Despite a one dimensional main hero and a poor choice in names (a pirate named Scarlett Riviera, really?) the world building, aliens and the space-operatic mind candy is top-notch, with some chapters (usually those which abandon the hero for the protagonists) even reminding me of Iain M. Banks at his best. The Venus-like planet never really comes off as threatening, and neither do the space zombies, who do most of their destruction off-camera, but all in all you could do worse for light summer reading. ( )

It was interesting at first, but then I got bored and never finished. True, I was v. busy at the time, but there have been many books that have kept my interest despite time limits. I was excited at the prospect of space zombies, but disappointed when it got dull. I may try it again in the future when I have more time to devote to it. ( )

Spacedive floating city zombie war politics.

It appears that Pepper is now the lynchpin of this particular future history - and has the main role in this novel.

He isn't happy, either, as conflict between the Ragamuffins, their human opponents and the odd alien leftover continues.

This time on a planet that is a little Venusian - so the upper atmosphere is the safer place to be. As long as he can survive a swan dive out of a spaceship to the planet, pirates, and a war.

He picks up a sidekick in one of the local lads who proves to be pretty handy.

With the alien presence diminishing the technology level of the humans is getting lower - and here you see squads of militia desperately fighting infected zombie people with homemade polearms, as an example of this sort of thing.

So this book hearkens back a little to some of the low tech fighting of the first in the series, but in a significantly different setting, and for bigger stakes.

At the end there is a setup for a potentially different style of book next, with shenanigans in a different arena. Unlikely to happen without spaceships or blowing things up though, I'd imagine, but likely far fewer zombies.

I'll call this one 3.5 and a bit.

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2008/12... ( )

Spacedive floating city zombie war politics.

It appears that Pepper is now the lynchpin of this particular future history - and has the main role in this novel.

He isn't happy, either, as conflict between the Ragamuffins, their human opponents and the odd alien leftover continues.

This time on a planet that is a little Venusian - so the upper atmosphere is the safer place to be. As long as he can survive a swan dive out of a spaceship to the planet, pirates, and a war.

He picks up a sidekick in one of the local lads who proves to be pretty handy.

With the alien presence diminishing the technology level of the humans is getting lower - and here you see squads of militia desperately fighting infected zombie people with homemade polearms, as an example of this sort of thing.

So this book hearkens back a little to some of the low tech fighting of the first in the series, but in a significantly different setting, and for bigger stakes.

At the end there is a setup for a potentially different style of book next, with shenanigans in a different arena. Unlikely to happen without spaceships or blowing things up though, I'd imagine, but likely far fewer zombies.

I'll call this one 3.5 and a bit.

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2008/12... ( )