstoppable threat. Meluch has tightened up her prose and fleshed out her characters, and the parallel-universe twist renders this a perfectly good starting point. This is grand old-fashioned space opera, so toss your disbelief out the nearest airlock and dive in.(Jan.)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.