Title: The Lotus Eaters
Series: Carrera book 3
Author: Tom Kratman
Genre: Military Science Fiction
Hardcover: 496 0ages
Publisher: Baen 2010

Order from: Amazon US | UK | B&N | sfbok

Sometimes paranoia is just a heightened state of awareness.

Carrera’s won his war, and inflicted a horrific revenge upon his enemies. But there are wars after wars. The Tauran Union is planning an attack. The criminals of neighboring states are already attacking, and threatening to embroil him in a war with the planet’s premier power. His only living son is under fire among the windswept mountains of Pashtia. An enemy fleet is hunting his submarines. His organization has been infiltrated by spies. One of the two governments of his adopted country, Balboa, is trying to destroy everything he’s built and reinstitute rule by a corrupt oligarchy. Worst of all, perhaps, he, himself, bearing a crushing burden of guilt, isn’t quite the man he once was.

Fortunately, the man he once was, was lucky enough to marry the right woman….

Information

The book is dedicated to Julia and starts with a “What has gone before” section.

This whole series is about Patricio Carrera a self made man who found a home in Balboa, the country he once fought. Now he fights for freedom both for his corrupt homeland and against the depraved old earth. It all takes place on Terra Nova. Earth’s first and only interstellar colony.

The Author

I have read Tom Kratman before. It would be wrong to say that he is politically correct. Especially his first books where not to my liking. I think Tom likes it when people criticizes his work, he used to have a wall of fame over the most angry ones (still have one). His works are usually on the edge on what I can tolerate to read. But he provides a different point of view and thats worth something.

World Building

It is a rather sordid world Tom has painted. Earth is ruled by renegade international humanitarian organizations like Amnesty and different United Nations departments. Liberals are the new master slaves and new religions even practice human sacrifice.

Terra Nova reminds a great deal of todays earth and there are many parallels just twisted a bit. Carrera has fought in their ‘middle-east’ and now his ‘Panama’ faces the drug cartels.

The philosophy and assumption reminds of Heinlein’s Starship Troopers to a great deal.

Plot

Carrera is not the man he used to be after all the death he caused in the last book so the first obstacle is to restore him to sound mind.

Carrera prepares for the war with earth while he has to deal with his occupied land and its corrupted leadership.

The ‘US’ threatens to invade if he does nothing against the drug cartels so he makes that his agenda. But the cartels have deep pockets and there are traitors among Carrera’s men and they go after him and his closest.

Characterization

The characters are a bit two dimensional but they are entertaining.

My View

This is decent military science fiction that might not be for everyone.

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Lets have a look at April for New Science Fiction books of interest. There are some great books coming out, the fourth Safehold novel by David Weber, The last book in Lost Fleet, the second book in Humanity’s Fire and the Nebula Award Showcase 2010 among others.

New this month is the publishing house link, where you can buy the book. If you want to check out the publishing houses yourself and maybe create your own list, please use my Links page it has direct links to upcoming releases by the publishers I like.

Books On Order

A Mighty Fortress
Safehold 3
by David Weber
Published by Tor Books

This is one of the books of 2010 that I am most eager to read, I am a big fan of David Weber and you have seen the snippet spam I have been doing here on the site.

Young Cayleb Ahrmahk has accomplished things few people could even dream of. Not yet even thirty years old, he’s won the most crushing naval victories in human history. He’s smashed a hostile alliance of no less than five princedoms and won the hand of the beautiful young Queen Sharleyan of Chisholm. Cayleb and Sharleyan have created the Charisian Empire, the greatest naval power in the history of Safehold, and they’ve turned Charis into a place of refuge for all who treasure freedom.

Their success may prove short-lived. The Church of God Awaiting, which controls most of Safehold, has decreed their destruction. Mother Church’s entire purpose is to prevent the very things to which Charis is committed. Since the first attempt to crush the heretics failed, the Church has no choice but to adopt some of the hated Charisian innovations for themselves. Soon a mighty fleet will sail against Cayleb, destroying everything in its path.

But there are still matters about which the Church knows nothing, including Cayleb and Sharleyan’s adviser, friend, and guardian— the mystic warrior-monk named Merlin Athrawes. Merlin knows all about battles against impossible odds, because he is in fact the cybernetic avatar of a young woman named Nimue Alban, who died a thousand years before. As Nimue, Merlin saw the entire Terran Federation go down in fire and slaughter at the hands of a foe it could not defeat. He knows that Safehold is the last human planet in existence, and that the stasis the Church was created to enforce will be the human race’s death sentence if it is allowed to stand.

The juggernaut is rumbling down on Charis, but Merlin Athrawes and a handful of extraordinary human beings stand in its path. The Church is about to discover just how potent the power of human freedom truly is.

The Orphaned Worlds
Humanity’s Fire 2
by Michael Cobley
Published by Orbit UK

I really liked the first book in the series so I am looking forward to read this one.

Darien is no longer a lost outpost of humanity, but the prize in an intergalactic power struggle. Hegemony forces have a stranglehold over the planet and crack troops patrol its hotspots while Earth watches, passive, rendered impotent by galactic politics. But its Darien ambassador will soon become a player in a greater conflict. There is more at stake than a turf war on a newly discovered world.

