I like the Safehold series and How Firm A Foundation is another good installment. Familiarity is sometimes a good thing, reading an author you like writing something like what he has done before. I often go for that in reading series but it also can become a bit repetitive. This is what happened to me here. This is just more of the same, these medieval battles as entertaining as they are, are starting to bore me and even if we are moving into steam and iron. I do expect at least one more book with this slow technological progression until we hit something more advanced, which is something that I am looking forward to. We have the Gbaba aliens that almost exterminated humanity and made them run for Safehold to deal with.

Merlin, Cayleb and Sharleyan are like family now, extended family even and I love reading about them. Their dialogs are witty and often funny. This time it is a bit darker than before. The Group of Four and the Church are impotent at sea due to the new explosive ordnance of the Charisian Navy so they go for the terrorist response instead with terrible results.

Weber shows great historical knowledge down to a very detailed level as usually. The ongoing geopolitical struggle makes sense to me as a reader and it is quite entertaining. The bad guys don’t know what awaits them around the corner.

Merlin explores the limitations of the orbital weapon responses early in the book but later revelations fulfill the promises of the blurb about what is under the Temple. But that is all I am going to say about that.

Bottom line I liked How Firm A Foundation. It has great characters as always and there is progress. Things are starting to get interesting and tense on the mainland. There are things brewing that will be fun to see expanded in the next volume.

Book Information

How Firm A Foundation (Safehold 5) by David Weber (Tor) – Amazon US| UK

The Charisian Empire, born in war, has always known it must fight for its very survival. What most of its subjects don’t know even now, however, is how much more it’s fighting for. Emperor Cayleb, Empress Sharleyan, Merlin Athrawes, and their innermost circle of most trusted advisers do know. And because they do, they know the penalty if they lose will be far worse than their own deaths and the destruction of all they know and love.

For five years, Charis has survived all the Church of God Awaiting and the corrupt men who control it have thrown at the island empire. The price has been high and paid in blood. Despite its chain of hard-fought naval victories, Charis is still on the defensive. It can hold its own at sea, but if it is to survive, it must defeat the Church upon its own ground. Yet how does it invade the mainland and take the war to a foe whose population outnumbers its own fifteen to one? How does it prevent that massive opponent from rebuilding its fleets and attacking yet again?

Charis has no answer to those questions, but needs to find one…quickly. The Inquisition’s brutal torture and hideous executions are claiming more and more innocent lives. Its agents are fomenting rebellion against the only mainland realms sympathetic to Charis. Religious terrorists have been dispatched to wreak havoc against the Empire’s subjects. Assassins stalk the Emperor and Empress, their allies and advisers, and an innocent young boy, not yet eleven years old, whose father has already been murdered. And Merlin Athrawes, the cybernetic avatar of a young woman a thousand years dead, has finally learned what sleeps beneath the far-off Temple in the Church of God Awaiting’s city of Zion.

The men and women fighting for human freedom and tolerance have built a foundation for their struggle in the Empire of Charis with their own blood, but will that foundation be firm enough to survive?

A Rising Thunder (Honor Harrington/Torch/Saganami) by David Weber (Baen) - Amazon US | UK

Honor Harrington is a legend in military science fiction and we are many that looks forward to the next installment in the series. A Rising Thunderis scheduled for March 2012.

Peril and strife strike on a double front for Honor Harrington and company. After a brutal attack on the Manticoran home system, Honor Harrington and the Star Kingdom she serves battle back against a new, technologically powerful, and utterly nefarious enemy. And as if that weren’t task enough, Honor must also face down a centuries-old old nemesis in the crumbling, but still mighty, Solarian League. The war between the People’s Republic of Haven and the Star Kingdom is finally won and peace established, but grave danger looms – for there is a plan well on its way to completion designed to enslave the entire human species. Behind that plan lies the shadowy organization known as the Mesan Alignment. Task number one for Honor is to defend against another devastating Mesan strike – a strike that may well spell the doom of the Star Kingdom in one fell blow. It is time to shut down and secure the wormhole network that is the source of the Star Kingdom’s wealth and power – but also its greatest vulnerability. Yet this is an act that the ancient and corrupt Earth-based Solarian League inevitably will take as a declaration of war. The thunder of battle rolls as the Solarian League directs its massive power against the Star Kingdom. And once again, Honor Harrington is thrust into a desperate battle that she must win if she is to survive to take the fight to the real enemy of galactic freedom – the insidious puppetmasters of war who lurk behind the Mesan Alignment!

David Weber is one of the most productive authors I know, which is fortunately since I really love his military science fiction. We have to wait until December or 2012 for the next mainstream Honor Harrington novel A Rising Thunder part 1 (It has been divided into two parts) but In Fire Forged, the fifth Worlds of Honor short story collection came out in February and it might help to tide you over (only three stories there) and if that is not enough there is a new YA series A Beautiful Friendship based on the short story by the same name coming in October. It centers on Stephanie Harrington, Honor’s ancestor that was the first human to be adopted by a treecat, the telepathic felines of Honor’s home planet.  That is not all, the next  Safehold novel, the fifth, will be out in September this year. It is named How Firm a Foundation.

As I understand it David is penning the first novel in this new series and Jane Lindskold will write the sequels.

I like this new cover, a young girl with a big knife and a treecat crouching on a branch about to launch. They both looks pretty grim. The original short story is one of my favorites so this is a book I look forward to this year even if I am not quite in the target group.

A Beautiful Friendship (Honorverse YA)

by David Weber (Baen October 2011)

Amazon US | UK

Stephanie Harrington absolutely hates being confined inside her family’s compound on the pioneer planet of Sphinx, a frontier wilderness world populated by dangerous native animals that could easily tear a human to bits and pieces. Yet Stephanie is a young woman determined to make discoveries—and the biggest discovery of all awaits her: an intelligent alien species.

Treecats are creatures that resemble a cross between a bobcat and a lemur (but with six legs and much more deadly claws). Not only are they fully sentient, they are also telepathic, and able to bond with certain gifted humans such as the genetically-enhanced Stephanie. But Stephanie’s find, and her first-of-its-kind bond with a treecat, brings on a new torrent of danger. An assortment of highly-placed enemies with galactic-sized wealth at stake is determined to make sure that the planet of Sphinx remains entirely in human hands—even if this means the extermination of another thinking species. Stephanie and Lionheart are about to undergo the greatest test two alien species can ever face together: how to survive first contact and win a future with liberty and justice for all!

The first entry in a new teen series and the origin saga for the incredibly-popular, multiple New York Times and USA Today bestselling Honor Harrington adult science fiction adventures. Young Stephanie Harrington is none other than the founder of a pioneering family dynasty that is destined to lead the fight for humanity’s freedom in a dangerous galaxy.

It is catalog time and this is the first I seen of David Weber’s next Safehold novel. Seems we might see some army action on the mainland before this is over, I like it.

And we will learn what is under the temple… How awesome is that!

The Charisian Empire, born in war, has always known it must fight for its very survival. What most of its subjects don’t know even now, however, is how much more it’s fighting for. Emperor Cayleb, Empress Sharleyan, Merlin Athrawes, and their innermost circle of most trusted advisers do know. And because they do, they know the penalty if they lose will be far worse than their own deaths and the destruction of all they know and love.For five years, Charis has survived all the Church of God Awaiting and the corrupt men who control it have thrown at the island empire. The price has been high and paid in blood. Despite its chain of hard-fought naval victories, Charis is still on the defensive. It can hold its own at sea, but if it is to survive, it must defeat the Church upon its own ground. Yet how does it invade the mainland and take the war to a foe whose population outnumbers its own fifteen to one? How does it prevent that massive opponent from rebuilding its fleets and attacking yet again?

Charis has no answer to those questions, but needs to find one…quickly. The Inquisition’s brutal torture and hideous executions are claiming more and more innocent lives. Its agents are fomenting rebellion against the only mainland realms sympathetic to Charis. Religious terrorists have been dispatched to wreak havoc against the Empire’s subjects. Assassins stalk the Emperor and Empress, their allies and advisers, and an innocent young boy, not yet eleven years old, whose father has already been murdered. And Merlin Athrawes, the cybernetic avatar of a young woman a thousand years dead, has finally learned what sleeps beneath the far-off Temple in the Church of God Awaiting’s city of Zion.

This is my semi-regular series on the state of books in the making.

I wonder which book John Scalzi is referring to in todays post? Do you know anything about it? John is one of my favorite authors.

New novel?
Done.
Like, just this second.
When will you get to read it?
Sometime in 2012, I would guess.
So now you have a reason to live. Through 2012, anyway.
What’s it about?
Fate. And destiny. And free will.
And lasers! And explosions! And space ships!
Man, it’s got everything.
Just you wait.

We can also notice that Chris Wooding is still writing on this years Tales of the Ketty Jay novel The Iron Jackal scheduled for August. That will not leave much time for editing and publishing. We have also seen a rough draft of the cover art

But he is not the only one with a short time between finishing the first draft and release. David Weber’s fifth Safehold novel How Firm A Foundation will be released in September and he just turned it in. Tor usually takes a year.

I had high hopes on In Fire Forged to tide me over until the next Honorverse A Beautiful Friendship novel later this year. This fifth Worlds of Honor anthology is a bit short on stories although the three stories in there are pretty good I can’t avoid feeling a bit cheated. I expected a few more stories.

That said, they are longer than the usual short stories 60,70 and 140 pages long respective which I do like.

Ruthless by Jane Lindskold continues the story Promised Land about the refugees from Masada from the last anthologie. This one is about Judith Newland the amazing woman who learned to pilot in secret to escape.  Now they are ‘safe’ on Manticore when her 2-year old daughter Ruth is kidnapped to force her dear friend crown prince Michael to disgrace himself and discredit the fragile agreement with Greyson.

I really liked that story and the previous one too. Integrity and loyalty makes good reading and a bit of love is never wrong.

An Act of War by Timothy Zahn brings us behind the scene in the old Republic of Haven as they try to start a war between the Andermani Empire and Manticore. It all starts with an interstellar swindler and scoundrel getting caught. The whole thing is quite entertaining and teaches us a bit of what went on behind the scene during the war.  This also continues a story from the previous anthology With One Stone

“Let’s Dance” by David Weber is by far the longest story and it tells another of Honor Harrington’s Silesian adventures. It is pretty good if you have not read any of the other ones. I found it a bit familiar even if we had Manpower and genetic slavery with the pirates this time. Dancing with the Ballroom is entertaining and I enjoyed Honor’s award.

Lastly there is a technical paper on starship armor by Andy Presby that might be of interest to fans but felt more like padding to me.

I miss a forth story but otherwise it is okay so even if I feel slightly disappointed I warmly recommend it.

Information

Title: In Fire Forged
Series: Worlds of Honor 5
Editor: David Weber
Authors: Jane Lindskold, Timothy Zahn, David Weber
Hardcover: 314 pages
Publisher: Baen (2011)
Copy: Bought it myself from Amazon
Order from: Amazon US | UK

Honor Harrington is arguably the most popular character in modern science fiction, but there are many other stories in the Honorverse besides those in which she has the central role. This fifth volume in the popular Worlds of Honor series explores some of those stories with the help of such top writers as best-selling author Jane LIndskjold, New York Times best-selling author Timothy Zahn, and more—including an all-new Honor Harrington adventure, set in her younger years, when a mob of space pirates made the mistake of tangling with Commander Harrington. That was a fatal mistake—for the pirates . . .

This is my semi-regular series on the state of books in the making. (Read all articles tagged State of Books)

Joel Shepherd reports that he is starting a new Cassandra Kresnov series over on Pyr-o-mania. That is another reason to pick up the original series. The original trilogy follow the adventures of Cassandra Kresnov, an artificially created super-soldier who becomes disillusioned with the policies and actions of her country, the League. She defects to the city of Tanusha, on the planet of Callay in the Federation, the League’s rival nation, and attempts to live as a civilian software expert. She never seems to be able to leave the military from what I gathered and now we know why. I picked up an interest for this series while writing about Cassandra in Formidable Female Protagonists in Science Fiction Part 23. There was no schedule mentioned.

Alastair Reynolds might release another book this year according to his homepage Approaching Pavonis Mons by balloon. Blue Remembered Earth is the first book in his new series Poseidon’s Children that spans 11000 years (formerly known as 11k). Gollancz has it scheduled for June. Alastair is pruning the book down in size from the 212,000 words of the submission draft towards 180,000. He could not tell any details on the second book since the deal is still pending.

David Weber has finished the first edit of How Firm a Foundation, the next Safehold novel and taken a well deserved week off.

This is my semi-regular series on the state of books in the making.

Julie Czerneda is on the home stretch on her first fantasy novel – A turn of Light and as a holiday offering you can read an excerpt of the first chapter.

David Weber is about two weeks from turning in How Firm a Foundation, the next Safehold novel. It has been talks about a release towards the end of this year. He has made me a bit worried with his tweets lately.

• I just finished writing a difficult scene, now I’m taking a break. It’s hard to do mean stuff to the characters you really like…
• Almost finished with the rough draft of “How Firm A Foundation.” Hopefully I can have it sent off to Toni in the next two weeks! #amwriting
• Killed a named character today. I didn’t expect that it would be quite so poignant. 35,000 words left to go!

Wonder who that is? Hopefully not one of my favorite characters.

Elizabeth Moon turned in the manuscript for the third Paladin’s Legacy novel a while back (Book 2 Kings of the North will be out in March). It now has a title Crisis of Vision. We probably have to wait until March 2012 to read it.

I should begin to state I am a fan of David Weber and I love his military science fiction. This is the first book in a new series that mixes that with another trendy subject I will tell you about later.

The Galactic Hegemony was immense and oh so peaceful beside a few upstarts that usually fought themselves to extinction before they become a problem. Which makes it so unfortunate that their scouts happened to visit earth in the middle of the battle of Agincourt, descended from herbivore creatures the Barhoni crew was appalled when they reported back, this new specie, the Humans where barely more than animals, they where even worse than the Shonegairi, a race of predators that had risen to Hegemony membership but who was still causing all kinds of troubles. Thinking they could solve two problems at the same time the leaders of the Hegemony gave the Shonegairi leave to neutralize the Humans before they could become a second threat to galactic peace.

But when the Shonegairi arrive at Earth some six hundred years later it had advanced to an incredible level of technology almost on par with them (2010). Against Hegemony law they still attacked and three quarters of the human race dies in a few minutes as all major cities and military bases cease to exist, destroyed by orbital strikes.

The rest of the story follows the war they get on their hand when they land. It tells of heroic land and air battles and how human ingenuity comes out on top. The battles including the one at Agincourt are beautifully told as expected. I really enjoyed all the battles and the military lingo. The parallels to current conflicts are pretty obvious.

As usual David tells the story from many different views including the alien commanders, a fighter pilot striking back at the invasion, a tank commander in Afghanistan, a survivalist family taking the fight to the enemy and especially Master Sergeant Stephen Buchevsky, an American soldier caught in the Balkans by the invasion. The characters are in my opinion a bit more two dimensional than usual in this story but I still root for them. I think it would have been a better story if there has been a more distinct protagonist, but that is maybe just me.

Warning spoiler ahead!

So far it is a pretty standard military science fiction from a master of the craft, but it is what happens in the last few score of pages that makes the difference. It was a fine book in itself up to that time but the ending has a bit of god out of the machine when our hero basically happens on a group of vampires pissed that someone is killing their food and they decide to join forces and kick the shit out of the aliens. Said and done. Earth now has dreadnought space ships and we wait on book number two.

I am not sure David is going to make a sequel and the reviews on this one has been mixed to say the least. Unless he has written it in secret already and turned it over to the publisher we can expect it earliest mid to late 2012. One might suspect it sold pretty well though.

