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