Dragon Award Finalist, Best Mil Sci Fi: A Call To Vengeance

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...and the bare-bones text link for ad blocker users: A Call to Vengeance by David Weber, Timothy Zahn, and Thomas Pope.

Preliminaries and disclaimers. This is the 18th AND LAST book review I'll be doing for the finalists for the 2018 Dragon Award; this is also the 5th (and last) of the books in the 'Best Military Science Fiction or Fantasy Novel' category, out of the six finalists.

A quick recap: For the 'Best Science Fiction Novel' category, I was able to get 4 out of 6 finalists.

'Best Fantasy Novel (Including Paranormal)' category, 5 of 6.

'Best Alternate History Novel' category, 4 of 6.

No conclusions should be drawn about the 6 novels I couldn't obtain. I contacted all of the authors, with a single exception, but it's likely that my signal got lost in all the noise that the Dragon Award and good book sales generates. Therefore, if you have the chance to read one of the books I didn't review, take it. It's probably a good book. 

The only author I did NOT attempt to contact was Brandon Sanderson, who wrote 'Oathbringer;' and the reason I didn't make the attempt is because that book was described as massive and 'epic,' and I just couldn't see giving a disproportionate amount of time reading even a GREAT book, when I was under a deadline. 

As a reminder, I STARTED this series as soon as word of the Finalists came to me in the form of a ballot, which was August 8. So, I had 23 days in which to get these read and reviewed. I originally had planned to include the  'Best Young Adult / Middle Grade Novel' category as well, which would have meant a total of 30 possibilities, but I quickly discovered that NONE of the books in that category were available to me through my usual sources, and decided not to try to make contact with any of those authors/publishers. 

There were 8 books in the categories I DID select which required me to contact authors and request a review copy, and 3 of those complied. Baen Books provided me with 4 books; the remainder I got through Kindle Unlimited.

A brief and inadequate review. Now, only PART of the reason for the shortcomings of this review is due to my mental state at 9 PM on Friday night after a three week reading & reviewing marathon. The other part is that this book, like many others on the list, is a single installment in a series. However, unlike the other finalists, the three volume series is only a small part of the overall body of work in the Honor Harrington/Manticore universe. It's a bit of a numbing experience to try to do justice to a single patch in the quilt.

That isn't meant to be a criticism of the book. It's well-written, good characters, good story; all the things you want to find when you pick up a space opera, with a sufficient quantity of exploding spaceships. The ONLY way in which the book suffers from being a part of such an extensive library is that the cast of characters is....massive. I include in 'characters' not only people, but factions, governments, and entire systems. They are so developed in the OTHER parts of the body of work, that they have to be included to some extent in any installment that isn't specifically limited to a specific individual or incident; for example, the treecat-human relationship. That can be, and was, executed with very little reference to the outside world. In a novel of this type, though, those well-developed entities must appear, and it can be overwhelming, unless you have made it a point to read everything in this universe.

And speaking of: Lt. Travis Long is a young man of proficient skills, as well as the ability to have flashes of insight that can make the difference in a battle. He does NOT have the ability to keep his mouth shut when people with power and influence are being stupid, and that gets him into trouble. Fortunately for him, his talents have been noticed by people who are a bit above the ordinary political games, and he is given the opportunity to develop some additional sets of skills (as in: espionage).

Elizabeth had the misfortune to be born a royal, but because she had an older brother who bore children, she was able to do things other than be an aristocrat. That didn't last. It's rather amazing just how far the reach of her commitments to her people goes.

And meanwhile, everyone in the entire planetary system has been placed on notice that their lives and security are nothing more than dust in the wind, when repeated attacks by unknown forces bring every defect in their naval defenses to light, in the worst way possible.