Out of the Dark has some interesting points on culture and how it forms expectations and the battles are very well written. The characters are not the strongest or most interesting Weber has made but I am still interested in reading any sequel. If you go at it with the right expectations you will enjoy this book for what it is, a fun thought experiment otherwise there are many, more stringent books by David Weber like On Basilisk Station to start with.

Hardcover: 384 pages
Publisher: Tor (September 2010)
Order from: Amazon US | UK
Copy: Bought it myself

Earth is conquered. The Shongairi have arrived in force, and humanity’s cities lie in radioactive ruins. In mere minutes, over half the human race has died. Now Master Sergeant Stephen Buchevsky, who thought he was being rotated home from his latest tour in Afghanistan, finds himself instead prowling the back country of the Balkans, dodging alien patrols and trying to organize the scattered survivors without getting killed. His chances look bleak. The aliens have definitely underestimated human tenacity – but no amount of heroism can endlessly hold off overwhelming force. Then, emerging from the mountains and forests of Eastern Europe, new allies present themselves to the ragtag human resistance. Predators, creatures of the night, human in form but inhumanly strong. Long Enemies of humanity…until now. Because now is the time to defend Earth. The Shongairi now have a real fight on their hands…as Earth’s vampires strike at them, out of the dark.

My main interest lies in science fiction and especially towards space opera and military scifi so take this list for what it is, the books I enjoyed most this year.

Best First Releases

These are the best of the 61 first releases I read this year (for details see the 2010 book index)

10. The Quantum Thief (The Quantum Thief book 1) [Debut]
by Hannu Rajaniemi
Published by Gollancz

The Quantum Thief is like a Finnish Tango, it got a strange rhythm to it and it takes you places you never imagined before. It is a great debut novel by Hannu Rajaniemi and probably a future classic.

9. Servants of the Underworld (Obsidian & Blood book 1) [Debut]
by Aliette de Bodard
Published by Angry Robot

Aliette have found her culture and settings in central American pre-colonization Aztec country. This is about a murder mystery investigated by Acatl, High Priest for the Dead. In many respect it reminds of traditional mystery novels but the setting is the sacred city with its priests, worshipers, warriors, pyramids, temples, cults and living gods. This is a great book if you want to try a different kind of fantasy, set as it is outside the traditional western or Japanese settings. It is a standalone novel in a series. The next book Harbinger of the Storm is already on its way in the mail.

8. Darkship Thieves (Darkship Thieves book 1)
by Sarah A. Hoyt
Published by Baen

There are many authors that try to channel Heinlein but it is Sarah A. Hoyt that comes closest this year. This is a really mesmerizing book, I started reading and after a few pages I was in the world Sarah A. Hoyt created experiencing it from the slightly disturbed mind of a captivating young woman. Athena Hera Sinistra is as much a handful as her name, but it is a handful easy to love as a reader. Book two Darkship Rebels will be out late 2011.

7. The Noise Within (The Noise Within book 1) [2nd Novel]
by Ian Whates
Published by Solaris

The Noise Within is a well cooked space opera with black ops, intelligent ships, ai-interfaces, alien mysteries and intelligent guns. Great military action just the way I like it, there is a few mysteries that awaits answers in the next book The Noise Revealed that is due in March 2011.

6. Dreadnought (Clockwork Century book 3)
by Cherrie Priest
Published by Tor

I have really discovered steampunk this year and it all started with Boneshaker. Dreadnought has it all a feisty female protagonist, airships, war machines, secret conspiracies and zombies. I had great fun reading this one.

5. Veteran (Veteran book 1) [Debut of the Year]
by Gavin Smith
Published by Gollancz

This is the debut of the year for me. Gavin G. Smith is new but he writes like a pro. Veteran is an excellent read. It got mysterious aliens, conspiracies, realistic battle scenes, fast pace, lots of wow moments and wonderful characters. I would say this is a mixture of heavy metal, cyberpunk and classic sf. It is definitely military science fiction at its best and I would recommend it to a wider audience. I can’t wait for his next book War in Heaven (coming in June 2011).

4. Oath of Fealthy (Paladin’s Legacy book 1)
by Elizabeth Moon
Published by Orbit

Elizabeth Moon is a fantastic story teller with vivid hearty characters you can’t help falling in love with, which she proves again with this one. Oath of Fealty is a mature, competent and fulfilling read. It is also a great start of a series that also works as a standalone book. Elizabeth is another author that writes characters the way I like them.

3. Mission of Honor (Honor Harrington book 12)
by David Weber
Published by Baen

This is a monumental book in the Honorverse, this ends the original storyline with Haven and starts a new darker one with the Alignment as the antagonist. I like David Weber he writes entertaining military science fiction about formidable easy to love characters.

2. Blood and Iron (Penrose book 2)
by Tony Ballantyne
Published by Tor UK

It is such a fantastic different world of robots and the story deals with a pivotal moment in its history, when the first humans return. Book one, Twisted Metal left many mysteries unanswered that are revealed in this novel.

1. The Technician (A Polity Universe book)
by Neal Asher
Published by Tor UK

I love Neal Asher’s agent Cormac novels set in the same universe as this sequel that deals with one of the great mysteries in the original series. What happened to the races that dominated the galaxy before humanity? Good fast paced fun in this thrilling adventure. Maybe I should also tell you Asher is very vivid in all the gory details of this alien ecology.

Best New-to-me Book

1. Raft (Xeelee Sequence book 1) by Stephen Baxter (Gollancz 1991)
2. Julian Comstock by Robert Charles Wilson (Tor 2009)
3. Shadow of the Scorpion (Agent Cormac prequel) by Neal Asher (Tor UK 2008)
4. The Shockwave Rider by John Brunner (Methuen 1975)
5. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic 2008)

• Keeping it Real (Quantum Gravity book 1) by Justina Robson (Gpllancz 2006)
• Harmony (Harmony book 1) by C. F. Bentley (Daw 2008)
• Sun of Suns (Virga book 1) by Karl Schroeder (Tor 2006)

Honorary Mentions

There were many good books this year. In no particular order…

• WE by John Dickinson (David Fickling Books)
• Absorption (Ragnarok Trilogy book 1) by John Meaney (Gollancz)
• The Black Lung Captain (Tales of the Kitty Jay book 2) by Chris Wooding (Gollancz)
• Guardians of Paradise (The Hidden Empire book 3) by Jaine Fenn (Gollancz)
• CryoBurn (The Vorkosigan Saga book 12) by Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)
• The Orphaned Worlds (Humanity’s Fire book 2) by Michael Cobley (Orbit)
• The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive book 1) by Brandon Sanderson (Tor)
• The Machinery of Light (Autumn Rain book 3) by David J Williams  (Spectra)
• A Mighty Fortress (Safehold 4) by David Weber (Tor)
• Pleasure Model (Netherworld Trilogy 1) by Christopher Rowley (Tor)
• Watch (Www book 2) by Robert J. Sawyer (Ace)
• Up Jim River (The January Dancer book 2) by Michael Flynn (Tor/Tantor Media)
• The Crucible of Empire (Jao Empire book 2) by Eric Flint & K. D. Wentworth (Baen)
• Victorious (Lost Fleet book 6) by Jack Campbell  (Ace)

The Ones That Got Away

There are some books I didn’t come around to this year for different reasons but I suspect are really great. Maybe next year. I know I am probably forgetting a few.

• Surface Detail by Ian M. Banks
• The Evolutionary Void by Peter F. Hamilton

I will not talk about the ones that disappointed me this year, they got all the publicity they deserve in my reviews.

This was a great year. Can I have another? please.

Related posts

• 13 SF Books for the Rest of 2010 July 5, 2010
• New Science Fiction to Read 2010 January 9, 2010
• Best Science Fiction Books of 2009 December 31, 2009

Many of these books are on my 13 SF for the rest of 2010 book list Guardians of Paradise, Out of the Dark, Quantum Thief, What Distant Deep, Dreadnought and The Truth of Valor.

On Order

Title: Out of the Dark

Author: David Weber
Genre: Vampire Science Fiction | Alien Invasion
Hardcover: 384 pages
Publisher: Tor Books 28 Sep 2010

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

Vampires and space opera, it sounds cheesy but it is a Weber book so I am in. The first news made this out to be a new series but later reports says it is not.

Expanded from a short story that first appeared in George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois’s anthology Warriors, this trilogy kickoff blends elements of military science fiction and dark fantasy. In the very near future, Earth has been targeted for colonization by a galactic empire known as the Hegemony. Deemed “lunatic local sentients” by a survey team that witnessed King Henry V and his troops slaughtering the French at Agincourt, humankind has essentially been written off as bloodthirsty, expendable barbarians. When the Hegemony’s henchmen, the doglike Shongairi, show up to conquer Earth, the resistance is beyond anything they had ever imagined, especially when vampires appear to help the humans. Weber pulls off this conceit in audacious style with a focus on military-powered action that will thrill fans of his Honor Harrington series, and he keeps the pedal to the metal right up to the almost unbelievable conclusion.

Title: The Quantum Thief

Series: The Quantum Thief 1
Author: Hannu Rajaniemi
Genre: Space Opera
Hardcover: 448 pages
Publisher: Gollancz 30 Sep 2010

Order from: Gollancz | Amazon UK | sfbok

I read a short story by Hannu, he is a fantastic writer. This promises to be a real good posthuman series.

Jean le Flambeur is a post-human criminal, mind burglar, confidence artist and trickster. His origins are shrouded in mystery, but his exploits are known throughout the Heterarchy – from breaking into the vast Zeusbrains of the Inner System to steal their thoughts, to stealing rare Earth antiques from the aristocrats of the Moving Cities of Mars. Except that Jean made one mistake. Now he is condemned to play endless variations of a game-theoretic riddle in the vast virtual jail of the Axelrod Archons – the Dilemma Prison – against countless copies of himself. Jean’s routine of death, defection and cooperation is upset by the arrival of Mieli and her spidership, Perhonen. She offers him a chance to win back his freedom and the powers of his old self – in exchange for finishing the one heist he never quite managed . . . The Quantum Thief is a dazzling hard SF novel set in the solar system of the far future – a heist novel peopled by bizarre post-humans but powered by very human motives of betrayal, revenge and jealousy. It is a stunning debut.

Title: Guardians of Paradise

Series: The Hidden Empire/Sidhe 3
Author: Jaine Fenn
Genre: Space Opera
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Gollancz 16 Sep 2010

Order from: Gollancz | Amazon US | UK | sfbok

Jaine is another author I love. Read my take on the previous books in the Hidden Empire: Consorts of Heaven and Principles of Angels.

Most people believe the Sidhe are long dead, exterminated centuries ago when the males of the race rose up and fought alongside the humans subjugated and enslaved by the female Sidhe. But Jarek Reen knows better: he’s discovered, the painful way, that the Sidhe are alive and well, and still screwing over humanity. They’ve already killed his sister, so he’s not surprised when he discovers an old friend and her partner are next on the Sidhe’s hitlist. He helps not only to foil the assassination attempt, but also to muddy the scene of the crime, leaving the Angels Nual and Taro sanMalia presumed dead – and free to join his crusade to expose the insidious influence of the Sidhe, and their evil plans to enslave the human race again. Their mission takes them across human-space, from utilitarian hub-points to rich, exotic planets – where they discover that a brilliant vacation spot hides some of the darkest secrets of all. And that’s when they discover how easy it is for the hunters to become the hunted . . .

Title: What Distant Deeps

Series: Lt. Leary/RCN
Author: David Drake
Genre: Military Science Fiction
Publisher: Baen
Hardcover: 384 pages

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

I ordered this book in November last year. Daniel and Adele has been wonderful companions so far. This is usually uncomplicated enjoyable military scifi.

This series is on my List of Military SF Series

NO REST FOR THE WEARY

Captain Daniel Leary and his friend, the spy Adele Mundy, have been in the front lines of Cinnabar’s struggle against the totalitarian Alliance. Now these galactic superpowers have signed a peace of mutual exhaustion–  But the jackals are moving in!

The Republic of Cinnabar was on the verge of collapse under the weight of taxes, casualties, and war’s disruption of trade. That the Alliance of Free Stars was in even worse condition helped only because it has made peace possible.

Years of war have been hard on Daniel and harder still on Adele, whose life outside information-gathering is a tightrope between despair and deadly violence. Their masters in the RCN and the Republic’s intelligence service have sent them to the fringes of human space to relax away from danger.

But the barbarians of the outer reaches have their own plans, plans which will bring down both Cinnabar and the Alliance. The enemies of peace include traitors, giant reptiles, and barbarian pirates whose ships can outsail even Daniel Leary’s splendid corvette, the Princess Cecile.

Unless Daniel, Adele, and their unlikely allies succeed, galactic civilization will disintegrate into blood and chaos. So they will succeed— or they’ll die trying!

Title: Dreadnought

Series: Clockwork Century 3
Author: Cherie Priest
Genre: Steampunk
Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: Tor Books 28 Sep 2010

Excerpt: Chapter 1

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

Boneshaker was wonderful and Clementine arrived this week so I haven’t read it yet. But I expect it to be good to.

A grizzly death in the Rue Morgue – a body sliced in half. Milady de Winter hunts the killer, and discovers the body held an incredible secret.

The quest to discover it will take her to the edge of the world and to the depths of her own soul.

Outstanding steampunk adventure from the author of The Bookman.

File Under: Steampunk [ A Ghostly Murder / A Mythical Object / A Worldwide Quest ]

Title: The Truth of Valor

Series: Confederation of Valor 5
Author: Tanya Huff
Genre: Military Science Fiction
Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: DAW 7 Sep 2010

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

Tanya is really good at characters and dialog making this one an easy choise.

Former Marine Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr is attempting to build a new life with salvage operator Craig Ryder on his ship, the Promise. Turns out civilian life is a lot rougher than she’d imagined-salvage operators are losing both cargo and lives to pirates. And when they attack the Promise, Craig is taken prisoner and Torin is left for dead.

When Torin finds out why the pirates needed Craig, she calls in the Marines to get him back-and to stop the pirates from changing the balance of power in known space.

Title: Ragnarok

Series: Ragnarok book 1
Author: Patrick A. Vanner
Genre: Military Science Fiction | Space Opera
Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Baen

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

This is probably a hit or miss kind of thing. It is Patrick A Vanner’s first novel in a series of military space opera. I have this thing for female protagonist so I will give it a try.

Captain Alexandra “Alex” McLaughlin is not a woman to be underestimated. Under her petite exterior is a spine of solid steel and a disposition to laugh in the face of impending death. A former member of the Terran Navy’s elite force, the Dead Jokers, electronic-warfare pilots with a mortality rate to match that of old Japan’s Kamikazes, Alex is a born survivor. But sometimes survival can be a curse.

Humanity is locked in a war of survival with the Xan-Sskarn, an alien race that refuses to acknowledge the rights of “weaker” creatures to live. It is a war that will not end with a peace treaty, but only the complete subjugation of one species to the other. And right now, the alien side is winning.

However, the enemy on the outside is not the only one to be faced. As the battles take on an eerily familiar pattern of no-win scenarios, Alex realized the horrifying truth; humanity has a traitor, and it’s somebody close. As each battle brings more death, Alex’s ghosts grow and so does her desire for vengeance. There is only one way for this to end, and Alex is just the human to take it there—to Ragnarok

Other New Books of Interest

Title: The Clockwork Man

Author: William Jablonsky
Genre: Steampunk
Paperback: 268 pages
Publisher: Medallion Press

Order by:  Amazon US | UK | B&N

This one sounds interesting but could be a hit or miss kind of thing.

