This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: A King’s Ship
Series: Empire Rising #2
Author: David Holmes
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 314
Words: 122K
From the Publisher and Bookstooge.blog
The war with China is over. But for Captain James Somerville there is a task still unfinished.
Former Politburo Intelligence Minister Chang has evaded capture and escaped from Chinese space. Declared a war criminal by the UN and British law courts, James is given the Royal Space Navy’s newest exploration cruiser and sent after Chang.
His chase will threaten to stir up old rivalries and take him to the edge of explored space. What he will discover there will radically reshape humanity’s position in the galaxy and throw him into a series of desperate battles. Alone and outnumbered he will come to realize what it really takes to command a King’s Ship.
And that means finding a Lost Colony with a secret (they have skillz! And have pirated Space Briton’s ships), finding aliens, finding MORE aliens and then killing lots of aliens. And finding out that there are even more aliens (even though the humans don’t realize the discovery for what it is at the time).
I was pretty happy with this. While there are some impressive space battles (where we once again count every missile down until it explodes or something), we also get some British Space Marine action. Boo yah! These guys are almost as tough as regular American Space Soldiers, so you know in the big scheme of things they’re pretty badass. And they’re even all squishy on the inside and have a bonding moment, awwwww. Thankfully, that doesn’t last too long before they get back to killing aliens.
The Big Bad Communist from the first book has escaped and Captain Happy Pants is tasked with secretly hunting him down. And boy does he kick some applecarts over in that process. India is caught with its hands fully in the Space Communist cookie jar and whines about it. Captain Happy doesn’t care, nor should he, he’s got a Space United Nations mandate! And Ensign Chicky Boo is now Admiral/Captain/Commander/Whatever Chicky Boo and is helping out. But a sexy Lost Human Politician gets in the way until Captain Happy Pants puts her aside because he still loves the British Space Princess. It’s a real Space Soap Opera! Find out next episode who has the alien baby!!! (not really, but come on, you had to see that coming).
Once again, I really enjoyed this. It hits the Space Opera itch that I have (that I’m not getting scratched by Anspach & Cole with their Galaxy’s Edge series, boo, hiss) and while it has more spaceship battles than I really care for, it does have more than enough ground pounder action to keep me happy. Space Marines for da win baby!
★★★✬☆
Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road 
An interesting cast of characters . . .
LikeLiked by 2 people
I decided after the first book that I was going to give characters nick names and write about in a ridiculous manner. It’s a fun little series so far, so me making light of it can’t hurt 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
If only a wh space marine story could click with you now… 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
The next Ciaphas Cain story I read features wh space marines. And they don’t work for me even as side characters
LikeLiked by 2 people
Darn, i wonder why, too much Emperor injected indoctrination or just the unfeelyness they have to them? I have it with some factions at times, so I do understand them not working for you.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Overpowered and yet at the same time stupid and vulnerable to things that even Cain can take care of with a chain sword.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I know exactly what you mean😂. Depends on the author i guess
LikeLiked by 1 person
I haven’t read widely enough to see any other portrayal.
LikeLike
I was hoping Happy Pants and Chicky Boo were their real names.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Oh man, can you imagine a series if someone DID name their characters that? I’d laugh 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Me too!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Doesn’t look like a ship to me…
LikeLiked by 1 person
You probably need glasses. That’s what you would look like if you identified as a space ship.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Space communists, hm….
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yep.
They’re everywhere, even in the future!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hmmmm,
“These guys are almost as tough as regular American Space Soldiers”.
Not sure about that. I think the British Space Marines will beat the snot out of the American Space Soldiers before the latter have even read the first chapter in their obligatory reading about gender studies.
Sorry, couldn’t help myself 🤪 (and as being a European you kind of baited me there 😁).
Glad you liked the book.
LikeLiked by 2 people
He’s definitely flying the nationalistic space flag. Which is why I raised my own 😉
I’m glad I’m liking these too. Good space adventure stuff…
LikeLike
Chicky Boo 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
When I was reading the first book, someone who I follow was having a long comment conversation in one of their posts and someone used that word. It made me laugh at the time, so I remembered it and have been using it since 🙂
LikeLike
Heading over to Devilreads now to mark this series as “To Read.” Which puts the list at (pauses to check) 254. In other words, quite likely more than I will finish in my lifetime 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hahahahahahaa!
I just had a very inappropriate, very dark humor thought 😀
But. If you read during the non-work time, I bet you could cut a real swathe through that tbr.
My tbr is about 150 on calibre and then however many I am going through on my kindle. So I have to be pretty close to your numbers as well.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s nice to know that this gives you the fix you need when it comes to space opera. It’s unfortunate that Galaxy’s Edge series isn’t doing it anymore. 😦
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good space opera is hard to come by…
LikeLiked by 1 person