Empire’s Birth (Empire Rising #9) 3Stars

 

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: Empire’s Birth
Series: Empire Rising #9
Author: David Holmes
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 424
Words: 164K

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I enjoyed this, but. Yes, a big fat but.

(And feel free to make all the jokes you want)

There was almost ZERO space marine action. They are mentioned, but pretty much only as elements that are getting their butts (ha, there’s that big fat but again) kicked and being destroyed. Space battles get all the attention this time around and that did not please Emperor Bookstooge. It made the book drag for me. So if your jam is big space battles, then you’ll absolutely love this. But (ha!) big space battles are NOT my jam, so I merely enjoyed this instead of absolutely loving it.

I reviewed the first book (The Void War) in February of 2023. I’ve been steadily reading this series and enjoying it. But now that the Empire has been officially formed, I think it’s time to take a break for a bit and come back in a couple of months. There are currently 18 books in the series and I’m guessing it’s going to be one of those “never ending” series. I’m ok with those, as long as I know that’s what it is. I just need to space things out appropriately.

★★★☆☆

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From Bookstooge.blog

Commodore Happypants gets crowned King of Space England. Then he marries the Empress of Space China and creates the Empire, thus becoming Space Emperor Happypants.

While this is all going on, the evil Karachnids are going around conquering more space civilizations and nuking planets like there’s no tomorrow. Earth is doing what it can do cause problems but until they get united as a species, things aren’t looking too good. It’s up to Space Emperor Happypants to get humanity all on one page, by the scruff of the neck if necessary, and drag them to victory.

Watch out Karachnids, humanity has a Space Emperor and we’re not afraid to use him!

• All of My “Empire Rising” Reviews

Empire’s Doom (Empire Rising #8) 3.5Stars

 

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: Empire’s Doom
Series: Empire Rising #8
Author: David Holmes
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 426
Words: 166K

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Normally with this series, I write a comedic (for me) review where I mock everyone’s name and make light of all of the circumstances. This won’t be happening for this volume and if the future books are as serious, I’ll simply be reviewing these as any other series.

This was a brutal book. While it was obvious what Holmes was doing, it didn’t mean it didn’t hit me any less hard. James’ wife Susannah dying partway through hit me like an express train. Especially since it was all politically motivated by scumbag politicians. If I had been James, I’d have taken my proto-space navy and nuked Earth myself.

Which brings up the ending where the aliens do just that. In the little chapter headings where the writer of the history (ie, this book, in the year 3000) blabs, it was always evident to any halfway observant reader that this event was going to happen. It wasn’t a surprise and for that I am glad, because I don’t know if I could have handled reading about Earth getting nuked 1800 times with no forewarning. The anguish that James feels as he watches it happen was as real to me as anything could be. I could imagine it, because it would be like September 11, just on a world wide scale. What keeps it from being overwhelming, emotionally, is the knowledge that the Empire arises from this and that humanity isn’t broken.

It also made me grin because the aliens assume that this event will break the Spirit of Humanity and that we won’t be in the fight as the Bad Aliens go to fight the Good Aliens. All I could think was “Oh boy, we are SO going to kick their butts!” The Bad Aliens were just as self-centered and egotistical as you could wish for in an Enemy of Humanity. It will be a joy to see them destroyed. None of this “Fear of the Other” bullshit that I see waved around like a white flag of social surrender as we try to understand the poor dears who just nuked us, because really, they have feelings too and aren’t really bad, just misunderstood. *&^%% that. These aliens want us dead or enslaved and will accept nothing else.

So I am looking forward to more of this series as Humanity gets off the ground and starts swinging in the big space bar room brawl that the bad aliens started. I’m hoping for some serious haymakers...

★★★✬☆

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From Bookstooge.blog

The UN ignores James’ warning about the invading aliens. He begins preparing for the inevitable invasion even though this means breaking all existing laws. He is helped by a large group of individuals and groups that believe his message and expect the worst.

On the run and hunted, James must begin a proto-defense force that is strong enough to defend Earth and to help their alien allies.

James’ wife Susanna is killed by the UN in a bungled attempt to arrest her as bait for James. The aliens arrive and despite the best efforts of the UN Navy and James’ adhoc space navy, the Earth is nuked hundreds of times. The book ends with the aliens retreating, sure that the destruction of our homeworld will have broken humanity’s spirit. Oh how little they know.

