Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Sabre on June 27, 2017, 04:54:47 PM
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Just finished reading book 10, "Devil's Due", of Taylor Anderson's Destoyermen series. I may follow this up with a longer review, but the short version is: Really slow start, too much exhibition, but (as always) great battle sequences. Fortunately (or unfortunately, as there's been a year or more between each volume), though one of the main protagonists is vanquished, there will be at least two more volumes to wrap up the remaining, far-flung and barely connected story lines. I'm afraid Taylor has caught the same verbosity virus that affected J.K. Rowling, towards the end of the Harry Potter series. He could have easily fit what's in "Devil's Due" into half the number of pages and not really lost anything important. So, a bit of a slog through the first half of the book, but couldn't put it down through the second half.
One interesting thing (spoiler): Much is made about how powerful the League of Tripoli is purported to be, but that they are occupied with another, as yet be revealed rival power. This is why, the book insists, the League has chosen to merely meddle in the US-Lemarian-Japanese-Grik-Dominion wars, rather than become actively engaged. Since this "other business" has not been revealed in any detail, only hinted at, my estimate of two more volumes may be short by one or two books. The fact that the League gave Kurokowa the Savoire, an old but still formidable battleship, they must indeed have considerable resources. If they're having trouble dealing with another power, it must be potent, indeed! Guess we'll see.
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Hey, thanks for posting this. :aok I'm always looking for new Sci-Fi/ Fantasy series to read. I had never heard of this author, nor this series. I'll investigate. Currently re-reading Jack Whyte's Camulod series (sort of historical novel about legend of King Arthur).
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No problem, nooby. I'll have to look into "Camulod", myself. Thanks for the tip.
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I really enjoy this series and have read and own all but "Devil's Due" in hardback (will be purchasing it soon). Although I consider the first 4 books to be the high water mark for the series; I still highly recommend the entire, ongoing series to anybody who enjoys military science fiction and/or alternate earth/timeline fiction. Plus Taylor Anderson is pretty good about publishing the next installment in the series annually (most of the time) so you don't have to wait multiple years to see what happens next. Anderson also seems to have no qualms with killing off characters who have long, well developed story lines so you take a risk if you assign too much of the "indispensable main character" emotional attachment to anybody and that always adds to the drama of the battles. I agree that his writing style can lean towards too much exhibition at times (especially when rereading the series), but IMO that is offset by his ability to write in a way that puts the reader right in the mud and muck of the infantry shield wall or the flash and smoke of a pitched navel battle.
FYI, "Devil's Due" is book 12 of the series. Not sure if you mis-typed or if you might have missed a few of the books (hopefully not the latter) and for anybody who prefers audio books, the whole series in on audible as well.
Denis Silva for president, 2020. :cheers:
*edit*
Sabre: I just realized that without meaning to, my entire first paragraph is basically just a rewording of your entire first paragraph. They say "great minds think alike" but knowing my mind I think the phrase "even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and then" probably is a more accurate description of what I did with my post. :rofl :salute sabre
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Tmetal: Maybe we're both blind squirrels, LOL. And yes, it's 12 books. Miss-counted. Read all 12, of course. And yes, Denis Silva for President! As long as Larry is VP. :rock