Hey Space Cadets, here is the next installment in my series of book reviews. As I’ve mentioned earlier, I’m a member of the TRMN. It’s a fan club for the Honor Harrington Universe by David Weber, and they do contests for their members all the time. There is a reading contest going on recently, and we get bonus points for reading authors who are on the TRMN Author List. And, if those authors will be at the 2017 Honor Con, we get even more points! So, you’ll see my next several reviews on books by Chris Kennedy, Marko Kloos and David Weber before I get back to Richard Fox’s Ember Wars stories. I’m also working on book four of The Sleeping Legion Series. Finally, if you haven’t read it, Operation Breakout is live!
But enough about me, onto this specific review. Now let’s get to it!
Title: Janissaries (The Theogony Book 1)
Author: Chris Kennedy
Narrator: Craig Good
Price: $3.99 USD (Kindle Edition) & $1.99 USD (Audible Add On)
Obtained: I bought the story and audiobook combination from Amazon.
Pages: 408
Rating: 5/5 Grenades
Summary:
First, let me say that none of what I’ll say in this section couldn’t be found on the back copy of the novel. I wanted to provide a spoiler free review, so here goes nothing! This novel carries on in the world of the Occupied Seattle duology with the same cast of characters. The war with China, the Sino American War, was over and Lieutenant Shawn ‘Calvin’ Hobbs just wanted his life to get back to normal. As the hero of the war, he had a small ream of paperwork to fill out, a deployment with his Navy F-18 squadron to prepare for, and a new girlfriend to spend some quality time with. Life was good, until the aliens showed up.
The aliens had a ship and needed to get to their home planet, but they didn’t have a crew. They had seen Calvin’s unit in action, though, and knew it was the right one for the job. There was just one small problem–a second race of aliens was coming, which would end all life on Earth. Calvin’s platoon might want to do something about that, too. Having won a terrestrial war with 30 troops, winning an interstellar war with nothing but a 3,000-year-old cruiser should be easy, right? “Janissaries” initiates “The Theogony,” a trilogy that will take Lieutenant Hobbs and his Special Forces platoon to the stars. It will also show them that there’s much more to Earth’s history than is written in the history books!
Characters:
In this novel, we see more focus given to Shawn Hobbs with the other characters in the series given secondary status. Given the amount of head hopping in his previous series, I would say there was a lot of improvement here. Even better, Chris Kennedy didn’t sacrifice what made Occupied Seattle Duology awesome. With this change, Hobbs was flushed out, and I felt like I could relate to him as a person. While we see most of the story through Hobb’s eyes, there was still plenty of red shirts and glorious death! Like his previous novels, I was helped by my time in the service, because Chris used his military service color this science fiction military thriller. Here is a brief summary of the main character.
Shawn “Calvin” Hobbs: He is a fighter pilot for the US Navy who becomes an instant war herp/celebrity once he got shot down during the opening salvo of the Sino America War. He got involved with the resistance and ends up leading a small band of disenfranchised troopers in a war against the occupying force. These actions caught the attention of the aliens spying on humanity, and end with him being requested to lead humanities efforts to assist their new alien allies.
Overall, I will give these characters 5 out of 5 Grenades and can’t wait to see where the author takes this character throughout this series!
Plot:
Like most of the military fiction I love to read, this was an action-packed novel. The story is set in the post Sino American War, after China invaded Seattle as a feint to keep the US from honoring our commitment to Taiwan. Immediately after the war ends, aliens make contact with Earth. We find out that most of Earths mythologies are actually aliens who visited humanity in its infancy and those who witnessed it and left told the stories of these “gods” to their people.
The premise was interesting and the set-up was well executed. With my military background, I thought the way the military was portrayed was credible. Well, as much as we could say about futuristic tech! Also, again I’m no aviation savant, so I just went with how convincing the story was. I really loved the premise of this plot, and more importantly I enjoyed how Chris Kennedy executed it. I couldn’t ask for anything more; excellent premise, perfect execution and wonderful pacing! I again give Chris 5 out of 5 Grenades!
World Building:
This is the first book in The Theogony Trilogy, and I’m already hooked. Like in the previous novel in his Occupied Seattle Duology, this world was very flushed out. Unlike before, this series takes the past the world as we know it and into one that’s simply amazing to think about! The changes were believable, and there was no waving of the hands to address the realities of geopolitics at the international level. There would be no panacea for the new world government, as each nation jockeyed for power. Regardless, the novel built on the modern world and made his divergent path extremely plausible. I give the world building 5 out of 5 Grenades.
Description:
Like the previous book, this novel was chalk full of visualization, and you could definitely imagine yourself in this world. Unlike his previous world, he balanced the explanation of the various military minutia with the need to move a story along. There was never a place where I couldn’t picture the scenery and the equipment, which I enjoyed. He was, alas, a little light on the details of what the various characters looked like. And he went overboard on the nicknames, though it was an improvement over the duology. Overall, I give Chris 5 out of 5 grenades in this category!
Narration Quality:
Like the previous novel, this audiobook was excellently executed. The narrator, Craig Good, did an amazing job narrating this book. He didn’t bore you, or make you zone out because of his monotone. His performance didn’t feel robotic, like a machine was reading the novel too me. Instead, it felt like a friend was sitting with me reading an amazing story that he couldn’t put down. This time the way Craig did the voices of the various characters had grown on me and kept me engaged throughout the periods I was listening to this book. He must be growing on me? I give him a 5 out of 5 grenades for his performance.
Overall:
I really loved this book, though that bastard Chris Kennedy kept me up all night because when I hit the 80%-mark I couldn’t stop. But, I mean, who needs sleep right? Like the previous duology, the cover was amazingly invocative. It was a unit patch for the space fighter squadron. I could definitely see this on some swag! The military culture shown in this book was spot on, especially the nicknames, even though the author laid it on a bit thick. Again, with such a compelling story you won’t notice! As for the military equipment, well it was like a Naval Aviators porno, the amount of details given but I was able to skim over these details so I could enjoy the action in this story. As an additional plus, we got to play with his believable small unit tactics with the Ranger platoon and foreign Special Operations guys and gals that were ported into the unit manning the spaceship. Basically, Chris had me hooked from the beginning, and kept it going throughout the whole novel. It’s an amazing adventure, a look into Chris’s twisted imagination, and leaves you wondering at his mental stability! This is a book I would happily recommend, and an author I will definitely read again. Heck, I would even recommend that you buy the novel! But hey, it’s easy to spend someone else’s money!
If this book sounds like it’s right up your alley, check it out, you won’t regret it! Well, unless it motivates you to squeeze your fat body into your old uniform and you die from the shock to your system. And when you die, you end up in limbo, all alone. And since you’re alone, you go insane from the solitude. And in your insanity, you try to fly, but can’t. Instead, you’re left merged with the asphalt you fell onto at your failed effort to recreate Kitty Hawk. Stuck in the asphalt, your soul wastes away until there is no you left and you fade out just as Ragnarök begins. Yeah, it would suck to miss that so maybe you should tread lightly! Well yeah, I guess this could be bad for you. But hey, at least you got to see eternity pass you by as you fade into nothing. On second thought, be warned, fanboy/fangirl syndrome MIGHT kill you. Be wary, you were warned and if you have to go out like that at least enjoy the view from up there!
Until next time, stay frosty and don’t forget to keep your powder dry!
JR
–> As usual, all images came from the Google’s “labeled for reuse” section or are used on the Fair Use Doctrine.
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