Ernst, the first man made of clockwork, is hailed as a marvel of late 19th-century automation and gains endless admirers, but when his love for the daughter of his creator is abruptly cut short, his serene existence is shattered. Forlorn, he allows himself to wind down in a willful act of defiant suicide. Now, more than 100 years later, he awakens to a new world and mentor – a well-meaning, if slightly unstable, homeless man. Attempting to piece together the events that brought him to this new home, Ernst tries to let go of the century-old tragedy that still haunts him. This story of science fiction realism delves into the thoughts, feelings, and desires of a character who must deal with the poignant social repercussions of having been built, rather than born.

Title: Zero History

Author: William Gibson
Genre: Cyberpunk
Hardcover: 416 pages
Publisher: Viking 2 September 2010 | Putnam Adult 7 September 2010
Order from: Putnam Adult | Amazon US | UK | B&N

The iconic visionary returns with his first new novel since the New York Times bestseller Spook Country.

Whatever you do, because you are an artist, will bring you to the next thing of your own…

When she sang for The Curfew, Hollis Henry’s face was known worldwide. She still runs into people who remember the poster. Unfortunately, in the post-crash economy, cult memorabilia doesn’t pay the rent, and right now she’s a journalist in need of a job. The last person she wants to work for is Hubertus Bigend, twisted genius of global marketing; but there’s no way to tell an entity like Bigend that you want nothing more to do with him. That simply brings you more firmly to his attention.

Milgrim is clean, drug-free for the first time in a decade. It took eight months in a clinic in Basel. Fifteen complete changes of his blood. Bigend paid for all that. Milgrim’s idiomatic Russian is superb, and he notices things. Meanwhile no one notices Milgrim. That makes him worth every penny, though it cost Bigend more than his cartel-grade custom-armored truck.

The culture of the military has trickled down to the street- Bigend knows that, and he’ll find a way to take a cut. What surprises him though is that someone else seems to be on top of that situation in a way that Bigend associates only with himself. Bigend loves staring into the abyss of the global market; he’s just not used to it staring back.

Title: Human Secrets

Author: Linden Lewis
Paperback 300 pages
Publisher: Matador 6 Sep 2010

Order from: Amazon US | UK | sfbok

When Guy Hewson, a young professor of Egyptology, discovers a strange relic, he has no idea of the bizarre sequence of events that will follow. The importance of the unearthed antiquity becomes manifest when the professor is the target of an assassination attempt. He is saved by an old university friend, Justin Bloom, a man struggling to cope with the humdrum routine of his daily existence. Justin is drawn into a scenario that’s far removed from his regular family life in Norfolk. As the mystery deepens his integrity is tested by the reciprocated fascination he has for another woman, Abigail Shakespeare, who becomes involved. Eventually, the incredible significance of the relic becomes apparent and a dark secret from humanity’s past is uncovered. Whilst Professor Hewson attempts to stay one step ahead of the police and a murderous third party, it’s down to Justin and Abigail to avert a reanimated danger threatening all of civilisation. Human Secrets exemplifies a new category of credible science fiction that deals with the lives of a group of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. It is a tale of romance and adventure that questions mankind’s place in the past, present and future.

New Releases of Old Books

Title: The High Crusade

Author: Paul Anderson
Genre: Alien invasion | Alternative History
Paperback: 208 pages
Publisher: Baen (1st Ed 1960)

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

In the year of grace 1345, as Sir Roger Baron de Tourneville is gathering an army to join King Edward III in the war against France, a most astonishing event occurs: a huge silver ship descends through the sky and lands in a pasture beside the little village of Ansby in northeastern Lincolnshire. The Wersgorix, whose scouting ship it is, are quite expert at taking over planets, and having determined from orbit that this one was suitable, they initiate standard world-conquering procedure. Ah, but this time it’s no mere primitives the Wersgorix seek to enslave—they’ve launched their invasion against free Englishmen! In the end, only one alien is left alive—and Sir Roger’s grand vision is born. He intends for the creature to fly the ship first to France to aid his King, then on to the Holy Land to vanquish the infidel. Unfortunately, he has not allowed for the treachery of the alien pilot, who instead takes the craft to his home planet, where, he thinks, these upstart barbarians will have no choice but to surrender. But that knavish alien little understands the indomitable will and clever resourcefulness of Englishmen, no matter how great the odds against them. . .

Title: Engineman

Author: Eric Brown
Genre: Space Opera
Paperback: 640 pages
Publisher: Solaris (1st ed 1994)

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

Once the Enginemen pushed bigships through the cobalt glory of the nada-continuum. But faster than light isn’t fast enough anymore. The interfaces of the Keilor-Vincicoff Organisation bring planets light years distant a simple step away. Then a man with half a face offers ex-Engineman Ralph Mirren the chance to escape his ruined life and push a ship to an undisclosed destination. The nada-continuum holds the key to Ralph’s future. What he cannot anticipate is its universal importance – nor the mystery awaiting him on the distant colony world.

Engineman is a thrilling action adventure by the author of Helix and Kéthani. Also in this volume are nine stories set in the Engineman universe, including the Interzone award-winning ‘The Time-Lapsed Man.’

Title: Winter Song

Author: Colin Harvey
Genre: Hard Science Fiction | Lost Colony
Cover art: Chris Moore
Paperback: 432 pages
Publisher: Angry Robot Sept 2010 (US) | 1st 2009

Excerpt: Sample chapter

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

Read my review on TLR

The planet had fallen off the map. When Karl Altman’s spaceship crashed, he had only one question: “HOW THE HELL DO I GET OUT OF HERE?” Rock-hard sci-fi adventure. No-one here gets out alive. When his spaceship crashes on an unknown and forgotten planet, scientist Karl Altman discovers himself hunted by an ancient race. The descendants of a Viking race have reverted to a savage culture of sacrifice, pillage and violence. When Karl falls in love with an outcast girl, he has only one goal: escape. But escape is a distant dream on this nightmare planet.

FILE UNDER: Science Fiction [Starship Crash / Abandoned Colonists / Alien Slaughter / Hell Planet]

There is a new snippet every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It usually continues until the publishing day.

You can of course also find the snippets at ericflint.net but the site was down yesterday.

Many of these books are on my 13 SF for the rest of 2010 book list Guardians of Paradise, Out of the Dark, Quantum Thief, What Distant Deep, Dreadnought and The Truth of Valor.

On Order

Title: Out of the Dark

Author: David Weber
Genre: Vampire Science Fiction | Alien Invasion
Hardcover: 384 pages
Publisher: Tor Books 28 Sep 2010

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

Vampires and space opera, it sounds cheesy but it is a Weber book so I am in. The first news made this out to be a new series but later reports says it is not.

Expanded from a short story that first appeared in George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois’s anthology Warriors, this trilogy kickoff blends elements of military science fiction and dark fantasy. In the very near future, Earth has been targeted for colonization by a galactic empire known as the Hegemony. Deemed “lunatic local sentients” by a survey team that witnessed King Henry V and his troops slaughtering the French at Agincourt, humankind has essentially been written off as bloodthirsty, expendable barbarians. When the Hegemony’s henchmen, the doglike Shongairi, show up to conquer Earth, the resistance is beyond anything they had ever imagined, especially when vampires appear to help the humans. Weber pulls off this conceit in audacious style with a focus on military-powered action that will thrill fans of his Honor Harrington series, and he keeps the pedal to the metal right up to the almost unbelievable conclusion.

Title: The Quantum Thief

Series: The Quantum Thief 1
Author: Hannu Rajaniemi
Genre: Space Opera
Hardcover: 448 pages
Publisher: Gollancz 30 Sep 2010

Order from: Gollancz | Amazon UK | sfbok

I read a short story by Hannu, he is a fantastic writer. This promises to be a real good posthuman series.

Jean le Flambeur is a post-human criminal, mind burglar, confidence artist and trickster. His origins are shrouded in mystery, but his exploits are known throughout the Heterarchy – from breaking into the vast Zeusbrains of the Inner System to steal their thoughts, to stealing rare Earth antiques from the aristocrats of the Moving Cities of Mars. Except that Jean made one mistake. Now he is condemned to play endless variations of a game-theoretic riddle in the vast virtual jail of the Axelrod Archons – the Dilemma Prison – against countless copies of himself. Jean’s routine of death, defection and cooperation is upset by the arrival of Mieli and her spidership, Perhonen. She offers him a chance to win back his freedom and the powers of his old self – in exchange for finishing the one heist he never quite managed . . . The Quantum Thief is a dazzling hard SF novel set in the solar system of the far future – a heist novel peopled by bizarre post-humans but powered by very human motives of betrayal, revenge and jealousy. It is a stunning debut.

Title: Guardians of Paradise

Series: The Hidden Empire/Sidhe 3
Author: Jaine Fenn
Genre: Space Opera
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Gollancz 16 Sep 2010

Order from: Gollancz | Amazon US | UK | sfbok

Jaine is another author I love. Read my take on the previous books in the Hidden Empire: Consorts of Heaven and Principles of Angels.

Most people believe the Sidhe are long dead, exterminated centuries ago when the males of the race rose up and fought alongside the humans subjugated and enslaved by the female Sidhe. But Jarek Reen knows better: he’s discovered, the painful way, that the Sidhe are alive and well, and still screwing over humanity. They’ve already killed his sister, so he’s not surprised when he discovers an old friend and her partner are next on the Sidhe’s hitlist. He helps not only to foil the assassination attempt, but also to muddy the scene of the crime, leaving the Angels Nual and Taro sanMalia presumed dead – and free to join his crusade to expose the insidious influence of the Sidhe, and their evil plans to enslave the human race again. Their mission takes them across human-space, from utilitarian hub-points to rich, exotic planets – where they discover that a brilliant vacation spot hides some of the darkest secrets of all. And that’s when they discover how easy it is for the hunters to become the hunted . . .

Title: What Distant Deeps

Series: Lt. Leary/RCN
Author: David Drake
Genre: Military Science Fiction
Publisher: Baen
Hardcover: 384 pages

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

I ordered this book in November last year. Daniel and Adele has been wonderful companions so far. This is usually uncomplicated enjoyable military scifi.

This series is on my List of Military SF Series

NO REST FOR THE WEARY

Captain Daniel Leary and his friend, the spy Adele Mundy, have been in the front lines of Cinnabar’s struggle against the totalitarian Alliance. Now these galactic superpowers have signed a peace of mutual exhaustion–  But the jackals are moving in!

The Republic of Cinnabar was on the verge of collapse under the weight of taxes, casualties, and war’s disruption of trade. That the Alliance of Free Stars was in even worse condition helped only because it has made peace possible.

Years of war have been hard on Daniel and harder still on Adele, whose life outside information-gathering is a tightrope between despair and deadly violence. Their masters in the RCN and the Republic’s intelligence service have sent them to the fringes of human space to relax away from danger.

But the barbarians of the outer reaches have their own plans, plans which will bring down both Cinnabar and the Alliance. The enemies of peace include traitors, giant reptiles, and barbarian pirates whose ships can outsail even Daniel Leary’s splendid corvette, the Princess Cecile.

Unless Daniel, Adele, and their unlikely allies succeed, galactic civilization will disintegrate into blood and chaos. So they will succeed— or they’ll die trying!

Title: Dreadnought

Series: Clockwork Century 3
Author: Cherie Priest
Genre: Steampunk
Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: Tor Books 28 Sep 2010

Excerpt: Chapter 1

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

Boneshaker was wonderful and Clementine arrived this week so I haven’t read it yet. But I expect it to be good to.

A grizzly death in the Rue Morgue – a body sliced in half. Milady de Winter hunts the killer, and discovers the body held an incredible secret.

The quest to discover it will take her to the edge of the world and to the depths of her own soul.

Outstanding steampunk adventure from the author of The Bookman.

File Under: Steampunk [ A Ghostly Murder / A Mythical Object / A Worldwide Quest ]

Title: The Truth of Valor

Series: Confederation of Valor 5
Author: Tanya Huff
Genre: Military Science Fiction
Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: DAW 7 Sep 2010

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

Tanya is really good at characters and dialog making this one an easy choise.

Former Marine Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr is attempting to build a new life with salvage operator Craig Ryder on his ship, the Promise. Turns out civilian life is a lot rougher than she’d imagined-salvage operators are losing both cargo and lives to pirates. And when they attack the Promise, Craig is taken prisoner and Torin is left for dead.

When Torin finds out why the pirates needed Craig, she calls in the Marines to get him back-and to stop the pirates from changing the balance of power in known space.

Title: Ragnarok

Series: Ragnarok book 1
Author: Patrick A. Vanner
Genre: Military Science Fiction | Space Opera
Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Baen

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

This is probably a hit or miss kind of thing. It is Patrick A Vanner’s first novel in a series of military space opera. I have this thing for female protagonist so I will give it a try.

Captain Alexandra “Alex” McLaughlin is not a woman to be underestimated. Under her petite exterior is a spine of solid steel and a disposition to laugh in the face of impending death. A former member of the Terran Navy’s elite force, the Dead Jokers, electronic-warfare pilots with a mortality rate to match that of old Japan’s Kamikazes, Alex is a born survivor. But sometimes survival can be a curse.

Humanity is locked in a war of survival with the Xan-Sskarn, an alien race that refuses to acknowledge the rights of “weaker” creatures to live. It is a war that will not end with a peace treaty, but only the complete subjugation of one species to the other. And right now, the alien side is winning.

However, the enemy on the outside is not the only one to be faced. As the battles take on an eerily familiar pattern of no-win scenarios, Alex realized the horrifying truth; humanity has a traitor, and it’s somebody close. As each battle brings more death, Alex’s ghosts grow and so does her desire for vengeance. There is only one way for this to end, and Alex is just the human to take it there—to Ragnarok

Other New Books of Interest

Title: The Clockwork Man

Author: William Jablonsky
Genre: Steampunk
Paperback: 268 pages
Publisher: Medallion Press

Order by:  Amazon US | UK | B&N

This one sounds interesting but could be a hit or miss kind of thing.

Ernst, the first man made of clockwork, is hailed as a marvel of late 19th-century automation and gains endless admirers, but when his love for the daughter of his creator is abruptly cut short, his serene existence is shattered. Forlorn, he allows himself to wind down in a willful act of defiant suicide. Now, more than 100 years later, he awakens to a new world and mentor – a well-meaning, if slightly unstable, homeless man. Attempting to piece together the events that brought him to this new home, Ernst tries to let go of the century-old tragedy that still haunts him. This story of science fiction realism delves into the thoughts, feelings, and desires of a character who must deal with the poignant social repercussions of having been built, rather than born.

Title: Zero History

Author: William Gibson
Genre: Cyberpunk
Hardcover: 416 pages
Publisher: Viking 2 September 2010 | Putnam Adult 7 September 2010
Order from: Putnam Adult | Amazon US | UK | B&N

The iconic visionary returns with his first new novel since the New York Times bestseller Spook Country.

Whatever you do, because you are an artist, will bring you to the next thing of your own…

When she sang for The Curfew, Hollis Henry’s face was known worldwide. She still runs into people who remember the poster. Unfortunately, in the post-crash economy, cult memorabilia doesn’t pay the rent, and right now she’s a journalist in need of a job. The last person she wants to work for is Hubertus Bigend, twisted genius of global marketing; but there’s no way to tell an entity like Bigend that you want nothing more to do with him. That simply brings you more firmly to his attention.

Milgrim is clean, drug-free for the first time in a decade. It took eight months in a clinic in Basel. Fifteen complete changes of his blood. Bigend paid for all that. Milgrim’s idiomatic Russian is superb, and he notices things. Meanwhile no one notices Milgrim. That makes him worth every penny, though it cost Bigend more than his cartel-grade custom-armored truck.

