Customer Reviews

Earth Strike: Star Carrier: Book One

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

A real page turner and entertaining read, however...

This author has done this storyline before. He is using almost identical plot lines and enemies as the previous stories. Heck, this story is set with a similar beginning as the last and in the same universe..The major change is a different enemy even they are also billion year old, galaxy-spanning, mega-bad-guys bent on the destruction of the human race. Hmm, sound like the Xul again.

I do enjoy the science though and will buy the next series. I just wish more effort was spent on creating a new universe and change of plot lines...

The plot lines in both series:

1. Politicians are idiots and only the military are smart enough to know what's best
2. Civilians are idiots and only the military are smart enough to know what's best
3. Civilians and politicians are proven wrong only after an attack on earth that kills billions
4. Only the Admiral/General of a battle group seems to have all the answers and no one listens to him
5. The billion year old enemy is too stupid or slow to use basic combat tactics or sensors and are constantly caught off guard by humans' creative genius

I wish the author would take note and put more effort into maturing the relationship dynamics between military, civilian, and politicos and NOT make them so stereo typical.

Enjoy

William H. Keith Jr. writes under several pseudonyms and I was surprised to discover that I have several of his other books from non-related genres. Having read all of the Heritage, Legacy, and most recent Inheritance Trilogies I was kind of disappointed that Earth Strike has a lot of carry over from those series in technology and plot structure. The book was entertaining but predictable and at times I'm sure I could find very similar passages from the previous nine books of those series. I just was expecting a little more but overall was satisfied enough to read it over a week or so. The last book of the Inheritance Trilogy I read in a single night the day it released as a comparison. So if you enjoyed other Ian Douglas books I'm sure you'll enjoy this one. I also plan on continuing to read the rest of the series as they are released.

Yes, I know there is a tendency to try and explain the nature of every technology that the author has conjured up for their books, but at some point the story has to carry the day, and the tedious explanations should subside, it only holds up the action, and is truly pointless, since these technologies don't exist, and this isn't a textbook. That is what sinks Ian Douglas. I don't know if he does this with all his books, but there is no prize for descriptions that run on and on. You end up screaming "Will you please get on with it!" And then you finally throw in the towel and go back to William Dietz. Can you imagine a WWII story that stopped to explain, in detail, the inner workings of an M1 before anyone shot the Nazi charging their position? How about George Lucas stopping the film to explain the engineering behind a "jump to light speed"? Why do they think anything needs to be explained at all? After the first thirty pages I wanted to strangle Ian..."You realize that none of this is real, don't you?" Or maybe he doesn't. He shot his own book in the foot...maybe I should stop here and describe in detail a "foot", and what "shot" entails, but would you still be listening?

This book had a number of serious turn-offs for me: (1) the insipid political correctness reflected in the above quote (from page 152 and echoed in later pages); (2) the incredibly tough female fighter pilot who we've only seen in, gosh, about 300 previous books and movies; (3) the stock dialogue that we've also seen about 300 times before (for example, after the battle, at page 341: "We weren't going to let you have all the fun to yourselves.") (4) the psychiatric leave taken by the main character in the midst of a battle zone; and (5) the lack of any character who there was reason to care about.

That said, the battles have a number of strong points. If you've liked this author before, you will probably like him again here. For myself, I much prefer the "Dauntless" series by Jack Campbell.

For fans of military Sci-Fi this is a must read. The first 100 pages or so is the first battle in the book. Along the way he gives the back story of what has happened and the state of the world. He does this without going through pages of boring conversations between politicians debating their next move. Those who've read Weber's last few books know what I mean. Can't wait for the next in the series and have already pre-ordered.

If Robert Heinlein ever had offspring, it would be Ian Douglas. I say that in a mostly positive way. His science is factual/actual, his characters are rich, the 'what ifs' are plausible and interesting. He does seem to have a 'formula' for life on earth in that there always seems to be crazies developing new religions every half hour, the commanding officers at the very top are more political than military and he ends his books in a positive but abrupt way.

