Customer Reviews

The Honour of the Knights

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Advertised as having an appeal to those who enjoyed "Babylon 5, Star Wars and Battlestar Gallactica (tos)" this is a space actioner with a fair bit of characterisation thrown in.
The focus is on a small team of pilots who are trained up on a secret star-fighter, only to not quite make the grade for further testing, only to find circumstance will put them back in the cockpits once more.....
The environment is somewhat confusing with two space Empires at odds with each-other (one of whom is going through a civil war) and it took me a while to work out the background as to who was who.
Then we have secrets and conspiracies as we realise there is more to the secret star fighters and the bad guys then we suspected......
Not bad and one has to admire a self published novel. This works better at the sharp end with fully rounded characters who do have personalities and flaws but is weaker in conveying the bigger picture. It's a nice book, with an eye-catching cover but probably a little bit expensive for what you are getting. So overall this is okay, not spectacular page turning stuff but solid, reasonably well written and dependable SF reading.

Simon Dodds is on leave from his duty as a Confederation Stellar Navy fighter pilot working for his father running an apple orchard. It's not all good. He is on forced leave after a court martial for trying to be a hero and disobeying orders. His reckless actions resulted in the death of 2 civilians.

A dying Stellar Navy Pilot inexplicably winds up on his doorstep with gunshot wounds, and begs not to tell the navy or authorities about him just before he dies. Very mysterious.

In the middle of the investigation of the pilot's death, Simon is suddenly recalled because there is a crisis. The political situation is convoluted, but the Confederation is being threatened by another entity of allied planets, the Imperium, which itself is embroiled in what appears to be a civil war.

Simon is sworn to secrecy about the dying pilot, and rejoins the fighter force in time to train with his old squadron mates in a new, highly classified fighter.....but there is a lot more to the new fighter, the conflict, and what is ultimately in store for him and his squadron.

Comment: Fast paced with interesting characters. A very good read, especially if you like military SF. If I have any criticism it is trivial; the story wanders a bit trying to identify with and explore the nature of the major characters, and it's difficult to initially sort out the political background of who's fighting whom and why. Minor issues in what is a fun read. The next part of the Trilogy of the "Battle for the Solar System", "The Third Side" should be forthcoming, and I anticipate it's release.

I enjoy sci-fi, but was a bit wary of picking up a random book. It had reasonable reviews, though, and the price was right, so I took the plunge. I have not regretted it. Period.

The story centers around Simon Dodds, a star-pilot who is out of active military service because of unintentional manslaughter. He is recalled to take part in a special project with his wingmates, but ends up failing the final test and being shipped of to a backwater star system. He is then called forward for a massive assault, and becomes involved in a plot to overthrow his government.

Be forewarned, though, that this is part one of a trilogy, and that you will probably find yourself willing to pay handsomely for the next part, which in NOT free.

Whilst the story may seem a bit cliche, Sweeney's fast paced story telling will have you on the edge of your seat! I highly recommend this story to any fan of good Sci-Fi, especially at its low price.

OK so this is no Asimov, Clarke or Banks and isn't going to win any literary awards, nor does it particularly break any new ground. But it is a fast-paced, well written story with a pretty good plotline, characters and background that the author has plenty of room to expand on in the sequel(s). As others have mentioned, there are lots of things that are quite overtly taken from the likes of Star Trek and the original Battlestar Galactica.

Recommended if you like soft sci fi and space opera, and want something light to read on the train. Good work from a promising new author, I'll be looking out for the next one.

This book was a fun read. It had an interesting plot and the characters were farily well fleshed out. But I can get tedious with analysis. If a book is an interesting read and keeps me going... If it is fun to the point of not setting it down to go to bed... then I give the book a good review. 4 1/2 stars. I will read the sequel. Support your indie authors and give them reviews! This book demands more!

I had to hold my nose a bit to give this book four stars. The story itself deserves them. But the editing is horrible and the author's understanding of the rudiments of grammar is just awful. And I would give him no more than a two stars, and maybe even a one star for his careless publication without at least trying to straighten out the mistakes. Tense consistency between subject and verb is virtually nonexistent, for example. And the problem is not just between English English and American English. A good editor is a must if this author is going to get very far in his writing career.

Now that I have disposed of that let me say some positive things. Although the story is vague in places and the first 1/3 of the book gets hard to sort out at times, the story is compelling and drives along at an ever increasing pace, which hooks the reader and makes him/her want to know what comes next. The action scenes are good romps and some of the tension in the "between a rock and a hard place" moments is pretty palpable. The characters are fleshed out as the story goes along, which is fine by me. Most people I meet don't come up and hand me an autobiographical sketch when they first say "hello," so I don't need to know the backgrounds up front. And the author makes good use of introducing us to facets of the characters at times when it helps us understand them better.

This book is the first of a trilogy. There is a second edition of this first book that may have corrected many of the grammar faults. I hope so. If not there should be a third edition that does. I had already downloaded the free first edition and did not know there was a one dollar second edition until I was well into this one. The second book is available for three dollars on Kindle. I will likely buy it. The author has good imagination and a sense of pace and timing and I think it is worth sticking with him for one more round. Now if he doesn't get an editor.............. Just sayin' ;-)

Great book for all those who like to read space adventure. The battles between the star fighters were well written and exciting. The action was great. I really like the charactors and their stories flow smoothly. I highly recommend this book.

I didn't understand at first but then i enjoyed a lot.It is about the future of our world.Simon Dodds is a starfighter.His twam has four wingmates and is team is called White Knights.Their team is working on a project ATAF.When he finds he is fighting against the dragon he is scared.

This is really a interesting story by Stephen Sweeney

I enjoyed reading this quite a bit. I would actually give it 3.5 stars because of one major issue I had. The diary-like point-of-views seemed very random and I was confused whos point of view it was about half the time. I would also have to say the sub-title is a little strange, since the action takes place seemingly galaxy-wide in at least 5 different systems. However, I did enjoy the story and pacing.
***One note for authors - Giving your first book away free (or nearly free, like $.99) on Kindle is a great idea to drive future sales. I just purchased the second book and will likely buy the third. I highly doubt I would have bought the first book if it wasn't cheap/free.

This was an entertaining read. I've never heard of the author, but I flew through the story. I'll read more of the author's work.

-Vincent