• All of My “Empire Rising” Reviews

Mutineer (Empire Rising #7) 3.5Stars

 

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: Mutineer
Series: Empire Rising #7
Author: David Holmes
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 389
Words: 151K

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I enjoyed this even though it wasn’t the transition of power from Awesome-Admiral Happypants to Ensign Mighty Niece like I thought. Das Admiral is front and center and takes a mighty hit from the bad politicians. He’s hurt, he’s down but he’s not done, not by a long shot! There’s dastardly politicians still to kill. There’s dastardly Really Bad Aliens to kill! There’s thrills and chills as new good aliens pop out of the woodwork like weevils from a biscuit!

Das Space Battleos gets biggemized, to the point where thousands of missiles get fired but thankfully we don’t have to follow every single one to their destruction. We do still get “then X missiles made it through and exploded and destroyed/damaged X ships”. So if that’s your space jam, bring your own toast.

The Bad Politicians left a bad taste in my mouth. Just like they should. But I still didn’t enjoy that aspect of the story, even though it was very necessary. Going number two is ALSO necessary but it doesn’t mean I have to like it, or like hearing other people talk/write about it.

But don’t worry, this series is Number One in my books!

★★★✬☆

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From Bookstooge.blog

Awesome-Admiral Happypants (because there are lots of admirals but only the most Admiral’y of them all gets to be in charge with that title) saves humanity from a bunch of bad aliens, finds even more good aliens, and finds the Really Bad Aliens.

Politics gets involved, Awesome-Admiral is court-martialed by jealous incompetent and totally stupid Politicians and the Powers That Be blow off the new good aliens and pretend that the RBA’s don’t exist.

Awesome-Admiral doesn’t take it lying down and goes to his wife’s space system to start preparing humanity, along with his niece, Ensign Mighty Niece. Of course, she’s some sort of lowly officer now, but she’s going to stay Ensign Mighty Niece from hereon out in my books!

The End!

• All of My “Empire Rising” Reviews

Siege of Earth (Empire Rising #6) 4Stars

 

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: Siege of Earth
Series: Empire Rising #6
Author: David Holmes
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 475
Words: 184K

DASTARDLY SPACE COMMIES!!!!!

Yeeehaawwwwwww! Watch as the evil SPACE COMMIES try to starve Earth into submission. Watch as the heartless SPACE COMMIES try to kill a beautiful woman and new space ensign! Experience thrills and chills as SPACE COMMIES try to throw ice comets at earth while the stalwart defenders are run ragged. Shudder in terror as filthy traitors show their true colors AND get their just desserts! Weep as brave men and women sacrifice all so that their stalwart comrades can kill MORE SPACE COMMIES! Fear not, there are plenty of SPACE COMMIES to kill. Just send in your 5 box tops from Sugar Frosted SPACE COMMIES and we’ll send you your very own SPACE COMMIE to kill at your convenience! (shipping and handling is extra)

I DIDN’T KNOW I WANTED SPACE COMMIES BUT BY GUM, I GOT THEM, I WANTED THEM AND I WANTED THEM DEAD!!!

Holmes gave me what I didn’t even know I wanted and that takes genius and a lot of chutzpah. Because we all know how picky I am. My hat is off to you, sir. Thanks for not screwing this up. Of course, with space commies, you would be hard pressed to mess that up and annoy me. Mak’em evil, kill’em and I’m happy as a pig in mud.

Four Mudbaths out of Five!

★★★★☆

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From the Publisher

The Flex-aor invasion fleets have been stopped, but at great cost. Human colonies lie in ruins, fleets have been decimated and the economies of the major space powers have been stretched to breaking point. Yet one nation stands unaffected. Hidden behind their borders, the Russian Space Federation is stronger than ever. Still enraged by the harsh peace terms forced upon them more than thirty years ago, the Federation sees its chance for revenge. Led by an Admiral with the tactical capabilities to rival any from the Allied space powers, the Russians have only one goal in mind; humanity’s homeworld will be theirs.

With the swiftness of the Russian attack, James, Suzanna, Lightfoot and many others find themselves isolated and cut off from one another. Worse, they are surrounded by allies that may no longer be trustworthy. Forced to fight with whatever forces they can muster, victory seems all but impossible.

