R. M. Meluch

Whyyyyyyyyy is this series so addictive? I read the first one and immediately ordered two more and twitched until they arrived. Then I got one on my Kindle, because I could not stand to wait for an order to arrive. I read each one over the course of a single day, at the fastest possible pace, reading while doing things like changing diapers and failing to sleep. And this book is good, and the series is good, but it's not, you know. That good. I don't understand it at all.

Okay, I partly show more understand it: Meluch knows pacing and action. If you make it to page 40 in one of these books, you're probably going to keep reading until the end, even if you don't like it. (Her Amazon reviews have a lot of bewildered people going, "I didn't like it. I mean, I read it very quickly and couldn't put it down, but...")

But the thing is - lots of writers have a great sense of pacing and write fabulous action sequences. Many of them write things I prefer to military SF (and especially to military SF like this; in the even-numbered entries in this series, the US and Rome are fighting each other, and I like both sides and don't want them to fight). But still. This series was crack for me. I could not stop reading. I couldn't even stop rooting for the US, even though I liked Rome, thought they were mostly in the right on the original cause of the war, and didn't want the two groups fighting.

For me, this is probably the weakest book of the series, largely because it doesn't contain much of Augustus, who is my favorite character by far. But "weak" in this case still translates to "OMG addictive," so it's the kind of weak that's, you know, still pretty strong.

I can't say who I would recommend this book to - I wouldn't have recommended it to myself, after all, but I loved the series - but I will say that anyone who picks it up should probably have some free time blocked out for reading. Just in case. show less

Superb. Really clever writing in this, the author has attempted and succeeded in an area that many make a complete mess of - time travel and it's consequences. This very definetly is the 2nd book int he series, and must be read after the first one, preferably whilst the details of the first at still in mind.

The first book ended with a bizarre time travel twist, and our heroes emerged into a universe somewhat different from when they'd left it. Of course to them they had known no other show more existence, and everything was as expected. What Meluch has done so excellently in this book is gently and subtly twist events so that by the end of the book everything is back where it started from. It is the subtlness of this which really appeals. The characters do not realise - as they shouldn't - and if you hadn't recently read the first book in the series, the reader wouldn't either. There is no sudden Duex et Machina, no large jumps, everything proceeds entirely naturally, but then you realise how close it all fits together.

Contrary to the beginning of the first book, the Roman space empire and the US are at war, the League of Earth Nations are arbiters of the terms. Mercy missions exist and are inviolate on both sides for space is every wide and deep. The US has the temporary upper-hand, with the biggest ships (although less of them by far) and with a displacement tech to send them further than Rome can manage. However Rome is building it's own Catapult system to regain the upperhand, something the US wants to stop at all costs. Hence the location of the battleship Merrimack deep in disputed Galactic teritory, and prime opportunity for the Romans to try and bait a trap. This is something two sides can play at however - even if the Captain has little patience for such indirect actions, and would rather stand and fight alongside his crew. After a few reversals the Merrimack encounters something truly alien, and suddenly you know where this is going.

At times, especially towards the beginning, this really feels like the first book of the series, there are some discontinuities as if it were written for more of a chapter book format, but it does all hang together. It is setting up, how events already noted in the first book, came to be. But then through occasional references, you realise that they haven't come to be yet, because history is different to what it was - and at the same time is trending back together. There is also some clever justification for why the space Marines end up being issued with (and trained how to use) the antique swords that were so necessary in the first book. Really technically excellent writing.

The characters are themselves, as they were in the first book. Outward facing, big bold and brash. The US Marines don't take no stick off of anyone, thing or body. The action mostly centers around the captain, John Faracut, and one of the marines way down in the chain of command - the ship's moral officer "Easy" Kerry Blue. The differences between their two love lives, mark out the characterisation in the book, such as it is. All the rest is action, and the pretty good it is too.

A very worthy sequel, better than the first I think. A Series well worth reading, and an author to watch out for. show less

I was hoping that this would be the book that would reunite me with SF; we're having a rather rocky relationship at the moment, and we've almost reached the stage where we return each other's gifts and can't be invited to the same party for six months.

Was this the big reconcilation of my dreams? I don't know. I read it, I enjoyed it, I only occasionally wanted to hit the author with something heavy. But this book is far from perfect.

First, the flaws.

This book feels vaguely first novelish, show more even though I know it's anything but. The exposition is at painful levels of telling rather than showing, although fortunately things get better in a hurry when the real action starts.

And the characters - look. If you're going to have United States Marines, and you're going to call them that, I'm going to expect them to act like U.S. Marines. Marines don't spend a lot of time crying while on duty (and, yes, it bothered me that only the female Marines cried), and they sure as shit don't break into laughter while they're in full dress as honor guard during a meeting with a foreign (alien) head of state. For some reason, I had a harder time suspending my disbelief over that than over, you know, the Roman Empire having been underground for two thousand years.

And, dear god, this contains possibly the worst romance subplot the world has ever seen: if Meluch never writes any more Kerry Blue/TR Steele, I will rejoice and rejoice and rejoice. I had to skip some pages of that, because it was like the worst romance novel ever written. Right down to it making it okay that he's an asshole to her, because he loooooooves her.

Which brings me to the biggest flaw this book had for me: the misogyny. It's obvious that Meluch loves Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, but did she have to pick up their trick of having every alien race have nonsentient females? I am so damn tired of that. And I am tired of women who have lots of sex being dumb sluts - Meluch's words, not mine. I could have done without any of that.

However, on a happier note: gay character! Some characters with other than lily-white skin! (Although not, of course, in command. I think the universe would explode if that happened.) That puts this book way at the forefront of all military SF novels in terms of diversity.

But the bottom line is: I enjoyed this. I read it quickly. I want to read more. I liked some of the characters. I liked the action. I loved Augustus and his relationship with Farragut. The twist honestly surprised and impressed me.

So this book wasn't perfect, and it wasn't my great reconciliation with SF. So what? It was fun. Frankly, in SF these days - and especially in military SF - I will totally take that. show less

Third in the USS Merrimack series. The year is 2445 CE, and Earth and the Palatine Empire (a neo-Roman group that broke away from Earth control a few generations ago) have declared a temporary truce in order to combat the Hive. The Hive cannot be reasoned with, cannot be stopped for long, and they will never, ever stop coming. Because they are hungry. And all life is food.

I read these as really excellent Star Trek:TOS fanfic, with Captain Farragut as a smarter, kinder version of James T show more Kirk and Augustus as a creepier version of Spock. I have an unfortunately huge crush on Augustus, who is filled to the brim with rage and controlled by an intellect the size of a planet and a loyalty stronger than death. He gets his kicks psychologically torturing his cohorts--Farragut is the only person he has ever met who can deal with his mind games. In fact, Farragut misses Augustus's attempts to rip apart his psyche once he's gone. OTP! I have less interest in the other relationship in the books: between Steele and one of his marines, the sexually free, physically aggressive Kerry Blue. They are both complete numbskulls, and I wish they'd just get together and stop bothering me with Steele's constant "oh how I love her soft femininity" rumblings.

It took me a few chapters to get into this book--Meluch's style sounds like a particularly terse cowboy--but once I got past the sentence fragments and back into the adventure, I was hooked. I read it in a single sitting, unable to put it down to eat. show less