The Crucible of Empire by Eric Flint and K.D. Wentworth

The Crucible of Empire by Eric Flint and K.D. Wentworth

This is the sequel to The Course of Empire. During The Course of Empire, the Jao conquered earth. Partly this was because of human disunity. Now, the Jao have drafted humanity into fighting their ancient enemies the Ekhat. They have adapted both human and Jao technology to create a massive new spaceship the size of an aircraft carrier, the Lexington.

This story is partially about how technology changes when two cultures meet to make something far more deadly than the single culture can produce by itself. The Lexington with its combined kinetic and energy weapon technology, energy shielding and heavy armored plate easily destroys the Ekhat ships.

In The Crucible of Empire, the new human Jao alliance have to rescue a third alien race, the Lleix from the Ekhat. I liked how the different aliens were described with their strengths and weaknesses. The Lleix had a very interesting artistic flair to them. The Jao and the Lleix were described as being very different.

This book does an excellent job of worldbuilding and describing how alien worlds interact. It also does not assume human superiority which is refreshing. Humans are not the center of the universe. I am looking forward to the next book in the series. I hope they add a few more alien cultures to the mix.

Daily Thoughts 3/28/2010

Fox Writing With A Quill Pen, J. Mason, 1852

Daily Thoughts 3/28/2010

I went to Barnes and Noble this morning. I looked at an advertisement for a Nook. It asks if you would like to carry Barnes and Noble in your hand wherever you want to go. I am looking forward to when there are less dedicated ebook machines. I would like to be able to download from whichever bookstore I want. I think a laptop would be the best choice for me because I think you can download the Kindle software to a laptop as well as the Nook software and other bookstore sites.

There were a few interesting books worth looking at. I do not order a whole lot of science fiction and fantasy series books. I am thinking of getting a few World of Warcraft paperbacks, as well as a few paperbacks from the Forgotten Realms series and the Warhammer 40,000 series. I also saw a few novel that seemed interesting, Frank Delaney, Venetia Kelly's Traveling Show as well as a new humorous fantasy book by A. Lee Martinez, Divine Misfortune.

I read another science fiction book today, The Crucible of Empire by Eric Flint and K.D. Wentworth. It is a military science fiction novel. What is different about this story is that humans have been conquered by an alien race, the Jao. However, they are not enslaved. Earth has become a kind of partner in a larger interstellar war against an aggressive species called the Ehkat. This is the second book in a series started with The Course of Empire. There is another humanoid species added to the story in this novel, the Lleix who convinced the Jao to separate from the Ehkat. I am finding it quite entertaining.

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