Customer Reviews

Kris Longknife: Deserter

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I really enjoyed "Kris Longknife: Mutineer", but the sequel "Deserter" is not as strong a story. (By the way, who chose the silly names for these books? They are in no way a fair description of the action that takes place).
Kris launches herself off on an adventure without her beloved Navy when her friend Tommy goes missing on holiday. Accompanying her are her bodyguard and the most dangerous lady's maid I've ever come across in fiction, plus a few others that crop up as the story unfolds. Trading on her despised status as a princess, Kris "infiltrates" high society and finds that there is more than one dangerous plot threatening her and the planet she's visiting.
I do like Kris herself and the plot outline is a good one, but the execution suffers somewhat from a plethora of characters that aren't given enough to do and an poorly-defined setting. Also, some matters were introduced but never engaged with, like alien technology. And I never thought I'd say it, but I wanted some risks and last-minute hitches rather than everything going perfectly in the big finale.
I'd like to read more of Kris' adventures (some features of "Deserter" hint at a third book in the series), but Shepard needs to be careful that Kris stays properly human. At present she's veering dangerously close to superwoman territory. Some plot elements seem to have no better purpose than to demonstrate how consistently wonderful she is.

Kristine Longknife has some very determine enemies who'd like nothing better than to axe this prime ministers daughter, billionaire in her own right, member of a extreamly weathy-powerful multi-generational family, and navy lieutenant 2nd class, and now a Princess in a new star nation/empire.

Kris is about to learn just how far her enemies will go to try and kill her. As she says in the first book if she is going to be "one of those damn Longknives," its time she knew what it was all about. All of Kris's friends will be back plus a couple new ones as Kris once again leads her friends to kick tushy!

The story itself in a interesting one and a fun read. But there are so many inconsistancies; name changes, tense changes, several places the word "a" or "an" is missing, there are spelling errors of the most basic sort and etc, that they take away from the punch of the story. Oh don't get me wrong this is a fun read but it could have used some serious proof editing.

On the whole the story is a decent read.

I strongly recommend you read the prevous book in the series (Mutineer) prior to reading this installment.

I have been cruising around, looking for a good SF book since all my Scifi TV shows, except for Doctor Who, that I have watched up until May 2011 have been cancelled (my beloved Stargate Universe, SG-1, SGA, The Event, V, Outcasts, Caprica, Farscape, BSG, etc.). Unfortunately this particular installment did not completely satisfy my huge SF appetite.

I subtracted two-stars for two reasons; (1) the whole princess idea and the endless logistics of Kris's societal obligations seemed completely farfetched, uppity and received more focus than it should have; and (2) this installment simply wasn't as good as the first book. Kris seemed like some over-privileged debutante, whose military career was completely non-existent. Through most of this book she spent her time in the bath or being fawned over and overdressed by her maid.

Although this installment didn't have as much action as the last installment; it was still interesting and I had no problems finishing this book. Luckily this installment was well written and intriguing because the Kris from this installment in no way resembled the brave heroine from Mutineer.

While this book takes place in the 24th century, I was a bit disappointed to see minorities and religious nut-heads still exist, and that humanities pettiness still reigns supreme.

I recommend this book to fellow SF fans, however, this installment will take some patience to get through. It's a good book but it's ashamed that it barely resembles a military space opera. I also look forward to the next book in the series Defiant.

Courtesy of Lost Art Audiobook Review

I enjoyed the Mutineer, but there were parts of the first book I thought could have been improved. Deserter addresses everything I found lacking. In Mutineer, I felt that Nelly, Kris's personal pet computer, was not fantastic enough (probably a bit less powerful than the newest Android). In Deserter, Nelly gets a major upgrade. Nelly now docks into Kris's head and talks with Kris mentally. Nelly also starts developing a personality, one of a spoiled Justin Bieber fan. In Mutineer, Kris seemed more a soldier than a 22-year-old chick. In Deserter, with no military-appointed mission to follow, our heroine gets a lot more fem. Thanks to Kris's new governess, we have some serious wardrobe changes, clothes descriptions, and other womanly upgrades. Push-up bra? About time!

