Richard Fox (7)Rezensionen

Fun enough military sci fi with some okay ideas, lots of battles and big guns and a pleasingly fast pace. Nothing special but an entertaining read.

A little uneven...

...at the beginning, but it developed into an excellent novel. Most of my issue is that the opening scene describes the use of armor before you are truly introduced to the mechanics of this universe.

No major proofing errors. Consistent flow to the narrative. Interesting diversions. One or two plot points that stretch credulity, but not beyond belief.

I look forward to the next book.

A little uneven...

...at the beginning, but it developed into an excellent novel. Most of my issue is that the opening scene describes the use of armor before you are truly introduced to the mechanics of this universe.

No major proofing errors. Consistent flow to the narrative. Interesting diversions. One or two plot points that stretch credulity, but not beyond belief.

I look forward to the next book.

An alien life form come to earth in advance of another alien swarm that is sweeping through the universe, wiping out intelligent civilizations. It works with one human, mathematical, genius to save a human remnant (in a time warp) who can later defend themselves against the remaining destructive aliens. An OK book.

What is it that makes good men willing to see the world burn? To see justice done, tho the heavens may fall? The recent Joker movie directed and written by Todd Philips could described as a character study in what makes a hopeless loser willing to do so. Soren Voss, however, is going somewhere in life. Bright, driven, and self-sacrificing, Voss is willing to do what it takes to serve others, until it all comes crashing down.

Through the Nether is a little different from some of the other volumes in the Order of the Centurion series, insofar as it looks at the aftermath of the events of Kill Team, the third volume of Galaxy’s Edge season one. I think the book stands well on its own, but it is much more interesting if you see it as the other side of the coin of the events in the main series. Much like Kill Team, this book is about the seedy underbelly of counter-intelligence work.

A perusal of the Church committee report will give you an idea of the kinds of things intelligence agents in our world have felt were justified. Programs described in the report range from the shady, to the bizarre, to the perverse. Which is a pretty good description of Nether Ops, Soren Voss’ employer.

Intelligence work of course suffers from the same kind of arms race as warfare does. You cannot defend yourself unless you employ weapons that can counter those of your enemies. However, since so much of intelligence work is secret, it seems to have a pretty natural affinity for descending into the darkness. Plausible deniability plus an arguable need for constant dealings with all players in the game means that you never really know whose side anyone is really on. Hence James Jesus Angleton’s famous dictum that counter-intelligence is a wilderness of mirrors.

The narcissistic and the self-serving will clearly do well in such an environment. The idealistic are just targets for everyone else. Yet, for PR reasons at least, such men are needed in intelligence work. Thus we come to Soren Voss, Soren left the Navy to join Nether Ops, paralleling “Tom”, the former Navy man who was at the heart of the events in both Legionnaire and Kill Team. Soren just wants to protect the galaxy from monsters. He just hasn’t yet figured out that he works for the monsters.

In a galaxy of business as usual, the enormities that Soren commits in a day’s work would simply be swept under the rug. However, nothing is normal anymore, and in a sense, anything can happen, with will and luck. The fun for us is going along for the ride to see what happens.

I was provided a copy of this ebook by the publisher for free.

This series is apparently endless. The book opens with the Terran Fleet getting mauled in the Keshalt system, and Stacey finding the Ark, but also finding the Ark was a very evil Qa'Resh's ship, and he has left behind some nastiness. At the end, Gideon makes an effort to kill Stacey Ibarra as she tries to return to her own body with the help of the Aeon and Qa'Resh technology. Roland fights and kills Gideon, but redlines himself, and is only saved by having his neural interface removed. The beautiful Ibarran admiral is there to comfort him. I might not read these any more, they are becoming tiresome.

The Last Aeon (Terran Armor Corps Book 5)
Richard Fox

The Aeons were a race of extra terrestrials who had more knowledge of the Qa-resh technology. The Ibarrans and Terrans race to find this woman, (she has green skin) only to be stymied by the Toth, and the last Aeon is taken aboard the Toth ship. By the end, the worthless Terran president has decided to make an all out assault on the Keshalt, and Roland is now enamoured of the Ibarran admiral, and fully in the Ibarran camp. Stacey Ibarra has found the last Qa'Resh ark, and aims to occupy it.

A House Divided (Terran Armor Corps Book 4)
Richard Fox
Read September 2018 and reread January 2019
These books are popcorn. I get interested in the characters, and the story, but they are not filling and I hardly recall any of what happened. This volume describes the continue conflict over the procedurals in the Ibarran faction, and Roland and Gideon. The book starts with some war against the Keshalt, and continues with the order to round up all the procedurals in the Terran navy, and the mutiny of the Templars. The Ibarrans make a daring raid on Mars to free the templars and procedurals, and Roland fights and disables Gideon at the end.

Sunday, September 23, 2018
Reading books on the Kindle has the advantage of being able to get the next installment almost immediately. This starts with Roland still imprisoned on Navarre, the Ibarran's world, and the earth promising to attack the Ibarrans who fought the Vishnarath. The situation becomes complicated when the Ibarran and Earth fleets are attacked together. Roland trains with Nicodemus and Morrigan, two famous armor soldiers, former lance mates with Gideon, and joins their lance to fight the Keshalt. He becomes a full Templar by the end of this book. Stacey and Marc Ibarra are full of intrigue

September 22, 2018

Another in the series about Roland, the newest member of the Iron Dragoons, a lance in the Terran Armor Corps. His lance mates are Cha'ril, a Dothari (bird like alien) female, Aignar, a former Marine, now mostly prosthesis, and the leader Gideon, an armor Lieutenant with a long past. By the end Roland is captive of the Ibarrans, the group of humans who seceded after the Hale treaty ended the Ember war (subject of a previous scifi series by the author), and is talking to Marc Ibarra, the hero of the previous series, now also imprisoned.

The bits of foreign worlds we get are fascinating. I can read literally every other book written for a fight scene....

Less fight, more exploration! I like the series though.

I had been very busy, and not reading, and felt in the mood for a military science fiction novel, so I got this on the Kindle, based on Amazon recommendation. It was enjoyable, another typical recruit training to hero book. The armor is mech warrior style exoskeletons, and the soldiers who control them are developing a warrior monk style like the Templars. I seemed to have stepped into a late middle series of books from the same author writing about the same universe, and it was enjoyable enough that I will read on.