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atagarev's review
2.0
It reads like the plot of an action rpg where the plot is the least important thing about the game. We get the requisite main character tragic backstory where his family and girlfriend get killed before they are introduced in order to provide motivation to pursue vengeance. Everything after that goes the character's way with no effort on his part- all the good guys like and help him, he wins all the fights, the outthinks all his opponents. I found it outright hilarious how eager all the grizzled military veterans were to follow the orders of an 18-year-old with no skills or experience.
So effortlessly winning all the time can sometimes be fun in a game but reading about someone doing it for hundreds of pages is just dull.
So effortlessly winning all the time can sometimes be fun in a game but reading about someone doing it for hundreds of pages is just dull.
pjonsson's review
5.0
This is another book that popped up in my recommendations feed. Obviously I thought the book blurb looked interesting but another reason that I decided to go for it was that it is co-authored by Terry Mixon who has written the Empire of Bones Saga which I have enjoyed very much.
This book makes me think a bit about the good old fashioned pirates and heroes stories in the age of sailing ships. You know, Horatio Hornblower, Red Beard, Black Beard, Blue Beard. Wait, wasn’t that last one a Viking? Oh, that was Blue Tooth. Never mind, you get the idea.
Since this is set in the future there are obviously no sails but a lot of other “features” to make the story interesting. It is a true science fiction story though and not one of those where the author tried to make everything look like old times but in space. One thing that maybe sets the story apart a bit is that there appears to be no FTL. Yes there are space ships and yes they move about quite a lot but we stay in the solar system. I quite like that actually because I feel it put more pressure on the author in terms of the actual story, pressure that I would say he delivered on.
The main protagonist is the likable, ass-kicking, revenge-taking, swashbuckling vigilante and mercenary that you would expect (or at least hope for in this kind of book). During the course of the book he is surrounding himself with a bunch of equally likable and colorful companions when embarking on his quest for revenge as well as number of other friends in high (and low) places.
Then we have the bad guys. Here we have a classical despicable, mean, savage and through and through bad pirate as the main adversary. At least in this first book. I would say that more and even worse adversaries lurk in the shadows. Anyway, he has just the right bad guy charisma to fit into the story of the book.
The universe itself is quite well done. I do like this mercenary guild idea. The science part is good and the action, tactics and strategy works well both in space and on the ground. It is fiction of course so some liberties with physics and reality are to be expected.
Bottom line, this book is a clear five out of five for me.
This book makes me think a bit about the good old fashioned pirates and heroes stories in the age of sailing ships. You know, Horatio Hornblower, Red Beard, Black Beard, Blue Beard. Wait, wasn’t that last one a Viking? Oh, that was Blue Tooth. Never mind, you get the idea.
Since this is set in the future there are obviously no sails but a lot of other “features” to make the story interesting. It is a true science fiction story though and not one of those where the author tried to make everything look like old times but in space. One thing that maybe sets the story apart a bit is that there appears to be no FTL. Yes there are space ships and yes they move about quite a lot but we stay in the solar system. I quite like that actually because I feel it put more pressure on the author in terms of the actual story, pressure that I would say he delivered on.
The main protagonist is the likable, ass-kicking, revenge-taking, swashbuckling vigilante and mercenary that you would expect (or at least hope for in this kind of book). During the course of the book he is surrounding himself with a bunch of equally likable and colorful companions when embarking on his quest for revenge as well as number of other friends in high (and low) places.
Then we have the bad guys. Here we have a classical despicable, mean, savage and through and through bad pirate as the main adversary. At least in this first book. I would say that more and even worse adversaries lurk in the shadows. Anyway, he has just the right bad guy charisma to fit into the story of the book.
The universe itself is quite well done. I do like this mercenary guild idea. The science part is good and the action, tactics and strategy works well both in space and on the ground. It is fiction of course so some liberties with physics and reality are to be expected.
