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Von

Know thy Enemy

Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2018

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Everyone once in a while a book comes along that serves as the gold standard for their genre.This book isn't quite that, but it does make that cut for the sub-genre. This book, along with 'The Way of the Pilgrim', stand at the top of the pile for the science fiction sub-genre of books that begin with the premise 'So the Earth has been conquered, and the conquerers are not all evil monsters that simply need killing'.

IMO the most important part of this sub-genre, along with several other fantasy and sci-fi sub-genres, is the way the hero understands, or fails to understand, the 'enemy' culture. Which implies that the author has to have done a good job at inventing, and then at relaying to the reader, that same 'enemy' culture.

Because for this sub-genre the important 'coming of age' for the hero has to be where they begin to understand, and then use that understanding, the 'enemy' culture. And then they use that understanding to change the relationship between the two people. This book does that superbly, alternating between the two sides, with both sides coming to understand the other. A 'must read' for sci-fi-fi people interested in this particular sub-genre, and worth reading for any sci-fi-fi fan.

Amazon Customer

Earth is not always top dog.

Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2019

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I've seen some books where Earth is the top planet. I've seen some books where Earth has to have a helping hand from other space races. This is one where Earth is conquered but fights back. Battlefield Earth is another one where Earth is almost extinct. This is one where a conqueror doesn't want to eliminate earth but wants to know how earthmen held off the conquerors with weapons below the technology of the invaders. I am still trying to figure out if the main character, Ailli, is a walking seal or a walrus. The story does hold the reader's interest.

Kindle Customer

Excellent work of science fiction

Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2019

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This is a very well written piece, with characters who draw you in to love and to hate. Honestly it would be really fun for a fantasy artist to draw up a picture of what these aliens would look like based on the descriptions depicted in this book. Between the wealth of human ingenuity and the desire of the Jao to work with that ingenuity and make the humans of use against the mysterious Ekhat, this book kept my attention from page one! I am looking forward to see how the new kochan of human and Jao work together to find new ways to defeat their common enemy, the Ekhat. Highly recommend this book!

Bc15963

Great story and reflection onour times

Reviewed in the United States on November 2, 2018

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Thoroughly enjoyed this story. As I have political ads running in the background, both lying about what the candidates will do and saying what there opponents are going to do, I can't help but to draw parallels to this story. The misreading of the politicians, likre the ruling factor inthis story, predicting doom and gloom and not realizing that problems are opportunities. Some which will be successfully solved and others that won't. Good military interactions and storytelling. I know alot of folks may not agree with this review until you get to the end of the book. The ending will bring this into focus.

Extremely Powerful Sci-fi

Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 2016

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The Course of Empire is one of if not the best sci-fi book I've ever read. That said, the first three pages had so may alien words without explanation, I almost stopped reading it. The more I read, the better it got. The scope of this book is phenomenal, not just in the spacial concepts but in the unique view of humanity from alien perception filtered through their concepts of life. The depth of character building, galactic relationships, novel approaches to alien lifeforms, and the weaving of human and alien cultures are off the scale. I'm still fascinated with the concepts in this book two days after finishing it. The result is my usual perception, sci-fi has humans vs aliens, has shifted to a much more integrated approach for the future.
I do highly recommend this book to sci-fi / fantasy readers.

William Henley

Solid alien-invasion story

Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2013

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I'm a fan of Eric Flint's writing (though I don't know much about K.D. Wentworth) but somehow I missed reading this book until it turned up as a free ebook on Amazon. Now I've found that some of these "free" ebooks turn out to be worth the price, but this is not one of those instances. "Course of Empire" is a good, solid read and I enjoyed it-- and will probably pay actual money for the sequel. (I'm giving the book four rather than five stars only because I prefer to reserve that rating only for something I think is really spectacular.) The story, briefly: Some 20 years ago, Earth was conquered by an alien race known as the Jao. Under a brutal Jao governor, humans are being treated badly, especially in places such as America which put up the most resistance to the Jao conquest. Now a young, though high-ranking and brilliant, member of the Jao culture comes to Earth and tries to learn to understand humans, and win their trust and loyalty, so that humans can join more effectively in the fight against the Ekhat, another alien race who are not a fake bogeyman as most conquered humans suppose, but a real planet-destroying threat. The emphasis is more on developing the alien Jao culture, and contrasting it with human culture, rather than blood-and-thunder action. One bit of a cliche crops up; this is one of several alien-invasion novels I've seen where the idea is developed that the aliens are really less creative and less capable of technical advancement than the humans, but are initially capable of defeating the humans only because they (the aliens) have been around longer to slowly develop their technology. Here, however, this is given as the reason why the humans and the Jao need each other as allies rather than enemies, rather than the reason the humans finally defeat the aliens.

Top reviews from other countries

Bilbo Dunion

Better than expected

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 23, 2019

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I got this book as an offer and had low expectations of a pot boiler generic tale. There are indeed expected tropes yet the author managed to exceed the limitations and had managed to create characters and world view to draw the reader in. I would be very happy to read another episode of this tale. In a way it harks back to E. E. (Doc) Smith and the golden age of Sci Fi. An homage to the zeitgeist whilst opening new windows to defenestrate plots through.

Roger Elwell

Takes a While to Get Going

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 18, 2013

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It's about half-way through before anything of real substance happens in this book. Up until then, much of the activity centres on the arrival of an alien commander and his gathering of knowledge about the conquered human race. Only after around the half-way point do things really start to happen.

For all that, the story is plausible and quite interesting, and the second half of the book makes up for the slow start - if you can get through that 50% or so.

A fair amount of thought and planning clearly went into defining the alien species, down to the naming convention for the clans, etc., and that is certainly interesting to see.

I would read this again.

Paulus

Don't Miss It!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 28, 2014

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This is an amazing novel which had me hooked from beginning to end. Basically it is about the interaction between humans on Earth and the alien Jao race that has conquered them, whilst lurking in the background is a threat from another bunch of aliens, the Ekhat, bent on wiping out all other races in the universe. But it is so much more than that. It is lengthy,extremely well written and the Kindle version not only has few typos but is actually free at the time of writing this review. If you enjoy sci-fi don't miss this one, it is up there with the all time greats.

Kindle Customer

Very imaginative, a fun read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 14, 2003

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This has got to be one of the best human/alien interaction books I have ever read. It's not so much that this story is about alien conflict, the story takes place twenty years after Earth is conquered, but rather about how humans and aliens learn to live and fight together for their common survival. What I found so great about this was the way the authors wove alien customs and thought processes into the story. The Jao were truly believable and there actions and motives came across as alien rather than being human with just an alien flavour as so many sci-fi novels seem to do.

Well worth the hardback cover price.

Hard but Fair

A twisty tale of interstellar intrigue

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 26, 2016

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Looking for an independence day style alien invasion, sorry wrong house, this is more political back stabbing with a few action scenes thrown in to appease those who brought it in error.
But it does do a great job of humans encountering a more powerful alien race, without giving away to much it is pretty much how you would really expect it to go without the syrupy hollywood ending.

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