On The Shelf – Binge Week – Military Science Fiction – 4/29/2018

Not even sure how I got to this point but I finished “Redshirts” last week and was thumbing through my Amazon feed.  Lo and behold – the Big A had decided to offer up a slew of military science fiction titles.  It’s been a genre that I’ve invested time in over the years – not so much recently – but I’ve read through pretty much everything from David Weber, Tom Kratman, John Ringo, Michael Z. Williamson and so many others – Jerry Pournelle’s “Falkenberg’s Legion”, Gordon R. Dickson’s “Tactics Of Mistake”.  There actually are some very worthy reads in this genre.  I also pick up the odd title from time to time when I’m bored and need a change of pace.  This was different – I saw all those titles and decided – what the heck – in for a penny…in for a pound.

I started with this book from William Webb – ordered it first and read through it in a day.  I won’t review it today – I’m saving it for an omnibus review once I plow through everything I have lined up – I’ll only say that it was of minimal importance AND fairly entertaining.

Here are the other titles I ordered:

I’ve read the first five of the Carrera series:

• A Desert Called Peace
• Carnifex
• The Lotus Eaters
• The Amazon Legion
• Come And Take Them

I do not recommend them to anyone who’s not deeply into this genre – or for anyone who believes there’s a place in geopolitics for things like diplomacy or soft power.  Not sure how best to say this but Kratman is relatively severe / harsh in his attitudes and opinions and it shines through in his writing.  Having said that, he writes about combat with a lot of power and intensity.  For that, I’ll stick with him until he finishes this series.  I noticed that the 7th book in the series – “A Pillar Of Fire By Night” – was scheduled for release in October and I hadn’t yet read #6 – “The Rods And The Axe.  I took the plunge – ordered it – and expect delivery this Wednesday.

One was not enough though – and I have all of the following coming on Wednesday as well – and I’ve included the Amazon links in case anyone wants to check them and decide for themselves if I’ve run off the rails:

https://www.amazon.com/Fiery-Sunset-Omega-War-Book-ebook/dp/B07CBCK45L/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1525040720&sr=1-1&keywords=a+fiery+sunset

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=empire+of+bones

https://www.amazon.com/Decisively-Engaged-Warp-Marine-Corps-ebook/dp/B019X88Y1G/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1525040855&sr=1-1&keywords=decisively+engaged

They’re all first entries in new series and none are available in Hardcover – which gives you some indication about the legs that the publishers feel they might have.  Honestly, I surprised myself on these – I can’t tell you how long it’s been since I’ve ordered a paperback book.  My normal approach for a new author is to order an e-copy and see how it reads.  If it’s worthy and I feel like the Author may be worth following, I’ll go back and try to find a Hardcover edition – thinking it might find its way into the Library.  With these, I guess I was just in the mood to go fishing.  I plan to binge on these over the course of the next week like they were a family size bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos – orange fingers and all – and see which authors are left standing at the end.  Once done, I’ll put them all side by side in a review to let you know if there’s anything worth reading here.

And…so you don’t thing I’m completely unmoored, I also ordered a pretty highly reviewed new fantasy title:

Thanks to MW for the recommendation – this one I do have high hopes for and am looking forward to reading.

With all that going on, it’s probably important to note that I still have several books that I’m currently in the middle of and will eventually finish:

I really enjoyed the 1st entries in both series:

• “The Rook”:

http://booksofbrian.com/on-the-nightstand-the-thousand-names-4-14-2018/

• “The Thousand Names”

http://booksofbrian.com/on-the-nightstand-the-thousand-names-4-14-2018/

Both were good enough to draw me in and convince me to move forward with the Author and the series.  I’m about halfway through both “Stiletto” and “The Shadow Throne” and am I’m really enjoying them both.

I’ll get back to both soon enough – I guess I just had a hankerin’ for literary junk food.

Let you know soon enough how it goes.

Have a Great Week.