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military sci fi

Wraithkin – Book Review

July 30, 2022 by holojacob Leave a Comment

Now that I’ve reached a little slow point in my writing schedule, I’ve been able to use that time to read a little more.

One of my most recent reads was Wraithkin, a military sci-fi novel by Jason Cordova and the first book in his ongoing Kin Wars Saga. The book starts out on the slow side, but the action and drama both ramp up steadily before ending in a satisfying bang.

Well, numerous bangs, because this is mil sci-fi after all.

Wraithkin Book Cover

One of the things Cordova gets right is how much misfortune he heaps onto his main character, Gabriel Espinoza. Gabriel (who is given the hilarious nickname of “Omelet” during what is essentially space trooper boot camp) is the kind of person the universe will kick in the groin when he least expects it, and then kick him again while he’s down just for the chuckles. Repeatedly. Seriously, the poor guy is put through more than enough to break lesser men. But he’s someone who can take it, who will rise to face any challenge head on no matter how daunting or demoralizing, and that makes him a great character to follow and root for.

When interstellar war hits close to home, Gabriel enlists to join the Wraiths, an elite group of power-armored soldiers who do not mess around! That much is made clear when one Wraith recruit mouths off to their drill sergeant, and the sergeant kills the cadet by breaking his neck! Yikes! And then, because Gabriel is the misery magnet that he is, he’s given the task of carting the trash (a.k.a. the body of his fellow recruit) to the incinerator.

The novel does have a few rough edges. There’s the previously mentioned slow buildup at the beginning, and a few uneven patches in the prose. Wraithkin is one of Cordova’s earlier works, and I think it shows here and there, but that said, his strong instincts as a storyteller shine through the minor bumps in the novel’s execution, successfully pulling me into the story and investing me in Gabriel’s fate.

Speaking of which, Gabriel gets knocked down, both physically and emotionally, and the good guys don’t always win. Don’t go into this novel expecting sunshine and rainbows at the end of the road, but if you like your military sci-fi grim, gritty, and intense, then I think you’ll enjoy your time with Wraithkin. I did.

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: Book Review, book reviews, Jason Cordova, military sci fi, Military Science Fiction, The Kin Wars Saga, Wraithkin

Giveaway – Military Sci-Fi and Space Opera

April 20, 2021 by hpholo Leave a Comment

Time for another giveaway, y’all! 😀 This time, Jacob’s teamed up with 5 of our author pals to bring you a signed mini-library of Military Sci-Fi and Space Opera books, including:

  • The Dragons of Jupiter, signed by Jacob Holo
  • Tanager’s Fledglings, signed by Cedar Sanderson
  • Aries’ Red Sky, signed by James Young
  • Division One: Alpha and Omega, signed by Stephanie Osborn
  • Recruit, signed by Jonathan P. Brazee
  • Legend, signed by Christopher Woods

To enter, just follow this link and enter your mail address. The contest runs from now until Sunday, April 25th, at which point we’ll draw 3 lucky winners!

As always, if you want to increase your chances of winning, there are ways to earn additional entries! 😀

Once you enter, you’ll be sent a confirmation email. (Check your spam folder if you don’t see it in your inbox.) The link in this email will send you to a page of sharing buttons. If you share the giveaway through these buttons, then for every person who enters through your shares, you get 5 more entries! That’s 5 more chances to win!

Good luck! 😄

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Note: Holo Writing is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and, as such, may earn a small commission from any product purchased through an affiliate link on this blog.

Filed Under: Giveaways and Contests Tagged With: aries' red sky, cedar sanderson, Christopher Woods, contest, contests, division one: alpha and omega, giveaway, giveaways, Jacob Holo, james young, Jonathan Brazee, jonathan p. brazee, legend, military sci fi, Recruit, signed book, signed books, Space Opera, stephanie osborn, Tanager's Fledglings, The Dragons of Jupiter

David Weber and Jacob talk The Valkyrie Protocol on the Weberverse!

September 22, 2020 by hpholo Leave a Comment

Here’s even more from The Weberverse! This time, David and Jacob chat The Valkyrie Protocol together, from how the whole adventure started to the details of the writing process.

Filed Under: Holo Books Tagged With: Baen, baen books, Collaboration, David Weber, Jacob Holo, military sci fi, multiverse, Sci-Fi, Science Fiction, The Gordian Protocol, The Valkyrie Protocol, time machine, time machines, time travel, time travelers

The Messenger – Book Bomb

October 18, 2019 by hpholo Leave a Comment

Hey, mecha fans! We know some of you are still reeling from the end of the Seraphim Revival series, and though we’re giving its characters a much-needed rest, we totally understand your need to read more action-packed giant robot goodness.
Luckily for you, one of our #authorbuds, Terry Maggert, teamed up with J.N. Chaney to release a thoroughly kick-butt giant robot space epic! 😀
H.P. just finished barreling through The Messenger, and if you’re a fan of Gundam, Voltron, Mass Effect, or really anything that involves big-a** tech blowing junk up in epic fashion, it’s a fun read!
themessenger

Dash never asked to be a mech pilot, but fate has other plans.
On the run and out of chances, he guides his ship and crew into the heart of a relic older than the galaxy itself–and finds himself on the edge of an eternal war he never knew existed.
The relic is a mech, lost to history and forgotten by all who remain. Built by an ancient race to be the ultimate weapon, the machine is capable of unspeakable destruction, and its discovery could unhinge the balance of power throughout known space.
Worse still, the A.I. inside the machine speaks of an ancient evil that will soon arrive–a race whose power far exceeds anything humanity has ever witnessed.
Only the Messenger can stand against them, the A.I. tells its new pilot. Only you can do what must be done.

