Customer Reviews

Vigilante: A Major Ariane Kedros Novel

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

 

 

While I enjoyed "Peacekeeper", "Vigilante" really reached another level. Once I started reading it I had difficulty putting it down, which for me is the best way to gauge how much I like a book. Suspenseful, wry dialog,characters I actually cared about, and just the right amount of action, which never dropped to the level of gratuitous violence. Definitely thumbs up.

I have been reading SF for 40 yrs and I still couldn't understand what the heck was going on. The text was so filled with military abbreviations that I had trouboe following the story. I read the whole book because I had bought the 3 in the series expecting something like Kris Longknife or Huff's gunnery sergeant. This one has absolutely no sense of humour. I ploughed my way through it but I have no idea of the plot. I don't think I shall even try the next 2. I am sorry that it wasn't my cup of tea because I like a series.
I bought the book from Amazon and hope I can sell it back.

Everyone who knows of Armed Forces Consortium of Autonomous Worlds (AFCAW) Reserve Major N-pilot Ariane Kedros besides her partner Matthew Journey sees her differently. The Terran Exploration League (TEL) believes the Aether Exploration pilot is a war criminal who needs execution for the murder of billions in one of their solar systems (see PEACEKEEPER); her side the Autominists believes her to be a war hero. Although she did her duty she agrees with the Terrans that she deserves to die, but refuses to surrender to them.

Someone with obvious insider help, strong connections and capital steals a temporal distortion bomb at the same time that tension mounts between the Autominists and the Terrans. The AFCAW directs Kedros and Journey to fly Master Sergeant Joyce to G-145, an enigmatic orb that seems in the middle of nowhere yet has drawn strong attention from both sides of the hostile Cold War and the unknown alien Minoans. As Kedros arrives with her human CAW cargo, the terrorists who stole the bomb also have come to this remote planet with plans to ignite it on G-145 as their leader has vengeance and justice in mind for past crimes.

This exciting military science fiction thriller obviously stars Kedros who is overloaded with guilt because she knows she can never make right what she did though her side of the hostilities appreciates her following orders; an interesting ethical dilemma that remains valid in real life. However, although Kedros is the attraction, the fast-paced story line works because of the multiple differing viewpoints re right and wrong between species and within a species. VIGILANTE is a strong action-packed sequel to the exciting PEACEKEEPER; driven to hyperspeed by a deep characterization who make the Reeve universe feel genuine.

Harriet Klausner

Laura Reeve creates a vivid future earth, colonies, and universe. The main storyline of space exploration and searching for the relics of ancient technology doesn't progress that much. The main character Ariane, does not evolve or learn to shake her vice, even though it nearly cost her life in the previous book, and again in this book. Which is true of human nature, to shake a vice is difficult, but a true hero will understand the vice and weakness but find some way to beat it for their evolution and survival.

The book does pit a doomed misogynistic religious sect of the human race in their quest in conflict with the human space colonists, other human factions, and the technologically superior alien race that monitors the peace between the different human factions.

There is a little action in trying to survive the crisis and Ariane is still a character unsure of herself, hesitant, and unable to act decisively. For a military trained expert, she is a character just waiting to kill herself through her vice or by inaction, due to her survivor's guilt and decisions made in the past. This is what makes the character "real", she has weaknesses. But will she become a truly heroic figure, to overcome her vices, face her inner demons to be at peace with herself and live independently for her future, not in fear of the past that haunts her?

This is a good second book in the series, looking forward to reading future installments.

Laura is very influenced by her Greek heritage. This time Ari and Matt goes back to the G-145 system they found in the beginning of Peacekeeper. Terran State Prince Isrid Parmet, with family are there too. He who tortured Arianne and blackmailed her to sign a contract for Terran companies to exploit the alien ruins found on a moon in the system.

At the same time it is discovered that a Terran temporal bomb has disappeared, propably stolen.

