Loved it!
OK that’s it – you can stop right here if you want the pure unvarnished truth about my feelings on this book. However if you want to know why … well, continue reading! 🙂
I think you all know by now that I’m a bit of a geek and a SciFi nerd. I’m no NASA scientist but I generally am able to catch the obvious elements that detract from a story and while in some cases they don’t ruin a story – they pull you out of the universe that the author is trying to create. In this case however, I’m very happy to state that not only did that NOT happen – I actually found myself wishing for this level of detail in some of the other books and series that I’ve read. The science and advancement postulated simply makes sense and it is something you would EXPECT to see. Let me give you an example –
See what I mean? Something like this makes sense – I mean this is just an extension of Google Goggles isn’t it & while I have always thought of a bridge matching that of the Enterprise (as I’m sure you have to), if you really think about it, that doesn’t make too much sense when it can all be virtual. By the same token – having a “Holodeck” really doesn’t make too much sense either when each individual could have their own virtual environment.
This book continues in the same vein with ships utilizing planets and other satellites for speed boosts via slingshot instead of a sub-light drive or other futuristic technology. Robots and cyborgs are prevalent in the marine contingent of the ships’ forces but again here to the weaponry is a simple extension of our current armament and not some laser or plasma weapon. It’s good – this verisimilitude keeps you in the story and with the characters and I can only applaud the author (Isaac Hooke) for making that extra effort!
The Captain’s Story
So you’ve heard my enthusiasm for the book, but you’re probably wondering what’s it all about? Well – I’ll be honest … once again the blurb on Amazon really doesn’t do the book justice:
Let’s be honest … you probably wouldn’t pick that up unless you were truly desperate for something to read would you? Let’s see if we can spice it up a bit!
Captain Jonathan Dallas leads a small task force on a critical mission against hostile SK (Sino Korean) forces. However when a research vessel under his command disappears his investigation uncovers a much more serious threat. A hostile alien race has captured his ship and while his superiors believe that these ships are merely SK forces in a guise not seen before, Dallas knows that he has stumbled across a significantly more dangerous foe. If his armada continue their planned attack into SK territory, not only will they be starting a war between human forces, they will also leave themselves open to a war against an unknown alien foe – one with their own agenda.
What do you think? I think it makes it a bit more interesting and intriguing? Not perfect perhaps but definitely better than the one earlier – in my opinion anyways!
CHARACTERS & STORY
Some really good and interesting characters here. Dallas was really good & believable and his motivations were well described too.
WRITING & LANGUAGE
As mentioned at the start – this part of the book was for me the best. It simply worked and you could see that the author made an effort not only to ensure that they minimized the use of jargon, but that their overall technology worked. I really liked it.
PACE
Good too – this isn’t one of those massive fleet battle books that I’m so fond of as the largest encounter I think was restricted to about a 1/2 dozen on each side. It was well portrayed though and the other elements of the story also made good sense.
cal, and honest. Often a student, and even more often than that an assistant to a professor, doctor, or a mad scientist. At times he might be conducting some reaserches himslef. When he’s not doing that you can find him riding his ever trusted bicycle from point A to point B. The Young Man is not exactly mild-mannered, but he is polite. He is skeptical, albit curious (think agnet Fox Mulder). This often lends him in very dangerous situations. Our protagonist usually starts his tale claiming that he wants, nay MUST tell us of the hideous events/ terrors that his otherwise lucid mind had been the victim of. Sometimes he can also be the outcast, sickly, aristocrat.
Lovecraft was obsessed with geometrical shapes and madness. First came the madness, then the geometrical forms, sometimes the other way round, but most often they coincided and co-existed: one enticing the other. Was his fascination related to some personal experience? Remember his dad, Winfield? Well, Winfield died of insanity (sort of), thus it only makes sense that the highly unpleasant memories of the past have rooted themselves deep into Lovecraft’s subconsciousness. As for the geometrical shapes? Perhaps he knew something we didn’t…
ading of what was culturally advanced and what was, well, not. While anthropolgiests enjoyed travesring rain forests, the arctic, ancient caves, and observe anceint cult rituals. Eqaully eager static explorers devoured all those findings in the written form. Back in the day travel was not as possibly or widely effordable as it is today. In fact, the only way people could find out about what was going on over the Pacific and the Atlantic was via readings. Unfortunantely White Supremecy was the unqestioanble force and standard at the time, which made pretty much everyone sound like a big, ol’ racist. Lovecraft wrote in the sceintific spirit of the time, nothing more. But I think that all in all he was an overall nice guy. Most of the ancient curses he was writing about were brough upon by ancient cults, usually worshipped by men-eating aboriginals.
s that wanted to steal our brains and pickle them in jars *sad smiley face*. When Lovecraft wasn’t blaming ancient rain forest tribes for awakening ancient evil and unleashing it on the perfectly civil Western Civilization he blamed aliens for all sorts of wicked things. Aliens were always kind of heinous, and they always resided in cave, preferably New England caves. They also resembled insects. Sometimes they made penguins mutate. Go figure… If all else failed write something about an ancient alien race found frozen in the arctic, in an undergroun geometrically shaped temple worshipped by the local indigenous population.
ables, Fall of the house of Usher, The Monk… Houses and curses are the bread and butter of the gothic novel: for without the house there will be no curse, and without that there will be no novel. As a child
