Gather round, loyal reader(s) and I'll tell you all the tale of how I read four awesome books and was too lazy to review them individually.
Hey, I love to write but sometimes I get really into a story and I don't wanna stop, so I just get the next one, and the next one...
Yeah, I've got a story problem, and not the kind you used to do in math class.
All of this to say that I have confirmed my former suspicion that Blaine Lee Pardoe is a spectacular author. Having read his books, Riptides, Storm Surge, Flotsam of War and Ratchet's Run I have run out of books that are currently published in the Land & Sea universe and I find that I am just a wee bit disconcerted at not having more to read.
I mean, Pardoe has been cranking these books out at an amazingly rapid pace and I really shouldn't give him problems for not writing fast enough, but would I really be a fan if I didn't? I mean, the way I see it, a fan should serve the following functions for an author
Cheerleader: I love your work, Mr. Pardoe! I'll tell everyone else about it!
Source of Income: Consume the book legally. Make sure the author gets paid.
Pain in the a... I mean Motivator: Urge them to keep up the hard work. Remind them why it's worth it. Even if it's only to get the fan (me) to shut up for five minutes.
Or sumfin'...
So, about the books themselves...
I mean, I probably should talk about them, because this is supposed to be a review, right? Why wouldn't I just get straight to the point and tell you about what I read? Huh?
Yeah, I know...
Anyway..
Riptides and Storm Surge were both pretty much what I expected only more awesomer. I mean, I put up Splashdown as my pick for the Dragon Awards, but these two were almost as totally amazing. I think I just liked the first one more because I love getting to know new worlds and it was the first book.
*SHRUG*
And I don't mean what I expected as just more of the same. Those were the books that moved the story forward in a massive way. If Splashdown had been Star Wars, then Storm Surge and Riptides would have been along the lines of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, except that the story didn't end there. But still, the overall plot of the series moves along at about that pace for the first three books.
Some parts of Storm Surge and Riptides are not for the squeamish. I like that about them. They're realistic and necessary, but they're not pretty. There's a bit of mutilation and some torture. It fits though, and it shows the enemy as something other than just a group of aquatic soldier ants constantly moving forward without thinking. I like that. If they came from some other planet somewhere to get here and invented the weaponry to fight the militaries of Earth then they can obviously freaking think. I may not always approve of the way the villains gather information, but it's obvious that they need to and there are many reasons why those things needed to be revealed in the way that they were.
Flotsam of War is a one writer anthology and works more along the lines of The Lost Chronicles by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman where they went back and filled in the missing parts of their original Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy (and I'll shill for them some other time, promise.) only we it's one book instead of three and we didn't have to wait three decades for it. It also kind of reminds me of Nerilka's Story except that Flotsam of War was actually enjoyable.
Oops.
I didn't say that out loud, did I?
Ratchet's Run is probably the only one of the sequels that works as a standalone in my opinion. The others are good books, but you need to read the previous stories to really get them. I think you could probably understand Ratchet's Run with no previous knowledge but it might take you a chapter or two to get up to speed.
At any rate, it combines an alien invasion and a bank heist by several competing interests and things go totally wrong for the characters. In this case though, that works for the readers because the action ratchets WAY up (DYSWIDT?) and it's crazy fun to read. I just want to know how many times Pardoe had to rewrite that section to get it all straight because there is a LOT going on. He managed it though.
And it's weird, because through most of the story I thought Ratchet's Run would be more of a side story that didn't change the world much, but then I got punched in the mouth with the knowledge that I was wrong. I don't do spoilers but stuff happened. Cool stuff. Something that might be maybe repeatable in other places where the conflict is ongoing.
I was really pleasantly surprised there, too. Reading series like Land & Sea can be a weird experience for me (but in a good way) because I always want it to know what's going to happen next but I don't want things to move too quickly and the story to end. So, like you want more, but you want less, but you want more, but not that much, but even more, but...
Yeah, weird.
Overall though, I was really impressed and I'll be downloading the next one as soon as it gets published.
I love the tech in the Land & Sea universe though, and I love the fact that it keeps getting better. I also freaking love the way that the new tech works, but it has some bugs. Pardoe doesn’t make his people out to be supermen who can’t fail at anything. The stakes of the war are high. The people, whether military, political or civilian, are aware of this. The pressure is high to DO SOMETHING. Some things are rushed that shouldn't be. Sometimes they work. Sometimes they don't. Sometimes the consequences of a failure can be extreme. Sometimes the end user doesn't make it. That sucks, but in a real-world scenario it would be inevitable and in fiction those types of equipment failures are the height of realism. Listen, I hate Murphy, and I'm sure you do to, but that guy passed his law for a reason.WarGate Nova, 2023
Blaine Lee Pardoe
WarGate Nova, 2023
WarGate Nova, 2023
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