[Imperial Historian]

Finished this series on another long bus ride, and have been meaning to comment for a while. Whilst the action scenes were always fun there were a few things which began to wind me up, particularly in the last couple of books. Entire plot points began to increasingly revolve around massive incompetence from civilians, (which is actually a trend for most milSF books, and why I tend to prefer milSF books set in a theoretical past, or feudal society as I'm biased against the aristocracy and can accept the sheer incompetency of civilians argument a bit more easily)

Seriously though the incompetence of civilians became a bit much later on, and the portrayal of the scientists in the final book was ridiculous (apparently no scientific curiosity after living there for x amount of years, and then no scientific excitement after the biggest discovery of the century, coupled with random irrationality after being attacked by aliens) though the gung ho attitude of the soldiers wasn't much better.

I'll probably pick up the final book at some point just to know how it finished, but after the nice premise from the end of book 1 and how it played out in book 2 nothing has really drawn me in.

Edit: also the whole plot points revolving around the reintroduction of slavery, gladiator fighting and the Romans methods of increasing population were pretty ridiculous

[Morgoth]

Imperial Historian, on 28 March 2014 - 10:45 AM, said:

Finished this series on another long bus ride, and have been meaning to comment for a while. Whilst the action scenes were always fun there were a few things which began to wind me up, particularly in the last couple of books. Entire plot points began to increasingly revolve around massive incompetence from civilians, (which is actually a trend for most milSF books, and why I tend to prefer milSF books set in a theoretical past, or feudal society as I'm biased against the aristocracy and can accept the sheer incompetency of civilians argument a bit more easily)

Seriously though the incompetence of civilians became a bit much later on, and the portrayal of the scientists in the final book was ridiculous (apparently no scientific curiosity after living there for x amount of years, and then no scientific excitement after the biggest discovery of the century, coupled with random irrationality after being attacked by aliens) though the gung ho attitude of the soldiers wasn't much better.

I'll probably pick up the final book at some point just to know how it finished, but after the nice premise from the end of book 1 and how it played out in book 2 nothing has really drawn me in.

Edit: also the whole plot points revolving around the reintroduction of slavery, gladiator fighting and the Romans methods of increasing population were pretty ridiculous

I'm just going to copy what I wrote in the other thread. I basically agree with everything you say.

I just finished the first Merrimack duology, and I honestly wasn't that impressed. I enjoyed the action. The action was great. But the characters were... well, the antagonists were terrible. Caricatures. Idiotic and unbelievably irrational stereotypes. That the author added some flavour to explain that away doesn't change what they were.

I also did not enjoy the whole American hoo-rah military exceptionalism at display.

In my opinion this series is inferior to Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet series in every way, from the purely military aspects to the use of antagonists with, from the reader's view, irrational beliefs. Not that the whole Lost Fleet was in any way spectacular mind, but it was better.

I also rolled my eyes at how every woman army person on the ship was gorgeous in one way or the other.

This post has been edited by Morgoth: 28 March 2014 - 12:09 PM

[Abyss]

@Morgoth and IH - all fair comments. I did say from the start it's popcorn, not haute cuisine. The things that detracted for you both didn't bother me.

Morgoth, on 28 March 2014 - 12:07 PM, said:

...In my opinion this series is inferior to Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet series in every way, from the purely military aspects to the use of antagonists with, from the reader's view, irrational beliefs. Not that the whole Lost Fleet was in any way spectacular mind, but it was better.

As a technical series focused on the 'mil' in milSF, i agree with you. Campbell's SF elements and fleet engagements are among the best i';ve read.
As a series with plot, characters and story, i give it to Meluch. Campbell essentially has one developed character and two supporting, barely. Meluch has an entire cast.

Quote

I also rolled my eyes at how every woman army person on the ship was gorgeous in one way or the other.

Other than Calista? don't think so. Kerry Blue is described as 'girl next door' attractive. Sure, others have male characters who find them attractive, but Cali is the only one ever described as actually gorgeous and usually to her detriment, which was one of the fun things about the character.