Bottom line, this book is a clear five out of five for me.
suzjustsuz's review against another edition
3.0
3+
Interesting start. I liked it well enough to jump into the second and see how it goes. There was occasionally a bit more gun porn than I like, but it was fleeting.
I find I like the MC but am not yet feeling attached to him. We'll see how it goes.
Interesting start. I liked it well enough to jump into the second and see how it goes. There was occasionally a bit more gun porn than I like, but it was fleeting.
I find I like the MC but am not yet feeling attached to him. We'll see how it goes.
brettt's review against another edition
3.0
One feature of a lot of mid-20th century science fiction was its restriction to our own solar system. Plenty of adventures happened across the galaxy but authors often played among the planets and moons that accompany us around good ol' Sol. Some of that work became dated as we learned more and more about the other planets and bodies nearest us, but the idea still gives an interesting frontier flavor to stories that use the same kind of system. Rather than speculated planets orbiting other stars, we deal with places the average person might see with a backyard telescope.
Writers Glynn Stewart and Terry Mixon use that kind of setting for an old-fashioned style interplanetary adventure that carries more than a whiff of those older stories in their "Vigilante" duology and followup series, "Bound by Stars." Brad Mantruso is the only survivor of a vicious pirate attack on his family's freighter, rescued by a passing military spacecraft. Swearing vengeance for his lost kin and fellow crew, Brad changes his name and begins his mission of revenge by developing a company of space mercenaries who can help him search for and eventually defeat the pirate band that attacked him. The first novel in the series, Heart of Vengeance, outlines how Brad begins that quest and learns that fulfilling it will be more complicated than he at first believed -- because there are more than meets the eye to the pirates he hunts and the depth of the conspiracy could be far more than one man -- or one crew -- can handle.
Stewart and Mixon are two writers who have taken full advantage of modern technology in both self-publishing and working with their own independent publishers. Each has an output well past the dozen-book threshold without the use of smeary Xerox machines and more typos than all those monkeys who are supposed to be turning out Shakespeare, and without the presence of a traditional publisher. Though some of that output isn't as polished as it might be with a traditional press, it's tough to write a couple dozen books without seeing some improvement (There's hope, Dan Brown readers! There's hope! Even if it is about 20 years off), so Heart of Vengeance runs smoothly most of the time.
The pair paint a background of Heinlein juveniles and Tom Corbett's square-jawed interplanetary heroism and in front of it stage stories with 21st century sensibilities, scientific knowledge and levels of violence, and it's enough fun to occupy a reader for several hours.
Original available here.
Writers Glynn Stewart and Terry Mixon use that kind of setting for an old-fashioned style interplanetary adventure that carries more than a whiff of those older stories in their "Vigilante" duology and followup series, "Bound by Stars." Brad Mantruso is the only survivor of a vicious pirate attack on his family's freighter, rescued by a passing military spacecraft. Swearing vengeance for his lost kin and fellow crew, Brad changes his name and begins his mission of revenge by developing a company of space mercenaries who can help him search for and eventually defeat the pirate band that attacked him. The first novel in the series, Heart of Vengeance, outlines how Brad begins that quest and learns that fulfilling it will be more complicated than he at first believed -- because there are more than meets the eye to the pirates he hunts and the depth of the conspiracy could be far more than one man -- or one crew -- can handle.
Stewart and Mixon are two writers who have taken full advantage of modern technology in both self-publishing and working with their own independent publishers. Each has an output well past the dozen-book threshold without the use of smeary Xerox machines and more typos than all those monkeys who are supposed to be turning out Shakespeare, and without the presence of a traditional publisher. Though some of that output isn't as polished as it might be with a traditional press, it's tough to write a couple dozen books without seeing some improvement (There's hope, Dan Brown readers! There's hope! Even if it is about 20 years off), so Heart of Vengeance runs smoothly most of the time.
The pair paint a background of Heinlein juveniles and Tom Corbett's square-jawed interplanetary heroism and in front of it stage stories with 21st century sensibilities, scientific knowledge and levels of violence, and it's enough fun to occupy a reader for several hours.
Original available here.
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