The Apocalypse Troll

I wonder if the first elevator pitch for David Weber’s Apocalypse Troll went like this: “You see, there is this retired admiral in a sailboat in the twenty-fifth century who rescues the pilot of a UFO who turns out to be, wait for it, a beautiful young human woman from the far future. And she is at war with intelligent kangaroos and cyborg trolls.”

Would you expect realistic military action, a serious discussion of twentieth-century politics, and a May-December romance with a twist?

It is a testament to Weber’s skill as a storyteller that he pulls these elements together into something better than the B-Movie pulp the pitch suggests. 3.5

This book started with the usual technical flare David Weber has for Science Fiction writing. It gives a chapter or two for background, leading up to the story blurbed on the back. It was well written and the excitement draws the reader into the book. I celebrated as one of the bad guys was not just stopped, but utterly destroyed. Definitely worth a read.

A great, quick, humans vs. aliens scifi novel, with the added bonus that it is not part of a series! Think of Battlestar Galactica type ships (the original, not the reboot!) fighting against human hating aliens, flying around the galaxy via dimension-skipping drives that give the effect of FTL. When the aliens, desperate for a victory, head off to Earth at incredible speeds jumping more dimensions than ever before, there's only one small human fleet that can stop them. One way or another, this ends up with Marines fighting aliens in a plot that reminded me of Terminator. Decent characters and like all Weber military sci-fi, great action and meticulous military detail.

Love this, as usual. The parallels with the style of the Honor Harrington novels are obvious, though the tech is slightly different and the war is far more intense. I really like Milla - both as a person and her 'superpowers'. And Dick is great. Milla was incredibly lucky with who her ship found to save her. Someone tough-minded _and_ open-minded enough to believe her, who also had the ear of people who had the ear of the highest levels...There was a heck of a lot of luck involved in the story. Still, it hangs together reasonably well. Given the setup - that Milla did end up with Dick - the rest makes reasonable sense - and there were plans (not very good ones, but plans) for if the Troll was outside the influence of those who knew what show more was going on. There's a lot of lovely scenes - several points in the initial battle, that first talk on Dick's ship, meeting the President, when the Marine Major joined them, the repairs to her suit, seeing the kangaroos, several points in the final battle - and the unexpected happy ending. And the memorial moment at the end is wonderful. I always wonder about making more Thuselahs, though - offer it as an option to people who are dying anyway. A quick death or something a lot better...you might get quite a few agreements. Anyway. Neat universe, and I'm glad he didn't write any more there - the story's pretty well finished. I mean, he could write the Kanga's first arrival in the new timeline...but there's not much point, is there? show less

Please note: I wrote this review after reading the book in March of 2006. Just copying it over!

While waiting my turn at the Honor Harrington series, I picked up this book in order to get a taste of David Weber. I was very happy with what I read. This book is a great deal of fun - lots of action, a great work of military science fiction (read: SCIENCE FICTION to those who are going "oh, but this doesn't make sense" - yeah - it's SCIENCE FICTION!! Who knows what might make sense in an alternate reality?? Heh - maybe the laws of physics, etc. are different there? *laugh*) and, of course, for those who are interested, just a teeny, tiny bit of romance thrown in. Or lust - maybe you could call it lust. At any rate, it was a very enjoyable show more read and I'm very glad I picked it up and took the time - I will definitely put it on my "read again after I get through the hundreds waiting to be read" list. Another I highly recommend to those who enjoy a good military science fiction book that adds a bit of humor, a bit of fun, and whole lot of action. show less

Pretty much a comfort read at this point. I know, I've got weird ideas of comfort, but this is very well structured, easy to follow, and has some lovely ideas throughout.

Entertaining, well thought out story full of detail of an alien race and the war with them.
Not much action, what can I expect half the book is on a sailboat.