This review is written with a GPL 3.0 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 Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.leafmarks.tumblr.com by express permission of this reviewer.

Title: Furious

Series: Kris Longknife #10

Author: Mike Shepherd

Rating: 3 of 5 Stars

Genre: SF

Pages: 368

 

Synopsis:

Being the galaxies Most Wanted Person isn’t all it cracked up to be. Kris is being kept on a backwater planet doing busy work and climbing back into the bottle while Jack is on a Super Secret Security Platform. In essence, they are both imprisoned.

Then Kris gets free, puts herself on trial on a world not associated with either the Longknifes OR the Grenfelds and begins the battle to prepare humanity for its worst nightmare.

While she succeeds in the trial, it doesn’t stop her from being wanted on other worlds. So she, Jack and the others setout to find the abominations and to scout and kill them if possible.

 

My Thoughts:

Once again, this felt like 2 separate stories in one book. You’d think I’d be expecting it or used to it after 10 books, but no, it gets me every time. Maybe Shepherd has ADHD?

Pretty much everything I’ve ever said about the previous books applies here. This is an open ended series with no real over-arching series plot without a conclusion for us to look forward to. If these books weren’t in the 300-500 page range, I’d be tempted to just call this a serial and let Shepherd rot. In some ways I think Shepherd would do better to let this series turn into something like the Rogue Angel series with nothing but action plots and ghost writers. At least that way I won’t be expecting more than I end up getting.

If you’ve stuck with the series this long, chances are you are going to stick with it for another 10 books unless they are horribly written and Shepherd is a good enough writer that I don’t foresee that happening for quite some time.

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 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 Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.leafmarks.com by express permission of this reviewer.

Title: Daring

Series: Kris Longknife

Author: Mike Shepherd

Rating: 3 of 5 Stars

Genre: SFF

Synopsis:

Kris heads out into the vast reaches of space to investigate the area where Iteechee ships are disappearing. She wants a quick, small force that can get in, look and get out like hell was on their tails.

Due to politics however, she gets saddled with ships from all the main political groups [United Sentients, Peterwald Empire, etc, etc] and must forge them into one unit while keeping command herself.

And when the aliens are found, and found to be humanlike, but so hostile that they kill themselves, families and all, before there is even the chance of capture, Kris must decide how to play this. Does she start the next interstellar war, or does she toss in the chips and let the politicians at home make the decision.

 

My Thoughts:

This was a pretty good action/adventure story. However, the death of billions of the aliens by Kris’s hands was a hard pill to swallow. What kind of man is Shepherd that he thinks up a scenario where his character has to kill BILLIONS of people all at once to survive? The setup made it the correct and the ethical choice, but that scope? If this story was real life, Kris would soon go crazy from the guilt of her actions, no matter how right. That scope of death is not something that can be lightly shouldered.

The emergence of the romance between Kris and Jack is no surprise, to anyone. It really felt more like a plot device than anything else.

And the ending, where Kris is going to have face a court for her “crimes” against the aliens? It is a great setup for the next book but it really sucks as an ending for this one.

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 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 Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.com by express permission of this reviewer

 

Synopsis

Kris and Crew, in the process of hunting pirates and preparing to investigate the problem announced by the Iteechee, get involved in a Grenfeld problem.

One they can’t walk away from, as a certain 12 year old girl, namely Abby’s niece Cara, is right in the middle of it.

So Kris must help her longtime enemy, destroy a pirate nest, rescue a youngling and do it all without setting off a war with the unstable Grenfeld empire.

 

My Thoughts

This was fluff. The badguys aren’t even really “badguys”, just a bunch of wannabe warlords. Vicky Grenfeld gets all pally with Kris. Cara acts like a spoiled brat and is put in a VERY dangerous situation because of it.

Oh, and the author keeps Cara from really experiencing what would have happened to her if she HAD been kidnapped by pirates. I’m not a fan of violence against children, at all, but this was so blatant, so pathetic on the authors part that it completely turned me off.

Everything goes as Kris plans, she wins, they lose. Rah, rah, rah.  Yeah, not too excited or anything about this book. I hope the next book picks things up or it will turn into a snooze-fest.

 

Rating: 3 of 5 Stars

Author: Mike Shepherd

Redoubtable

Kris Longknife #8