Outlaw Helldiver Six Reviews
Aug. 16th, 2016 02:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegargantuaHey,
I’ve been slacking off again, but I have still been reading. Let’s see what I think:
First up Outlaw by K. Eason. This is the sequel to Evenmy which I reviewed a while back. I liked the first book so signed up for more.
Sorcerer-Thief Snow, Viking Barbaian Veiko and their Imperial Soldier buddies Dek and Istel have returned to the capital city of Illharek to warn the Republic of the imminent arrival of a former goddess who’s returning with a big bag of payback. But everywhere they go, people seem to have other worries on their mind. Simple greed or something more sinister?
It was a pretty good book. I think I liked the first one a bit better. Character’s seem to have reverted on their arcs a bit from book 1 to 2 so I felt they stagnated a bit. The magic system(s) continue to be a strong, but not overpowering, presence in the book and it continues to be intelligently put together.
I feel the writing was still good enough that I might go for one more round but I’m hoping the third book sticks a landing.
Following up I read through Hell Divers by Nicholas Sandsbury Smith. The brief blurb is that after World War 3, the remains of humanity live aboard these giant war-dirigibles. The surface of the planet is covered with deadly storms and killing radiation. When the airships need supplies from the ground, they send small teams of paratroopers to the ground to get what they need and hoist it (and them) up by balloons.
I’m not gonna lie. I’m a complete sucker for this premise. That’s an RPG and miniatures wargame I want to play right there.
Despite my post-apocalypse paratrooper bias, what did I think? Well….I had a bit of trouble believing that so many people would survive on an airship for the 200-odd years mentioned in the book. I realize this strongly suggests the book was terrible, but it was only because they emphasised that there was only one airship left. If it’d been a fleet of ships it would’ve seemed more plausable.
When you weren’t thinking about that, this was a pretty good little action book. There’s multiple trips to the surface to encounter terrible things and escape with precious equipment. There are several viewpoint characters and we hop between them to keep the tension up with a few different disasters going on at once.
My biggest complaint (aside from having only one airship) is that the book proudly declares itself the start of a trilogy and the first book ends pretty damn conclusively. I don’t know if that’s enough to make me pick up a second book, but seriously, I really love the concept.
Finally, while I didn’t “read” it, I did go through the audiobook of The Big Six by Arthur Ransome. This is another in the Swallows and Amazons series of children’s books. I continue to enjoy the heck out of these.
We return to the Norfolk Broads from Coot Club. Tom and the rest of the Coots are joined by Dick and Dorothea again for more fun and games...except that the three youngest Coots (owner/operators of the Death and Glory) are strongly suspected of pushing off boats and causing other mischief all up and down the Broads.
Obviously the plucky children in a Swallows and Amazons book are never evil or malicious, but no one believes them. So they all go in and form their own Scotland Yard to track down the villain and bring them to justice.
So, it’s a fun book like the others but not the strongest. First, the villain is screamingly obvious and the kids are particularly clueless at times. I’m sure this is to help the intended audience feel smart but still. The other issue with this book is that in most books, the kids are proactive -- they want to be pirates or prospectors or polar explorers and they go do that. In this book (as with We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea) the kids have to react to a bad situation. Again, I’m sure this teaches the value of pluck and grit and whatnot, but it’s not as much fun.
Still, I continue to greatly enjoy this series.
Later
Tom
I’ve been slacking off again, but I have still been reading. Let’s see what I think:
First up Outlaw by K. Eason. This is the sequel to Evenmy which I reviewed a while back. I liked the first book so signed up for more.
Sorcerer-Thief Snow, Viking Barbaian Veiko and their Imperial Soldier buddies Dek and Istel have returned to the capital city of Illharek to warn the Republic of the imminent arrival of a former goddess who’s returning with a big bag of payback. But everywhere they go, people seem to have other worries on their mind. Simple greed or something more sinister?
It was a pretty good book. I think I liked the first one a bit better. Character’s seem to have reverted on their arcs a bit from book 1 to 2 so I felt they stagnated a bit. The magic system(s) continue to be a strong, but not overpowering, presence in the book and it continues to be intelligently put together.
I feel the writing was still good enough that I might go for one more round but I’m hoping the third book sticks a landing.
Following up I read through Hell Divers by Nicholas Sandsbury Smith. The brief blurb is that after World War 3, the remains of humanity live aboard these giant war-dirigibles. The surface of the planet is covered with deadly storms and killing radiation. When the airships need supplies from the ground, they send small teams of paratroopers to the ground to get what they need and hoist it (and them) up by balloons.
I’m not gonna lie. I’m a complete sucker for this premise. That’s an RPG and miniatures wargame I want to play right there.
Despite my post-apocalypse paratrooper bias, what did I think? Well….I had a bit of trouble believing that so many people would survive on an airship for the 200-odd years mentioned in the book. I realize this strongly suggests the book was terrible, but it was only because they emphasised that there was only one airship left. If it’d been a fleet of ships it would’ve seemed more plausable.
When you weren’t thinking about that, this was a pretty good little action book. There’s multiple trips to the surface to encounter terrible things and escape with precious equipment. There are several viewpoint characters and we hop between them to keep the tension up with a few different disasters going on at once.
My biggest complaint (aside from having only one airship) is that the book proudly declares itself the start of a trilogy and the first book ends pretty damn conclusively. I don’t know if that’s enough to make me pick up a second book, but seriously, I really love the concept.
Finally, while I didn’t “read” it, I did go through the audiobook of The Big Six by Arthur Ransome. This is another in the Swallows and Amazons series of children’s books. I continue to enjoy the heck out of these.
We return to the Norfolk Broads from Coot Club. Tom and the rest of the Coots are joined by Dick and Dorothea again for more fun and games...except that the three youngest Coots (owner/operators of the Death and Glory) are strongly suspected of pushing off boats and causing other mischief all up and down the Broads.
Obviously the plucky children in a Swallows and Amazons book are never evil or malicious, but no one believes them. So they all go in and form their own Scotland Yard to track down the villain and bring them to justice.
So, it’s a fun book like the others but not the strongest. First, the villain is screamingly obvious and the kids are particularly clueless at times. I’m sure this is to help the intended audience feel smart but still. The other issue with this book is that in most books, the kids are proactive -- they want to be pirates or prospectors or polar explorers and they go do that. In this book (as with We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea) the kids have to react to a bad situation. Again, I’m sure this teaches the value of pluck and grit and whatnot, but it’s not as much fun.
Still, I continue to greatly enjoy this series.
Later
Tom
