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4.0 out of 5 stars
Overall worthwhile, interesting ideas yet immature delivery, Oct 3 2003
3.5 stars rounded to 4. I greatly enjoyed the first 6 of David Weber's Honor Harrington series so I thought I'd check out this series of books by him. I must admit I was a little disappointed by this piece. There are some good ideas in it however Weber is still learning his craft here and the presentation comes off as immature. Not immature attitude wise, but he has not yet mastered his craft. The idea of long-lived aliens fighting a war on earth while their descendants, humanity, are unaware of it is intriguing enough. The enhanced soldier idea is old, but Weber handles it well enough so it doesn't appear terribly old and re-used. His battles as always are superb. However, there are somethings that are too predictable. Such as the fiery young woman who initially takes a dislike to our hero. We all know what will happen in that relationship. Cleverly though, he has her speak in Shakespearian English, the tongue she grew up in. Which is a nice touch giving us a reinforced reminder of her age and avoiding having all the long-lived ones come off as being able to easily master the language and societal changes that happen around them, particularly as many of them are sequestered. The plot is not perfectly smooth, it stutters and stops and starts which is a shame because a bit more polished presentation would have made this a much better book. Though I have been a bit negative up above, it is actually fairly decent. The battles of course are superb. The intrigue of the power-seeking villains looking out for themselves against one another is done well and though still an early effort he makes sure to have enough of his characters flesh out to be more than one dimensional. Perhaps not three dimensional, but not cardboard cutouts. As a story it is interesting enough. It is also a nice view into the early talent of one of the top selling authors of today.
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