The culture of the military has trickled down to the street- Bigend knows that, and he’ll find a way to take a cut. What surprises him though is that someone else seems to be on top of that situation in a way that Bigend associates only with himself. Bigend loves staring into the abyss of the global market; he’s just not used to it staring back.

Title: Human Secrets

Author: Linden Lewis
Paperback 300 pages
Publisher: Matador 6 Sep 2010

Order from: Amazon US | UK | sfbok

When Guy Hewson, a young professor of Egyptology, discovers a strange relic, he has no idea of the bizarre sequence of events that will follow. The importance of the unearthed antiquity becomes manifest when the professor is the target of an assassination attempt. He is saved by an old university friend, Justin Bloom, a man struggling to cope with the humdrum routine of his daily existence. Justin is drawn into a scenario that’s far removed from his regular family life in Norfolk. As the mystery deepens his integrity is tested by the reciprocated fascination he has for another woman, Abigail Shakespeare, who becomes involved. Eventually, the incredible significance of the relic becomes apparent and a dark secret from humanity’s past is uncovered. Whilst Professor Hewson attempts to stay one step ahead of the police and a murderous third party, it’s down to Justin and Abigail to avert a reanimated danger threatening all of civilisation. Human Secrets exemplifies a new category of credible science fiction that deals with the lives of a group of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. It is a tale of romance and adventure that questions mankind’s place in the past, present and future.

New Releases of Old Books

Title: The High Crusade

Author: Paul Anderson
Genre: Alien invasion | Alternative History
Paperback: 208 pages
Publisher: Baen (1st Ed 1960)

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

In the year of grace 1345, as Sir Roger Baron de Tourneville is gathering an army to join King Edward III in the war against France, a most astonishing event occurs: a huge silver ship descends through the sky and lands in a pasture beside the little village of Ansby in northeastern Lincolnshire. The Wersgorix, whose scouting ship it is, are quite expert at taking over planets, and having determined from orbit that this one was suitable, they initiate standard world-conquering procedure. Ah, but this time it’s no mere primitives the Wersgorix seek to enslave—they’ve launched their invasion against free Englishmen! In the end, only one alien is left alive—and Sir Roger’s grand vision is born. He intends for the creature to fly the ship first to France to aid his King, then on to the Holy Land to vanquish the infidel. Unfortunately, he has not allowed for the treachery of the alien pilot, who instead takes the craft to his home planet, where, he thinks, these upstart barbarians will have no choice but to surrender. But that knavish alien little understands the indomitable will and clever resourcefulness of Englishmen, no matter how great the odds against them. . .

Title: Engineman

Author: Eric Brown
Genre: Space Opera
Paperback: 640 pages
Publisher: Solaris (1st ed 1994)

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

Once the Enginemen pushed bigships through the cobalt glory of the nada-continuum. But faster than light isn’t fast enough anymore. The interfaces of the Keilor-Vincicoff Organisation bring planets light years distant a simple step away. Then a man with half a face offers ex-Engineman Ralph Mirren the chance to escape his ruined life and push a ship to an undisclosed destination. The nada-continuum holds the key to Ralph’s future. What he cannot anticipate is its universal importance – nor the mystery awaiting him on the distant colony world.

Engineman is a thrilling action adventure by the author of Helix and Kéthani. Also in this volume are nine stories set in the Engineman universe, including the Interzone award-winning ‘The Time-Lapsed Man.’

Title: Winter Song

Author: Colin Harvey
Genre: Hard Science Fiction | Lost Colony
Cover art: Chris Moore
Paperback: 432 pages
Publisher: Angry Robot Sept 2010 (US) | 1st 2009

Excerpt: Sample chapter

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

Read my review on TLR

The planet had fallen off the map. When Karl Altman’s spaceship crashed, he had only one question: “HOW THE HELL DO I GET OUT OF HERE?” Rock-hard sci-fi adventure. No-one here gets out alive. When his spaceship crashes on an unknown and forgotten planet, scientist Karl Altman discovers himself hunted by an ancient race. The descendants of a Viking race have reverted to a savage culture of sacrifice, pillage and violence. When Karl falls in love with an outcast girl, he has only one goal: escape. But escape is a distant dream on this nightmare planet.

FILE UNDER: Science Fiction [Starship Crash / Abandoned Colonists / Alien Slaughter / Hell Planet]

In Fire Forged

According to David: “we’re planning an entire series which will be set a couple of hundred years earlier than Honor Harrington’s life, when the Star Kingdom of Manticore is basically Denmark — an affluent, peaceful, quiet little kingdom considerably removed from the powerbroker games of the galaxy.” it is going to be the first book in a new series.

The book was listed on Amazon when I copied this synopsis but seems to have been taken down since. David turned in the book to the publisher in April and that usually means the book will be out next spring. A post on the Honorverse forum indicate it will not be out until 2012.

Young Stephanie Harrington was intelligent and talented, with the curiosity typical of an adolescent, and after her family had emigrated to the human colony on Sphinx she wanted to explore. Of course, it was very frustrating that her father forebade her to go into the forest alone, but then she discovered something right at home. Some local wildlife had been eating the celery in the family garden, and when Stephanie lay in wait for the intruder, she encountered a six-legged cat-like creature. What’s more, the creature, known among his own kind as Climbs Quickly, was even more astonished, because he found that he could form a mental link with this strange two-legged young one.

That was the first encounter between a human and the beings who would become known as treecats. Stephanie planned to make a second contact with the treecat, but her plans went disastrously awry and she was stranded in a wilderness full of deadly predators. She could not hope to survive without help—but help was on the way, from Climbs Quickly and his tribe .

That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. But it was only the beginning . . .

Good news for all Weber fans. Don’t forget Out of the Dark next month.

Source: Amazon and David’s Interviews at davidweber.net

Related Posts

• New Series by David Weber – Out of the Dark – Cover Art & Blurb
• David Weber’s author profile
• Review of Mission of Honor by David Weber (HH 12)
• A Mighty Fortress by David Weber (Safehold 4)

I let my emotions guide me when it comes to the books I pick. All of them might not be great literature but I like the characters or the storyline or the wow factor. As you should know by now I like to like the characters I read, there should be some humor and friendly bantering for me to really enjoy myself. New stuff, mysteries, strange alien tech, and new races are also stuff that can get me excited. On the other hand beautiful prose gives me goose bumps.

1. Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold on Baen, November 2 - Vorkosigan Saga Book 12
2. Guardians of Paradise by Jaine Fenn on Gollancz, September 16 – Hidden Empires Book 3
3. Quantum Thief by Hanu Rajaniemi by Gollancz, September 30 - Quantum Thief book 1
4. Out of the Dark by David Weber on Tor, September 28 - Out of the Dark book 1
5. Redoubtable by Mike Shepherd on ACE, October 26 - Kris Lingknife book 8
6. The Technician by Neal Asher on Tor UK, August 20 - Polity Universe
7. What Distant Deeps by David Drake on Baen, September 7 – Lt. Leary/RCN 8
8. The Colony by Ray Harper on Book Guild Publishing, August 26
9. The Water Rising by Sheri S. Tepper on EOS , August 31 - Plague of Angles book 2
10. Dreadnought by Cherie Priest on Tor, September 28 – Clockwork Century
11. The Truth of Valor by Tanya Huff  on DAW, September 7 - Confederation of Valor book 5
12. Damage Time by Colin Harvey on Angry Robots, October 1
13. Money Shot by Christopher Rowley on Tor, November 9 - Netherworld book 3

CryoBurn by Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)

Miles Vorkosigan is one of those lovable rascals, crippled at birth in a society that used to kill babies like him, he still overcome and surpass the obstacles in his way. Too creative for the armed forces he is appointed Imperial Auditor. He is often a frustration for his leaders and seldom asks for permission. Many times he accomplishes a resolution in an unconventional way that frustrates the people around him. In the The last Vorkosigan Novel Diplomatic Immunity he went on a honeymoon with Ekaterin. I am so embedded with this series that I wouldn’t miss this one for the world.

Title: CryoBurn
Series: Vorkosigan Saga 12
Author: Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: Space Opera
Hardback: 400 pages
Publisher: Baen November 2, 2010

Order from Amazon US | UK | B&N

Kibou-daini is a planet obsessed with cheating death. Barrayaran Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan can hardly disapprove—he’s been cheating death his whole life, on the theory that turnabout is fair play. But when a Kibou-daini cryocorp—an immortal company whose job it is to shepherd its all-too-mortal frozen patrons into an unknown future—attempts to expand its franchise into the Barrayaran Empire, Emperor Gregor dispatches his top troubleshooter Miles to check it out.

On Kibou-daini, Miles discovers generational conflict over money and resources is heating up, even as refugees displaced in time skew the meaning of generation past repair. Here he finds a young boy with a passion for pets and a dangerous secret, a Snow White trapped in an icy coffin who burns to re-write her own tale, and a mysterious crone who is the very embodiment of the warning Don’t mess with the secretary. Bribery, corruption, conspiracy, kidnapping—something is rotten on Kibou-daini, and it isn’t due to power outages in the Cryocombs. And Miles is in the middle—of trouble!

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Guardians of Paradise by Jaine Fenn (Gollancz)

Jaine writes wonderful books. Her world-building and characterization is lifelike, different and a joy to read. I see the protagonists in her novels grow and become more, much more than they were before. There is a great historical mystery at the bottom of this series, The Sidhe was defeated in a revolution and thought to be extinct but we learn very early in the series that that is not the case. Book three brings the characters from book one and two together. Jaine write this on her homepage about the characters in this novel  “A desire for justice and a drive to survive are all very well, but the bigger picture is more complex than our heroes have considered, and it’s largely painted in shades of grey. Then again, some secrets are so dark that genocide isn’t too great a price to pay to keep them contained”. That sounds intriguing.

Each novel in the Hidden Empire series is self-contained, though certain locations and characters re-occur, and the books come together to tell a larger story. Next in the series after this one are Bringer of Light (2011) and Queen of Nowhere (2012) they will be sold under her new name J. N. Fenn. I thought we were moving beyond the time when female writers had to have male names to sell more copies, but apparently not.

• My Author Profile of Jaine Fenn
• My notes on her earlier books in the series: Consorts of Heaven | Principles of Angels

Title: Guardians of Paradise
Series: Hidden Empire 3
Author: Jaine Fenn
Genre: Space Opera
Hardback: 352 pages
Publisher: Gollancz (September 16)

Order from: Gollancz | Amazon US | UK | sfbok

Most people believe the Sidhe are long dead, exterminated centuries ago when the males of the race rose up and fought alongside the humans subjugated and enslaved by the female Sidhe. But Jarek Reen knows better: he’s discovered, the painful way, that the Sidhe are alive and well, and still screwing over humanity. They’ve already killed his sister, so he’s not surprised when he discovers an old friend and her partner are next on the Sidhe’s hitlist. He helps not only to foil the assassination attempt, but also to muddy the scene of the crime, leaving the Angels Nual and Taro sanMalia presumed dead – and free to join his crusade to expose the insidious influence of the Sidhe, and their evil plans to enslave the human race again. Their mission takes them across human-space, from utilitarian hub-points to rich, exotic planets – where they discover that a brilliant vacation spot hides some of the darkest secrets of all. And that’s when they discover how easy it is for the hunters to become the hunted …

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Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi (Gollancz)

I first heard about Hannu’s fantastic book deal with Gollancz, they signed him for three books after reading just one chapter of the first book, but after listening to His Master’s Voice By Hannu Rajaniemi on Escape Pod 227 I totally understand why John Jarrold signed Hannu.

To quot myself about His Master’s Voice:

The story is fantastic and makes you interested in more, the world is a singularity one where humans have evolved and can make copies of their own minds. Unrestricted copy led to the creation of Plurals some of which evolved to transhuman civilizations out among the stars. Now human law limits every human to one copy at a time. The master breaks the law and is sentenced to a virtual prison. It’s from there the animals have to rescue him.

The language in the story is poetic and it sounds fantastic coming from someone not born to the language. The story hints on things that might be in Hannu’s upcoming novel. There is a war going on among the stars and it’s there the small animal are going, to the Big Dogs. The story is also amusing and fun, imagine the dog becomes a musician to earn money and the cat had a gladiator career that lasted a while.

I have only one word for this story: Epic

I know quite a few book bloggers that also have The Quantum Thief in their pick for 2010 too.

• Read a Review of the ARC on Wertzone. He calls it “easily the best SF debut since Richard Morgan’s Altered Carbon“.

Title: The Quantum Thief
Series: The Quantum Thief Trilogy book 1
Author: Hannu Rajaniemi
Genre: Space Opera
Hardcover: 448 pages
Publisher: Gollancz (30 September) | Tor (May 2011)

Order from: Gollancz | Amazon UK | sfbok

Jean le Flambeur is a post-human criminal, mind burglar, confidence artist and trickster. His origins are shrouded in mystery, but his exploits are known throughout the Heterarchy – from breaking into the vast Zeusbrains of the Inner System to steal their thoughts, to stealing rare Earth antiques from the aristocrats of the Moving Cities of Mars. Except that Jean made one mistake. Now he is condemned to play endless variations of a game-theoretic riddle in the vast virtual jail of the Axelrod Archons – the Dilemma Prison – against countless copies of himself. Jean’s routine of death, defection and cooperation is upset by the arrival of Mieli and her spidership, Perhonen. She offers him a chance to win back his freedom and the powers of his old self – in exchange for finishing the one heist he never quite managed . . . The Quantum Thief is a dazzling hard SF novel set in the solar system of the far future – a heist novel peopled by bizarre post-humans but powered by very human motives of betrayal, revenge and jealousy. It is a stunning debut.

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Out of the Dark by David Weber (Tor)

At first I didn’t know if I should be outraged that David Weber jumped on the vampire bandwagon or be delighted that he was starting a new series. By what I have been able to find out it sound like we and the vampires stand alone against an alien onslaught. I am not totally happy about it but the idea is intriguing David has yet to write something I don’t like.

It is built on a short story with the same name published in the anthology Warriors edited by G. R. R. Martin and Gardener Duzois published by Tor Books March 2010.

• My Author Profile of David Weber – lots of free online novels there to get you hocked.

Title: Out of the Dark
Series: Out of the Dark book 1
Author: David Weber
Genre: Military Science Fiction
Hardcover: 384 pages
Publisher: Tor September 28, 2010

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

Earth is conquered. The Shongairi have arrived in force, and humanity’s cities lie in radioactive ruins. In mere minutes, over half the human race has died.

Now Master Sergeant Stephen Buchevsky, who thought he was being rotated home from his latest tour in Afghanistan, finds himself instead prowling the back country of the Balkans, dodging alien patrols and trying to organize the scattered survivors without getting killed.

His chances look bleak. The aliens have definitely underestimated human tenacity–but no amount of heroism can endlessly hold off overwhelming force.

Then, emerging from the mountains and forests of Eastern Europe, new allies present themselves to the ragtag human resistance. Predators, creatures of the night, human in form but inhumanly strong. Long Enemies of humanity… until now. Because now is the time to defend Earth.

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Redoubtable by Mike Shepherd (ACE)

Kris Longknife is a formidable woman with a knack for getting in trouble and getting out. She is one of them Longknifes and if life wasn’t enough complicated being an officer in the navy; the society of humanity dissolve and her grandpa is named King making her a reluctant princess. The Peterwald family with their long standing grudge with the Longknife set up their own little pocket empire and starts to make life for Kris and her family difficult. Lots of humor and fantastic characters. I love this series and the characters in them so this is a must.