Also set on G-145 are a cult of isolationists. Their hero Quesan Douchet once destroyed a Minoan ship. The Minoans hunted him down and killed him and made all his relatives barren. Now the isolationists are back for revenge and the fulfillment of his prophesy. They have infiltrated sleepers all over the system when their leader Abrams Hadrian Rouxe take over the generation ship in charge of the temporal buoy.

Another excellent book by Laura E Reeve. Musa 3 might not have as much personality as David Weber's Dahak but she is getting there

I've always been a big fan of science fiction but lately I have been reading the sub-genre of military science fiction Some of my favorite authors of this genre so far are Elizabeth Moon and Tanya Huff.

The Ariane Kedros series is a thrilling read fully loaded with espionage, double-crossing, and lots of dark secrets. The protagonist, Major Ariane Kedros, is a well developed character that exudes both admirable and flawed characteristics as she confronts her internal demons. Without giving anything away, the series winds its way around many political and social turmoils such as corruption, racial intolerance, and territorial conflicts while confronting intriguing ethical dilemmas such as war crime retribution and redemption. Reeve explores these many societal challenges that can be found in civilizations past, present, and future.

I thoroughly enjoyed the world in which Reeve has created full of fascinating cultures both alien and human alike!

These are just my quick attempts to provide my thumbs up for this book for anyone who loves Military Science fiction. For full story summary, see editorial review.

This superior thriller, the second (after "Peacekeeper") to feature Ariane Kedros, reserve major in intel and "N space" pilot, is relentlessly exciting. It starts out with Kedros, her civilian partner Matt, and Sergeant Joyce, an intel operative, heading back to the system where Kedros and Matt had discovered alien ruins (don't worry about 'em--they're just the McGuffin, at least so far). But do worry about the weapon of seriously mass destruction acquired by a fanatical sect, who want to launch the thing in revenge.

They seize a generational ship, one purpose of which is to install N space buoys ever father out, which allow pilots like Kedros to drop into that space in order to achieve FTL travel.

The tale lurches back and forth between various POVs, as the three humans(to say nothing of a too clever by half AI) get separated, and spymaster Col. Edones launches a rescue mission. Not knowing what each of the others are up to, they developd different strategies of survival, countermeasures, and damage control, which involve two competing human factions (besides the fanatics) and the presence of the alien Minoans (who had brokered a peace between the two factions before the beginning of the series). They were introduced in the first book, and we learn more about them here. And as we do, maybe you'll begin to wonder, as did I, if Ms. Reeve's creation is meant to be a future version of our own universe, or an alternate one. Perhaps in future novels we shall find out.

The tale, like "Peacekeeper," is complete in itself, and the minimal setup for further adventures takes place only in the last few pages. The author, in only her second book, demonstrates amazing skills at scene setting, world building, and military strategy. In short she has accomplished what she's set out to do.

"Vigilante" is a confusing SciFi, 2nd in a series. The characters are space farers on their way to a newly explored star system where unusual artifacts have been found. There's a stolen dooms day device, political maneuvering, and a lot of people trying to skirt the law.

I'd not read book #1, which was a problem because the author never described the setting (e.g., how many factions there were, what each was named, and which person belonged to what faction). You need to laborously pick all of this out through inspection, made more difficult because each faction has at least three different names. Yes, that part got old, but after 50 pages you've pretty much gotten it.

The next problem is that this book is simply...dull. Here I am in the midst of a running intregue involving one faction trying to kill an intelligent AI through legal channels, and a lady threatened by people who tortured her in the last book, and I just can't keep my attention on what is going on -- despite being on a 9-hour plane ride with nothing better to do. The plot has enough going into it, the sentence structure is fine, the characters have sufficient personality, I'll give this book all of that. The problem is that the overall impact is like reading an uninspired technical manual. There is very little visual description, scant emotion, and a whole lot of point-of-view hopping resulting in a meandering, unfocused plot. I never felt involved with any of the characters except for one tragic villain, who remains a bit part and never rebells.