Apology About No Recent Book Reviews

Sorry, readers. Since I live in America, I took last Thursday off and have to take today off from book reviewing. I'm swamped with four books and none of them are close to being finished, review-wise, that is. Plus, I've got a project that I can only work on at college that's due by the end of the week, so there might not be a book review up on Thursday, either.

I'll just leave you all with the titles of the books I'm working on:

• Stranded by Anne Bishop, James Alan Gardner, and Anthony Francis.
• The Sharing Knife 1: Beguilement by Lois McMaster Bujold
• Honor Harrington: Ashes of Victory by David Weber
• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien

I hope to be able to finish them by the weekend and post them up for next week and the week after to give myself some time to write other reviews. Sorry. 

Book Review: Halo: The Thursday War SPOILERS!

Released on 2 October 2012, Halo: The Thursday War is the third entry into the Halo Universe for Karen Traviss, the first being a short story called Human Weakness and the novel Glasslands. It picks up where Glasslands left off. Synopsis: Welcome to humanity’s new war: silent, high stakes, and unseen. This is a life-or-death mission for ONI’s black-ops team, Kilo Five, which is tasked with preventing the ruthless Elites, once the military leaders of the Covenant, from regrouping and threatening humankind again. What began as a routine dirty-tricks operation―keeping the Elites busy with their own insurrection―turns into a desperate bid to extract one member of Kilo Five from the seething heart of an alien civil war. But troubles never come singly for Kilo Five. Colonial terrorism is once again surfacing on one of the worlds that survived the war against the Covenant, and the man behind it is much more than just a name to Spartan-010. Meanwhile, the treasure trove of Forerunner technology recovered from the shield world of Onyx is being put to work while a kidnapped Elite plots vengeance on the humans he fears will bring his people to the brink of destruction.

The novel opens with a first person POV from ONI head, Admiral Margaret Orlenda Parangosky as she receives news about Professor Evan Phillips going dark and Captain Serin Osman going to extract him. On Sanghelios, Evan Phillips is with Avu Med 'Telcam. He's wounded and stranded in the Forerunner complex. 'Telcam's going to perform his coup that minute. On Venezia, ODSTs Vasily "Vaz" Beloi and Malcolm Geffen get recalled by Sgt. Lian Devereaux because Osman's pulling out to get Phillips. On the way to Sanghelios, Mal tells Naomi Sentzke, Spartan-010, and the rest of Kilo Five that the terrorist leader on Venezia is Staffan Sentzke, Naomi's father. On the UNSC Infinity, Parangosky notes that the crew isn't die-hard loyal to Captain Andrew Del Rio--and from what I've seen in Halo 4, I can hardly blame them--but his first officer, Commander Thomas Lasky, might get a reward for his quiet patience later (as seen in Halo 4 when he becomes the Captain of the Infinity because of Del Rio's stupidity). On/In Onyx, Jul 'Mdama ruminates about his fate while ONI scientist Irena Magnusson tries to use reverse psychology on him to get him to tell them what he knows. On Sanghelios, Raia 'Mdama grows worried as Jul's absence continues. Phillips finds out that he's a hostage from 'Telcam. Kilo Five's in orbit around Sanghelios. BB's running a scan on the planet, starting with Ontom, but BB's having trouble penetrating the Forerunner complex. Raia becomes restless and threatens 'Telcam. Phillips learns that there's more than one Shield World. He touches one of the walls and it tells him to find someone or seek something beyond, or higher, or better. Phillips thinks he might've primed a Halo. Vaz, Mal, Naomi and BB, via Devereaux, land on Sanghelios. They learn that Phillips is in the Forerunner complex and they enter. Phillips is lost in the temple and holocaptures a ton of Forerunner hieroglyphs.

