 |
Genellan: First Victory | Rating | |
| B | |||
| Scott G. Gier | |||
| Series | Related Books | ||
| Genellan | Genellan: Planetfall, Genellan: In the Shadow of the Moon, Genellan: First Victory, Genellan: Earth Siege | ||
Colonization of Genellan is proceeding apace. Humanity has solidified an alliance between two alien races: The high-gravity kones, and the batlike cliff dwellers. Unfortunately, they're not the only aliens out there/ The Ulaggi are rampaging this area of space, attacking any ship they come across. And they know where Genellan is. But the Legion knows where at least one Ulaggi planet is. And there may be survivors of previous attacks, there. A rescue would bost human morale and provide invaluable intelligence. It just may be time to take the war into enemy territory.
Of course, the Ulaggi have plans of their own...
This is by far the best of the three books. We get a serious look at the Ulaggi, whereas before we had been granted only glimpses. Their motives is still largely mysterious, but the society to accomplish their goals - whatever they are - are becoming clearer. The action, once it starts, is excellently done, both in space an on the ground. Characters are consistent, and they don't hold themselves back - there's political infighting, but people, especially the good guys, are not acting stupidly about it.
There are other good aspects. There are indications that the tactics and strategy for warfare will evolve, since the kones develop some technology. A couple of characters are essentially now prisoners of the Ulaggi, so not all is roses. And there are other plot threads that are left dangling that indicate Gier intends to bring this story in a few new directions.
And there are fewer gratuitous side encounters. Genellan has been slowly tamed, at least near the two human settlements. So pointless encounters with wildlife are almost entirely eliminated, thank goodness. It's time for the focus of the series to move on, and it has. All is not roses with the book, though. The first two hundred pages is again devoted to setup. But it's not as slow to build this time, though, and even these pages are interesting. It's a good, if lengthy, lead-in to the actual fighting. And the kones are almost irrelevant to the story; they could effectively be written out of the book as characters without much effort, their contributions to technology coming from offscreen. There are even some doubts in my mind as to the appropriateness of the title.
None of these are major flaws, though it's never quite good enough to get a better grade. Still, the story here is simply a lot more focused than the first two were. Certainly more than the last was!
| By Title | By Author | By Rank |