A review by rheren
Earth Strike by Ian Douglas

3.0

This book is specifically "aircraft carrier/Top Gun" sci-fi, which wasn't a genre I had read before. Having read this author before, I know that one thing he does is very methodically and carefully lay out how a space battle involving near-light-speed projectiles, interstellar distances, and exotic theoretical technologies would actually play out, and this book does that amazingly well, and was very well-explained. I think that no other military sci-fi author does space battles as realistically as Ian Douglas. The characters and storyline are not very creative: it is the cliche "idiot government leaders hindering the virtuous, self-sacrificial military" trope, ignoring that just as many military operations are blown by military ineptitude as governmental ineptitude. But it's a staple of the genre: might as well get used to it.