Once again, the stakes are as high as they can get, for defeat would see the homeworld they sacrificed so much to protect falling under a new Russian tyranny. And if Earth falls, so too will the British Star Kingdom.

• All of My “Empire Rising” Reviews

Firestorm (Empire Rising #5) 3.5Stars

 

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: Firestorm
Series: Empire Rising #5
Author: David Holmes
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 324
Words: 124K

MUCH more enjoyable than the previous book. Over 20K of words less and it showed by being a tighter, leaner story and I think we all benefit from that. There were no letters, thank goodness.

There is still the “they fire X missiles” and the countdown to how they all get destroyed or not. But I was reading an older review of one of Doug Dandridge’s books and he did the exact same thing, so I guess that’s a “feature” of indie milsf writers.

We are also introduced to the next Somerville, Captain Happypant’s illegitimate niece. Since Happypants is pretty much now a commodore and the next step for him will be sitting behind a desk getting fat and reminiscing about “back in my day the Navy was blah, blah, blah”, and Mighty Niece is just entering navy school, I fully expect the next book to be a transition from Happypants as the main character to Mighty Niece.

Also, now that there is evidence of the Master Alien Race that really is setting lower races against each other, I expect them to take more of centerstage as the villainous, gloating, rubbing of hands (or whatever appendage that translates to for them) bad guy. There have been hints from the beginnings of each chapter (where it is the year 3000’ish and the Empire is at the height of its power) that is a War of Doom where humanity takes a tremendous beating and almost loses the survival war. I suspect the new MAR’s have a hand in that.

Unlike the last book, I didn’t notice any awkward dialogue. Nothing that threw me out of the book at all. Doesn’t mean it was Nero Wolfe / Archie Goodwin banter, but it was solid dialogue that didn’t make me wince. That’s a big step in the right direction and I’m happy about that.

★★★✬☆

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From the Publisher

Four peaceful years have passed since the liberation of Haven. Captain James Somerville has taken his command, the heavy cruiser Titan, to Earth for a much-needed refit. As he is there, shocking news arrives from the American colonies. Unknown ships have attacked a remote colony. Nuclear missiles have devastated the planet’s surface leaving almost no survivors. Suddenly, the human nations find themselves thrust into a war for the very survival of their species. Old rivalries must be set aside if this new threat is to be confronted. Once again James finds himself thrust into the midst of battle. This time, the stakes are as high as they can get.

• All of My “Empire Rising” Reviews

The Price of Liberty (Empire Rising #4) ★★★☆☆

 

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: The Price of Liberty
Series: Empire Rising #4
Author: David Holmes
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 388
Words: 155K

From the Publisher

War has been declared. The Indian Star Republic has landed ground troops on the newly discovered colony of Haven as they seek to seize access to the alien worlds of Vestar and Kulthar. The British Star Kingdom has reacted. A battle fleet has been formed with orders to drive off the Indians and retake Haven.

Cleared from a highly-politicized court martial and now newly married, Captain James Somerville leads Endeavour to join up with the fleet going to liberate Haven. Yet he is not entirely welcome for not everyone is happy with the outcome of the court martial.

Meanwhile, Major Johnston commands a small marine special forces unit stranded on Haven itself. Caught in the middle of a gruella war, he must use all his skills to help the resistance weaken the Indian invaders in anticipation of a British ground assault.

As the war quickly heats up, both men will learn the true price of liberty.

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Something has changed. Either I have or the writing has. Or I’ve just noticed the writing. Many of the conversations were awkward and stilted, like they had been written, sigh, instead of just recording what was said between 2 people. There were also 2 letters written in this story that I simply skipped because they were pages long and was nothing but blather that didn’t actually do anything for the plot. As Polonius would have said “Brevity is the soul of wit”. (that’s Shakespeare for those not familiar with Hamlet) There was no brevity here.

The story is longer and is actually almost 2 stories. One about Cpt Somerville doing spaceship stuff and another about the super british marine who leads the insurgency on Haven. Both enjoyable but neither needed some of the padding that the author stuck in.

