Earth Strike

Star Carrier, Book One

By: Ian Douglas

Narrated by: Nick Sullivan

Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

The first book in the epic saga of humankind's war of transcendence.

There is a milestone in the evolution of every sentient race, a Tech Singularity Event, when the species achieves transcendence through its technological advances. Now the creatures known as humans are near this momentous turning point.

But an armed threat is approaching from deepest space, determined to prevent humankind from crossing over that boundary - by total annihilation if necessary.

To the Sh'daar, the driving technologies of transcendent change are anathema and must be obliterated from the universe - along with those who would employ them. As their great warships destroy everything in their path en route to the Sol system, the human Confederation government falls into dangerous disarray. There is but one hope, and it rests with a rogue Navy Admiral, commander of the kilometer-long star carrier America, as he leads his courageous fighters deep into enemy space towards humankind's greatest conflict - and quite possibly its last.

©2010 William H. Keith, Jr. (P)2011 HarperCollins Publishers

Too Technical

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Yes. Decent story.

Would you be willing to try another book from Ian Douglas? Why or why not?

Yes. Started to catch on to the story.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Nick Sullivan?

Yes

Do you think Earth Strike needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

Yes, a long story to tell

Any additional comments?

Break down some of the terms once in a while.

Second Time Even Better

Author is a master for recreating worlds, aliens and future tech. His command of trends in military thinking is spot on. I first heard about "rail guns" 20 years ago reading the Heritage Trilogy.

Great Space Opera

Lots of action, enigmatic aliens, giant FTL ships, Earth hanging in the balance. What's not to love. I hope the next in the series is as good.

Who says FTL travel is impossible?

This is the kind of SciFi I like - at least it tickles my sense of "just beond grasp" technology. I am so looking forward to hearing the rest of this trillogy. It promises to be just as good as (or even better than) the Inheritance Trillogy, which I also loved.

Might be, I'll tire of the very strong link to American military/marine strategy and constant references to battle quotes from past war generals, but it certainly makes up for it by staying interesting in a technology sense.

Faster than Light travel (FTL), single point energy, and gravitational manipulation all made possible by quote: "GRIN technologies—Genetics, Robotics, Information systems, and Nanotechnology—that are the principle drivers for the oncoming singularity." - You GOTTA love that!

Hard hitting action.

This was a nice easy start for the Star Carrier series. This story held my interest to the very end. Here's to the next books. I can't wait to start reading the next books.

Battle action

There isn't any character development for the first several hours. Hard science and battle tactics are there but no characters to "hang" it all on.

Excellent Military Space Op with too much dump.

‘A Boot’ is what the marines call the star where a colony of non-consenting Islamic believers grabbed a foothold on a planet that is absolutely unfriendly to our concept of life. The colony is there because all those governed by Earth were pressured to sign an accord of non-proselytizing, absolute tolerance of others beliefs and no prosecuting of religious wars. Yeah, there is quite a history building up to that in Ian Douglas books. Anyway, these didn’t want to sign that so they formed their own colony on a shit planet they figured no one else would want. Apparently, they didn’t take into account what the Sh’daar wanted nor how their minions would deliver on the Sh’daar wishes.
Meanwhile, marines were tasked to protect the colony found themselves besieged by the, spelling by ear, Tur’oosh. The Navy swoops in to attempt a save leading to the events that eventually form the title of the book. Enough with the spoilers and move on with the review; should I read or listen to this work?
The work is encumbered somewhat with multiple technological data dumps, some are repetitive. I’m not sure whose idea that was, author, editor, publisher...but after a bit it detracts from the work. That is not enough to dissuade me however. Having read many works by this author I have seen that his universe is skewed to the somewhat dark in that most everything he envisions us encountering will require a jingoistic military response. He may be right and this is after all military space opera, if something needs repelling or a good fight then let’s get the bastards!
The futuristic societal split on Earth between techies and Prims is kind of eye opening and not far off the mark. Techies embrace new tech, neural implants, altered features making them resemble forms they empathize with like Selkies or Elves. Prims refuse tech enhancement and live outside of the net cloud in abandoned structures. This may not be that far away.
I’m going with yes...you should read or listen to this series. The audio version kept me enthralled and the battle scenes where well done. The narrator did an excellent job conveying the gestalt of the Tur’oosh combatants seeking consensus between the mind above and the mind below. The author did a masterful job of conveying how even in futuristic space combat roles at near relativistic speeds and individual can still make a difference. Three satisfaction points instead of four because I feel the data dumps were overused. I would rather see characters in the story unveiling what is needed than the NARRATOR. That’s a Red Shirts reference. Enjoy!

Enough with the detailed description of technology

The story would be a whole lot better is there was more story and less description. I don't really need a T0&E of a unit, nor do I need a detailed description of a star drive, or details of other technology. The story is great please more character development. Hopefully this will improve in later installments.

Heavy on action, light on plot

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I don't regret listening to it, but I'm not rushing out to recommend it to everyone either. So take it or leave it.

What do you think your next listen will be?

Probably I'll return to an author I know, maybe something by Jack Campbell, like Lost Stars.

Any additional comments?

There's almost no character development in the entire book. It's hard to get really involved with a story when you can't care about the characters because they're all faceless. If you're looking for a good military sci-fi with character development, try the Honor Harrington, Lost Fleet, or Ark Royal series.

I love this series

You've got to get all of the rest of the books in the series. The military sci fi, the political environment, and the character development was plenty believable. In addition there is a lot of mystery about the protagonist alien species that keeps you guessing throughout the storyline. My only issue is that it currently stops at book 5.