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A review by frankvanmeer
Codename: Night Witch by Cary Caffrey
4.0
I wasn't really happy with The Machines of Bellatrix and that cliffhanger pissed me off so badly, I had doubts I would read Codename: Night Witch (which I was sure was called White Princess when it was announced).
At the same time, I bought it the second I saw it was released. And really hesitant to start with.
Codename: Night Witch continues in much the same vein as its predecessor. It's a never-ending string of ultra-violence (I think that by page 3, the death toll was already above 1500), with Sigrid struggling to find out what happened in the six years she has no memory of. This quest leads her to a small trading post and she meets a rather eclectic group of people, who all know who she is and what she has done. But she can't remember any of it. She wants her memories back and kills whoever gets in the way.
While it is a good military sci-fi romp, it suffers from the same symptoms that Bellatrix had. The almost continuous strings of battles leave no room for any character development. And the thing is, you know, because it is a given, that Sigrid will be victorious. There is no real tension, so after the third battle, it's just another thing to get through, and it just becomes another oppurtunity for the author the show us the many ways people die. (I swear, in these three books, more ammunition and military hardware is spent than in all the major conflicts in the 20th century combined).
And there's Sigrid herself. In this book, she's now 24 or 25 years old. But she still talks like she is the 9 year old timid girl we were introduced to. For a seasoned killing machine, it is rather odd that when she curses it goes no further than Goodness! or Blast it!
This book also tells us the author rather enjoyed the Mad Max movies, played a game of Fallout (or two) and there is a rather funny Star Wars referencebut this time, the droid needs to be convinced these aren't the people it's looking for .
While it is a sci-fi and more that 300 years in the future, I sometimes had to shake my head when simple physics like inertia, momentum and friction were basically ignored when the story calls for it. For instance, there are these massive trucks, much the same as the Australian Road Trains, that must weigh over 600 tonnes that go over 200 kph (or more precise, 215.7. For some reason every speed, distance or mass uses fractions) able to make emergency stops which only take 40 or 50 meters. Those must be some pretty awesome brakes. Never mind the G-forces that come with that. Then there are the most ridiculous weapon assemblies. Eight Gatling cannons in the same turret. That must be a bitch to engineer the ammunition feed. And that brings me to something I also pointed out in Bellatrix: they never run out of ammo. I cannot help but wonder where the hell they put all those rounds.(eight gatling guns, conservitavely estimated capable of spitting out 3000 rounds a minute. You do the math).
Despite these small points of critique, the Girls from Alcyone series is by far (the only?) the best lesbian military sci-fi out there, even when the romance is pretty much non-existant. But when Sigrid and Suko are re-united, it gets pretty steamy :)
I only hope the next instalment won't take another two years. I'm giving it 4.5 stars.
At the same time, I bought it the second I saw it was released. And really hesitant to start with.
Codename: Night Witch continues in much the same vein as its predecessor. It's a never-ending string of ultra-violence (I think that by page 3, the death toll was already above 1500), with Sigrid struggling to find out what happened in the six years she has no memory of. This quest leads her to a small trading post and she meets a rather eclectic group of people, who all know who she is and what she has done. But she can't remember any of it. She wants her memories back and kills whoever gets in the way.
While it is a good military sci-fi romp, it suffers from the same symptoms that Bellatrix had. The almost continuous strings of battles leave no room for any character development. And the thing is, you know, because it is a given, that Sigrid will be victorious. There is no real tension, so after the third battle, it's just another thing to get through, and it just becomes another oppurtunity for the author the show us the many ways people die. (I swear, in these three books, more ammunition and military hardware is spent than in all the major conflicts in the 20th century combined).
And there's Sigrid herself. In this book, she's now 24 or 25 years old. But she still talks like she is the 9 year old timid girl we were introduced to. For a seasoned killing machine, it is rather odd that when she curses it goes no further than Goodness! or Blast it!
This book also tells us the author rather enjoyed the Mad Max movies, played a game of Fallout (or two) and there is a rather funny Star Wars reference
While it is a sci-fi and more that 300 years in the future, I sometimes had to shake my head when simple physics like inertia, momentum and friction were basically ignored when the story calls for it. For instance, there are these massive trucks, much the same as the Australian Road Trains, that must weigh over 600 tonnes that go over 200 kph (or more precise, 215.7. For some reason every speed, distance or mass uses fractions) able to make emergency stops which only take 40 or 50 meters. Those must be some pretty awesome brakes. Never mind the G-forces that come with that. Then there are the most ridiculous weapon assemblies. Eight Gatling cannons in the same turret. That must be a bitch to engineer the ammunition feed. And that brings me to something I also pointed out in Bellatrix: they never run out of ammo. I cannot help but wonder where the hell they put all those rounds.(eight gatling guns, conservitavely estimated capable of spitting out 3000 rounds a minute. You do the math).
Despite these small points of critique, the Girls from Alcyone series is by far (the only?) the best lesbian military sci-fi out there, even when the romance is pretty much non-existant. But when Sigrid and Suko are re-united, it gets pretty steamy :)
I only hope the next instalment won't take another two years. I'm giving it 4.5 stars.