Upcoming after this one is Daring in October 2011 and Furious in 2012. The titles are only preliminary expect changes, Redoubtable changed name at least once the last year.

• My author profile of Mike Shepherd
• My thoughts on the three first novels in the series: Mutineer | Deserter | Defiant
• My thoughts on book six and seven:  Intrepid | Undaunted
• The Society of Humanity Trilogy written as Mike Moscoe let us follow Ray Longknife, here are my thoughts on book 1: First Casualty

Title: Redoubtable
Series: Kris Longknife book 8
Author: Mike Shepherd
Genre: Military Science Fiction
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: ACE, October 26

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

Lieutenant Commander Kris Longknife has precise orders: seek out, engage,and destroy pirates, slavers, and drug lords operating beyond the rim of human space—without interfering in Peterwald family affairs. But when slavers kidnap a twelve-year-old girl, Kris’s mission becomes personal. And if destroying the pirate compound flattens some Peterwald interests—well, to hell with politics.

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The Technician by Neal Asher (Tor)

My experience with Neal Asher so far has strictly been with his Agent Cormac series which takes place in the same universe like this one. Fact is that most of the books have part of their action on Masada. So even if I might not see Cormac here it is connected to the story before. Plus the cover is awesome.

One thing that bothers me is that it is so hard to find Neal’s books in the US; somebody should do something about that. They are missing out.

Read my reviews of the Cormac series: Shadow of the Scorpion | Grindlinked | The Line of the Polity | Brass Man | Polity Agent | Line War

Title: The Technician
Universe: Polity Universe
Author: Neal Asher
Genre: Space Opera
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Tor UK, 20 Aug 2010

Order from: Tor UK | Amazon US | UK | sfbok

The Theocracy has been dead for twenty years, and the Polity rules on Masada. But the Tidy Squad consists of rebels who cannot accept the new order. Their hate for surviving theocrats is undiminished, and the iconic Jeremiah Tombs is at the top of their hitlist.

Escaping his sanatorium Tombs is pushed into painful confrontation with reality he has avoided since the rebellion. His insanity has been left uncured, because the near mythical hooder called the Technician that attacked him all those years ago, did something to his mind even the AIs fail to understand. Tombs might possess information about the suicide of an entire alien race.

The war drone Amistad, whose job it is to bring this information to light, recruits Lief Grant, an ex-rebel Commander, to protect Tombs, along with the black AI Penny Royal, who everyone thought was dead. The amphidapt Chanter, who has studied the bone sculptures the Technician makes with the remains of its prey, might be useful too.

Meanwhile, in deep space, the mechanism the Atheter used to reduce themselves to animals, stirs from slumber and begins to power-up its weapons.

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What Distant Deeps by David Drake (Baen)

Captain Daniel Leary and his friend the formidable Adele Mundy and their military adventures in the Royal Cinnabar Navy. David Drake rewrites historical battles and wars and makes beautiful military science fiction out of it. Adele is a really cool character with an interesting background, her whole family was persecuted and killed for treason and she is the lone survivor, now a scholar with spectacular information handling skills and uncanny shooting skills. She becomes the unlikely best friend of Daniel Leary. This is the type of character chemistry I love to read.

• Read my thoughts on book seven: In the Stormy Red Sky
• Love David Drake’s new homepage with all the back story to the RCN novels.

Title: What Distant Deeps
Series: Lt. Leary/RCN book 8
Author: David Drake
Genre: Military Science Fiction
Hardcover: 400 pages
Publisher: Baen, Spetember 7

Excerpts: Chapter 1-12

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

NO REST FOR THE WEARY

Captain Daniel Leary and his friend, the spy Adele Mundy, have been in the front lines of Cinnabar’s struggle against the totalitarian Alliance. Now these galactic superpowers have signed a peace of mutual exhaustion–  But the jackals are moving in!

The Republic of Cinnabar was on the verge of collapse under the weight of taxes, casualties, and war’s disruption of trade. That the Alliance of Free Stars was in even worse condition helped only because it has made peace possible.

Years of war have been hard on Daniel and harder still on Adele, whose life outside information-gathering is a tightrope between despair and deadly violence. Their masters in the RCN and the Republic’s intelligence service have sent them to the fringes of human space to relax away from danger.

But the barbarians of the outer reaches have their own plans, plans which will bring down both Cinnabar and the Alliance. The enemies of peace include traitors, giant reptiles, and barbarian pirates whose ships can outsail even Daniel Leary’s splendid corvette, the Princess Cecile.

Unless Daniel, Adele, and their unlikely allies succeed, galactic civilization will disintegrate into blood and chaos. So they will succeed— or they’ll die trying!

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The Colony by Ray Harper (Book Guild Publishing)

This one just sounded interesting I enjoyed Karen Traviss’ green science fiction the Wess’har Wars series and therefore I think this could be something for me. This is also his debut novel.

The author himself also sounds interesting: Ray Harper, originally from Worcestershire, is Senior Lecturer at the University of Bedfordshire in Luton, lecturing in biochemistry, biotechnology, computer applications, genetics and molecular biology. He has carried out research and consultancy work in adipose tissue metabolism, cell immobilisation and the development of World Wide Web-based assessment systems and virtual learning environments. He has published a number of lectures and articles in learned journals.

Title: The Colony
Author: Ray Harper
Genre: Green Science Fiction
Hardcover: 228 pages
Publisher: Book Guild Publishing, August 26

Order from: Book Guild Publishing | Amazon US | UK

It is the future. Earth is overpopulated and running out of food. Starvation is rife. Everywhere society is disintegrating, with wars and civil unrest. The need to find new worlds to colonise is paramount.

A new planet is discovered, surveyed, found to be suitable, and the first wave of colonists arrive, joined by the survey scientist, Linstrom. Initially, he is resented as an outsider, especially by the colonists’ leader, Jon Williams, who sees him as a possible rival. The colony quickly expands, felling trees and planting crops, hunting and fishing and exploring the hinterland. The colonists also begin to use newly developed human-cloning techniques to rapidly expand the population.

Also on this planet, but unknown to the settlers, are the Monitors, intelligent clones left behind by a departed civilisation to safeguard the planet’s ecology and protect it from despoliation and development. They have the new colony under observation, and they do not like what they see …

The Colony belongs in the classic tradition of science fiction grounded in real scientific and technological knowledge and expertise, but enriched with true story-telling art. It marks the debut of a new, exciting talent.

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The Water Rising by Sheri S. Tepper (EOS)

I am about to make a review of A Plague of Angels before this one get out (expect it in August closer to the release). I have enjoyed everything I read by her so far, she has a talent for surprises and well developed characters. I know she is not for everyone, she can be something of an eco-feminist at times but I like her well enough.

Title: The Waters Rising
Series: Plague of Angels book 2
Author: Sheri S. Tepper
Genre: Feminist Science Fiction Fantasy
Hardcover: 512 pages
Publisher: EOS, August 31 | Gollancz, January 2011 (UK)

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

The long-awaited and much-demanded sequel to A PLAGUE OF ANGELS, continuing the story of Abasio, once a farmboy, now, so Blue, his talking horse, is happy to inform people, a man who goes hither and thither helping orphans in this world where renascent mythical beasts and fairy tale ‘archetypes’ now live. . . . And when he comes agross little Xulai from Tingawan, one of the Ten Thousand Islands, far across the western Sea, she informs him that she too is an orphan, and implores his help carrying out the last request of the Princess Xu-i-lok, who has been dying since the day she married Duke Justinian, who refused the royal order to marry Alicia, the Prince’s sister. Xulai is Princess Xu-i-lok’s Soul Carrier, and the task she must complete means visiting the scary forest in the dead of night – but it is the only thing that will bring the princess a measure of peace. Abasio, helper of orphans, promises though she must do this alone, he will be near, to aid her if necessary . . . and it is, for there are dark things abroad . . . And Xulai’s job is not yet done, for with the princess now dead, the grieving Duke is left a widower – and Alicia, Duchess Altamont, still wishes to marry him. It’s not just the man she wants, but his lands too . . . and her plans do not bode well for anyone except her . . .

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Dreadnought by Cherie Priest (Tor)

I recently read Boneshaker, Cherie’s first book in the Clockwork Century Series and I am really looking forward to the second, Dreadnought (Clementine also takes place in the same series but that was a limited edition that I unfortunately didn’t get any of, a normal release of it will be out in 2011). I especially like the strong female protagonist in Boneshaker and hope for something similar here.

Title: Dreadnought
Universe: Clockwork Century
Author: Cherie Priest
Genre: Steampunk
Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: Tor Books, September 28
Excerpt: Chapter 1

Order from: Tor Forge | Amazon US | UK | B&N

Nurse Mercy Lynch is elbows deep in bloody laundry at a war hospital in Richmond, Virginia, when Clara Barton comes bearing bad news: Mercy’s husband has died in a POW camp. On top of that, a telegram from the west coast declares that her estranged father is gravely injured, and he wishes to see her. Mercy sets out toward the Mississippi River. Once there, she’ll catch a train over the Rockies and—if the telegram can be believed—be greeted in Washington Territory by the sheriff, who will take her to see her father in Seattle.

Reaching the Mississippi is a harrowing adventure by dirigible and rail through war-torn border states. When Mercy finally arrives in St. Louis, the only Tacoma-bound train is pulled by a terrifying Union-operated steam engine called the Dreadnought. Reluctantly, Mercy buys a ticket and climbs aboard.

What ought to be a quiet trip turns deadly when the train is beset by bushwhackers, then vigorously attacked by a band of Rebel soldiers. The train is moving away from battle lines into the vast, unincorporated west, so Mercy can’t imagine why they’re so interested. Perhaps the mysterious cargo secreted in the second and last train cars has something to do with it?

Mercy is just a frustrated nurse who wants to see her father before he dies. But she’ll have to survive both Union intrigue and Confederate opposition if she wants to make it off the Dreadnought alive.

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The Truth of Valor by Tanya Huff (DAW)

I enjoyed the other novels in the Confederation of Valor Series especially the dialog is to die for. It is witty and the characters banter and rant in the most delightful way. The main character is Torin Kerr, she starts out as a Staff Sergeant and gradually rise through the ranks until she leaves and begin life as a prospector together with the man of her life. She and her fellow humans are employed by elder alien races to fight in their war. Humanity seems to have been duped much like in John Ringo’s Posleen universe. The big arc in the series is about that. There was some decline in my enjoyment in the series in the last books so I hope for a revival of the shock and awe of the first book here.

Read my thoughts on the previous books: Valor’s Choice | Better Part of Valor | The Heart of Valor | Valor’s Trial

Title: The Truth of Valor
Series: Confederation of Valor/Torin Kerr book 5
Author: Tanya Huff
Cover art: Paul Youll – Preliminary artwork
Genre: Military Science Fiction
Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: DAW September 7

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

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Damage Time by Colin Harvey (Angry Robot)

I enjoyed his previous novel Winter Song very much so this one I picked because I want to read something more of Colin Harvey.

Title: Damage Time
Author: Colin Harvey
Genre: Future Crime | Science Fiction
Paperback: 432 pages
Publisher: Angry Robot October 1

Order from: Amazon US | UK | B&N

Rock-hard SF Thriller from the author of Winter Song: no-one here gets out alive. It’s 2050 and sea-levels have swamped today’s coastal regions. New York City is protected by tidal barriers and the USA is bankrupt. Detective Pervez (Pete) Shah serves with the NYPD’s Web Crimes Division as a Memory Association Specialist. When he’s accused of murdering a glamorous woman in a bar, he must find the killer, save himself … and the world.

FILE UNDER: Science Fiction [Future Crime / Memory Specialist / Run for your Life / World in Danger]

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Money Shot by Christopher Rowley (Tor)

The Netherworld series is Heavy Metal Pulp, a hybrid between novel and graphic novel with violent and adult content so it might not be for everyone. I however am delightfully fascinated with these futuristic hardboiled-noir detective novels, maybe it is the teenager in me? It’s a series that well illustrates many of the moral issues that can arise with cloning and gene modifications; where does life become human? The protagonist is Detective Rook and he is accompanied by Pleasur a chipped-up pleasure model with programmed secrets and a Julia a dominatrix on the run.

My reviews of the previous Netherworld books: Pleasure Model | The Bloodstained Man

Rowley’s homepage www.christopherrowley.net contains a Netherworld Web Project with 28 slightly different chapters compared to book one that has 21. The texts are without the delightfully noir illustrations. There is also world building notes in the  ‘Need to Know‘ section.

Title: Money Shot
Series: Netherworld book 3
Author: Christopher Rowley
Genre: Heavy Metal | Cyberpunk | Noir
Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Tor (Heavy Metal Pulp) November 9

Order from: Tor | Amazon US | UK

Detective Rook Venner was a successful investigating officer for the Hudson Valley Police Department—until the General Sangacha murder case came across his desk and his world exploded.

Now after being dragged through hell and back, Rook is on the run with Plesur, a Pleasure Model who is the one eyewitness to the murder. Plesur carries a secret in her brain that terrifies the powers-that-be. A secret that they will do anything to destroy—even bring in a Tactical Robotic Regiment to track Rook and Plesur down and annihilate them.

The only choice the two have is to locate the coordinates that were planted in the pleasure mod’s head to the isolated mountain ridge where it all began. Deep underground, in a warren of machine halls and ice caves, something so horrific is happening that just knowing three code words is enough to get you killed: Operation Taste Imperative.

Rook and Plesur have no way back and no way out. If they want to survive and have any kind of life together, they must uncover the terrifying secret that lies deep inside the mountain.

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Other related posts

• New SF to Read 2010

This month holds some very anticipated books, two of them where on my list of New SF to Read 2010 in January. Honor Harrington is one of the most popular science fiction characters out there and David Weber [profile] is one of my favorite authors. Mission of Honor is the next main story novel and I can’t wait to get my hands on it (it is in transit atm, curse the slow mail service). The other book is Pathfinder by Laura E. Reeve [profile]. Her writing is influenced by Greek culture and feels refreshing and new. This time Ariane Kedros has a mission from the mysterious Minoans, I have been waiting since book one for her to go exploring again.

I realized I was missing out on Karl Schroeder who I haven’t read since Permanence (great book by the way). That book needs company on it’s shelf  and the Virgo setting in its steampunk pocket universe sounded too good to resist. Gibson and Wooding have been on my radar for a while now so I felt it was time for a sample. Howard Birnberg is more of a shot in the dark from my side, I liked the blurb, hope it is good.

Since last time I also decided I need the new Ian McDonald – Dervish House.

The Puppets Masters is a book that has been with me from adolescence. It is a fun read and you should get a copy if you don’t own one.

And I always use the Publishers dates when release dates don’t match between the online stores and publisher, unless I know otherwise (like the book is in the mail from the store).

These are my recommendations for July

On Order

Title: Mission of Honor
Series: Honor Harrington 12
Author: David Weber
Genre: Military Science Fiction | Space Opera
Publisher: Baen
Hardcover: 864 pages
Buy:  Amazon US | UK | B&N | sfbok

A new main story Honor Harrington is a must read for me, cant wait. It is on my list of New SF books to read in 2010.

• Review on Fantasy Book Critic
• Review on Inside of a Dog

The Star Kingdom of Manticore and the Republic of Haven have been enemies for Honor Harrington’s entire life, and she has paid a price for the victories she’s achieved in that conflict. And now the unstoppable juggernaut of the mighty Solarian League is on a collision course with Manticore. The millions who have already died may have been only a foretaste of the billions of casualties just over the horizon, and Honor sees it coming.

She’s prepared to do anything, risk anything, to stop it, and she has a plan that may finally bring an end to the Havenite Wars and give even the Solarian League pause. But there are things not even Honor knows about. There are forces in play, hidden enemies in motion, all converging on the Star Kingdom of Manticore to crush the very life out of it, and Honor’s worst nightmares fall short of the oncoming reality.

