Genre: Sci-fi
Series: Conquerors Saga #1
Page Count: 389
Publication Year: 1994
Publisher: Bantam Books
Summary: A rescue mission. In SPACE!
I don’t read a lot of sci-fi. In any form, it’s never been a genre that calls to me. But after reading this book, I’m tempted to shuffle toward the hyper-speed aisle.
The book opens with this human fleet coming across some alien ships. They’re not regular familiar aliens, but foreign aliens. The humans’ offer of communication is met with a hostile salvo that ends in the fleet’s decimation. One human manages to avoid the alien’s search-and-destroy tactic, only to wind up captured. When the man’s family finds out he might not be dead, they mount a rescue.
The thing that I really like about this story is how the struggles are external; no one’s fighting inner demons or relationship problems. Everyone’s committed to fighting these new aliens or getting the guy back. It’s a nice break from the usual conflicts and makes this book more of a fun adventure.
Because I don’t read much sci-fi I had quite the lingo learning curve. I didn’t have trouble inferring what they meant, but on the scientific level I couldn’t tell beans from horses. It throws you right in the midst of things almost as if you should already know what’s going on and who everyone is. It took a little while to get the hang of things but it’s easy compared to the last sci-fi book I read. I’m glad I don’t need lists of characters or need to rack my brain trying to remember the multitude of factions and enemies.
Here are some examples of jargon:
They had multiple layers of superdense metal shielding, high-power dipole field generators, even a liquid-envelope radiation reflector.
“They could be half-kilowatt comm lasers, half-gigawatt missiles frosters, or anything in between. Without power-flux readings, there’s no way to tell.”
…it was a field-effect gadget of some sort, requiring two to five electromagnetic poles and an equal number of resonant-locked tachyon generators.
O-kay.
As far as the space politics go, there’s the “humans are still the leading power even in the midst of alien races” trope. I don’t care if that’s not exactly original or plausible. Some of the aliens are trying to change things and I assume that’s going to be an issue in the other two books. I think the politics are the least interesting thing in the book but if it goes in an unexpected direction, I could change my tune.
Moving on to the characters…the thing that makes this not an emotionally driven story is that the whole cast is in their mid-twenties or older, so they’re all adjusted and sensible. One of the soldiers had an event in his past that affected him but we don’t have to sit through all those troubles and can instead see the results. I’d much rather see the changed person than have to wait for the drama to pass.
The main woman is actually decent. She’s the sister of the kidnapped guy and while she wants to join the rescue mission, she accepts that they can’t find a legitimate reason for her to be seen on the ship and she stays behind. If this were a YA book I have no doubt she’d try to sneak aboard and end up causing trouble. Instead, she’s a skilled surgeon and useful in other areas. With a war starting it’s shown that she’s not prepared to face its brutalities but she wants to help and she has the sense to know her limitations and not be a burden.
The flaws and missing skills of the cast are used in ways I rarely see. The brother of the kidnapped guy is not a pilot or fighter. So when they come to a planet he convinces the pilot that it makes more sense for him to investigate the area since he’s no good with the ship’s guns. The dad of the kidnapped guy relies on his guards for protection and their expertise. When someone needs assistance or knowledge, they’ll admit it. These people make sense and ask questions and hypothesize and aren’t stupid/stubborn because the plot needs them to be. They stand out by being normal and even keeled.
As opposed to the aforementioned space book, the descriptions of spaceships and space are minimal. That’s not really a problem for me as I’d rather have Spartan visuals than overwrought pages of it. But what is here could’ve been better. It’s an issue I also had with his other book, The Icarus Hunt. Maybe he didn’t completely visualize his places or picked the wrong things to describe, because sometimes I got confused.
Aliens aside, descriptions of people are lacking. Sometimes it mentions hair or skin color but otherwise it doesn’t tell you what anyone looks like. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. I tend to forget features anyway. It’s interesting because I do have a vague idea of what the main characters look like based on their personality, which is a neat way of experiencing people.
The dialogue is good. Like I said before, the people don’t act like dummies and the conversations reflect that. I really like this one exchange between a human and alien:
“Human,” he growled, making the word a curse. “You care first for yourselves. The Meert-ha are nothing to you but slaves.”
“Ah,” Aric said, cocking an eyebrow. “Do the Meert-ha care more for humans than for themselves, then?”
… “You insult the Meert-ha?”
“Not at all,” Aric assured him. “I merely seek clarification. You accuse humans of caring more for their own kind than for nonhumans. Is it different with the Meert-ha?”
And when the sister is asked if she’s used a rifle and she says yes, but not this kind, the guy replies, “Then this isn’t the time to learn.” When have you ever heard someone say that?
Referring to the civilians who decide to stay in the face of invasion, one guy says, “Yeah—proud, brave, and stubborn. Personally, I’d rather they all tucked their tails and ran like craven puppies.”
I do think it’s funny that they’re still saying “what on Earth,” when they’re in space.
This does feel like an introduction to a story instead of a full-fledged one. Certain parts could’ve been shortened or lengthened to rectify that. I do like the revelation at the end; I did not see it coming.
I know the next book is from the perspective of the aliens, which could completely derail things and be a terrible choice. I don’t like when trilogies switch viewpoints. But so long as the choice is necessary and he makes some interesting characters, I should like it.
I should see about finding more space adventures.
Check out my rating here.