Now that the idea of “Space Kingdoms” has been introduced and the idea of this universe explored, I am afraid I am going to start focusing on the skill of the author in regards to wordsmithing. As Asimov proved, ideas might work fantastically for short stories, but you need solid plotting, characters and writing to successfully pull off a novel. I felt like I saw some cracks in the foundation of the writing part. I don’t expect every author to be as good as Rex Stout, the author who I now consider the preeminent wordsmith against who I judge every other author, but I do expect a bit more than simple “He said. She said.” kind of conversations. I realize also that writing from a first person view is different from a third person omniscient viewpoint but the point remains is that Holmes didn’t handle things nearly as well as I “remember” him doing in previous books.

This is one of the reasons I am not a big fan of long, ongoing series, especially for indies. Pedestrian writing can only go so far and then it becomes a bigger hindrance than anything, especially for me. I expect good quality in the books I read, not just basic skill.

I realize I have complained a lot here. The story is still good. The action was exciting. If I can set my mind to judge this based on that alone, I might be ok for the long haul. I suspect I’ll know my answer one way or another within 2 more books. I’ll either be able to paper over the cracks I’ve seen or they’ll just get bigger in my view and I’ll have to stop.

And with having close to 400 Books on my TBR , I’m getting to the point where just dropping a series midpoint doesn’t bother me anymore.

★★★☆☆

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Return to Haven (Empire Rising #3) ★★★✬☆

 

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: Return to Haven
Series: Empire Rising #3
Author: David Holmes
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 290
Words: 111K

From the Publisher and Bookstooge.blog

The revelation that the human race is not alone has sent shockwaves throughout Earth’s naval powers. Suddenly all eyes have turned to Haven and the trade routes to the Vestarian and Kulrean homeworlds.

Thinking he has nothing to lose, Haven’s First Councilor puts into motion a plan that threatens to turn star empire against star empire. As a result, Captain James Somerville finds himself thrown into the thick of battle once again. Yet not everyone in the Admiralty is enamored with his brash style of command and this time, his reckless actions may finally catch up with him.

James faces a court martial that is used by the politicians to gain popular support for annexing Haven and he marries one of Haven’s leading politicians.

Meanwhile, India has invaded Haven and means to subdue it before any other of the Space Powers can do anything to stop them.

INSERT LINE

Captain Happy Pants, to help bring the lost colony of Haven into the British Fold, marries Sexy Lost Politician, thus making her Lady Happy Pants. So long Ensign Captain Chicky Boo. You will be missed.

With Space India invading Haven, a group of special marines go all guerilla warfare with the dissidents. It was the kind of action I like. There was still a lot of space action though, with missiles and lasers and stuff, so if that does it for you, you’ll still enjoy this.

While I am not wildly excited about this series, I am thoroughly satisfied with each book so far. That’s all I can truly ask for.

★★★✬☆

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A King’s Ship (Empire Rising #2) ★★★✬☆

 

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!

★★★✬☆

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The Void War (Empire Rising #1) ★★★✬☆

 

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: The Void War
Series: Empire Rising #1
Author: David Holmes
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 339
Words: 132K

Sometime in the year 3000 there is a Human Empire and some blathering idiot of a historian decides to chronicle the Rise of the Empire. Thankfully, we get a science fiction novel that tells a good cracking, exciting and interesting story instead of a dry history filled only with names, dates and statistical data. As you can probably tell, I am not a fan of history books (sorry Matt, they’re all yours!).

The Little (disgraced) Rich Boy makes good and starts becoming Somebody. Along the way he helps defeat Space Communists (Yaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!!!!) but doesn’t get to marry the Princess (Booooooooo!). However, Ensign “Chickie Boo” Underling is standing in the wings and while they hate each other at first, it’s all a big misunderstanding and so by book’s end they are besties. (Awwwwwwww!)

Everything is based on The British Navy, in Spaaaaaaace! (say that while remembering the Muppet’s skit, Pigs in Spaaaaaace). Jack Campell did this first with his Black Jack Geary aka Lost Fleet series, but unlike Campbell, Holmes skips all the boring bits (like waiting 6hrs for space missiles to actually arrive or waiting 6hrs to shoot your own space missiles) and thus we zoom along at a pretty good breakneck pace. (don’t try shooting missiles at home, kids. That is not Batman & Robin approved behavior)

I look forward to reading more in this series and hope it stays as good as this book was.

★★★✬☆

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