Even better, if you enjoy it, the sequel is already available for Pre-Order (Release Date Sunday, October 20th)! 😀
dark between
UPDATE 12.21.19: There are more! 😮

starforged silentfleet

Filed Under: Book Bombs Tagged With: Epic, Giant Robots, j.n. chaney, mech, mecha, military sci fi, Space Opera, Terry Maggert, the dark between, the messenger

Valiant Dust – Book Review

October 16, 2017 by hpholo 1 Comment

When David Weber puts a book in your hands and tells you to read it, you do, and so here is my book report on my recent ARC of Valiant Dust by Richard Baker.
ValiantDust-final-740x1118
In Valiant Dust, Sikander Singh North is an aristocrat-turned-soldier, off to begin his first mission on the Aquilan Commonwealth starship CSS Hector. Sikander himself is not wholly Aquilan; rather, he is from Kashmir, a colonial possession of Aquila that, while economically valuable, does not yet have the technology to construct its own fleet of interstellar warships, and so he serves there to learn how he might better serve his home. As he does so, though, he’s in for a bumpy ride. For CSS Hector has been sent to the planet of Gadira II, where tensions between the ruling sultanate and the rebel caidists have long been mounting on the planet, and where forces that aren’t supposed to be there have suddenly appeared in orbit…
Valiant Dust is easily one of the best pieces of military sci-fi I’ve read this year. Its fast pace and its complex, yet efficiently characterized cast make it a fun read, while its streamlined descriptions of far-future ship tech make it accessible. If you’re a reader who has been wanting to try military sci-fi but has been daunted by the overwhelming techno- and military-babble that is so common in the genre, Valiant Dust presents an excellent starting point.
Those praises (and David’s recommendation) aside, I have to admit that the cultures involved were what grabbed my attention most. Sikander hails from an Indian-descended planet, while Gadira II is Arabic-descended and Islamic-influenced. The ruling powers of Gadira are liberal enough to be okay, if uneasy, about a princess taking an active interest in military affairs, while the citizenry is variably conservative – though not, it should be noted, necessarily terroristic, except where the story’s rebellion is concerned. And even then the rebellion is not religiously-based, but rather rooted in citizen concerns that their rulers are making deals with offworld powers that will benefit the elite, not the common people – or that will eventually benefit the offworlders exclusively, leaving Gadira an exploited, ruined planet. The only actual terrorism in the book takes place in Sikander’s past, where he loses much of his family and innocence in a politically-motivated attack. The circumstances surrounding that tragedy – expressed in well-placed flashbacks throughout the book – give Sikander an emotional tie to the aforementioned Gadiran princess (that is, Amira) Ranya Meriem el-Nasir, who lost her parents in a similar manner. (Ranya herself is one of the most engaging characters in the novel. Though a small romance blooms between her and Sikander, it takes a backseat to her whip-smart attention to political details and her consequent involvement in the uprisings that eventually take place. She became one of my favorite characters as soon as she appeared in the book.)
I don’t know enough about the intricacies of Indian or Arabic cultures to comment upon how accurate the depictions are – and really, given that the novel is set so far in the future (implying plenty of time for cultural change) the point is moot. However, given that the vast majority of sci-fi and fantasy involves Western-inspired cultures, the fact that this novel puts non-Western cultures front and center in a respectful, detailed, effortless, timeless way makes it an instant gem. I mention the last detail in particular because while this is a novel made up of currently-contentious puzzle pieces – namely complexities surrounding Islam and capitalist/imperialist exploitation – those pieces are handled in such a way that readers will be able to pick up this book 50+ years from now and still be able to find some meaning in it. It doesn’t try to provide obvious commentary on any of its components, which in turn makes it one of the more accidentally-engaging political reads I’ve ever read.
All that said, though, this book isn’t trying to be an Important Political Book. What it’s trying to be is a hecka fun military sci-fi action book that just happens to have political complexities at its center. The food for thought is there if you look for it, but it’s still a great read even if all you want out of it is explosions.
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Note: Holo Writing is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and, as such, may earn a small commission from any product purchased through an affiliate link on this blog.

