Customer Reviews

In Her Name: Empire

5 star:		(90)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Plot/Storyline: 5 Stars

This is one of the hardest types of reviews for me to write. It's much easier to write a review of a "good, mediocre, or bad" book. It's not that I enjoy being so critical, just that it's easier to explain flaws than it is to explain why a book has achieved `greatness'. I can sit here and type all of the words: compelling, interesting, wonderful, intriguing, etc., but none of them do it justice. They don't really explain how a book speaks to the reader, how it draws the reader in and echoes in the mind long after it is finished.

This book grabs the reader with the opening scene and rarely relaxes its grip. With a wonderful mix of science fiction and fantasy, the plot is vastly different from most science fiction books I have read. Sure, you have your hero, your war, your deadly aliens. However, this story takes you in a different direction.

In the beginning, our hero is only seven years old and nobody special. He manages to meet the enemy up close and live to tell the tale. When we next see our hero, he is twelve and living the hard-knock life of an orphan that makes Little Orphan Annie look wealthy and happy. This section is intense and fraught with realistic danger.

Later, Reza must learn to live among the aliens who are attempting to obliterate his entire race. The reader is taken into the minds of the aliens, discovering that there is some humanity there. Reza's exploration of the Kreelan's society is fascinating. The reader is introduced to a marvel of the imagination with an intricately woven description of an alien lifestyle.

While this book is the first in a series, it is still a terrific stand-alone. Yes, it will make you want to read the next book, but you can be satisfied with this one.

Character Development: 5 Stars

Reza's character is not only believable, but fascinating. Even in his most outrageous moments, never do you feel that he has done something outside the scope of reality. His thoughts and feelings are so well related that you feel as if you are going through his life with him.

The other characters are also well developed. You feel his parents' grief and sense of hopelessness. You begin to somehow comprehend the aliens' mindset, even if unable to feel the same things.

Writing Style: 5 Stars

Mr. Hicks' writing is exquisite. It is fortunate that he has chosen this genre, for his imagination truly shines here. The sentence flow is excellent, building tension without ever letting the reader down. There is just enough foreshadowing to maintain interest without the reader feeling `dragged along'.

The dialogue is realistic and `easy on the ears'. No, I don't ever use audio books or text-to-speech; I am referring to the voices created in my mind by good dialogue. The descriptions are vivid and concise where needed.

Editing/Formatting: 5 Stars

Both were of professional quality.

Rating: R for Violence, Attempted Rape, and a couple of detailed (but tactful) Sex Scenes

I was amazed at how much I liked the first book in this series. The story is absolutely stunning and the way the Author describes things actually put me in the world he created. I just ordered the rest of the series and can't wait to read them. Kudos to the Author for sucking me into a universe like no other book has ever been able to do before. Do yourself a favor, if you like to read, and are looking for a great story, give these books a chance.

I had never thought I would read any science fiction book. It's just too far outside my comfort zone. ..or so I thought.

I got this series recommended by people at Kindleboards. Everyone spoke so wonderful of them that I figured out I had to try. I actually bought the whole Omnibus! 'Boy I'm glad I did!

This is truly a little wonder of a book! You just have to take a chance sometimes and this is one time that you get your reward for doing so. It's a page turner that holds its grip on you and don't let go - even when you are finished. But can I find words that do it justice? No, there is no words...

This is a review of the eBook version of "In Her Name: Empire", the first book of the In Her Name series written by Michael R. Hicks.

On a five-star scale, I'm giving this one four stars. It probably deserves five stars, but I'm snatching one back simply because there were parts of it that made me, personally, uncomfortable. If this were a literary review I would not do that, but this is me telling you how *I* felt about this book.

***No Spoilers***

This is an exciting, well-crafted read. It embraces a number of genres as the story goes along, but I'd classify it primarily as Sci-Fi. The initial chapters are definitely Sci-fi as remnants of a defeated human population try desperately to fend off an alien invasion of their planet. Our protagonist is a boy caught in the devastation. The second scene is an orphanage planet established for youths like our protagonist who lost their families in the war. It is a harsh environment, an alien place run by petty bureaucrats that think nothing of exploiting the children in their care.

The next section steps out of standard Sci-Fi and into Fantasy as our protagonist is taken to live on a different planet, one where a warrior race trains to be warriors, and where everyone lives a medieval lifestyle even though they are a space faring race. There is even a scene where the heroes must outwit a dragon. I am not a big fan of fantasy and my enthusiasm cooled some as I got into this section, but the story is so well told and the characterization so strong that I kept on.

There is an element of the erotic/romance genre mixed in here that generated the uncomfortable feelings in my rather prudish conscience, but - again - though the scene was decidedly sexual, it was handled with enough tact I never reached the decision to lay the book aside. By today's "romance" standards it's probably pretty tame (I would not know for sure I don't read that stuff) but it was racier than I normally encounter in my reading.

I found nothing that impeded the flow of the story, no spelling or grammatical errors (I'm picky about these) no distracting word choices, no stilted language. It was a smooth, pleasant read and an exciting tale. There was one point in the story where the voice being used changed some, it became more literary or flowery and that did cause me to wonder what had happened, but it was not so discernible as to impede the story.

The story ended with a satisfactory conclusion that also leads the reader to want to buy the next book in the series, "Confederation" - which I have done and I look forward to getting started on it. If you're looking for a well-crafted story that will hold your interest as it steps neatly over standard genre boundaries and melds them into a single cohesive body of work, In Her Name: Empire is an excellent choice.

This is definitely an imaginative novel that captures your immediate attention (and right now the Kindle book is free, which makes it a great price). Exceptionally diverting, there are some problems with the pacing about midway through and shortly thereafter the author tries to explain this away - however after this the plot and pacing evens out and the story moves forward seamlessly. There is an ending, but I am looking forward to the next book (I've already purchased it). It will be interesting to see how he marries the alien culture with our own, if that's even possible.