Phillips, running out of time, tries to use his trick with arums to open some doors and touches the first symbol on the list. 'Telcam, Raia, and the majority of the Servants of Abiding Truth attempt to flee Sanghelios. Their forces bear down on the Arbiter Thel 'Vadam and his keep, especially when other keeps seemingly rise up against 'Vadam for allowing human soldiers to set foot in a sacred temple. Vaz, Mal, Naomi and BB can't find Phillips. Turns out that Phillips is 80 kilometers away from Ontom, near Nes'alun Keep, in the state of Acroli. He comes across slave Unggoy who take him to the nearby keep. Prone to Drift escorts Jul for a walk on Onyx. Phillips is found and everyone rushes to get him. BB updates Parangosky on Infinity and both she and Admiral  Lord Terrence Hood head out to lend the Arbiter a hand, though Parangosky has more devious means for their trip. Del Rio and Lasky get Infinity to Sanghelios; Osman and company have retrieved Phillips. The civil war on Sanghelios continues to rage. On Onyx, Jul learns more about the Forerunners. Kilo Five boards Infinity. Hood opens fire on the rebels while Kilo Five attempts to extract 'Telcam. Raia and Forze are shot down and die. Prone warns Jul about the Didact. Scanning the recordings, Kilo Five learns that the word "not" is placed next to the symbol for Didact. Jul finds out that the Didact is on Requiem and tells Phillips about the Didact being locked away. Jul manages to escape Magnusson's hold and uses the failing transport system to flee the Shield World. Parangosky's pissed about that and removes Magnusson from command of Onyx and learns about Requiem. Jul makes it to another Sangheili world and updates people on the war and about the Didact. Vaz and Naomi insert on Venezia. Jul learns that Forze and Raia are dead. The elders and Jul find the coordinates for Requiem and plan to go there, which give the impression that Karen's third Halo novel will lead directly in to Halo 4.

All in all, a well-paced novel that builds into the lead up to Halo 4, alongside Greg Bear's Forerunner Saga trilogy. Great character development, superb pacing and prose, great action, Halo: The Thursday War is the best addition to the Halo franchise and Karen Traviss deserves all the praise.

Book Review: Honor Harrington: Echoes of Honor SPOILERS!

In 1998, David Weber returned once more to the Honorverse, this time to get Honor Harrington off Hell while the war takes an interesting turn of events. Synopsis: Back from Hell. For eight bloody years, the Star Kingdom of Manticore and its allies have taken the war to the vastly more powerful People's Republic of Haven, and Commodore Honor Harrington has been in the forefront of that war. But now Honor has fallen, captured by the Peep Navy, turned over to the forces of State Security . . . and executed on the interstellar network's nightly news. The Manticoran Alliance is stunned and infuriated by Honor's death and grimly resolved to avenge it. Yet their military is over-extended and the People's Republic is poised to take the offensive once more, this time with a new strategy, new weapons, a new command team, and a whole new determination to win. The war is about to enter a phase of unprecedented ferocity . . . and the Alliance is on the short end of the stick. But even as powerful Peep fleets hurtle towards their objectives, neither they nor the Alliance are aware of events occurring on a distant, isolated, inescapable prison planet called Hell. For what no one knows, not even State Security, is that Honor Harrington is not dead. She and a handful of her people are trapped on Hell, and determined to disprove the Peep boast that no one can ever escape it. Honor Harrington is going home, and taking her people with her . . . even if she has to conquer Hell to do it.

Prologue: The novel opens with the Harrington family, on Grayson, watching an HD of Honor being hanged for crimes committed in On Basilisk Station.

Book One (Part One): Turns out the entire Star Kingdom of Manticore is reeling from the loss of Honor Harrington. The people of Grayson aren't taking this lightly and Hamish Alexander expects them to no longer take prisoners. He also believes that he's the one who led Honor to get herself killed. In the People's Republic of Haven, Ester McQueen continues her plot to bring Oscar Saint-Just and Robert S. Pierre down. Everyone on the Manticoran front is gearing up to resume hostilities. Protector Benjamin Mayhew IX, Henry Prestwick, and Howard Clinkscales (reluctantly) ask Allison and Alfred Harrington to produce a child to claim the Harrington Steading Key. Allison points out to Jeremiah Sullivan that the Graysonite genome was altered 1000 years ago and that given some time, she will be able to reverse it, allowing for more male children births. She invites Benjamin and one of his three wives, Katherine, to the Harrington Steading and talks about her discovery, and breaks protocol that hasn't been done in 250 years.