Conclusions and comments. I had a VERY strange experience as I started to read this work: I felt like I was sinking into a relaxing pool of water, and letting all my weary muscles get a rest. I really wasn't expecting that; yes, I have greatly enjoyed stories in this universe before, but I wouldn't claim to be a devotee. However, I just KNEW I was going to enjoy reading the book, that it wasn't in ANY sense going to be a struggle. Thus, I can highly recommend that you read this, BUT:

BUT, you really shouldn't make this the FIRST book you read. Certainly, you should read the first two entries in this mini-series; to get the full impact, read a LOT more of the installments in the Manticore story.

And that raises the question, for me at least, of whether or not this book, ON ITS' OWN MERITS, deserves selection as the BEST military sci-fi novel. I think that's going to have to be a personal decision, since I'm not aware of any criteria that recommend OR exclude it from consideration.

Final thought: Earlier in this series, I mentioned Rob Howell in the context of providing hypertext links to the wiki supporting his work. Once again, I really have occasion to recommend that approach. It takes a while to be able to learn who the good guys are, and who the bad guys are, and I'm NOT referring to various political parties within a government; I'm talking about the guys driving the ships. While that would have to be managed carefully to avoid spoilers, it seems to me that providing links to an Order of Battle would be relatively easy. So, when I say to myself, "Who in the heck is THIS guy?" I can click on his name, and find out. It really doesn't even have to be as complex and as elegant as what Rob is doing; if you can insert footnotes, why CAN'T you provide a scorecard? 

Eh. Maybe it's not a big deal. If it is, it will happen. 

Peace be on your household.

Dragon Award Finalist, Best Mil Sci Fi: Price of Freedom

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Preliminaries and Disclaimers.  This is review #17 in the series I'm doing on the finalists for the 2018 Dragon Award, and is #4 in the category of 'Best Military Science Fiction.' It's also the next to last of the books I'm reviewing, which is a good thing, since Dragon Con is this weekend, and voting ends at midnight tomorrow. It's ALSO the last of the books I was able to get through the Kindle Unlimited program, which was the biggest single source of all the books I obtained, with 11 coming from KU, four coming from Baen, and three received directly from the author.

Several of the books I reviewed were part of a series, going as deep as #8, I believe. "Price of Freedom" is number three in the series, and I suppose it was inevitable that this was going to happen: : I had problems with continuity.

The authors took pains to keep that from happening, with an exhaustive cast of characters listed in the front of the book. Alas, that wasn't enough for me. Your mileage may vary.

An utterly inadequate book review. The defects in this review are completely due to my inability to grasp the Big Picture of the story arc. Incidents are described clearly, dialogue is usually informative and snarky, with pleasing references to ever-popular cult movies such as Monty Python's Quest For the Holy Grail, and I understood the significance SOMEWHAT of the main battle, but I really didn't know how it all fit together. So:

A dimensional rift exists on a planet far out on the frontier of known space (that's NOT the Niven Known Space!), and monsters are coming in. The Bad Company goes in to wipe out the monsters, rescue to inhabitants, and gain access to a portable power plant technology that will revolutionize warfare, communications, and pretty much everything else.

Meanwhile, one of the sentient computers is going to night school to become more advanced. The resident Mad Genius is a bit miffed at being told what to do, and hundreds of liberated prisoners housed nearby go nuts when they see a woman. 

Yeah. Not much of a review, was it? Don't get me wrong: I ENJOYED reading the book. It's just that in this particular case, THIS reader wasn't able to make sense of how all the characters interacted, and where the story came from, and where it was going. The humor and pathos of duct-taping a sentient German Shepherd face-to-muzzle with a team leader was not lost on me, nor were the other japes and jams; I just never knew, when a particular person/event entered the picture, if that was unusual, or something everyone expected to happen. 

Conclusion. While the writing was entertaining, I suffered from lack of story. If you have been reading the series, everything is likely to make sense, and therefore, you might see this as the perfect candidate for the Dragon Award for Best Military Sci Fi. I can't support that choice, because it's just TOO dependent on prior work to stand on its' own. I have no idea as to how popular this series is, and if there is a huge population out there which was waiting breathlessly for this installment, it might cop the award.