[Tiste Simeon]

Starting The Myriad now! Looking forward to it! What with Thorns, MBOTF & NOTME and Dresden, it has been a long time and a lot of books since I read any SF.

This post has been edited by Tisteon Simeonus: 18 May 2014 - 05:53 PM

[Tiste Simeon]

Got to admit I am somewhat struggling with this at the moment. Am only about 15% in and the writing seems quite... I dunno immature? That might not be the right word for it. The story is great (The Hive puts me in mind of Mass Effect so I love that!) but I can't seem to get into it. Going to keep reading though cos I do love me some SF!

[Garak]

Finished the second omnibus - enjoyed it just as much as the first. Augustus is made of awesome. Also scary to what lenghts he'll go to troll someone.

[Tiste Simeon]

I must admit after posting my last one, I read a fair bit and am getting a lot more into it. For example I liked the scene with them landing on the random Myriad planet to speak to their dictator leader, and the fact they are sending Kerry down to be a seductive spy type thing. Am liking Augustus the most at the moment.

[Tiste Simeon]

OK, so Myriad finished, and yes it was an excellent book! As I stated earlier, I don't actually think much of the writing style, and some of it felt a bit spoon fed (e.g. there were a lot of instances where she told us exactly what a character was like, where a better author would let us discover it through the subtext or whatever.) However, I got over it relatively quickly and enjoyed the fact that as Abyss said earlier, this is a bit cheesy, a bit action movie, but the characters are what make it work. And I agree with that! Comparing Alpha Squad to the Bridgeburners is a bit much but I get your point Abyss... By the end I found I was laughing aloud at some points and grinning inanely at some quip made by Augustus or someone. I didn't feel that every girl was insanely beautiful, as someone mentioned up thread (the CIA girl at the end, Oh, was actively described as being a bit on the ugly side...) and I think it is OK that this is the case as we are largely viewing the scenes through the eyes of two or three characters, and people, being people, do tend to look at others based on their impressions on how they look etc. I mean, a smoking hot girl walks in, you notice!

Onto the end... SPOILERS!!!!

If I guessed right, the ship from Donner went back in time and everyone was like "hey nothing changed" but we as the reader are all like "flipping heck, so many things have changed! CIA girl is suddenly there as a Colonel! Augustus has gone and Roman Legions are advancing on the Myriad! Cowboy is back! What the dickens??" etc. Should have some interesting connotations for the second book. Which I will get around to reading. After Rivers of London. And Skin Game. And possibly some other stuff, but hopefully not...

[Abyss]

Garak, on 10 May 2014 - 08:33 AM, said:

Finished the second omnibus - enjoyed it just as much as the first. Augustus is made of awesome. Also scary to what lenghts he'll go to troll someone.

Augustus was frikkin legendary. He stole scene after scene. And every time you think ok, that's it, he's done...

[Abyss]

Tisteon Simeonus, on 22 May 2014 - 08:52 PM, said:

OK, so Myriad finished, and yes it was an excellent book! ...

So glad you liked it, and I agree with all your reasons. Yes, the BB analogy is a stretch coming out of bk 1 but trust me... You haven't read their best showing yet. The squad has some crazy shit ahead of them and you will see why I thought they were as good as I did.
The twist at the end has massive implications for everything you think you know, and a lot of the major background in 1 suddenly becomes the foreground in 2 and it's all kinds of fun.
I don't think you'll be sorry if you bump bk 2 up your TRP a bit... I read one to four back to back and was really happy with the progress. No doubt that boosted my enthusiasm beyond some up thread reactions, but I stand by my view that it's cheesy mil SF fun with some great characters.

[Tiste Simeon]

Yeah I think if a certain book about a certain wizard in Chicago wasn't out like next week then I would already be starting Wolf Star...

[Tiste Simeon]

Finished book 2! This was ace.

Spoiler

It was basically the telling of a story we kind of knew but with the foreknowledge of the hive etc. It was almost as if they had gone back in time, but we knew better! The scene towards the end where Rome surrendered was excellent!

[Abyss]

Tisteon Simeonus, on 18 June 2014 - 10:00 PM, said:

Finished book 2! This was ace.