To me, Mutineer lacked cohesion - not Deserter. This audiobook has a number of subplots, but they tie to together smoothly, and dip back to Mutineer, making the story flow easily from her arriving like a princess on Turantic via a Titanic-like luxury cruise ship to her going incognito as a poor Arabic boy with a limp in the midst of Turantic's Islamic community. She seamlessly goes from a whore, to a maid, to a pregnant girl in a burqa. I also felt that Mutineer lacked the politicking I expected from a prime minister's daughter. There's so much of it in Deserter: the royal "we," the dressing up, the appearances. Oh, and finally, things get sexier as well as more sophisticated. There's tension, there's flirting - no sex, but it's not really needed. Also, I love the more-developed supporting character - Jack, the bodyguard, becomes a fixture in Kris's life, and Abigail becomes the Q to Kris's Bond. Hence the booby traps - actual falsies that turn into bombs!

On Narration:
I've previously mentioned how much I liked Dina Pearlman's reading of the Mutineer, where she did a great job with internal dialogue versus external dialogue. This becomes more important in Deserter since Nelly and Kris now talk both externally and in Kris's mind. On a textbook, that's easy to figure out. In an audiobook, it's all Dina Pearlman's skill. I also enjoyed her treatment of the Arabic accents. The way she read the lines of Apu and his family was both humorous and solemn.

This is a good space opera, and every one of the series is enjoyable. Doesn't excite much deep thought, but the series is very entertaining. I've got the entire series to date.

In this second book of the Kris Longknife series, a fast-moving plot serves as a vehicle to introduce a selection of new characters (most of whom, I have no doubt, will reappear as the series progresses). This is not a space opera book so much as a thrilling game of cat-and-mouse between Kris (the mouse with teeth) and her adversary. Well aware that she is stepping into a trap, she does it anyway to save a friend, and ends up in the middle of the sort of adventure that her family is famous for.

I enjoyed it quite a bit, despite the sometimes sloppy copy editing. I look forward to more of the same, as this series continues.

This mistitled but excitingly amusing second entry in the Kris Longknife series has Kris, now a pricess in addition to being a lieutenant-JG in the Navy, on a mission to the planet Turantic, which has been manipulated into lockdown by the villian of the piece, the delightfully named Calvin Sandfire. Kris, along with her bodyguard Jack, her very clever computer Nelly--who's been given some enhancement since her debut in "Mutineer"--and her new more-than-maid Abby have arrived there in order to attempt to rescue her pal Tom, who's been kidnapped.

They do this while Kris is on leave (she hasn't deserted) and soon finds herself engaged in espionage and sabotage--political and industrial--as well as doing her navy thing. She's fitted out (by Abby) with some cool secret-agent style gadgetry and dons a number of disguises along the way. It's all done very tongue-in-cheek, especially when Kris does her princess thing (she's learned the "Royal We" from romantic novels), and you'll probably have more than a few chuckles as you romp through the book.

Notes and asides: I'm not one to engage in a game of "hunt the typos," but when the name of Kris's brother is spelled "Eddie" two lines below it's spelled "Eddy," I cannot fail to notice. Also I should probably mention--in case you didn't read the comments of a previous reviewer--that on page 19 Kris realizes she's never seen a 15-digit phone number before. She still hasn't: the number shown on the page just above has 14 digits.

I like Mike Shepherd/Moscoe and have enjoyed the books set in this universe, with the exception of "They Also Serve"; I was really looking forward to this after Mutineer, which I thought did a good job framing the series. I came away a bit disappointed. I still like Kris Longknife's character, and find her less wooden and more realistic than Weber's Honor Harrington. But does she need to be a prime minister's daughter and billionaire and now a Princess too? The whole United Sentients overlay and royalty structure seems ill-thought out and cumbersome. The book also suffers from some long dry spells that could use editing - the whole intelligence mission in the Arab quarter could have been dispensed with. For a space opera, there's very little space. I hope the 3rd book, in which Kris commands a ship, gets the series back on track and more like "First Casualty" and "Price of Peace".

This was much better than book 1(Mutineer) and an easier read.

The whole princess thing needed more, and there were a few plots that needed better detail.

The process of Kris starting to thing about leadership and the consequences of her decisions pulls the story up a notch. The character development of Kris and the surrounding cast is starting to bring this in line with the likes of Honor Harrington, Roger MacClintock, or Lt. Leary.

I look forward the the next book.

This book flowed smoothly from start to finish. I enjoyed it, and look forward to reading more of the series.