But Manticore’s enemies may not have thought of everything after all. Because if everything Honor Harrington loves is going down to destruction, it won’t be going alone.

Title: Pathfinder
Series: Major Ariane Kedros 3
Author: Laura E. Reeve
Genre: Military Science Fiction
Paperback 336 pages
Publisher:  ROC 6 July 2010
Order from: ROC | Amazon US | UK | B&N | sfbok

Pathfinder is on my most anticipated books list for 2010.

Reserve Major Ariane Kedros needs a shot at redemption-and the mysterious aliens known as the Minoans need an extraordinary human pilot with a rejuv-stimulated metabolism like Ariane for a dangerous expedition to a distant solar system. But there’s a catch. The Minoans have to implant their technology in Ariane’s body, and it might not be removable. Ariane is willing, but as she begins the perilous journey, there is an old enemy hiding within the exploration team who is determined to see them fail…

Title: Empire of Light
Series: Stealing Light 3 | Shoal Sequence 3
Author: Gary Gibson
Genre: Space Opera
Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Tor UK 2 Jul 2010
Order from: Tor | Amazon US | UK | B&N | sfbok

The nova war has begun to spread as the Emissaries wage a fierce and reckless campaign, encroaching on the area of space occupied by humanity and forcing the Shoal into a desperate retreat. While Dakota goes in search of the entity responsible for creating the Maker caches, Corso, left in charge of a fleet of human-piloted Magi ships, finds his authority crumbling in the face of assassination attempts and politically-motivated sabotage.

If any hope exists at all, it lies in an abandoned asteroid a thousand light-years beyond the Consortium’s borders, and with Ty Whitecloud, the only man alive with the skill to decipher the messages left behind by an ancient race of star travellers. Unfortunately Whitecloud is locked in a prison cell aboard a dying coreship adrift in space, awaiting execution for war crimes against Corso’s own people. But if humanity has any hope of survival, Corso is going to have to find some way to keep him alive – and that’s only if Dakota doesn’t kill him first …

Title: The Dervish House
Author: Ian Mcdonald
Hardcover: 410 | 480 pages
Publisher: Pyr 27 July 2010 | Gollancz 29 July 2010
Order from: Amazon US | UK | B&N | sfbok

• Excerpt at Tor.com
  Review at Wertzone
• Review at OF Blog of the Fallen

In the CHAGA novels Ian McDonald brought an Africa in the grip of a bizarre alien invasion to life, in RIVER OF GODS he painted a rich portrait of India in 2047, in BRASYL he looked at different Brazils, past present and future. Ian McDonald has found renown at the cutting edge of a movement to take SF away from its British and American white roots and out into the rich cultures of the world. THE DERVISH HOUSE continues that journey and centres on Istanbul in 2025. Turkey is part of Europe but sited on the edge, it is an Islamic country that looks to the West. THE DERVISH HOUSE is the story of the families that live in and around its titular house, it is at once a rich mosaic of Islamic life in the new century and a telling novel of future possibilities.

Title: The Black Lung Captain
Series: Tales of the Ketty Jay 2
Author: Chris Wooding
Hardcover: 448 pages
Publisher: Gollancz 29 July 2010
Order from: Gollancz | Amazon US | UK | B&N | sfbok

• Review on Speculative Horizons

Darian Frey is down on his luck. He can barely keep his squabbling crew fed and his rickety aircraft in the sky. Even the simplest robberies seem to go wrong. It’s getting so a man can’t make a dishonest living any more. Enter Captain Grist. He’s heard about a crashed aircraft laden with the treasures of a lost civilisation, and he needs Frey’s help to get it. There’s only one problem. The craft is lying in the trackless heart of a remote island, populated by giant beasts and subhuman monsters. Dangerous, yes. Suicidal, perhaps. Still, Frey’s never let common sense get in the way of a fortune before. But there’s something other than treasure on board that aircraft. Something that a lot of important people would kill for. And it’s going to take all of Frey’s considerable skill at lying, cheating and stealing if he wants to get his hands on it . . . Strap yourself in for another tale of adventure and debauchery, pilots and pirates, golems and daemons, double-crosses and double-double-crosses. The crew of the Ketty Jay are back!

Title: The Genius Gene
Series: Catherine Fox Trilogy 1
Author: Howard Birnberg
Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: Book Guild Ltd 29 July 2010
Order from: Book Guild | Amazon US | UK | B&N | sfbok

Einstein, Newton, Da Vinci. The names are synonymous with genius; however, is genius nurtured or does nature provide it? In the fictional scientific thriller, The Genius Gene, young geneticist Catherine Fox has the surprising answer. She has discovered a source of genius in our genes. Unfortunately, her former mentor and spurned lover, Nobel Prize-winning geneticist, Stephen Yates would do anything to obtain her confidential research. Backed by greedy pharmaceutical companies, Yates has become corrupt and he wants to engineer the genius gene into the unborn children of wealthy parents. The time is the mid-21st century and Stephen has established clinics to design the genome of children according to their parents’ preferences. Catherine calls these offspring ‘Frankenstein children’ and she fears the creation of a master race. Her research may make this possible and she struggles to prevent Yates from learning the workings of the genius gene. Unknown to Catherine, there are other secrets to protect. On the eve of crucial hearings on legalizing Yates’ process, he vanishes and Catherine becomes a suspect in his disappearance.

On Order New ReReleases

Virga: Cities of the Air
Series: Virga
Omnibus: Sun of Suns (2006), Queen of Canedsce (2007)
Author: Karl Schroeder
Paperback: 592 pages
Publisher: Tor 6 July 2010
Order from: Tor | Amazon US | UK | B&N | sfbok

Sun of Suns – It is the distant future. The world known as Virga is a fullerene balloon three thousand kilometers in diameter, filled with air, water, and aimlessly floating chunks of rock. The humans who live in this vast environment must build their own fusion suns and “towns” that are in the shape of enormous wood and rope wheels that are spun for gravity.

Young, fit, bitter, and friendless, Hayden Griffin is a very dangerous man. He’s come to the city of Rush in the nation of Slipstream with one thing in mind: to take murderous revenge for the deaths of his parents six years ago. His target is Admiral Chaison Fanning, head of the fleet of Slipstream, which conquered Hayden’s nation of Aerie years ago. And the fact that Hayden’s spent his adolescence living with pirates doesn’t bode well for Fanning’s chances.

Queen of Cadansce – Venera Fanning was last seen falling into nothingness at the end of Sun of Suns. Now, in Queen of Candesce, Venera finds herself plunging through the air between the artificial continents of Virga, far from home and her husband, who may or may not be alive. Landing in the ancient nation of Spyre, Venera encounters new enemies and new friends (or at least convenient allies). She must quickly learn who she can trust, and who she can manipulate in order to survive. Queen of Candesce is her story.

Titel: Diamond Star
Series: Saga of the Skolian Empire
Author: Catherine Asaro
Paperback: 448 pages
Publisher: Baen (1st 2009)
Order from: Amazon US | UK | B&N | sfbok
Excerpt: Chapter 1-8

I have started to dive into the Skolian Empire series my first book was Primary Inversion and I liked it. It was a Romantic science fiction with space opera, military scifi and hard science influence about a formidable yet human Julia character and it avoids the usual pitfalls of that genre, it is not action packed but there is enough thrill to go around. This looks like something a bit different in the same universe.

Del was a rock singer. He was also the renegade son of the Ruby Dynasty, which made his career choice less than respectable, and gave him more to worry about than getting gigs and not getting cheated by recording companies, club owners, or his agent. For one thing, the Ruby Dynasty ruled the Skolian Imperialate, an interstellar Empire, which had recently had a war with another empire, the Eubian Concord. For another, Del was singing on Earth, which was part of a third interstellar civilization, and one which had an uneasy relationship with the Imperialate.

Del undeniably had talent, and was rapidly rising from an unknown fringe artist to stardom. But, with his life entangled in the politics of three interstellar civilizations, whether he wanted that or not, talent might not be enough. And that factor might have much more effect than his music on the lives of trillions of people on the thousands of inhabited worlds across the galaxy.

Other books of Interest

I should also mention the anthology Gateways that will be out in July. Anthologies and collections of short stories isn’t my thing but this one looks promising. I might change my mind and include it in the later post.

Title: The Restoration Game
Author: Ken MacLeod
Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Orbit 1 July 2010
Order from: Amazon US | UK | B&N | sfbok

• Review at Green Man Review
• Review at SFX

There is no such place as Krassnia. Lucy Stone should know – she was born there. In that tiny, troubled region of the former Soviet Union, revolution is brewing. Its organisers need a safe place to meet, and where better than the virtual spaces of an online game? Lucy, who works for a start-up games company in Edinburgh, has a project that almost seems made for the job: a game inspired by The Krassniad, an epic folk tale concocted by Lucy’s mother Amanda, who studied there in the 1980s. Lucy knows Amanda is a spook. She knows her great-grandmother Eugenie also visited the country in the ’30s, and met the man who originally collected Krassnian folklore, and who perished in Stalin’s terror. As Lucy digs up details about her birthplace to slot into the game, she finds the open secrets of her family’s past, the darker secrets of Krassnia’s past – and hints about the crucial role she is destined to play in The Restoration Game …

New ReReleases

Title: The Puppet Masters
Author: Robert A. Heinlein
Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Baen 27 July 2010 (First published 1951)
Order from: Amazon US | UK | B&N | sfbok

This is one of my favorite Heinlein book, the perfect summer read. It has a afterword by Sarah A Hoyt.

First came the news that a flying saucer had landed in Iowa. Then came the announcement that the whole thing was a hoax. End of story. Case closed. Except that two agents of the most secret intelligence agency in the U.S. government were on the scene and disappeared without reporting in. And four more agents who were sent in also disappeared. So the head of the agency and his two top agents went in and managed to get out with their discovery: an invasion is underway by slug-like aliens who can touch a human and completely control his or her mind! Sam Cavanaugh was one of the agents who discovered the truth. Unfortunately, that was just before he was taken over by one of the aliens and began working for the invaders, with no will of his own. And he has just learned that a high official in the Treasury Department is now under control of the aliens. Since the Treasury Department includes the Secret Service, which safeguards the President of the United States, control of the entire nation is near at hand…

You might also want to check out recommendations from some other bloggers:
YetiStomper | Walkerofworlds | Fantasy Book Critic

Mission of Honor is a long awaited Honor Harrington novel the 12th in an extremely popular series. This is one of my absolute favorite series, I love everything by David Weber [profile], he is the master of military science fiction in my humble opinion.

MoH-snippet One Chapter 1:

December, 1921, Post Diaspora

“To understand Solly foreign policy, we’d have to be Sollies
. . . and nothing would be worth that!”
– Queen Elizabeth III of Manticore

Arsenovich Kolokoltsov, the Solarian League’s Permanent Senior Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs is struck speechless by disbelief and shock by the report from New Tuscany. Then he calls a conference with Permanent Senior Undersecretary of the Treasury Wodoslawski, Abruzzi, MacArtney, , Permanent Senior Undersecretary of Commerce Quartermain and Fleet Admiral Rajampet Kaushal Rajan and start to raise hell.

MoH-snippet Two: The Solies start to realize how far behind they are on the technology curb.

MoH-snippet three- The byrocrates are shocked by the Solarian League Navy utter defeat and the following surrender. They worry about the consecuences.

MoH-snippet four – they continue to talk about the battle at New Tuscany. Hot heads want to retaliate at any cost, cooler heads try to reason that it would be suicide to go up against the Manticorian navy at this time.

MoH-snippet five - they discuss declaring war on the Star Empire

MoH-snippet six: – they continue to discuss a war with the Manties and comes to a conclusion.

MoH-snippet Seven Chapter 2: Fleet Admiral Winston Kingsford, CO, Battle Fleet and Fleet Admiral Rajampet continue discussing the Mantis in private. Especially putting some analysts on the data right away, then they continue talking about fleet deployment, mantis missiles and when they will go after the Mantis home system. Winston is having an intresting inner dialogue about Sandra Cranell and her task force being deployed in the Madras sector.

MoH-snippet Eight: – Rajampet finish his meeting before we switch over to Queen Elizabeth III for a chat with Admira l Lady Dame Honor Alexander-Harrington. They start out talking about Stacy Hauptman and her father before they switch over to Manpower and the Talbot Cluster.

MoH-snippet Nine Honor and Elizabeth continue to speculate on the Solarian response. It’s four days to Christmas. Honor will be leaving on an unspecified mission (Haven?) after celebrating Christmas with her family.
Honor meets with Admiral Tourville afterwards

MoH-snippet ten Honor, Nimitz and Tourville remembers previous meetings and do social niceties before coming to the point in the next snippet.

Snippet 11 Honor want to know about the political leadership in Haven but they end up talking about the surrender demands.

MoH-snippet 12 Chapter 3: Benjamin IX, Protector of Grayson talk with the commander in chief of the Grayson Space Navy Wesley Matthews about their security situation.

MoH-snippet 13 Mathew and Benjamin continue to discuss the political and military situation especially considering the Mantis, the Sollis and the Havenite.

MoH-snippet 14 They confirm Lady Harringtons mission.
The Royal Manticoran Navy’s Destroyer Division 265.2, known as “the Silver Cepheids,” prepare to go home from their position a light-month from Manticore-A

MoH-snippet 15 The Silver Cepheids prepare to leave while the officers involve them selfs in cheerful banter about SCA. Then we switch over to Commodore Karol Østby of the Mesa Alignment Navy and his task force that quietly have been scouting the Mantis system in preparation for Oyster Bay.

MoH-snippet 16: Chapter 4 Some officers of the Solarian Office of Operational Analysis discuss a memo before switching over to Mesa and Aldona Anisimovna on her way to meet with Albrecht Detweiler.

MoH-snippet 17 Detweiler and his two sons meets with Aldona and the Streak drive is clarified in her internal dialog before they continue to discuss the recent ballroom activities

MoH-snippet 18 the Mesans continue to talk about Manticore.

MoH-snippet 19 The Mesans continue to talk about how to spin the Talbot story and it ends with them going to talk about Oyster Bay.

MoH-snippet 21: With such bad results from the evacuation exercise the new commander of the station sets out to make it better.

MoH-snippet 20: January, 1922, Post Diaspora
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this . . . .”
– Admiral Patricia Givens, RMN, CO, Office of Naval, Intelligence.
Chapter Five
An officer we know from previous books report for duty and there is a ominous discussion about evacuation drills not being up to par.

MoH-snippet 22: Captain Ansten FitzGerald and Commander Amal Nagchaudhuri have a friendly talk about Hexpuma’s repairs being almost finished and the crews upcoming R&R on the station.

MoH-snippet 23 President Eloise Pritchart and the leadership around her isn’t very surprised when eight fleet shows up at the edge of the Haven system, they have dreaded this moment for six months. They however are surprised!

MoH-snippet 24: President Eloise Pritchart and the Salamander is about to meet …

MoH-snippet 25: President Pritchart and Admiral Thomas Theisman chat while they wait on Honor to leave the shuttle. When Honor steps out they have a little chat before moving to the President’s office.

MoH-snippet 26: Chapter 7: Admiral Alexander-Harrington and the President measure each other up before sitting down.

MoH-snippet 27: The negotiations begin in earnest.

MoH-snippet 28: The Salamander’s opening statement is frank to say the least.

MoH-snippet 29: Honor finalizes her offer.

MoH-snippet 30: Chapter 8: The Haven leadership discuss Honor.

MoH-snippet 31: The cabinet continues to talk about how to set up the negotiations and make some great comments about Elizabeth and Honor.

