Customer Reviews

Helfort's War Book 1: The Battle at the Moons of Hell

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is the start of a space opera/military SF series with a number of pluses and some detractions.

On the plus side, the author is an experience RN and RAN naval officer which let's him permeate the book with authentic sounding detail - far more authentic than David Drake's Lt. Leary books for example, though a bit less fun (more on that). Also, his ear for political and military dialogue is more authentic than, say, David Weber. Finally, the author is smart and well-educated, and this comes through in well-written if sometimes stilted prose. Good space battles, some tense action, nice overall political sweep, good villains.

I have alluded to a couple of minuses. Not a lot of "fun" - our hero is a bit stiff, his love interest is hard to get excited about and I found him wooden. I also thought that the book could have been a little longer and in some parts skipped days of storyline too abruptly.

That said, I liked the book, liked the universe and enjoyed this as the start of a new series with a more "real-world" hero than lots of these military SF series have and a potential for a number of exciting, richly detailed sequels.

I'm not usually a fan of military scifi, but every once in a while I'll dip into the pool. _The Battle at the Moons of Hell_ is a pretty standard work of its genre, containing echoes of Weber, Drake, and Feintuch. The plot is straightforward, no real surprises, and the pacing is good - not a lot of dead spots and needless exposition, something I particularly dislike about David Weber's military scifi.

I believe this is Mr. Paul's first novel, and as such, it's a good, solid, if somewhat uninspiring read. The political structures of the two main 'space empires' are a little simplistic and underwhelming in their execution, as are the characters, but the book was decent enough to keep me reading to the end. I'll probably pick up book two in the series when it comes out.

Well written, tied together, lots of themes developing that will lead to future story lines, without sacrificing the current book. Michael Helfort is a classic hero - a dastardly plot against him by another envious student clique, he is punished, but family ties keep him from being booted out of the service. So he's gets to move on, to less than what he could have expected as an assignment but he moves right into a convergence of events that sets the stage for what could be another Worlds War. His family is caught in a hijacking and his first ship is called in to confirm the intelligence. Author needs more time to develop the characters, but I see this as the first enjoyable salvo in a good series of books that will entertain as well as provoke comparisons to our current situation on Earth. I wish the book had been longer but I have great hopes for the next one.

It was a page turner. The author kept the technology within bounds, giving it sufficiently advanced capabilities to make it consistent with the time frame but not so fanciful that it flew in the face of common sense and challenged that oh-so-important willing suspension of disbelief. A very well balanced, thought out and believable extrapolation of modern warfare to the airless void. It did tend to be on the technical side and might not appeal to those who do not appreciate the mechanics of warfare in space but, at the same time, the characters are reasonably 3D and the relationships and story line sufficient to support the technical preoccupation. If I had to criticize, it would be that things were just a bit too uncomplicated to satisfy my personal experience of life. But what the hell, too much reality is a bore. I look forward to the second book in the series.

Pretty well written in the David Weber style without as much minutiae and boring detail. A lot of good space battle text.
I enjoyed it and it held my attention

This novel, the first in a series about a young cadet/midshipman named Helfort, introduces a new military s-f series and a new universe. If one notes some strong similarities to other series of this ilk (I'm thinking of Honor Harrington, in particular) I must say that following the career of someone who has relatives in the Admiralty may seem a bit familiar, but, as usual, "the Devil is in the details", and the details of this universe and its characters are fresh and well-drawn, leading to a delightful experience as you watch a young man go through Hell and back. I believe this is a strong offering to that ever-burgeoning class of stories to which we owe C. S. Forrester and his Hornblower another vote of thanks.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book on a long flight between Melbourne and Tokyo. It started slow but picks up speed and the battles at the end are well worth the wait. The characters are very interesting and the descriptions of the technology credible. Another David Weber is born!

Keep em coming Graham!

Here's the short of it:

Paul is not a Weber clone, but if you liked Hornblower and Harrington you will probably like Helfort--many parallels. Be sure to read the series in order.

Book one has a lot of background essential to appreciate things like how truly bad the bad guys are, and important tech to really enjoy the space battle scenes.

The author writes an extremely detailed and engaging story of future naval operations in space. The author is an ex-Royal Navy officer and it shows in the details of the story. He covers a lot of detail and builds a complete view of life in his future navy. One of the strongest points of his writing is that he fills in a lot of the backstory of how things are done in the future.

The weaknesses were that the hero family situation was just a little too much, and it didn't really further the story or help me to connect with the protaganist. He is from very privileges circumstances some of his motivations aren't clear. What drove him to be in the military? I didn't find that question answered and he was a little wooden for the lack of it.
Getting his mother and sister involved was unecessary. It did little move the story forward and I just had to set the issue aside to enjoy the book.

But I was able to set those issues aside, since little time is really spent with them in the book, and enjoy everything else. A very gritty and full space navy adventure. Detail upon detail of the operations of the ships, how space combat is performed, the problems inherent in the process, and the horrors of combat and how people work together in those situations. This is where the author shines!

If you are looking for a detailed character study ... I would skip this one. If you are looking for a beautifully described future space navy story ... this is a good one.

My three favorite books dealing with space combat was Nevin's "Mote in God's Eye" and the two novels my David Weber and Steve White against the Bugs. I believe that the weapon systems depected in Paul's novel are more believeable and realistic. I really like the intruduction of the idea of humans interacting with AIs. I am really looking forward to the second novel.