I dont normally do this, but with this book, I think that the way I can best help you make your decision is with some very mild spoilers -- I dont think these are impair your reading experience spoilers -- more like what should/could be on the back cover spoilers. With that in mind, stop now if you want no mild spoilers at all.

12 year old boy is kidnapped by a seemingly all female blue skinned race with nice breasts, long hair, and all the right female parts (actually sounds like improved female parts, but lets keep the review PG). Sure they have claws and muscle, but these are still basically Star Trek female aliens in appearance (i.e., sexy, with minor cosmetic deviations from human norm), so you *know* what is going to happen. While I have some innate bias against humans falling for large clawed aliens, the romance is handled OK here, and its just one element of the story, albeit a non-trivial one.

The alien race wants to test the boy to see if humans have a "soul", and perhaps because they have a largely warrior skill = honor based society this testing seems to entail combat training and arena matches. Ender's Game this isnt, and the testing and combat sequences are described fairly lightly. They are not bad, they just arent described enough to give you the sense of being there.

Part of the "meta story" is a fairly ridiculous sounding prophecy involving the aliens, and there are also some "powers" of seemingly mystical origin that play a fairly modest role in the story.

Depending on your definitions, this book maybe isnt really a "science fiction" story in that zero science is presented in any fashion, and there are close to zero future tech devices described as well. The (perhaps?) mystical powers play a bigger role than future tech. Its a story set in the future with aliens, but the author just hasnt worried about future tech at all. I dont find this problematic since I read fantasy also, and there is more or less logical story reason for it, just letting you know in case its an issue for you.

I suspect the mild spoilers above make the book sound like total garbage for the adult reader, and in truth, I wouldnt have read the book if I read a review like mine. HOWEVER, this author can definitely write a bit, and the story somehow more or less moves along well enough to hold the attention despite what might seem like an unattractive plot. The book is definitely a bit better than the plot points I mention above would suggest.

I have now read most of the next two volumes included in the Omnibus Edition (because it was briefly offered for free). While I still feel that Hicks can write a bit, the simplicity of the plotting and characters feels like more of a problem the more time I spend with them. People seem to be either pure good or pure evil in Hick's world, and it impacts the realism. Similarly, the characters dont have a ton of depth, which renders the romantic tangle (X loves Y who loves Z who loves an alien that loves him back but from whom he is separated) rather uncompelling. Besides, romantic triangles are complicated enough, do we really need this crazy 4 party romantic chain where everyone is miserable things arent working out?

I would (very cautiously) recommend the book at free if the mild spoilers I have given arent a total turn-off. The initial free book is enough of a peak into the story for you to decide whether to pay money for the rest.

"In Her Name: Empire" is the first book in the 'In Her Name' trilogy by Michael R. Hicks. The paperback is 310 pages in length while the Kindle e-edition is a 525 download.

Many general theme *SPOILERS* to follow...

After the alien Kreelan invaders attack and conquer the planet Hallmark (and before destroying it), Reza Gard, age 11 or 12, and all of the other surviving children are transported to the home Kreelan home planet. The Kreelan Empress hopes to glean some information from the children the may be useful in future battles with her human enemies.

Reza spends the next 15 or so years of his life growing into manhood, learning the Kreelan Way and inexplicably, falling in love with one of his captors. This story documents the vast differences between the Kreelan and human races in appearance, ideology, mindset and priorities. As well, it chronicles the developing relationship between Reza and Esah-Zhurah...his initial guard, teacher and eventual mate.

Impressions:

After a riveting opening battle, I became concerned as the next few chapters seemed to be turning into the one genre of literature that I don't generally care for, that being Young Adult (YA). However this concern was short lived...this was definitely not, YA.

Instead this turned out to be a terrific book that had elements of two other works that I greatly liked and admired.

1.) Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game", because Ender's attitude and development was very reminiscent of our hero in this book.

2.) the movie "Avatar", for its slowly developing and sensuous love story between a human and an intelligent alien life-form.

Hicks does a nice job in taking the time to proceed with Reza's growth and development. As he grows up and matures, so does his understanding of the Kreelin language and way their of life. His attitude and resilience gradually gains a grudging respect from his captors as he shows resourcefulness, cunning and unexpected martial skills.

The book describes lots of action, many rituals that were effectively rites of passage and lots of battles. But more than just an interesting sci-fi adventure there was a quality to this tale that was both touchingly sad and gently heart rendering...and to me, this was the defining factor that elevated this book to the level of something special.

The unfolding of the relationship between Reza's and Esah was beautifully and masterly achieved...so gradual, that it almost occurred without the readers realizing what was transpiring before them on the written page.

Conclusions:

This is an exquisite love story...with an exciting sci-fi space adventure thrown in as a bonus.

I can hardly wait to begin the next installment. 5 Stars.

Ray Nicholson

Not a new idea, but a very well-conceived treatment of that idea. The characterization is compelling and the plot delivers. A reader can't ask for more than that. A really good read!

Tried and true premise of a human being captured and raised by aliens for an unknown reason, but the author definitely makes it his own. The characters are well developed and you find yourself even beginning to root for the aliens. I found myself having difficulty putting the book down, which is always a good sign. I am looking forward to reading the second and third books in the series.

I got the book looking for something with a little more story than the military scifi that I usually read and was pleasantly suprised. The book has a great flow and kept my interest throughout. Normally I end up reading a little at a time, but not this book. I just seemed to start reading and the next thing I knew it ended (two days). I just bought the next book and loaned Empire to my wife. Mr Hicks, thanks for a great book. - Dave