Spoiler

It was basically the telling of a story we kind of knew but with the foreknowledge of the hive etc. It was almost as if they had gone back in time, but we knew better! The scene towards the end where Rome surrendered was excellent!

Yeah...

Spoiler

it was a narrative device that in theory shouldn't have worked, semi-retelling a story you've already told the reader with a timetravel twits, but the way she intro'd all the key elements in bk1 and then slowly revealed that NOW we would get to read it happen was so nicely done... it's one thing to tell us this ship is awesome because it was the first crew to fight off the bugs, but then to SHOW it...
also, Calli stealing back the sister-ship didn't happen last timeline and was pure awesome.

Also, one word...

Spoiler

YARRRRR

...cracked me up every time.

[Coco with marshmallows]

on basis of the 'byss' recco, have ordered the first omnibus.

[Tiste Simeon]

Abyss, on 18 June 2014 - 10:23 PM, said:

Tisteon Simeonus, on 18 June 2014 - 10:00 PM, said:

Finished book 2! This was ace.

Spoiler

It was basically the telling of a story we kind of knew but with the foreknowledge of the hive etc. It was almost as if they had gone back in time, but we knew better! The scene towards the end where Rome surrendered was excellent!

Yeah...

Spoiler

it was a narrative device that in theory shouldn't have worked, semi-retelling a story you've already told the reader with a timetravel twits, but the way she intro'd all the key elements in bk1 and then slowly revealed that NOW we would get to read it happen was so nicely done... it's one thing to tell us this ship is awesome because it was the first crew to fight off the bugs, but then to SHOW it...
also, Calli stealing back the sister-ship didn't happen last timeline and was pure awesome.

Also, one word...

Spoiler

YARRRRR

...cracked me up every time.

Liked how they got Augustus back into it too.

[Abyss]

Tisteon Simeonus, on 21 June 2014 - 12:12 AM, said:

Abyss, on 18 June 2014 - 10:23 PM, said:

Tisteon Simeonus, on 18 June 2014 - 10:00 PM, said:

Finished book 2! This was ace.

Spoiler

It was basically the telling of a story we kind of knew but with the foreknowledge of the hive etc. It was almost as if they had gone back in time, but we knew better! The scene towards the end where Rome surrendered was excellent!

Yeah...

Spoiler

it was a narrative device that in theory shouldn't have worked, semi-retelling a story you've already told the reader with a timetravel twits, but the way she intro'd all the key elements in bk1 and then slowly revealed that NOW we would get to read it happen was so nicely done... it's one thing to tell us this ship is awesome because it was the first crew to fight off the bugs, but then to SHOW it...
also, Calli stealing back the sister-ship didn't happen last timeline and was pure awesome.

Also, one word...

Spoiler

YARRRRR

...cracked me up every time.

Liked how they got Augustus back into it too.

You're gonna love what comes next for him.

[Coco with marshmallows]

just polishing off Wolf Star now.

Good shout 'Byss et al, will order up the second omnibus next week some time.

Good fun read.

[Abyss]

Cocoreturns, on 10 July 2014 - 10:29 PM, said:

just polishing off Wolf Star now.

Good shout 'Byss et al, will order up the second omnibus next week some time.

Good fun read.

Glad you liked.

[Coco with marshmallows]

Aaannnnndddd


finished 3 &4.

enjoyed it, got to admit:

Spoiler

Even after he 'died', was expecting Augustus to have made a switcheroo with Secundus' implants and he'd turn up alive to kill Romulus in person.

Still, good ending. Don't think i'll bother with 5 until 6 is out as well though.

[Serenity]

Haven't read the whole thread for fear of spoilers (only on the first book). I've read one other Meluch novel (War Birds) which I enjoyed, but I'm much preferring this. Gotta say, the writing style clicked with me straight away, and the whole vibe - kinda reminds me of Battlestar Galactica, can't help picturing the Swifts as Vipers at the moment. Loving the Farragut/Augustus relationship, just Augustus in general, basically. More when finished.

Forgetting my pronouns