Redoubtable

Kris Longknife, Book 8

By: Mike Shepherd

Narrated by: Dina Pearlman

Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's Summary

Lieutenant Commander Kris Longknife has precise orders: seek out, engage, and destroy pirates, slavers, and drug lords operating beyond the rim of human space - without interfering in Peterwald family affairs. But when slavers kidnap a 12-year-old girl, Kris's mission becomes personal. And if destroying the pirate compound flattens some Peterwald interests - well, to hell with politics.

Listen to another Kris Longknife adventure.

©2010 Mike Moscoe (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Kris and Vicky work together

This is book eight in the Longknife series. Kris was promoted to Lieutenant Commander at the end of the last book and sent back to the Rim to patrol for pirates and watch the Greenfeld (Peterwald) territory. Kris is still healing from the wounds she received in the last book and Nelly is enjoying her new babies. Kris is disappointed because she wanted to go hunting for what is happening to the lost ships in book 7. She is now in command of a small fleet of pirate hunters.

Kris arrives to help Kaskatos, a planet suffering from a famine but before she can help the inhabitants she must deal with renegade soldiers stealing what little food there is on the planet. To add further problems for Kris the planet is technically in Greenfeld territory and outside Kris’s jurisdiction. Now she must carry on political negotiation with the Peterwald, on top of helping the planet dealing with pirates and so on. There is less interaction between crew members in this story and more about the Kris and the Peterwald family. Kris and Vicky continue to work on a friendly relationship. Abby’s niece Kara is kidnapped Kris and Vicky join forces to search and rescue Kara.

As with the prior books in the series this book has lots of action, suspense and witty dialogue. The pace is very fast and Shepherd is good with the battle scenes. Kris has my favorite character in the book her personal computer “Nelly” and now the addition of “Nelly’s babies.” The personal computers are designed by Nelly for Kris’s key crewmen. Dina Pearlman continues her excellent narration of the series.

Call it a "bridge" in the series

While I love the Longknife series and will listen to every one, I felt this book did nothing to really stand out. Each of the previous books hooked you with some defining trauma or decision. This book, while it had the potential to create some real controversy between Kris and the Peterwalds, of heart-wrenching between the slavers and their teenage captor, took the easy road. Everyone's nice; every battle won without controversy. Overall, I felt like it was a bridge between Book 8 and what's to come.

I can't believe I enjoy this series so much

Would you listen to Redoubtable again? Why?

I am always looking for entertaining series that are easy to listen to and provide some escapism from academia and the evening news. The Kris Longknife books, while not cerebrally demanding are fun, creative and just good value for one credit. They are light but don't insult my intelligence and provide a nice balance of political intrigue, action, romance, and good characters. I will buy them all.

Classic or reduntant?

If you have read previous books in this series, which I recommend, then you should know that book follows the overall storyline but doesn't really make much of an impact. If you have enjoyed the planetary drama of previous books, then you will probably love this one. Personally, I feel that Kris's willingness to stick herself in boiling kettle repeatedly despite everyone's urging not to ... is unrealistic and crazy - Longknife or not. However, I'm still looking forward to Kris's adventures beyond the rim and into unknown space.

Ends the second arc

With this 8th book, we conclude the second arc (dealing with the new jump points/pirates). Kris is still healing from the bomb attack that nearly killed her last book and has adopted a much more mature mien as a result. She's a lot more serious and contemplative, giving us some good character development.

Story: Kris ends up in the outskirts of Peterwald territory and finds herself in the middle of a bad situation. A colony is overtaxed with refugees fleeing a nearby and important Peterwald world where corruption has got out of hand. It's a delicate situation for Kris: she doesn't dare overstep her bounds but she also can't look away from the atrocities being committed on two worlds: a vicious warlord on one and a callous political leader on the other.

So far, Kris has had to deal with being a green navy recruit with the Longknife legacy/drama and until now, being a captain exploring new areas and rooting out pirates and warlords. With the arrival of the iteechee, her universe just got a lot bigger and she now has a reason to really hold those fuzzy jumpoints close.

There is a lot of action on two worlds and as usual, Kris has to problem solve her way out of it. More and more, she is delegating to subordinates or splitting them up to attact different points of the problem. More and more, we are seeing Vicky Peterwald in the picture.

There is some character development -Jack really figuring out his feelings for the princess, Vicky growing as she orbits Kris, Abbie's maternal instinct's kicking in over Cara, Penny moving on, and Kris sobering to the reality that she has been very foolish in the past and likely won't get away with that in the future. Her injuries in her leg affect/carry on in this novel.

Note: I listened to the audio version and the narrator (who is there for the entire series) does an excellent job as usual. The audio was a bit off in this one, however, and she sounded like she was in a wind tunnel. It is quite distracting in the beginning.

Kinda Just Filler

Overall this is an enjoyable book but it does not really move the plot forward at all.

The entire story pretty much has that been there done that feel to it. It took me two tries to get through it because nothing new ever seems to happen. It is just another story where Kris saves people and a planet or two from the bad guys. Not much more of the universe or the people in it is fleshed out, not even any new tech. The story just feels phoned in.

Pearlman is the same as always. She has a lot of voices and brings personality to each character.

I have enjoyed the Longknife series and already own the next book. While going through this one is not bad it is seemingly totally skippable (though I doubt anyone this deep into the series would do that) and not as good as really any of the others so far.

What is up with the narrater??????

Someone needs to hit the FF button, if you have listen to this series you will know what I mean. I do not know if the narrater is trying to fix what others have complained about in her reading, but she should have left well enough alone. Now it seem as if she is in slow motion or really tired, not shore. I have only listened to about an hour, and I am hopping that she get faster as she goes.

Another Great in the Series

Some reviewers have said or implied that the story is "ho hum" or the narration is "sub-par". I disagree. The narration of this book was just as good, or better than the rest of the series. The story has many twists and turns. I will finish the series and expect from a sci-fi series that looks at gun control, lack of gun of control, democracy, noblesse oblige, adolescent rearing, theocracy, aliens, war, peace, among other ideas via the science fiction forum.

Of course, if the worst thing they can pick on are such lowly things, it is a positive recommendation in itself. One more to go in the series and I am looking forward to it!

Same old same old

Mike and Kris run out of steam. Same old same old.
They were fun while they lasted, but they're long gone.
Not recommended.

still a great listen

loved it. this is the 8th book and continue to enjoy the story and how the characters grow with the things that happen.

This is diehard

I don't know how Chris is staying alive and I need more on Jack and his feelings!! I loved all the kids in this book as well as the awesome power of ship lasers.