Peace be on your household.

Dragon Award Finalist, Best Fantasy Novel: The Traitor God

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Preliminaries and Disclaimers. This is book #16  in my series of 2018 Dragon Award finalists, and is the 5th and LAST book in the category 'Best Fantasy Novel.' That's 3 out of 4 categories completed; I have two more Military Sci-Fi books to read and review to complete the not-quite-Herculean task I assigned myself.

This book was not available through my usual sources, but the author responded most kindly and promptly to my request for a review copy, for which I am grateful. In this picture, you can see in the background the reason that so one in Scotland grows rice: the land goes up and down, not side to side.

A Scotsman (not on a horse)

And speaking of pictures, this is only my opinion, BUT: I like the cover art. It's by a person who is so cool, my ordinary character set won't even get the name right. Using the American English character set, though, it's Jan Wessbecher, and you can check out the art for yourself if you like.

A review, sort of. Ten years ago, Edrin Walker made a solemn promise: first, {do something}; second, leave town and never come back; third, never talk to anyone about anything.  In exchange, his only friends in the world would live. As a post-script: "Oh, yeah: don't let the monsters kill ya, but for that you are on your own."

Leaving was rather a sad thing, what with having to start a new life without the friends he loved dearly; and because of the monsters, he had to keep on the run, so he couldn't settle down and make new friends. But not telling anybody anything?

That was easy: with respect to the bracketed 'do something' statement referenced up above, he had not a clue.  Evidently, someone had made partial amnesia part of the deal. 

He didn't COMPLETELY sever all ties, though; he and his best friend had arranged via magic to have a mental connection. It wasn't enough for real communication, but it did allow him a thin sense of companionship with his best friend Lynas, who remained in Setharis, the magic capital of the empire. And, as long as he has a sense of Lynas' well-being, Walker will continue to stay away and not talk.

Then, a bad thing happens. 

Just as he is about to move on down the road (down the sea, actually), nasty pirate people try to kill him; they DO kill other people; and they burn down the town of Ironport, where Walker has been lingering until his ship left.

In the midst of this, Lynas sends a series of frantic, high bandwidth messages: he is being hunted; he has been caught; he is being killed horribly; and then, inexplicably, his last message is of a scene when he and Walker were on the receiving end of a rather nasty schoolboy prank.

We discover later that the prank nearly cost them both their lives, and that this was what had cemented their friendship, all those long years ago.

Without entering into the land of spoilers, the rest of the book is a murderous magical mystery, with monsters, meanies, and memories, all making an appearance at the appropriate time.

Some minor commentary. I found that the scenery almost rose to the level of a character from time to time. For example, Walker rents a room, sleeps on the straw mattress, and wakes up in the morning itching, because the place is lice-infested. There are also numerous contrasts drawn between the squalor of the lower city, where the poor people live, and the clean, well-ordered streets of the upper city. This is particularly significant when Walker notices a decline in the maintenance of formerly prosperous areas. He also does a nice job of describing the filthy state of the water around the docks, and the pollution running through some of the waterways.

This is a perfect fit for this category; as I have mentioned before, I tend to avoid fantasy, so my opinion is that of an amateur, but I think this is well-done. Yes, magic IS used, BUT so are brains. It is as good a job of dragging out a reveal as anything I've seen anywhere. Perhaps it is easier to do that when the MC is cut off from part of his memories, but I don't think THAT should be a hindrance if you writing fantasy (or sufficiently advanced technology).

It's a good read, with strong characters exhibiting strength, self-sacrifice, and affection. I found it to be well worth my time, and I can recommend it as being well worth your investment; and, once again, I am compelled to say that if this one wins the Dragon Award, I would not be surprised.

Peace be on your household.

