Earth Strike: Star Carrier, Book One

I really like the Jack Campbell lost fleet books, but I've read them all and wanted more in that genre. I found this series and decided to give it a try. It is a lot of fun. I do not consider this as good as the Jack Campbell books, particularly the original Lost Fleet series. But, it is very good on its own. Douglas is really William H. Keith, Jr. who writes under a dozen pseudonyms. The writing does have that feel of quick-and-done to it. He must write a book a month to have the quantity he has achieve. There is quite a bit of redundancy, but if you are fond of technobabble, you don't mind too much. The characters are a bit shallow in places. But, the action is very exciting. Douglas has created a very different future from Campbell, with very different technologies and modes of battle. Like Campbell, he recognizes the importance of light speed and the huge distances in space. He does differentiate the drive technologies, making small fighters a critically important component of the arsenal. This book has a bit of a weakness that a fighter pilot invents on the fly what should have been a pretty obvious weapon, given the technology.But, you can't put these down. Once started, you want to know what will happen next. How will they compete against overwhelmingly superior enemies? What is the enemy? There are a lot of mysteries that will also keep you in the series, though I must admit that sometimes I think the protagonists are not very smart and don't see ideas that the reader gets pretty clearly from the narrative.

Through about 80% of this book, I was wavering between giving it 2 stars or 3 stars. (I use the Netflix scale; 2 = didn't like, 3 = liked). There was FAR too much techno-babble in the first three or four chapters, and too much "author to reader" minute explanation in the rest of the book. On a couple of occasions, the author actually seemed to pause the story to explain something, unnecessarily, to the reader. All of that being said, as I read through the last 20% of the book, I came to enjoy the story very much. It wasn't a very deep story -- a battle, followed by a brief slow down, followed by another battle, the end -- but as a military veteran I found that I thoroughly enjoyed it. This is the literary equivalent of an action movie -- not a lot of character development, but a lot to watch. Despite all of that techno-babble and explanation, the author did do a fine job of giving the reader some exciting action and, in my opinion, earned that 4th star. I will definitely continue with book #2.

As a retired military guy-and a Technical War Gaming Instructor for the US Army, I read Sci-Fi to be inspired. I love new ideas - I love old ideas that fit into new technology, new ideas that fit into old technology. I'm carried away by the 'what-ifness' of a good read. Inspired by the rapid advances in technology applied to the military - as well as military technology filtering down to the civilian sector in my lifetime - this segment of science fiction - inspired from the early works of Robert Heinlein has always held a fascination for me that has never diminished.Those who complain of military societies' lack of dimension obviously have never served - or if they have - left with an experience they weren't counting on. That society more or less reflects the population from which it draws its members. The balance between civilian control and military decision making - mocked by some - is very real in our current military. The number of military lawyers present down to Brigade level (that) double as 'legal advisors' to the command is mind boggling - and woe to the soldiers found in violation of Rules of Engagement (ROE). These lawyers in uniform temper the command structure to remind them of their limits of authority - determined by political decisions made by civilian leadership.Character development may not be this authors strong suit - maybe his least developed ability - but still good enough to string along the technical fantasy he weaves. Again, military populations reflect the society that spawns them - and most militaries are the conservators of that nations legitimacy to its population. Flag Officers are political animals whether they want to be or not - it goes with the rank and the branch of service. A fact of life that through history has never changed.There has always been a balance between offense and defense - and in this future world of immense offensive power - defense is little more than trying to evade kinetic power that dwarfs anything we currently have on the drawing boards. Military medicine has always been first rate - since my youngest days in the service - to now - the prospective of an old contractor marveling at those advancements that occurred in his life time. A personal fascination that brings enjoyment with every page I turn.Gene Roddenberry imagined a multi-cultural future that may or may not come to fruition - and one who was born in New York City in the late 40's - I watched - often from afar - wave after wave of human migration come through my old town. It's neither bad - nor good - politically or morally - it just is. Cratering an author because you don't believe in his view of the future - is your right - but so what? Literature is meant to convey an author's view of future, past or current humanity - of trends that develop in one generation and mutate or morph over time. Be it global warming, technology used for good or evil or migration trends - a good author makes one THINK!Overall - I find the book for me - to be a page turner. Just my personal taste - waiting to see the what, how, when and why that makes reading enjoyable. Say what you want - a series that holds your attention - page after page.

Ian Douglas nailed it with this book. It finds a nice balance between action, world building and story telling.Military SciFi meets hard SciFi in a (modest) Space Opera way...Basically the story is about the human race in 25th century, still struggling with the effects of global warmingand the aftermath of a series of wars. Human forces and colonies are coming under attack from a client race of the Sh'daar, the rulers of what is believed a galaxy spanning empire. After having been trading with another client raceof the Sh'daar for several decades (peacefully) humanity gets an ultimatum from the Sh'daar (delivered by a second client race)...Soon humanity finds itself fighting an enemy it knows nothing about for reasons it doesn't understand.The aliens are truly alien, the characters are truly human . Loved the technology, loved the concepts, the storyand the setting.I've read this story in high-speed mode, had trouble putting it down (and getting enough sleep) - I ordered part 2 and 3 this weekend when I was about 1/2 through part one in the hope not having to wait more than a day after finishing the first book before I could continu reading.Top rating as far as I'm concerned.

I love a space opera series and in fairness I enjoyed reading this. It paints a picture of the future that features technology you can get on-board with and believe could be possible. The same for the future geo-political landscape. Overall I like the premise of the book and read the next 3 books. The combat was well paced.My only criticism's of this and the subsequent books was the constant explaining of certain moments that struck me as a bit of filler. For example whenever Gray gets in his fighter there seems to be the need to explain about the Nano seal opening and reforming. This sort of thing is repeated through out the books and is unnecessary. And again constantly re-explaining Gray's background and what life entailed as a prim! I also felt the characters could be better developed and were a bit by the numbers.

Military Sci-fi at it's best.The characters are engaging and identifiable. The physics of the universe is Einstein based and believable. The aliens are nicely different too.If you want hard, non-stop action with best guess physics descriptions of future weapons, this is a great book.My only niggle is that the author introduces lots of acronyms and then defines them but actually hardly ever uses them again. A new edit of the text should remove the acronyms not used again to keep the acronym overload to a minimum. Sill, I enjoyed the book very much.

Some action and some nice tech: Faster than light travel, almost-as-fast-as-light drives, shields and screens, orbital bombardments and nanotech shape-changing space fighters.But I can't shake the impression that the author has taken a second world war plot, with fighter groups attacking fleets, and tried to update it for the modern era and the future at the same time. There's new tech but no new ideas, and the new toys haven't been thought through - they're just there to hold the plot together, and things are only dangerous when the plot needs them to be.

Overall brilliant, logical.However I cannot stand that gray received 0 recognition for his efforts in the defence of earth. No medals, no commendations for pretty much single handedly stopping a lot. No promotions. It just really made no sense and was very frustrating to see. It did crimp some of the reality for me.