Not Saying It Was Aliens…

Posted on | May 20, 2014 | 22 Comments

…which I guess could be construed as sort of a spoiler for John Barnes’ disappointing The Last President, which is the last of the Daybreak novels. I hated this novel for at least a dozen reasons, not the least of which is that Barnes pulls a diavolo ex machina out of his hat which (for me) just completely ruined the whole trilogy. Not that there weren’t enough other things in the plot to tick me off, mind you. Anyhow, if you enjoyed the first couple of Daybreak novels (Directive 51 and Daybreak Zero) you may or may not like the third one; if not, you can’t say I didn’t warn you.

Charles Gannon’s Fire with Fire got nominated for a Nebula Award by the SFWA but didn’t win; I refuse to speculate on whether this was because it’s a Baen product or whether it’s because Mr. Gannon is a white cismale oppressor. (Just kidding! Sort of.) Anyway, Gannon’s novel reads like a cross between technothriller and first contact novel, with coldsleep complicating the protagonist’s life and a shaky confederation of aliens ready to explode when humans show up on the galactic scene. Not a bad read; lives up to the standard set by his earlier collaboration with Eric Flint, 1635: The Papal Stakes. Gannon and Flint have a couple of other collaborations out, The Aethers of Mars being the more interesting to me with its echoes of Frank Chadwick’s Space 1889 RPG.

Speaking of the “Ring of Fire” novels, Flint and David Carrico’s 1636: The Devil’s Opera is a pretty good read, mixing a police procedural with opera and power politics in the suddenly-unstable United States of Europe.

Finally, I’m going to have to pick up a copy of the new Delta Green fiction anthology, Delta Green: Tales from Failed Anatomies.

Category: Books

Comments

22 Responses to “Not Saying It Was Aliens…”

commonpatriot
May 20th, 2014 @ 3:59 pm

via @rsmccain: Not Saying It Was Aliens… http://t.co/7EgYRDjp8A #tcot
MrEvilMatt
May 20th, 2014 @ 3:59 pm

Not Saying It Was Aliens…: – compiled by Wombat-socho …which I guess could be construed as sort of a spoiler f… http://t.co/ZSga0Jvq8O
MrEvilMatt
May 20th, 2014 @ 3:59 pm

Not Saying It Was Aliens…: – compiled by Wombat-socho …which I guess could be construed as sort of a spoiler f… http://t.co/ZEwEkgIF60
CHideout
May 20th, 2014 @ 3:59 pm

Not Saying It Was Aliens…: – compiled by Wombat-socho …which I guess could be construed as sort of a spoiler f… http://t.co/r7nVsTXO7k
Citzcom
May 20th, 2014 @ 3:59 pm

Not Saying It Was Aliens…: – compiled by Wombat-socho …which I guess could be construed as sort of a spoiler f… http://t.co/FHQlu82d5u
Lockestep1776
May 20th, 2014 @ 3:59 pm

Not Saying It Was Aliens…: – compiled by Wombat-socho …which I guess could be construed as sort of a spoiler f… http://t.co/Yul770E21p
WeRResistance
May 20th, 2014 @ 3:59 pm

Not Saying It Was Aliens…: – compiled by Wombat-socho …which I guess could be construed as sort of a spoiler f… http://t.co/7XRX8WrMyy
Evi L. Bloggerlady
May 20th, 2014 @ 4:11 pm

Stirling did essentially the same thing, calling it bat shit space aliens.
Evi L. Bloggerlady
May 20th, 2014 @ 4:11 pm

Stirling did essentially the same thing, calling it bat shit space aliens.
Warren Hall
May 20th, 2014 @ 5:02 pm

John ringo’s 3rd Zombie book just came out on E arc at the Baen site. Cost you $15 and it’s not a final draft but you don’t have to wait.
Gahrie
May 20th, 2014 @ 6:16 pm

Which Stirling?
thatMrGguy
May 20th, 2014 @ 7:11 pm

Not Saying It Was Aliens… http://t.co/eFMotfQOmX
Evi L. Bloggerlady
May 20th, 2014 @ 7:50 pm

S.M.
Gahrie
May 20th, 2014 @ 8:03 pm

Which work?
Steve Skubinna
May 20th, 2014 @ 10:00 pm

Well, whadda ya know… I still have Sky Galleons of Mars in my game trunk, and in the back of my head is still the project to build scale models of the ships from it. GDW went belly up before producing any good models anyway, and I’ve always figured it would be a fun project.

So I just bought the Aethers of Mars book. Too bad it isn’t available in hard copy, it would look just swell on the shelf next to my Dr. Grordbort’s Righteous Bison Infallible Aether Oscillator.
M. Thompson
May 21st, 2014 @ 12:45 am

If you’re interested in the 1889 setting, Frank Chadwick released a novel back in January, published by Baen in the setting as he’s revised it, entitled “The Forever Engine.” The hero’s an accidental time traveller from our time line, and it makes some adjustments to the background, but’s its still a good yarn. Also, he’s got a site at space1889.blogspot.com.
The Establishment Republicans have a good night… | Batshit Crazy News
May 21st, 2014 @ 9:49 am

[…] different (if you need a palate cleanser): Wombat has some Summer reading sci-fi stuff (buy a book from […]
Wombat_socho
May 21st, 2014 @ 12:29 pm

Yes, but he didn’t spend two entire novels leading you down the garden path to think that The Change was something man-made. >:(
Wombat_socho
May 21st, 2014 @ 12:29 pm

I keep meaning to check that out. Thanks for the reminder.
Wombat_socho
May 21st, 2014 @ 12:30 pm

I’m waiting. I got an ARC of the second one from a librarian friend and the typos drove me (more) crazy.
Wombat_socho
May 21st, 2014 @ 12:31 pm

Dies The Fire, which with its dozen or so sequels is an order of magnitude better than the Daybreak novels.
Gahrie
May 21st, 2014 @ 7:17 pm

I agree that the Emberverse is great.
However, if your complaint in the cutter leaders….I think the ground work for them was well laid, and if you buy the original premise of the story, neither illogical nor an unexplainable phenomena.
It’s basicall a good versus evil story, with the good being deities who want to preserve the universe, and the bad being demons who want to destroy it. (or perfect it in their eyes)