Now, having pissed and moaned about Ian Douglas, let it be known that after reading "Star Carrier" I purchased his other three trilogies and have enjoyed them immensely. I ALSO HOPE THAT THE OTHER TWO BOOKS IN "Star Carrier" continue to be as good. Ian is a good one.

Respectfully submitted.

Rick Lindsey

I raced through Earth Strike with enjoyment, Ian Douglas is very good at battle scenes -- a battle can, and does, go on for several chapters (the first third or so of the book). Fast paced action like this reminds me of the old Doc Smith stories.

I am a big David Weber fan and consider him the current king of Space Opera. Yet his books contain interminable dialog and background exposition. Despite this, and perhaps because of it, I prefer Weber's stuff to Ian Douglas. Why? I think it's because Weber slowly builds up tension before a battle, whereas Douglas just jumps right in and has at it.

All in all Earth Strike is a jolly read and I look forward to the next in the saga.

I almost didn't pick up this book due to some of the negative reviews which painted it as excessively politically correct. I found that to be absolutely false. While the book does use, for example, Global Warming as the backstory for one of the characters, keep in mind that this novel is a work of science fiction, not science fact. I don't expect New York to be submerged underwater and the skyscrapers turned into islands in the near future, but then neither do I expect spacecraft to be creating artificial singularities on the fly and using them to accelerate to near-c. The Islamic colonists that another reviewer used as an example of political correctness I found to be fairly if not negatively portrayed (at one point, a character must inform the colony leadership that women do have value, and need to be given the right to evacuate, and that marines would be used as a force to protect evacuation of the women). It certainly wasn't a politically-correct treatment of the issue, which would have found equivocation of value systems. The Confederation's belief that women and children had rights was portrayed by the author as the superior moral position, as it should be.

There are a few things I disliked about the story. For example, the tech appears to be too powerful. Once you have the ability to quickly and efficiently accelerate objects to near-lightspeed, space battles would degenerate into mass-destruction attacks against planets. There would be no need to spacecraft to ever meet or fire weapons against one another. It would simply be a matter of nuking each others' planets until no planets remained. However, even with all this advanced tech, we end up with space fighter battles, of the battlestar-galactica variety. Light fighters seem to be so capable and effective that you wonder why there are capital ships at all. Relativistic effects didn't seem to be taken into account, for example it seemed easy for missiles to be traveling at near lightspeed and also track a capital ship traveling at near lightspeed. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the battle scenes, it's just that there was this nagging sensation in the back of my mind that this isn't the way it really would have gone. If you're looking for more realistic space battles, see the "Jack Campbell" novels, as others have suggested.

In short, I really enjoyed this novel. It's a light read without excessive physics to bog you down. While I compare it to Jack Campbell, keep in mind that Jack Campbell can be a much heavier read as he does a much more realistic treatment of space combat. This could be seen as good or it could be seen as bad. Sometimes you're in the mood for something fun and exciting, and this novel will fit that need.

This is written in the tradition of the author. If you have read his stories before and liked them, this book is more of the same.
He has his formula down and the only thing I could ask for was more depth of character.

I enjoyed this book even though it was similar to others I've read of his books; I look forward to the next installment.

If you're a Navy veteran or interested in Naval operations who like science fiction, then this book will appeal to you. It's all about naval carrier operations except it's in space.

A bunch of Marines are stuck on a distant planet trying to protect some civilians who really don't want their protection (Marines seem to always do this - orders are orders!). The planet they're on happens to be in another civilization's empire and they want the Marines and civilians off. These aliens are very different from Humans. We've never really seen one until the Marines capture two. This makes the rescue of the Marines most import, ie., the fact that they have aliens, not that they're Marines and are getting wiped out! Always happens to Marines!

Anyway, this space carrier task force is sent to rescue the Marines and get the two aliens back to Earth for studying. Of course the major weapon system for a carrier is its aircraft or in this case spacecraft. They have some real fancy individual starships that can be operated just like Earth-bound fighter aircraft. Of course the aliens have the same kind of military we do (strange, isn't it?) and they send their fighters out to wipe ours out.

You'll have to read the book to find out who wins!