Allies and Aliens [Mass Market Paperback]

Roger Macbride Allen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1995

Lieutenants Terrance MacKenzie Larson and Joslyn Marie Cooper Larson had just gotten married and also finished training in the League of Planets Survey Service when their first mission was rudely interrupted. The planet of New Finland had been occupied by invaders, human but of unknown origin, who called themselves the Guardians.

The Larsons' new mission was to sneak into the occupied system, avoiding a missile defense that could vaporize any fleet the League could send, and open the way for a liberating counter-strike. All in a day's work. But the situation kept getting more complicated. Even utilizing an experimental matter transmitter that could materialize an army onto the surface of the planet, the Larsons would still somehow have to destroy a warship as large as a city that was on its way from the Guardians' home world. And the defeat of the Guardians occupying New Finland would only be the first -- and easiest -- battle in the war, because the Guardians have made contact with powerful aliens.

Anticipating an easy victory, the Guardians are quite unaware that the aliens have their own secret agenda -- and if the aliens' plan works, the end result will be a universe where no human, Terran or Guardian, survives!

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 726 pages
• Publisher: Baen; 1st Omnibus edition (May 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671876589
• ISBN-13: 978-0671876586
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,247,392 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lots of imagination., March 17, 2001

By 

Michael Valdivielso (Alexandria, VA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Allies and Aliens (Mass Market Paperback)

Interesting aliens, realistic space combat, interesting characters. You must remember that the book is two within one, so the second starts slightly overlapping the first book. Its the plot itself that seems to come from a 50's space opera. Wars HAVE been fought because of revenge and greed, but still it feels like a simple battle of good vs evil. A group of evil racist imperialistic humans with superweapons vs a group of good honorable freedom loving humans with old time naval traditions.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A would-be epic that misses the mark in every way, August 5, 2007

By 

Eric D. Austrew (Brookline, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Allies and Aliens (Mass Market Paperback)

First, a technical note for those who may not have noticed on their own: This book was written by Roger MacBride Allen, not Thomas B Allen as Amazon lists it. Further, this is actually a republishing in one volume of Allen's first two novels, "The Torch of Honor" and "Rogue Powers".

That fact that these are first books for this author goes a long way towards explaining why they did not ruin what turned out to be a long and prolific career. The basic plot line revolves around a mysterious and relentlessly bitter splinter colony of humans that returns to attack the federation of planets they left behind. In the right hands any plot can be made to work, but that doesn't happen in these two books. Instead we get caricatured villains who might as well be wearing swastikas and a hero who is described as square jawed recruiting poster material, combined with prose that makes the whole adventure seem more like an eighth grade book report than a published book.

There are numerous logical fallacies as well, some of them quite distracting. First, and typical of science fiction from the sixties, is the almost complete absence of computing as we know it. This isn't really a fair criticism, I know, but in better written sci-fi from this era I am usually able to ignore it. In this case I wasn't. There's also the incredibly inept planning of various generals and fighters; is there really any reason to suspect that a few thousand troops would be able to fight an entire invasion? Is there any reason why a flotilla of ships couldn't simply move out of the way of incoming asteroids, or detect them on radar as they came in? A dozen small nitpicks like this add up to a book that is constantly interrupted by thinking "I can't believe he expects me to believe that!"

I picked this book up because I'm a fan of schlocky old science fiction, but even on that front it disappoints. I recommend avoiding it if entirely.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Two very different stories makes a more than average book, November 15, 2005

By 

C. Campagna "apocalyptic hunter" (Montreal, Quebec Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Allies and Aliens (Mass Market Paperback)

The first part of the book deals with the reconquering of a Finnish colony by the League of planets. The invaders have achieved complete surprise and will be hard to boot out. Fortunately there are always unsung heroes to take care of those situations :) This story makes a parallel about the obsolescence of battleships at the end of WW2. As you can see on the cover of the book, the aircraft carrier is going down.
The second part is about First Contact with a very different species that ours. Those aliens are dragged in the war between the two other factions and humans might be on the brink of extinction. I thought this story a little better written that the first one. As with any good story, it made me imagine a lot of things. The characters are not that fleshed out but you get the point.