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A review by snowcrash
Alien Secrets by Ian Douglas
3.0
I’ve read just about all of the books written under the penname Ian Douglas, going back to the very beginning of the Galactic Marine saga. So 19+ books over at least as many years. I’ve also read his submarine books written under a different name (though I didn’t realize until later both were the same person). So when I saw he had a new series, I grabbed it.
I know going in that the story will be a mishmash of fiction and fact. The plots recently have tended towards pulpy (my term). The author I also know will spend pages telling us readers about some topic, while the characters wait for us to return to their conversation. I was looking for an escapist ride. But this book doesn’t rise to the best of the Star Carrier series or Galactic Marines. It is average at best, getting itself tangled in what it wants to be.
Here, we follow a SEAL officer from his selection into the Solar Warden program through to fighting aliens in another star system. There is a super heavy dose of UFO mythology that has bolted onto it special forces, space navy and confusing alien intrigue. Add in time travel and it all begins to fall apart. There are too many competing ideas flying around. Plus I really dislike time travel stories.
Oh, NAZI’s too, just for an added pizazz (with a shoutout in the expository paragraphs of a chapter for Iron Sky, a movie spoof about NAZI’s in space).
While the book is a fast read, there are a number of items that detract from the flow. Mix of metric & English measurements. Skype calls in Space! iPads that can hook into alien internets. Anti-Grav, artificial gravity, etc but a cylinder shaped ship? Human crews that seem to know what they are doing, but are also new at interstellar voyages?
I think there is potential here for many more books. But it needs to have a lot more focus. Skip the time travel, that will get more and more silly. I’ll wait to see what the next installment is about before jumping back in. At least this is better than TV.
I know going in that the story will be a mishmash of fiction and fact. The plots recently have tended towards pulpy (my term). The author I also know will spend pages telling us readers about some topic, while the characters wait for us to return to their conversation. I was looking for an escapist ride. But this book doesn’t rise to the best of the Star Carrier series or Galactic Marines. It is average at best, getting itself tangled in what it wants to be.
Here, we follow a SEAL officer from his selection into the Solar Warden program through to fighting aliens in another star system. There is a super heavy dose of UFO mythology that has bolted onto it special forces, space navy and confusing alien intrigue. Add in time travel and it all begins to fall apart. There are too many competing ideas flying around. Plus I really dislike time travel stories.
Oh, NAZI’s too, just for an added pizazz (with a shoutout in the expository paragraphs of a chapter for Iron Sky, a movie spoof about NAZI’s in space).
While the book is a fast read, there are a number of items that detract from the flow. Mix of metric & English measurements. Skype calls in Space! iPads that can hook into alien internets. Anti-Grav, artificial gravity, etc but a cylinder shaped ship? Human crews that seem to know what they are doing, but are also new at interstellar voyages?
I think there is potential here for many more books. But it needs to have a lot more focus. Skip the time travel, that will get more and more silly. I’ll wait to see what the next installment is about before jumping back in. At least this is better than TV.