The Myriad: Tour of the Merrimack #1 [Mass Market Paperback]

R. M. Meluch (Author)

Book Description

Release date: January 3, 2006 | Series: Tour of the Merrimack (Book 1)

The U.S.S. Merrimack was the finest battleship class spaceship in Earth's fleet, able to stand up against the best the Palatine Empire could throw at them, even able to attack and kill swarms of the seemingly unstoppable Hive. But nothing could have prepared the captain and crew of the Merrimack to face the Myriad-three colonized worlds in the midst of a globular cluster that the
Hive had somehow overlooked.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Most military SF emphasizes the military, but while Meluch depicts combat and warrior culture as well as any writer in the subgenre, the true joy of this outstanding effort, her first novel since 1992's The Queen's Squadron and the first of a new series, lies in its inspired use of current speculation on the origins of the universe, quantum singularities and even the old chestnut of time travel. In the 25th century, an encounter with a voracious space-faring life-form called the Hive forces declared enemies, the United States and a breakaway colony that styles itself as a reborn Roman Empire, into an uneasy alliance to destroy the common threat. When the U.S. space battleship Merrimack makes first contact with a humanoid race whose star system has apparently been bypassed by the Hive, the U.S. crew is left to ponder how a species that hasn't developed FTL technology can exist in not one but at least three different star systems. Meanwhile, how can an artifact sent by the current ruler of one system exist as an archeological anomaly on another, an artifact 20 billion years old, in a universe only 15 billion years old? Meluch shows particular skill in creating memorable characters while exhibiting a refreshing ruthlessness in subordinating them to the logical ramifications of the plot.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

After a 10-years hiatus, a distinguished military sf writer returns to print with a zany adventure that might be considered a PG-13-rated Star Trek. The U.S. space warship Merrimack roams the stars and engages in battle with the all-devouring, space-faring, semisentient, and deadly Swarm. Her captain is Farragut; his chief adviser is a genetically enhanced "patterner" from a human culture that is striving to reproduce the Roman Empire; the air wing of single-seat fighters (a staple of Meluch's fiction) is flown by marines; and one of the pilots is dispatched to seduce the humanoid ruler of an alien race. Eventually, she winds up in bed with the marine CO, and the Merrimack winds up zapped into a parallel universe, with a Chinese female scientist supplanting the Roman patterner, and the whole adventure promising a good deal for the future of the series, Tour of the Merrimack, that it inaugurates. Those who make of military sf a religious observance may find it amusingly difficult to take; the more sensible will quite enjoy. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: DAW (January 3, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0756403200
• ISBN-13: 978-0756403201
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #842,683 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Don't Miss this One! December 31, 2007

By Jules Mazarin

Format:Hardcover

Ordinarily, I would not pick up a book with a cover showing some guy with a sword fighting on a spaceship. The cover blurb doesn't help--this book is about a United States space ship called the "Merrimack", captained by one Captain Farragut, who patrols the space lanes thrashing evil be-pincered and tentacled aliens. Sounds really cheesy, right?

Happily, I have a friend whose opinions I trust, who finally persuaded me to give Meluch a try--and let me tell you this is one of the most fun books I have read this past year. In fact, I quickly read the sequel (Wolf Star) and the third book, (Sagittarius Command). These books are fun, they are not deep--yet Meluch is an author of considerable subtlety; she bends the conventions of the space opera genre enough to give the reader an occasional delightful surprise--though she never disrespects the genre in which she writes.

If other reviews have given away plot spoilers, that's a pity. The fugue-like changes that mark the plot twists are best kept as a surprise.

There's quite a bit of subtle humor in the dialogue. For example, Farragut actually is given occasion to remark "Damn the mines!". This is, of course, a reference to a remark attributed to the historical U. S. Navy Admiral David Farragut, whose actual words were allegedly, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!". But in Farragut's time, what we call "mines" were called "torpedoes"--so Meluch not only worked in the quotation, she corrected it!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Meluch is back without missing a step! January 9, 2007

By C. Greene

Format:Mass Market Paperback

Since the other reviews blow the plot surprises for you, I won't bother repeating them. Ms. Meluch has finally returned after a too-long hiatus from science fiction, and her writing is as sharp as ever. I snapped this book up without question the moment I saw it on the shelf. There is nobody who can breathe life into characters the way she can; they lodge in your chest like a heartache and leave you thinking about the books long after you have finished them. Her stories move, they are imaginative, and they carry a thread of dry / wry humor through them that makes them a very human and thoroughly enjoyable read.

Other than the two Wind books, Meluch's previous stories have been stand-alone tales. I was expencting a more straightforward series of adventures for the Merrimack, and I confess the the surprise ending and subsequent changes in the personnel and their interactions was a wee bit of a bummer, because one hates to lose the relationships and plots that have evolved. However, staying put would have probably meant having to jettison some characters, and I like the crew of the Merrimack well enough to spend more time with them and see where the series goes.

If you're new to Meluch's writing, this is a good introduction to her style. If you're wondering which of her past books to try and get a copy of, I'd recommend starting with Chicago Red, and for a more fantastic, less military setting, Wind Dancers and Wind Child.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Story April 3, 2005

By Steve W

Format:Hardcover

This is one of the best science fictions books I've read. I really enjoyed it! The story line was well written and the best way to describe it was that it had depth. It has great actions and the author does an excellent job is describing it and most of all it's believable. It also had a mystery aspect that the USS Merrimack was trying to solve. It was this mystery that kept me reading as each chapter ended you slowly came closer to knowing the secret. Another reason I enjoyed this book was the character development. The store wasn't about one or two lead characters. It was about a whole ship of characters and how they interact with each other, the Hive, the Aliens, Earth and others. I understood what the characters felt and thought. As I read the story I felt that I was there, that I was part of the story.... One of the characters that lived of course. The characters were so well developed even down the bickering and taunting that some of them had between them. To me the story was more then just a science fiction book that I read. It was more like a window into the lives and adventures of the USS Merrimack. I can't wait to look into the window of book two and see how their lives have changed, what new mysteries unfold, and what new adventures await!