An ancient Uvovo temple hides access to a hyperspace prison, housing the greatest threat sentient life has ever known. Millennia ago, malignant intelligences were caged there following an apocalyptic war. And their servants work on their release.

However, Darien’s guardians have not been idle, gathering resistance on the planet’s forest moon. Knowledge has been lost since great races battled in eons past, and now time is short. The galaxy will depend on the Uvovo reclaiming their past – and humanity must look to its future. For a new war is coming.

Continue reading »

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Lets have a look at April for books. I usually check my pre-orders mid March and then revisit the list by April 1.

There are some great books coming out, the fourth Safehold novel by David Weber, The last book in Lost Fleet, the second book in Humanity’s Fire and the Nebula Award Showcase 2010 among others.

Books I have on Order

A Mighty Fortress
Safehold 3
by David Weber
Published by Tor Books

This is one of the books of 2010 that I am most eager to read, I am a big fan of David Weber and you have seen the snippet spam I have been doing here on the site.

Young Cayleb Ahrmahk has accomplished things few people could even dream of. Not yet even thirty years old, he’s won the most crushing naval victories in human history. He’s smashed a hostile alliance of no less than five princedoms and won the hand of the beautiful young Queen Sharleyan of Chisholm. Cayleb and Sharleyan have created the Charisian Empire, the greatest naval power in the history of Safehold, and they’ve turned Charis into a place of refuge for all who treasure freedom.

Their success may prove short-lived. The Church of God Awaiting, which controls most of Safehold, has decreed their destruction. Mother Church’s entire purpose is to prevent the very things to which Charis is committed. Since the first attempt to crush the heretics failed, the Church has no choice but to adopt some of the hated Charisian innovations for themselves. Soon a mighty fleet will sail against Cayleb, destroying everything in its path.

But there are still matters about which the Church knows nothing, including Cayleb and Sharleyan’s adviser, friend, and guardian— the mystic warrior-monk named Merlin Athrawes. Merlin knows all about battles against impossible odds, because he is in fact the cybernetic avatar of a young woman named Nimue Alban, who died a thousand years before. As Nimue, Merlin saw the entire Terran Federation go down in fire and slaughter at the hands of a foe it could not defeat. He knows that Safehold is the last human planet in existence, and that the stasis the Church was created to enforce will be the human race’s death sentence if it is allowed to stand.

The juggernaut is rumbling down on Charis, but Merlin Athrawes and a handful of extraordinary human beings stand in its path. The Church is about to discover just how potent the power of human freedom truly is.

The Orphaned Worlds
Humanity’s Fire 2
by Michael Cobley
Published by Orbit UK

I really liked the first book in the series so I am really looking forward to read this one.

Darien is no longer a lost outpost of humanity, but the prize in an intergalactic power struggle. Hegemony forces have a stranglehold over the planet and crack troops patrol its hotspots while Earth watches, passive, rendered impotent by galactic politics. But its Darien ambassador will soon become a player in a greater conflict. There is more at stake than a turf war on a newly discovered world.

An ancient Uvovo temple hides access to a hyperspace prison, housing the greatest threat sentient life has ever known. Millennia ago, malignant intelligences were caged there following an apocalyptic war. And their servants work on their release.

However, Darien’s guardians have not been idle, gathering resistance on the planet’s forest moon. Knowledge has been lost since great races battled in eons past, and now time is short. The galaxy will depend on the Uvovo reclaiming their past – and humanity must look to its future. For a new war is coming.

Continue reading »

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Edit3:After reading A State of Disobedience by Tom Kratman I got a bit annoyed at the views presented there and to a minor degree in the Carrera series. That Democracy can stand back for a great leader, UN, EU and other international organisations are fundamentally evil. Of course I might be wrong about this, an author don’t necessary stand for the views his protagonists have. As Tom says himself. There will be democracy eventually in the series, of sorts. One of the reason I read is to understand better what motivates people. Reading the Carrera stories has given me a lot of insight into the culture in the Middle East and some what ifs.

This is a book about the war on terrorfought on the colony New Earth 500 years or so in the future. All of todays powers are there under different names though maybe a little different. Earth has a run down Peace Keeping Fleet around the planet with a hidden agenda: to plunge the planet into war and barbarism by playing Muslim fanatics against the more developed countries. United Earth is suffering from a hash stratified social system where the proles are less than slaves. Earths level of technology is declining and they can’t build new starships any more. That’s why they struggle to keep the New Earthers from developing their own technology. They might find out Earth has lost most of it’s and might come calling.

After his Family are killed in a 911 attack Fredrick Henessay starts his own war against those responsible. He raises an army and fight in an Iraq-like war.

You can tell Tom Kratman served himself. The story contains lots of realistic details and he really knows something about how to organise an army. I can tell. I used to be an officer myself.

This is the first book I read by Tom himself. I Read 2 books before that he wrote with John Ringo. Sometimes the story strikes me more as a way for Tom to process the war he himself where in rather than go science fiction. A bit like many with progressive social ideas went for Fantasy there a while in the 80s and 90s. All in all it kept me up a couple of nights. Maybe not for everyone but if you like military science fiction or just want to view a war from the inside of someone who fought in one this is a book for you.

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