Big Guys, Big Swords

Leo Carew “The Wolf” (Orbit, 2018)

A young man assumes the throne after his father is killed in battle. He has enemies within and without. A man plots and schemes to come from common birth to have money and power. Neighbor nations battle and bleed.

It all sounds pretty standard stuff.  But as always, it is really in the execution.  The Wolf is a simple story that is well told. It is a short war between the English and the Scots with the numbers filed off.  The Scots are giants of a sort. (And yes, the Irish & Welsh seem to be some non-human people well).

This was a well-crafted read that is brutal and gritty without being grimdark. And I was relieved and happy that the author had made that choice.

My only real reservation is external to the work itself. Do we really need another story where the Nordic types are the heroes right now? There is so much white power rhetoric in the air, that this type of story can only add fuel to the fire. I would have been happier without the obvious Northern names and treatment.  (I’m not saying that this is in any way in the text itself. But it is absolutely the external context of the publication).

There Is Power In The Union

Adam Rakunas “Windswept” (Angry Robot, 2015)

I read the second book in the series a few years ago (I’m sure the information is here, if anyone cares enough to look it up) and I really enjoyed it. It was a fun, unique story in a setting that others were not using at all. (I personally know of few big union SF books).

So now I finally went and read the first book in the series.

It’s been a couple of years, so my memory is admittedly hazy.  But this book feels damn similar to the sequel. Probably I should have liked this one so much more, but since I actually read it second, I found it to be a case of diminishing returns.

Yes, I’ll definitely keep my eyes open for the writer, because I think he will do good things in the future.

Dude, Have You Seen My Spaceship?

Alex White “A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe” (Orbit, 2018)

This is a new entry in the recent wave of fun, feel good SF. You’ve seen it described as influenced by Firefly. There are space ships, aliens, galactic civilizations, danger, and maybe most importantly, a fundamentally likable diverse group of characters.

In this case there’s former soldiers, race car (sort of, anyway) drivers, refugees, salvagers. They are on the run, trying to solve a mystery and grab a fortune. Oh yeah, it turns out there’s an old, huge and impossibly evil conspiracy.

Does that sound fun?

Well it was very fun.

Highly recommended if you like Becky Chambers and others in that vein