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: Book Review, David Weber, military sci fi, Review, Richard Baker, Sci-Fi, Science Fiction, Strongly Recommended, Valiant Dust

An Unproven Concept – Book Review

August 16, 2017 by hpholo 1 Comment

James Young is another of those authors whose books I bought at LibertyCon years ago and subsequently forgot to read because I tell myself that I’m not going to buy new books until I finish my current pile and, unfortunately, I am a terrible liar. Which results in old books getting hopelessly buried under new books.
An Unproven Concept suffers from an uninspiring title, which is another of the reasons why it sat on my to-read pile for so long. What it should really be titled is “MFing TITANIC IN SPACE!” or some equivalent, because truly, this is a book for people who watched Titanic and thought “You know what this movie needs? Starships and a higher body count.”
unprovenconceptAn Unproven Concept’s Titanic is a starliner that is the best of its type, but the iceberg on its horizon is the persistent advancement of ship technology, which threatens to obliterate the Titanic’s illustrious place in the echelon of starships. Company executives are breathing down the captain’s neck to keep his ship relevant and insist that a trip into uncharted – and illegal – space might just be the shot in the arm that Czarina Lines needs to stay at the top of the game.
Turns out that technological advancement isn’t the only iceberg in this Titanic’s way. When it makes first contact with not one, but two hostile alien species in this territory, it’ll need all the help it can get to save what remains of its passengers and crew.
Nearby are only two ships – the Constitution, a new, experimental ship that everyone expects to fail, and the Shigure, a dinosaur of a ship with a few surprises hidden up her sleeve (in both cases, the unproven concepts of the title). They’d better make it in time, because in this area of space, they’re the Titanic’s only hope.
An Unproven Concept is an entertaining piece of military sci-fi, especially for readers who are Titanic nerds and who like mounds of detail and numbers mixed in with their action. It isn’t so much a retelling of the Titanic disaster as a “What if the Titanic wrecked in space?” exploration, though it does keep some of the tropes that follow the Titanic story – namely, someone in power over the ship insisting that it go faster or, in this case, be more interesting. I initially found that one repetition frustrating; by this point in the far future, after inevitable centuries of Titanic retellings, the captain of a ship with the most unlucky name in transportation should know to answer any orders of that nature with “LOL u so silly. 😛 ” But on the flip side, it’s an obnoxious company exec doing the insisting, threatening livelihoods until he gets his way, etc., and when it comes down to it, a dumb, arrogant, disastrous exec is not that unbelievable. (Plus readers get to enjoy one of the most satisfying comeuppances in the history of executive idiocy when this character gets his due, so it’s worth it just for that.)
Despite its level of detail, too, it’s also fairly easy to read for even casual military sci-fi readers. Personally, when I encounter ship statistics in books, they sound like Charlie Brown’s teacher in my brain – I don’t read for the math. I read for the KABOOM. – but they’re so structured in this book that you can glance over them and still understand what’s going on around them.
Of course, no military sci-fi book – or disaster book, for that matter – is worth anything if you don’t care for the people fighting and dying, and An Unproven Concept’s characters are believable and sympathetic (except for that one exec, whom I’d call a dick if it wouldn’t be an insult to Richards and manly bits everywhere). Abraham Herrod, captain of the Titanic, is one of the easiest to relate to, as he’s just a guy trying to do a good job but being thwarted at every turn by the higher ups. Marcus Martin is one of the best and most badass; as chief security officer on the Titanic, he’s got an obvious bone to pick with everyone who allowed the ship to go into dangerous space, but until he can pick that bone (and maybe break a few) he’s determined to keep as many alive as he can – even if this sometimes involves letting others die.
See, this is a complex book where characters find themselves in situations where there are no good solutions, just some solutions that are slightly less bad than others. But if that’s what you’ve got to work with, you work with it. (It is a military novel, after all.) It also makes the losses even more catastrophic, for the characters who survive have to live not only with their personal losses, but the question of whether their actions were legitimately the right ones. The novel spends a significant amount of time after the conflict’s resolution wrapping up these emotional ends, which on one side, makes for a slow ending, but on the other, makes the end more relevant. It’s not a “Rah-rah! We beat the aliens!” win, because when it comes to any kind of military conflict, there’s rarely a “Rah-rah!”-style ending. There’s always tragedy among the victory, and An Unproven Concept captures that well. However, at its heart, it does allow itself to have some fun with its situations. I mean, characters don power armor and mech suits more than once, after all, and there’s plenty of tough soldier sass to go around.
My only real complaint about the book is that the aliens’ motives aren’t explored much at all; they’re present pretty much exclusively to wreak the havoc that causes the disaster. I would have liked to learn more about them, especially since two separate civilizations were involved, but then, that’s not the story this book wanted to tell. There are also enough typos to notice, but not enough to distract; the story was engaging enough that they didn’t matter as much to me as they would have in other books.
If you’re into military sci-fi, then, An Unproven Concept is well worth your time.
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Note: Holo Writing is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and, as such, may earn a small commission from any product purchased through an affiliate link on this blog.

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: explosions, james young, military sci fi, Science Fiction, titanic

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