[Primateus]

Abyss, on 28 March 2014 - 02:18 PM, said:

@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.

I'll agree that the SF elements in Lost Fleet are better with the fleet engagements being superbly done. However, I also agree with Abyss, as much as I like the Lost Fleet series and its spinoffs, I don't really think that Campbell is a particuliarly good writer. His characters are barely developed, his protagonist is so over the top boyscout-ish that he makes Captain American AND Superman look like Hannibal Lector and Jeffrey Dahmer.

Campbell also has a very, very annoying habit of repeating himself ad nausium. So much so that it feels like him padding the story with extra word/page count in order to reach a certain minimum. That is just not a feeling you want your audience to have when reading your book.

I love Lost Fleet, I really do, and despite my distaste for american "hooahh military exceptionalism" Merrimack is the better series. It's better written, it has more well-developed characters, each with their own point of view.
Sure, Merrimack has its own problems, some of them not so small by themselves even, but, it's just better.

[Abyss]

Abyss, on 14 April 2015 - 07:16 AM, said:

Book 6!
BOOK 6!!!!!!!!!!!
http://www.risingsha...d-future-caesar

GOT IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!
starting as soon as I finish Blood Song, SO psyched!

[Maark Abbott]

You lost me at "but not with Bugs!".

[Abyss]

Maark, on 22 August 2015 - 11:44 AM, said:

You lost me at "but not with Bugs!".

Hey whatever floats your boat.








Pervert.

[Lost Marine]

I tried to get into this but unfortunately I think I'm still too much a Marine.

The writing took some getting used to but I could get past that. The utter lack of any recognizable military discipline made it too unbelievable for me (yes I just said that about a scifi book). If you're stuck on a warship in space fighting a ravenous alien horde there would have to be a wee bit more discipline.

Overall, it had some interesting elements but I doubt I'll finish the series. Which is a shame, I already downloaded the first four.

Also I hate Kerry Blue and Steele.

Edit: Never mind, I'm weak and already started book 2. I'll have to stow my sensibilities.

This post has been edited by Lost Marine: 01 September 2015 - 08:21 PM

[Serenity]

Abyss, on 19 August 2015 - 10:55 PM, said:

Abyss, on 14 April 2015 - 07:16 AM, said:

Book 6!
BOOK 6!!!!!!!!!!!
http://www.risingsha...d-future-caesar

GOT IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!
starting as soon as I finish Blood Song, SO psyched!

Ooh, exciting! I saw it on Amazon but I'm going to wait for the paperback. Hope you enjoy it!

[Abyss]

Halfway through..... holy fuck.... STEELE!

....and a twist that absolutely should not work yet somehow does. Maybe. Haven't quite decided yet.

Lost Marine, on 01 September 2015 - 07:37 PM, said:

I tried to get into this but unfortunately I think I'm still too much a Marine.

The writing took some getting used to but I could get past that. The utter lack of any recognizable military discipline made it too unbelievable for me (yes I just said that about a scifi book). If you're stuck on a warship in space fighting a ravenous alien horde there would have to be a wee bit more discipline.

Overall, it had some interesting elements but I doubt I'll finish the series. Which is a shame, I already downloaded the first four.

Also I hate Kerry Blue and Steele.

Edit: Never mind, I'm weak and already started book 2. I'll have to stow my sensibilities.

I think i said somewhere upthread that as milsf goes, this is weak on the mil. Spend about 60 seconds actually thinking about any number of those elements and the book fails. But, if you can just go with it in that popcorn entertainment sort of way, i think it's pretty damn fun. Things only get better in bk 2 and some of the bits that bug you (pun intended) may be explained.

[Abyss]

Well... That was... Mediocre. I suppose it's an end to the series and decent as such, but after four glorious books and a fifth that was mostly setup for a new storyline, I found that THE TWICE AND FUTURE CESAR was... Meh. Astoundingly meh.
I'll do a fuller post soonish, but had to vent .
First four are totally worth your time and money, and self contained as a series so I don't change my reco for them a bit.

[Serenity]

Oh dear

[Abyss]

So...

Below are semi-spoilerish comments that do not get into the meat of book six but do explain my problems with it w ref to earlier books and a few broad plot points....
So i won't tell you what happens to who, but i will tell you why it didn't work for me by discussing the big plots generally.

If you haven't read the series, i utterly recommend the first four books and suggest you not read the below because i will spoil a couple of major points from those books in a general way and honestly... they're awesome and worth your eyetime and money.

This is mainly for people who have read 1-4, possibly 5, and are thinking about buying 6.

...and anyone who doesn't care either way and wants to know what i'm whinging about....

SPOILERS


SPOILERS


SPOILERS FOR TOUR OF THE MERRIMACK BK SIX AND THE ENTIRE SERIES


SPOILERS


You remember the big twist at the end of the first book.... the time travel twist.... the one that shuffles the world in a few clever ways that sets up most of the wholly awesome events in books 2-3-4?

You remember how in bk 1 she referred to awesome past events, then moved them to the future and showed the reader why they were awesome? Maybe you remember why that was such a clever writing technique and that it worked really really well?


Well, here, Meluch goes back to that. She does another time travel twist, as a key baddie from the series goes back in time and undoes the original twist.

Then the story advances from that point, in the bk 1 timeline, with the future baddie causing problems.

On the strength of what Meluch did with the time travel thing in the first four books, i was psyched to see what she could do with it again. Unfortunately what she does with it is nothing special.

We get plotpoints from the earlier books revisited... The Hive eats some worlds, the Romans are assholes, Steele pines after Kerry Blue, Farragut pines after the Hamster, the marines fight Hive, John/Nox goes Roman.... but all of these things were done in the earlier books... better.

Way better. So much so that rather than a neat deja vue when an event from bk 1 was repeated different/better in 2-4, the bk 6 event pales in comparison.

And the resolutions of the major plots are brutally phoned in. The Big Bad is undone by something that's foreshadowed and perfectly logical and wholly underwhelming, and a complete random deus ex development resolves the Hive problem. I just found it so.... weak.

Augustus is back.... you would think that would be good, and it is, and he has some great moments and gloriously snarky dialogue, but not enough to save the story. And the Alpha Squad marines fighting Hive is still a pile of fun to read, it's just that we've read it before and it was better then (admittedly, 'Shut up Dak' and 'Greta! Greeetaaaaaaa!' are still funny).

The first part of the book resolves a few danglers from bk 5, including a great Steele moment that actually builds on his arena moments of awesome from bks 3-4.... in fact, the first part of the book is the most frustrating because it seems like she's continuing the story from 5 and amping it up nicely... then the time travel happens and.... meh.


If she writes a bk 7 i will probably try it on the strength of what i did enjoy in this series, but after loving 1-4, just liking 5 and now this... meh.

Dammit.