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3.33 AVERAGE
3.33 AVERAGE
Really wanted to enjoy this, but couldn't find myself liking the characters too much. The story just kept moving and felt like it wasn't going anywhere as well.
In the 60ies the biggest James Bond fan of all was abducted by Aliens, put into cryo-sleep, re-awakened in 2012 and forced to write a Science Fiction novel.
That was my take when I had to stop in the first half of the book since it is so unimaginative as you can guess. Although humanity discovered FTL travel in about 100 years, right after that they invent self-driving, speaking (sic!) cars and still use paper cash when traveling to Mars where they solve crimes by comparing blood-types instead of gene analysis. All important work is done by men, women only appear as side kicks with limited background.
I could not stand reading any further, it just upset me too much.
That was my take when I had to stop in the first half of the book since it is so unimaginative as you can guess. Although humanity discovered FTL travel in about 100 years, right after that they invent self-driving, speaking (sic!) cars and still use paper cash when traveling to Mars where they solve crimes by comparing blood-types instead of gene analysis. All important work is done by men, women only appear as side kicks with limited background.
I could not stand reading any further, it just upset me too much.
Great world building, excellent spycraft, compelling characterization. I'm looking forward to the next book!
Sloppily written. I enjoyed the very beginning, but then that storyline was dropped and the book turned into a spy thriller for a few hundred pages. By the time it got back to being a space opera I had checked out and didn't care anymore. Caine was annoyingly perfect at everything in every situation, and had no character arc.
Gannon, Charles E. Fire with Fire. Tales of the Terran Republic No. 1. Baen, 2013.
Charles E. Gannon is an active member of Baen’s stable of military science fiction writers. This is the first volume of a five-year-old, seven-book series in which dangerous humans and dangerous aliens wage several kinds of multi-sided war and espionage. Caine Riordan, a journalist-analyst, is drawn into a first-contact mission on which learns some things that are too hot to handle. He is tossed into suspended animation freezer for 12 years and spends most of this novel trying to recover memories the lost in the freezing process. This espionage plot is quite good, but the novel degenerates into rather routine space-battle action with some military characters so clichéd that It does not bode well for the rest of the series.
Charles E. Gannon is an active member of Baen’s stable of military science fiction writers. This is the first volume of a five-year-old, seven-book series in which dangerous humans and dangerous aliens wage several kinds of multi-sided war and espionage. Caine Riordan, a journalist-analyst, is drawn into a first-contact mission on which learns some things that are too hot to handle. He is tossed into suspended animation freezer for 12 years and spends most of this novel trying to recover memories the lost in the freezing process. This espionage plot is quite good, but the novel degenerates into rather routine space-battle action with some military characters so clichéd that It does not bode well for the rest of the series.
3.5 stars, maybe even 4? I almost quit reading this early on because it was a bit too old-school scifi (including Heinlein-esque badass female characters who are all mushy over the lead), but some of the goodreads reviews said it got better after the midpoint, so I kept going and it definitely did - first half was more like a spy thriller, second half became more like a diplomatic face-off that was very cool. Interested to see where the next ones goes.
A very uneven book.
The good:
The second half of the book managed to create a bit of interesting intrigue and set-up for subsequent books.
Some of the dialogue is quite good, and a few of Riordans deductions quite well done.
The bad:
Some of the language is a bit *ahem* rough. Undulating torsos and sinous women. Tsk tsk.
The women are tough as nails as long as there's not a man around to save them. Then they simper, refuse to go through doors or have irrational breakdowns. *ALL* the women with significant speaking parts fall for the main character and defer to him in his manliness.
The main character is flawless. His deductive powers make Sherlock seem a bit of an amateur. He's a bit like Superman sans kryptonite.
The pacing is very uneven. In the beginning there's a bit of set-up and then the plot jumps and skips ahead for a quarter of the book before suddenly slowing down to where the second (and best) half of the book is mainly dialogue. The planet-bound plot just stopped half-way through.
The baddies are Exxon, vegetarians, appeasement and space nazis. And not space nazis in a good way.
Irrelevant details are randomly given. In the middle of a bullet-fight, one of the protagonists stops to be grateful for the fact that Mars has a significantly lower gravity than Earth, because it enables him to lift something easier.
The good:
The second half of the book managed to create a bit of interesting intrigue and set-up for subsequent books.
Some of the dialogue is quite good, and a few of Riordans deductions quite well done.
The bad:
Some of the language is a bit *ahem* rough. Undulating torsos and sinous women. Tsk tsk.
The women are tough as nails as long as there's not a man around to save them. Then they simper, refuse to go through doors or have irrational breakdowns. *ALL* the women with significant speaking parts fall for the main character and defer to him in his manliness.
The main character is flawless. His deductive powers make Sherlock seem a bit of an amateur. He's a bit like Superman sans kryptonite.
The pacing is very uneven. In the beginning there's a bit of set-up and then the plot jumps and skips ahead for a quarter of the book before suddenly slowing down to where the second (and best) half of the book is mainly dialogue. The planet-bound plot just stopped half-way through.
The baddies are Exxon, vegetarians, appeasement and space nazis. And not space nazis in a good way.
Irrelevant details are randomly given. In the middle of a bullet-fight, one of the protagonists stops to be grateful for the fact that Mars has a significantly lower gravity than Earth, because it enables him to lift something easier.
Empieza flojo y confuso pero la parte final se pone interesante y me da más esperanzas para el resto de la serie