MoH-snippet 32: Chapter 9: Mesa Alignment Navy units is carrying out their part of Oyster Bay at the outskirts of the system when they brush up against a GSN task force.

MoH-snippet 33: Chapter 10: They finally sit down to negotiating after some sidetrack thoughts about the hotel they are staying in.

MoH-Snippet 34: Honor is introduced to Haven’s negotiation team.

MoH-snippet 35: Honor presents her negotiation team

MoH-snippet 36: Honor starts to give her opening statement.

MoH-snippet 36: Chapter 10: Rear Admiral Michael Oversteege goats Vice Admiral Gloria Michelle Samantha Evelyn Henke, Countess Gold Peak as she is planing a particularly sneaky war game.

MoH-snippet 38: Michelle Henke considers the recent ‘battle’ and the Solies response.

MoH-snippet 39: Mike considers the Spindle crisis and prepare for the response.

MoH-snippet 40: Chapter 10: Junior Officers night out?

MoH-snippet 41: The junior aids discuss the press and conspire to share information before we switch over to the Mesa Alignment Fleet deploying pods in the first moments of the Oyster Bay attack.

MoH-snippet 42: Chapter 13: Solarian reporter Audrey O’Hanrahan receive ‘independent’ confirmation of the actions in the Talbot cluster, from Mesa sources.

MoH-snippet 43: The reporter and her source discuss the ‘news’.

MoH-snippet 44: The report might be hard to disapprove.

MoH-snippet 45: Chapter 14: Queen Elizabeth contemplate the Ballroom and Mesa as she waits for Ms. Montaigne

MoH-snippet 46: The Queen and the leader of the liberal party continues to discuss the nuke on Mesa (See Torch of Freedom)

MoH-snippet 47: wraps up Torch of Freedom minus the details

MoH-snippet 48: They ponder the political fallout and the queen asks a favor.

MoH-snippet 49: Chapter 15: HMS Reprise arrive at Meyers System, the headquarters of the Office of Frontier Security in the Madras Sector. Back in the Talbot Cluster Michelle Henke and her officers discuss the latest exercise where she dropped a nasty one, deploying Apollo against Michael Oversteegen’s force.

MoH-snippet 50: News of the Mesa nuke and the real strength of Admiral Crandall’s Task Force reach Admiral Henke in the Talbot Cluster

MoH-snippet 51: Henke prepare for the arrival of Crandall

MoH-snippet 52: Henke goes into the general strategy of the upcoming conflict.

MoH-snippet 53: Chapter 16: Back to Haven and Honor as she learns about the news from Mesa.

MoH-snippet 54: Honor decides to have a one-on-one talk with President Pritchart.

MoH-snippet 55: Honor and Prichard share experiences on the dynamic duo (Cachat and Zilwick)

MoH-snippet 56: Chapeter 17: The Haven leadership have an amusing discussion about agent Cachat.

MoH-snippet 57: The Havanite leadership discuss Cachat and their own ‘speed bumps’ in the negotiations.

MoH-Snippet 58: Chapter 18: Queen Elizabeth and Hamish Alexander-Harrington discuss the number of superdreadnoughts rattling around Talbot.

MoH-snippet 59: The Manticore leadership continues to discuss how little might be left of the SLN task force if they attack. They also discuss the new news story with doctored data.

Source: www.ericflint.net

Mission of Honor will be available in June 29 2010

Description: The Star Kingdom of Manticore and the Republic of Haven have been enemies for Honor Harrington’s entire life, and she has paid a price for the victories she’s achieved in that conflict. And now the unstoppable juggernaut of the mighty Solarian League is on a collision course with Manticore. The millions who have already died may have been only a foretaste of the billions of casualties just over the horizon, and Honor sees it coming.

She’s prepared to do anything, risk anything, to stop it, and she has a plan that may finally bring an end to the Havenite Wars and give even the Solarian League pause. But there are things not even Honor knows about. There are forces in play, hidden enemies in motion, all converging on the Star Kingdom of Manticore to crush the very life out of it, and Honor’s worst nightmares fall short of the oncoming reality.

But Manticore’s enemies may not have thought of everything after all. Because if everything Honor Harrington loves is going down to destruction, it won’t be going alone.

Mission of Honor is a long awaited Honor Harrington novel the 12th in an extremely popular series. This is one of my absolute favorite series, I love everything by David Weber [profile], he is the master of military science fiction in my humble opinion.

MoH-snippet One Chapter 1:

December, 1921, Post Diaspora

“To understand Solly foreign policy, we’d have to be Sollies
. . . and nothing would be worth that!”
– Queen Elizabeth III of Manticore

Arsenovich Kolokoltsov, the Solarian League’s Permanent Senior Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs is struck speechless by disbelief and shock by the report from New Tuscany. Then he calls a conference with Permanent Senior Undersecretary of the Treasury Wodoslawski, Abruzzi, MacArtney, , Permanent Senior Undersecretary of Commerce Quartermain and Fleet Admiral Rajampet Kaushal Rajan and start to raise hell.

MoH-snippet Two: The Solies start to realize how far behind they are on the technology curb.

MoH-snippet three- The byrocrates are shocked by the Solarian League Navy utter defeat and the following surrender. They worry about the consecuences.

MoH-snippet four – they continue to talk about the battle at New Tuscany. Hot heads want to retaliate at any cost, cooler heads try to reason that it would be suicide to go up against the Manticorian navy at this time.

MoH-snippet five - they discuss declaring war on the Star Empire

MoH-snippet six: – they continue to discuss a war with the Manties and comes to a conclusion.

MoH-snippet Seven Chapter 2: Fleet Admiral Winston Kingsford, CO, Battle Fleet and Fleet Admiral Rajampet continue discussing the Mantis in private. Especially putting some analysts on the data right away, then they continue talking about fleet deployment, mantis missiles and when they will go after the Mantis home system. Winston is having an intresting inner dialogue about Sandra Cranell and her task force being deployed in the Madras sector.

MoH-snippet Eight: – Rajampet finish his meeting before we switch over to Queen Elizabeth III for a chat with Admira l Lady Dame Honor Alexander-Harrington. They start out talking about Stacy Hauptman and her father before they switch over to Manpower and the Talbot Cluster.

MoH-snippet Nine Honor and Elizabeth continue to speculate on the Solarian response. It’s four days to Christmas. Honor will be leaving on an unspecified mission (Haven?) after celebrating Christmas with her family.
Honor meets with Admiral Tourville afterwards

MoH-snippet ten Honor, Nimitz and Tourville remembers previous meetings and do social niceties before coming to the point in the next snippet.

Snippet 11 Honor want to know about the political leadership in Haven but they end up talking about the surrender demands.

MoH-snippet 12 Chapter 3: Benjamin IX, Protector of Grayson talk with the commander in chief of the Grayson Space Navy Wesley Matthews about their security situation.

MoH-snippet 13 Mathew and Benjamin continue to discuss the political and military situation especially considering the Mantis, the Sollis and the Havenite.

MoH-snippet 14 They confirm Lady Harringtons mission.
The Royal Manticoran Navy’s Destroyer Division 265.2, known as “the Silver Cepheids,” prepare to go home from their position a light-month from Manticore-A

MoH-snippet 15 The Silver Cepheids prepare to leave while the officers involve them selfs in cheerful banter about SCA. Then we switch over to Commodore Karol Østby of the Mesa Alignment Navy and his task force that quietly have been scouting the Mantis system in preparation for Oyster Bay.

MoH-snippet 16: Chapter 4 Some officers of the Solarian Office of Operational Analysis discuss a memo before switching over to Mesa and Aldona Anisimovna on her way to meet with Albrecht Detweiler.

MoH-snippet 17 Detweiler and his two sons meets with Aldona and the Streak drive is clarified in her internal dialog before they continue to discuss the recent ballroom activities

MoH-snippet 18 the Mesans continue to talk about Manticore.

MoH-snippet 19 The Mesans continue to talk about how to spin the Talbot story and it ends with them going to talk about Oyster Bay.

MoH-snippet 21: With such bad results from the evacuation exercise the new commander of the station sets out to make it better.

MoH-snippet 20: January, 1922, Post Diaspora
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this . . . .”
– Admiral Patricia Givens, RMN, CO, Office of Naval, Intelligence.
Chapter Five
An officer we know from previous books report for duty and there is a ominous discussion about evacuation drills not being up to par.

MoH-snippet 22: Captain Ansten FitzGerald and Commander Amal Nagchaudhuri have a friendly talk about Hexpuma’s repairs being almost finished and the crews upcoming R&R on the station.

MoH-snippet 23 President Eloise Pritchart and the leadership around her isn’t very surprised when eight fleet shows up at the edge of the Haven system, they have dreaded this moment for six months. They however are surprised!

MoH-snippet 24: President Eloise Pritchart and the Salamander is about to meet …

MoH-snippet 25: President Pritchart and Admiral Thomas Theisman chat while they wait on Honor to leave the shuttle. When Honor steps out they have a little chat before moving to the President’s office.

MoH-snippet 26: Chapter 7: Admiral Alexander-Harrington and the President measure each other up before sitting down.

MoH-snippet 27: The negotiations begin in earnest.

MoH-snippet 28: The Salamander’s opening statement is frank to say the least.

MoH-snippet 29: Honor finalizes her offer.

MoH-snippet 30: Chapter 8: The Haven leadership discuss Honor.

MoH-snippet 31: The cabinet continues to talk about how to set up the negotiations and make some great comments about Elizabeth and Honor.

MoH-snippet 32: Chapter 9: Mesa Alignment Navy units is carrying out their part of Oyster Bay at the outskirts of the system when they brush up against a GSN task force.

MoH-snippet 33: Chapter 10: They finally sit down to negotiating after some sidetrack thoughts about the hotel they are staying in.

MoH-Snippet 34: Honor is introduced to Haven’s negotiation team.

MoH-snippet 35: Honor presents her negotiation team

MoH-snippet 36: Honor starts to give her opening statement.

MoH-snippet 36: Chapter 10: Rear Admiral Michael Oversteege goats Vice Admiral Gloria Michelle Samantha Evelyn Henke, Countess Gold Peak as she is planing a particularly sneaky war game.

MoH-snippet 38: Michelle Henke considers the recent ‘battle’ and the Solies response.

MoH-snippet 39: Mike considers the Spindle crisis and prepare for the response.

MoH-snippet 40: Chapter 10: Junior Officers night out?

MoH-snippet 41: The junior aids discuss the press and conspire to share information before we switch over to the Mesa Alignment Fleet deploying pods in the first moments of the Oyster Bay attack.

MoH-snippet 42: Chapter 13: Solarian reporter Audrey O’Hanrahan receive ‘independent’ confirmation of the actions in the Talbot cluster, from Mesa sources.

MoH-snippet 43: The reporter and her source discuss the ‘news’.

MoH-snippet 44: The report might be hard to disapprove.

MoH-snippet 45: Chapter 14: Queen Elizabeth contemplate the Ballroom and Mesa as she waits for Ms. Montaigne

MoH-snippet 46: The Queen and the leader of the liberal party continues to discuss the nuke on Mesa (See Torch of Freedom)

MoH-snippet 47: wraps up Torch of Freedom minus the details

MoH-snippet 48: They ponder the political fallout and the queen asks a favor.

MoH-snippet 49: Chapter 15: HMS Reprise arrive at Meyers System, the headquarters of the Office of Frontier Security in the Madras Sector. Back in the Talbot Cluster Michelle Henke and her officers discuss the latest exercise where she dropped a nasty one, deploying Apollo against Michael Oversteegen’s force.

MoH-snippet 50: News of the Mesa nuke and the real strength of Admiral Crandall’s Task Force reach Admiral Henke in the Talbot Cluster

MoH-snippet 51: Henke prepare for the arrival of Crandall

MoH-snippet 52: Henke goes into the general strategy of the upcoming conflict.

MoH-snippet 53: Chapter 16: Back to Haven and Honor as she learns about the news from Mesa.

MoH-snippet 54: Honor decides to have a one-on-one talk with President Pritchart.

MoH-snippet 55: Honor and Prichard share experiences on the dynamic duo (Cachat and Zilwick)

MoH-snippet 56: Chapeter 17: The Haven leadership have an amusing discussion about agent Cachat.

MoH-snippet 57: The Havanite leadership discuss Cachat and their own ‘speed bumps’ in the negotiations.

MoH-Snippet 58: Chapter 18: Queen Elizabeth and Hamish Alexander-Harrington discuss the number of superdreadnoughts rattling around Talbot.

Source: www.ericflint.net

Mission of Honor will be available in June 29 2010

Description: The Star Kingdom of Manticore and the Republic of Haven have been enemies for Honor Harrington’s entire life, and she has paid a price for the victories she’s achieved in that conflict. And now the unstoppable juggernaut of the mighty Solarian League is on a collision course with Manticore. The millions who have already died may have been only a foretaste of the billions of casualties just over the horizon, and Honor sees it coming.

She’s prepared to do anything, risk anything, to stop it, and she has a plan that may finally bring an end to the Havenite Wars and give even the Solarian League pause. But there are things not even Honor knows about. There are forces in play, hidden enemies in motion, all converging on the Star Kingdom of Manticore to crush the very life out of it, and Honor’s worst nightmares fall short of the oncoming reality.

But Manticore’s enemies may not have thought of everything after all. Because if everything Honor Harrington loves is going down to destruction, it won’t be going alone.

Mission of Honor is a long awaited Honor Harrington novel the 12th in an extremely popular series. This is one of my absolute favorite series, I love everything by David Weber [profile], he is the master of military science fiction in my humble opinion.

MoH-snippet One Chapter 1:

December, 1921, Post Diaspora

“To understand Solly foreign policy, we’d have to be Sollies
. . . and nothing would be worth that!”
– Queen Elizabeth III of Manticore

Arsenovich Kolokoltsov, the Solarian League’s Permanent Senior Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs is struck speechless by disbelief and shock by the report from New Tuscany. Then he calls a conference with Permanent Senior Undersecretary of the Treasury Wodoslawski, Abruzzi, MacArtney, , Permanent Senior Undersecretary of Commerce Quartermain and Fleet Admiral Rajampet Kaushal Rajan and start to raise hell.

MoH-snippet Two: The Solies start to realize how far behind they are on the technology curb.

MoH-snippet three- The byrocrates are shocked by the Solarian League Navy utter defeat and the following surrender. They worry about the consecuences.

MoH-snippet four – they continue to talk about the battle at New Tuscany. Hot heads want to retaliate at any cost, cooler heads try to reason that it would be suicide to go up against the Manticorian navy at this time.

MoH-snippet five - they discuss declaring war on the Star Empire

MoH-snippet six: – they continue to discuss a war with the Manties and comes to a conclusion.

MoH-snippet Seven Chapter 2: Fleet Admiral Winston Kingsford, CO, Battle Fleet and Fleet Admiral Rajampet continue discussing the Mantis in private. Especially putting some analysts on the data right away, then they continue talking about fleet deployment, mantis missiles and when they will go after the Mantis home system. Winston is having an intresting inner dialogue about Sandra Cranell and her task force being deployed in the Madras sector.

MoH-snippet Eight: – Rajampet finish his meeting before we switch over to Queen Elizabeth III for a chat with Admira l Lady Dame Honor Alexander-Harrington. They start out talking about Stacy Hauptman and her father before they switch over to Manpower and the Talbot Cluster.

MoH-snippet Nine Honor and Elizabeth continue to speculate on the Solarian response. It’s four days to Christmas. Honor will be leaving on an unspecified mission (Haven?) after celebrating Christmas with her family.
Honor meets with Admiral Tourville afterwards

MoH-snippet ten Honor, Nimitz and Tourville remembers previous meetings and do social niceties before coming to the point in the next snippet.