Book Two (Part Two): On Hell, Honor Harrington and the survivors find ways to hack into the StateSec base, Camp Charon, and glean information. Turns out that other prisoners are there, around a half-million. They also discover, thanks to Scotty Tremaine, that Camp Inferno isn't on the map for "security reasons." Honor and company meet with two prisoners named Harriet Benson and Henri Dessouix who take them to Camp Inferno where they meet Commodore Jesus Ramirez--who's supposed to be dead after the Peeps took Trevor's Star. Together, they decide to take Camp Charon.

Book Three (Part Three): McQueen and others talk about Operation Icarus. The war is brewing up to another round of fighting. The Graysonites name their newest ship the GSN Honor Harrington.

Book Four (Part Four): Honor and Ramirez begin the assault by taking one supply ship and them storming Camp Charon. They take Charon and try their superiors under the People's Uniform Code of Conduct, which scares a few Peeps. Rear Admiral Harold Styles opposes this and constantly berates Honor. Turns out former Citizen Admiral Amos Parnell is still alive and agrees to sit in on the hearing so long as he can go to the Solarian League and tell all that Pierre, Ransom, and Saint-Just performed the coup.

Book Five (Part Five): Saint-Just and Pierre talk about squashing McQueen. The war rages on. Several worlds are hit: Basilisk, Zanzibar, Yeltsin's Star, and others. Rear Admiral Elvis Santino, paranoid of losing command, relieves Commander Andrea Jaruwalski from the Battle of Seaford 9, citing cowardice, when it's really Santino that's too stupid to follow the original plan. He gets himself killed, leaving Andrea in hot water. At Basilisk, Admirals Hamish Alexander and Judah Yanakov stave off the battle; Yanakov tells everyone in the Manticoran fleet "Honor Harrington and no mercy." Despite winning, Hamish is pissed about Yanakov's order.

Book Six (Part Six): One of many trials comes to a close. Honor is woken up because of an incoming Peep ship. Honor's company takes the ship. Commander Victor Ainspan updates Honor with the news of Honor's execution and the war. Honor tells her company how she intends to get her people off Hell and Styles erupts in anger. Honor charges Styles with insubordination and has armsman Andrew LaFollet place him under arrest. Honor and company claim two more ships for their plan. Because Citizen General Prestwick Thornegrave took too long to answer, Honor demands that all his ships surrender over an all ships comms channel. One of his ships is destroyed and Thornegrave and his task force surrender. Most of the ships, loaded with prisoners that wanted to leave, head for Trevor's Star. Citizen General Seth Chernok arrives with another task force. Honor ambushes him and destroys the task force. Honor and the remaining ships, using the name "Elysian Space Navy," leave for Trevor's Star.

Epilogue: At Trevor's Star, Hamish Alexander, depressed, ponders over the events of the last couple of months when Lieutenant Nathan Robards tells him that several unidentified hyper-footprints were detected and that they belong to Peep ships. Upon listening to the automated message--which Hamish thought was impossible since he'd seen the execution two years ago--of Honor Harrington requesting aid and that she and her task force, plus several unarrived ships were finally home.

All in all, a well-paced, easy read with great prose and wonderful character arcs that detail just how the Manticorans are doing without Honor and what the Peeps do when they believe themselves invincible. David Weber outdid himself in this 569 (hardcover) page novel. It's also the only novel of the series where both the Prologue and Epilogue are written in italics. This is a must-read for fans of sci-fi military and fans of the series in general.