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A review by brettt
Heart of Vengeance by Terry Mixon, Glynn Stewart
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.