Snippet 11 Honor want to know about the political leadership in Haven but they end up talking about the surrender demands.

MoH-snippet 12 Chapter 3: Benjamin IX, Protector of Grayson talk with the commander in chief of the Grayson Space Navy Wesley Matthews about their security situation.

MoH-snippet 13 Mathew and Benjamin continue to discuss the political and military situation especially considering the Mantis, the Sollis and the Havenite.

MoH-snippet 14 They confirm Lady Harringtons mission.
The Royal Manticoran Navy’s Destroyer Division 265.2, known as “the Silver Cepheids,” prepare to go home from their position a light-month from Manticore-A

MoH-snippet 15 The Silver Cepheids prepare to leave while the officers involve them selfs in cheerful banter about SCA. Then we switch over to Commodore Karol Østby of the Mesa Alignment Navy and his task force that quietly have been scouting the Mantis system in preparation for Oyster Bay.

MoH-snippet 16: Chapter 4 Some officers of the Solarian Office of Operational Analysis discuss a memo before switching over to Mesa and Aldona Anisimovna on her way to meet with Albrecht Detweiler.

MoH-snippet 17 Detweiler and his two sons meets with Aldona and the Streak drive is clarified in her internal dialog before they continue to discuss the recent ballroom activities

MoH-snippet 18 the Mesans continue to talk about Manticore.

MoH-snippet 19 The Mesans continue to talk about how to spin the Talbot story and it ends with them going to talk about Oyster Bay.

MoH-snippet 21: With such bad results from the evacuation exercise the new commander of the station sets out to make it better.

MoH-snippet 20: January, 1922, Post Diaspora
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this . . . .”
– Admiral Patricia Givens, RMN, CO, Office of Naval, Intelligence.
Chapter Five
An officer we know from previous books report for duty and there is a ominous discussion about evacuation drills not being up to par.

MoH-snippet 22: Captain Ansten FitzGerald and Commander Amal Nagchaudhuri have a friendly talk about Hexpuma’s repairs being almost finished and the crews upcoming R&R on the station.

MoH-snippet 23 President Eloise Pritchart and the leadership around her isn’t very surprised when eight fleet shows up at the edge of the Haven system, they have dreaded this moment for six months. They however are surprised!

MoH-snippet 24: President Eloise Pritchart and the Salamander is about to meet …

MoH-snippet 25: President Pritchart and Admiral Thomas Theisman chat while they wait on Honor to leave the shuttle. When Honor steps out they have a little chat before moving to the President’s office.

MoH-snippet 26: Chapter 7: Admiral Alexander-Harrington and the President measure each other up before sitting down.

MoH-snippet 27: The negotiations begin in earnest.

MoH-snippet 28: The Salamander’s opening statement is frank to say the least.

MoH-snippet 29: Honor finalizes her offer.

MoH-snippet 30: Chapter 8: The Haven leadership discuss Honor.

MoH-snippet 31: The cabinet continues to talk about how to set up the negotiations and make some great comments about Elizabeth and Honor.

MoH-snippet 32: Chapter 9: Mesa Alignment Navy units is carrying out their part of Oyster Bay at the outskirts of the system when they brush up against a GSN task force.

MoH-snippet 33: Chapter 10: They finally sit down to negotiating after some sidetrack thoughts about the hotel they are staying in.

MoH-Snippet 34: Honor is introduced to Haven’s negotiation team.

MoH-snippet 35: Honor presents her negotiation team

MoH-snippet 36: Honor starts to give her opening statement.

MoH-snippet 36: Chapter 10: Rear Admiral Michael Oversteege goats Vice Admiral Gloria Michelle Samantha Evelyn Henke, Countess Gold Peak as she is planing a particularly sneaky war game.

MoH-snippet 38: Michelle Henke considers the recent ‘battle’ and the Solies response.

MoH-snippet 39: Mike considers the Spindle crisis and prepare for the response.

MoH-snippet 40: Chapter 10: Junior Officers night out?

MoH-snippet 41: The junior aids discuss the press and conspire to share information before we switch over to the Mesa Alignment Fleet deploying pods in the first moments of the Oyster Bay attack.

MoH-snippet 42: Chapter 13: Solarian reporter Audrey O’Hanrahan receive ‘independent’ confirmation of the actions in the Talbot cluster, from Mesa sources.

MoH-snippet 43: The reporter and her source discuss the ‘news’.

MoH-snippet 44: The report might be hard to disapprove.

MoH-snippet 45: Chapter 14: Queen Elizabeth contemplate the Ballroom and Mesa as she waits for Ms. Montaigne

MoH-snippet 46: The Queen and the leader of the liberal party continues to discuss the nuke on Mesa (See Torch of Freedom)

MoH-snippet 47: wraps up Torch of Freedom minus the details

MoH-snippet 48: They ponder the political fallout and the queen asks a favor.

MoH-snippet 49: Chapter 15: HMS Reprise arrive at Meyers System, the headquarters of the Office of Frontier Security in the Madras Sector. Back in the Talbot Cluster Michelle Henke and her officers discuss the latest exercise where she dropped a nasty one, deploying Apollo against Michael Oversteegen’s force.

MoH-snippet 50: News of the Mesa nuke and the real strength of Admiral Crandall’s Task Force reach Admiral Henke in the Talbot Cluster

MoH-snippet 51: Henke prepare for the arrival of Crandall

MoH-snippet 52: Henke goes into the general strategy of the upcoming conflict.

MoH-snippet 53: Chapter 16: Back to Haven and Honor as she learns about the news from Mesa.

MoH-snippet 54: Honor decides to have a one-on-one talk with President Pritchart.

MoH-snippet 55: Honor and Prichard share experiences on the dynamic duo (Cachat and Zilwick)

MoH-snippet 56: Chapeter 17: The Haven leadership have an amusing discussion about agent Cachat.

Source: www.ericflint.net

Mission of Honor will be available in June 29 2010

Description: The Star Kingdom of Manticore and the Republic of Haven have been enemies for Honor Harrington’s entire life, and she has paid a price for the victories she’s achieved in that conflict. And now the unstoppable juggernaut of the mighty Solarian League is on a collision course with Manticore. The millions who have already died may have been only a foretaste of the billions of casualties just over the horizon, and Honor sees it coming.

She’s prepared to do anything, risk anything, to stop it, and she has a plan that may finally bring an end to the Havenite Wars and give even the Solarian League pause. But there are things not even Honor knows about. There are forces in play, hidden enemies in motion, all converging on the Star Kingdom of Manticore to crush the very life out of it, and Honor’s worst nightmares fall short of the oncoming reality.

But Manticore’s enemies may not have thought of everything after all. Because if everything Honor Harrington loves is going down to destruction, it won’t be going alone.

Mission of Honor is a long awaited Honor Harrington novel the 12th in an extremely popular series. This is one of my absolute favorite series, I love everything by David Weber [profile], he is the master of military science fiction in my humble opinion.

MoH-snippet One Chapter 1:

December, 1921, Post Diaspora

“To understand Solly foreign policy, we’d have to be Sollies
. . . and nothing would be worth that!”
– Queen Elizabeth III of Manticore

Arsenovich Kolokoltsov, the Solarian League’s Permanent Senior Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs is struck speechless by disbelief and shock by the report from New Tuscany. Then he calls a conference with Permanent Senior Undersecretary of the Treasury Wodoslawski, Abruzzi, MacArtney, , Permanent Senior Undersecretary of Commerce Quartermain and Fleet Admiral Rajampet Kaushal Rajan and start to raise hell.

MoH-snippet Two: The Solies start to realize how far behind they are on the technology curb.

MoH-snippet three- The byrocrates are shocked by the Solarian League Navy utter defeat and the following surrender. They worry about the consecuences.

MoH-snippet four – they continue to talk about the battle at New Tuscany. Hot heads want to retaliate at any cost, cooler heads try to reason that it would be suicide to go up against the Manticorian navy at this time.

MoH-snippet five - they discuss declaring war on the Star Empire

MoH-snippet six: – they continue to discuss a war with the Manties and comes to a conclusion.

MoH-snippet Seven Chapter 2: Fleet Admiral Winston Kingsford, CO, Battle Fleet and Fleet Admiral Rajampet continue discussing the Mantis in private. Especially putting some analysts on the data right away, then they continue talking about fleet deployment, mantis missiles and when they will go after the Mantis home system. Winston is having an intresting inner dialogue about Sandra Cranell and her task force being deployed in the Madras sector.

MoH-snippet Eight: – Rajampet finish his meeting before we switch over to Queen Elizabeth III for a chat with Admira l Lady Dame Honor Alexander-Harrington. They start out talking about Stacy Hauptman and her father before they switch over to Manpower and the Talbot Cluster.

MoH-snippet Nine Honor and Elizabeth continue to speculate on the Solarian response. It’s four days to Christmas. Honor will be leaving on an unspecified mission (Haven?) after celebrating Christmas with her family.
Honor meets with Admiral Tourville afterwards

MoH-snippet ten Honor, Nimitz and Tourville remembers previous meetings and do social niceties before coming to the point in the next snippet.

Snippet 11 Honor want to know about the political leadership in Haven but they end up talking about the surrender demands.

MoH-snippet 12 Chapter 3: Benjamin IX, Protector of Grayson talk with the commander in chief of the Grayson Space Navy Wesley Matthews about their security situation.

MoH-snippet 13 Mathew and Benjamin continue to discuss the political and military situation especially considering the Mantis, the Sollis and the Havenite.

MoH-snippet 14 They confirm Lady Harringtons mission.
The Royal Manticoran Navy’s Destroyer Division 265.2, known as “the Silver Cepheids,” prepare to go home from their position a light-month from Manticore-A

MoH-snippet 15 The Silver Cepheids prepare to leave while the officers involve them selfs in cheerful banter about SCA. Then we switch over to Commodore Karol Østby of the Mesa Alignment Navy and his task force that quietly have been scouting the Mantis system in preparation for Oyster Bay.

MoH-snippet 16: Chapter 4 Some officers of the Solarian Office of Operational Analysis discuss a memo before switching over to Mesa and Aldona Anisimovna on her way to meet with Albrecht Detweiler.

MoH-snippet 17 Detweiler and his two sons meets with Aldona and the Streak drive is clarified in her internal dialog before they continue to discuss the recent ballroom activities

MoH-snippet 18 the Mesans continue to talk about Manticore.

MoH-snippet 19 The Mesans continue to talk about how to spin the Talbot story and it ends with them going to talk about Oyster Bay.

MoH-snippet 21: With such bad results from the evacuation exercise the new commander of the station sets out to make it better.

MoH-snippet 20: January, 1922, Post Diaspora
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this . . . .”
– Admiral Patricia Givens, RMN, CO, Office of Naval, Intelligence.
Chapter Five
An officer we know from previous books report for duty and there is a ominous discussion about evacuation drills not being up to par.

MoH-snippet 22: Captain Ansten FitzGerald and Commander Amal Nagchaudhuri have a friendly talk about Hexpuma’s repairs being almost finished and the crews upcoming R&R on the station.

MoH-snippet 23 President Eloise Pritchart and the leadership around her isn’t very surprised when eight fleet shows up at the edge of the Haven system, they have dreaded this moment for six months. They however are surprised!

MoH-snippet 24: President Eloise Pritchart and the Salamander is about to meet …

MoH-snippet 25: President Pritchart and Admiral Thomas Theisman chat while they wait on Honor to leave the shuttle. When Honor steps out they have a little chat before moving to the President’s office.

MoH-snippet 26: Chapter 7: Admiral Alexander-Harrington and the President measure each other up before sitting down.

MoH-snippet 27: The negotiations begin in earnest.

MoH-snippet 28: The Salamander’s opening statement is frank to say the least.

MoH-snippet 29: Honor finalizes her offer.

MoH-snippet 30: Chapter 8: The Haven leadership discuss Honor.

MoH-snippet 31: The cabinet continues to talk about how to set up the negotiations and make some great comments about Elizabeth and Honor.

MoH-snippet 32: Chapter 9: Mesa Alignment Navy units is carrying out their part of Oyster Bay at the outskirts of the system when they brush up against a GSN task force.

MoH-snippet 33: Chapter 10: They finally sit down to negotiating after some sidetrack thoughts about the hotel they are staying in.

MoH-Snippet 34: Honor is introduced to Haven’s negotiation team.

MoH-snippet 35: Honor presents her negotiation team

MoH-snippet 36: Honor starts to give her opening statement.

MoH-snippet 36: Chapter 10: Rear Admiral Michael Oversteege goats Vice Admiral Gloria Michelle Samantha Evelyn Henke, Countess Gold Peak as she is planing a particularly sneaky war game.

MoH-snippet 38: Michelle Henke considers the recent ‘battle’ and the Solies response.

MoH-snippet 39: Mike considers the Spindle crisis and prepare for the response.

MoH-snippet 40: Chapter 10: Junior Officers night out?

MoH-snippet 41: The junior aids discuss the press and conspire to share information before we switch over to the Mesa Alignment Fleet deploying pods in the first moments of the Oyster Bay attack.

MoH-snippet 42: Chapter 13: Solarian reporter Audrey O’Hanrahan receive ‘independent’ confirmation of the actions in the Talbot cluster, from Mesa sources.

MoH-snippet 43: The reporter and her source discuss the ‘news’.

MoH-snippet 44: The report might be hard to disapprove.

MoH-snippet 45: Chapter 14: Queen Elizabeth contemplate the Ballroom and Mesa as she waits for Ms. Montaigne

MoH-snippet 46: The Queen and the leader of the liberal party continues to discuss the nuke on Mesa (See Torch of Freedom)

MoH-snippet 47: wraps up Torch of Freedom minus the details

MoH-snippet 48: They ponder the political fallout and the queen asks a favor.

MoH-snippet 49: Chapter 15: HMS Reprise arrive at Meyers System, the headquarters of the Office of Frontier Security in the Madras Sector. Back in the Talbot Cluster Michelle Henke and her officers discuss the latest exercise where she dropped a nasty one, deploying Apollo against Michael Oversteegen’s force.

MoH-snippet 50: News of the Mesa nuke and the real strength of Admiral Crandall’s Task Force reach Admiral Henke in the Talbot Cluster

MoH-snippet 51: Henke prepare for the arrival of Crandall

MoH-snippet 52: Henke goes into the general strategy of the upcoming conflict.

MoH-snippet 53: Chapter 16: Back to Haven and Honor as she learns about the news from Mesa.

MoH-snippet 54: Honor decides to have a one-on-one talk with President Pritchart.

MoH-snippet 55: Honor and Prichard share experiences on the dynamic duo (Cachat and Zilwick)

Source: www.ericflint.net

Mission of Honor will be available in June 29 2010

Description: The Star Kingdom of Manticore and the Republic of Haven have been enemies for Honor Harrington’s entire life, and she has paid a price for the victories she’s achieved in that conflict. And now the unstoppable juggernaut of the mighty Solarian League is on a collision course with Manticore. The millions who have already died may have been only a foretaste of the billions of casualties just over the horizon, and Honor sees it coming.

She’s prepared to do anything, risk anything, to stop it, and she has a plan that may finally bring an end to the Havenite Wars and give even the Solarian League pause. But there are things not even Honor knows about. There are forces in play, hidden enemies in motion, all converging on the Star Kingdom of Manticore to crush the very life out of it, and Honor’s worst nightmares fall short of the oncoming reality.

But Manticore’s enemies may not have thought of everything after all. Because if everything Honor Harrington loves is going down to destruction, it won’t be going alone.