Kris Longknife: Undaunted
(7th book in the Kris Longknife series)
Author: Mike Shepherd
Publisher: Ace Books
Copyright: 2009
ISBN: 978-0041017867
Book Type: Science Fiction (Military, but shades of Romance)
Size: 368 page paperback
Amazon Link: Amazon Link
Review
If you enjoyed David Weber (Honor Harrington series) or David Feintuch before he became morbid enough to make his readers beg for Mercy or Anne McCaffrey (Merchanter series), then you'll probably get some enjoyment out of the Kris Longknife series.
The series features a strong female protagonist who grows from a troubled young adulthood into full possession of her gifts - military, social, and interpersonal. Kris suffers from the misfortunes of being capable, attractive but in an unconventional fashion, possessing an unwillingness to march to the beat of other's drums (be they King, General, Admiral, personal guard, or uppity AI), and a tendency to be in the right place at the right time for all Hell to break loose. And she's a Princess by birth, did I mention that?
In the early parts of the series, she is haunted by childhood trauma, by social isolation, by a problem with alcohol, and by an unwillingness to grow into the Princess and the dutiful daughter as defined by her father, the elected King of a union of planets trying to be some sort of federation worth living in and of general benefit to the citizenry.
During the earlier books, she gets to leave home, discover adventures military, political, and with espionage and trade dimensions, and discover herself along the way. As is not unusual in such risky business, she comes to understand the price the survivors pay.
One of the underlying themes in the books is the imperfect nature of even well-intentioned solutions. Everyone calls her "One of those damned Longknives" and most of them want nothing to do with her. It seems that her family has a reputation for being shot at, bombed, and so on and achieving various hard-fought victories over the bodies of many friends and enemies alike. Being close to the Longknives probably represents a serious jump in your insurance premiums!
All of this leads up to the current book, Undaunted. By this point in the series, Kris is a relatively complete adult, having went through many of the baptismal events previously. The new book throws in the twist of an old alien enemy come calling with a special request.
The aliens are not loved by the humans who fought them so bittery, but it turns out some popularly held myths about the past are set on their ear in this book. This is another theme in Shepherd's series - history often having actually happened rather differently than popular conceptions would have you believe. It also turns out the humans didn't really know as much about their enemies as they thought, nor did the aliens understand the humans well in times of prior hostility.
In between all the larger story arc aspects of Kris' growth and grappling with being a person of power but also a magnet for trouble and death, there is a story more particular to this episode. I won't spoil it by telling you much about it save to say violence does ensue and adventure, with consequences, transpires.
This book feels more like a campaign arc book than a standalone work. Part of that is the long history drawn forth previously, but part of it is this is a transitional work of sorts. In the last few previous books, Kris reached a point of challenging the authorities that guide her life and asserting her independence. This book lays the groundwork for a new multi-book story arc that leads her beyond the fringes of human space and potentially into the face of a much greater foe than any she has faced previously.
There are romantic overtones in the series, vaguely reminiscent of Honor Harrington's series by Weber. There aren't the same huge clashes of mass fleets - ship actions tend to be on a smaller scale, no larger than a small task group. Kris has made fast progress, but is only verging on Lieutenant Commander's rank by the end of Undaunted, so she hasn't flown through the ranks quite as fast as the peerless Admiral Duchess Harrington.
All in all Undaunted is an okay installment in a series that had more punch in a few of the other books, but this book seems to be setting up for even more excitement in the following few. Much like the Two Towers had moments of lull before the storm that was the great climactic battles in the Return of the King, this book appears to be setting up a future of dire conflict that will surely involve the main characters.
Shepherd has a good eye for interesting characters and for some unexpected plot twists. He has an awareness of the political dimensions of the actions of the characters. The characters follow certain archetypes (of the Horatio Hornblower sort), but puts enough of a twist on them to make them interesting and to make them his own. Hornblower never had to deal with the background trauma that Kris Longknife had to. And Hornblower didn't always have a family member unrepentantly willing to throw him into the nasty situations, whether the results tended to work out after some blood and tears or not.
I'd say this is well worth owning, but I'd go back first and pick up the others in the series. The story is worth getting from the start as a fair amount of prior knowledge appears to be presumed by the author. If you aren't expecting powerful stand alone novels, but steady, workmanlike releases for an interesting series of light fiction, then you'll enjoy the Kris Longknife series.
Rating
Readability: 8.5 / 10
Detail: 7.0 / 10
Plot: 7.5 / 10
Value: 7.5 / 10
Overall: 7.5 / 10
Year in review, 2016 edition
-
- Diana recovered from knee replacement.
- Birthday party for Eunhye
- Dominion removed the power line across the river behind our house.
...
8 years ago
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