Castle in Cassiopeia (Dead Enders #3) ★★☆☆½

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 & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Castle in Cassiopeia
Series: Dead Enders #3
Author: Mike Resnick
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 289
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

The Michtag clone from the first book has decided that he likes being the ruler and using the military knowledge gained from his growing time, begins to crush the Democracy. So the Democracy sends in Nathan Pretorias and the Dead Enders.

Having lost 2 members and gained 1 in the previous book, Nathan still needs one more to complete his team. With the help of the knowledgable Madam, he gets an outlaw with the body of a bear and the mind of a steel trap.

The Dead Enders track down Michtag, kill him and escape. Glory and laughs for everyone.

My Thoughts:

I was a chapter in before I realized I had somehow skipped book 2. By that point I simply didn't care. Honestly, besides finding out that Character X and Y were dead and the introduction of two other characters, it made zero impact on this book.

Unfortunately, I was correct in my assessment that this trilogy would be a dud for me. The characters make their predictable one liners, act spot on just like the script says and the plot follows. I'm sorry, but you don't infiltrate the fortress that holds the galaxy's most notorious war leader and just have everything fall into line.

Bloody A, there was more security and potential problems for the release of the horrible movie Breaking Dawn than Michtag had in his entire fortress. It just felt like a walk in the park and it really, really, really shouldn't have.

I think I am done with exploring Resnick. If I ever feel the need to read anything of his again, I'll just stick to the Santiago and Widowmaker books. I know I liked those at least.

★★☆☆½

• The Fortress in Orion (Book 1)

The Fortress in Orion (Dead Enders #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 & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Fortress in Orion
Series: Dead Enders #1
Author: Mike Resnick
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: 306
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Nathan Pretorias, a secret agent for the Democracy, has returned from yet another impossible mission. Well, parts of him returned. Now he has been tagged to carry out a truly impossible mission:

replace the war chief Michtag, the universal dictator of the aliens fighting humanity with a clone raised by humans and trained

Nathan assembles his own team of specialists, all misfits in one way or another. They make their way to the super secret fortress on the super secret planet deep in the Coalition. They kidnap and replace General Michtag and successfully make their way back to the Democracy.

Where Nathan's superior presents yet another impossible mission, a mission only the Dead Ender's can take on.

My Thoughts:

While I absolutely loved Santiago and the Widowmaker series, this reminded much more of the Starship series. Space Opera at its most mediocre. There simply wasn't any tension. While Resnick excels at telling a myth style story set in the future, he's not so good at just telling a character story.

For an impossible fortress and impossible mission, everything went off without a hitch. No matter how good your team is, something is going to go wrong and everything is going to be flubbed up. That just didn't happen here and so like I said, there was zero tension. If there had been a lot of action or something else, even that could be gotten past, but there really wasn't much else.

Resnick seems to be very hit or miss for me and I have a feeling this Dead Enders trilogy is going to be a miss. I hope I am proved wrong, but I'm very much getting the same vibe from this book that I got from the middle Starship book. That does not bode well. I'm still giving this 3stars for the newness of the story but if the second book is just as blasé, I'll be dropping the rating accordingly.

★★★☆☆