Dragon Award Finalist, 'Best Science Fiction Novel': Sins of Her Father

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Preliminaries and Disclaimers.  Unless I have miscounted, this is the 15th book I have reviewed in this series of Dragon Award Finalists. It is the 4th and last of the entries I will be reviewing in the 'Best Science Fiction Novel' category; I have yet to receive a response to my request for a review copy for the last two books in this category. By my count, after this book, I will have three more books to review, and 4 days to do it in, so that's a walk in the park.
This is the second novel in the series "Privateer Andromeda;" I have not read the first in the series, but I do believe that all of the important issues covered in the narrative of this work, without spending a lot of time on artificial means to bring the reader up to date.

A bit of a review. Nickson Armitage is at loose ends on Planet Heinlein. He has money, he has time, but he doesn't have a job, because he doesn't have a ship. His last ship was smashed when the captain got too ambitious in pursuit of an enemy warship, a mistake he paid for with his life, and the life of others.
Nick's not a fire-eater. He can handle a crisis as well as any man, but the appalling number of casualties on his last trip, and the evisceration of the ship upon returning to port have left him a bit skittish. Still he knows where his skills lie, and he makes a deal to return to the Deep Black with the crew of the Andromeda, on a run that looks, at first, to be a fairly straightforward VIP escort. It's critical to the understanding of his behavior for the rest of the story: Nick did the best job he could do, but despite his advice, the captain of his last ship got them into a fight they couldn't win. Nick did well to bring the pieces home. And he's tired, and he really, really doesn't feel prepared for another tour in a place where people are trying to kill him.
Zander Krycek, on the other hand, is rather used to people trying to kill him.  As the war leader who toppled a monarchy, and tried to rule as elected President, he is familiar with the people who use guns, as well as the people who use contracts and words, and he has stepped away from all of that. It really is a case of a voluntary resignation of power, in his case; and only the most dire circumstances would bring him out of retirement to re-enter the planet administration business. Enter, dire circumstances.
In a different corner of the galaxy, Wade Bishop and Marcus Winchester are doing a job that could have been done in Wyoming, any time from about 1870 until 2020 AD. There are some modern touches, but they are essentially doing law the way Wyatt Earp and Walt Longmire do law. And,as happened sometimes to those Western-style cops, the political ramifications trump the law business, and after shutting down the bad guys, but aggravating an undercover spook, they find themselves sitting beside the trail without even a gold watch.
And that's where the Andromeda's Captain Blackwood, with an offer to provide security for a man the entire galaxy seems to want dead.
There are two or three more MAJOR plot elements, but these few I've related are enough for me to set out what seems to be the core ethical issue here: What criteria do you use to know when to enter into a fight, especially a fight that could result in your death? Although THIS dilemma is expressed in terms of planetary warfare, those issues crop up for everyone. On one extreme, you have absolutely no stake in the outcome, and the outcome is trivial in nature. On the other extreme, you are completely invested (whether in terms of paycheck, patriotism, or family obligations, it doesn't matter), and the outcome might be as extreme as a matter of life and death. It's easy to make a decision based on the extremes, but on several occasions, the players in this drama get a much more tangled set of circumstances`.

Minor comments: There were several nicely done cultural references tossed in as little tidbits. I wanted to look at a map or globe of Planet Heinlein, and see what the other locations were named. I picked up on Coventry, but I tend to blow past names, so there may have been more nuggets I missed.

But, of ALL the characters I might have expected to crop up, NEVER would have anticipated this guy right here:

Homestar Runner

And with that, I'm done. You just CAN'T follow Homestar Runner with anything. At least, I can't.

So, this is my last review in the category 'Best Science Fiction Novel.' Of the four I read and reviewed, it really could go to any one of them. Good luck to all!

Peace be on your household.

Dragon Award Finalist, Best Mil SF: Ghost Marines - Integration

This blog post reminds us of  the life and sacrifices made by Sgt. Rodney M. Davis, USMC. He graduated from a segregated public school system in 1961, and joined an integrated Marine Corps. On September 6, 1967, at the age of 25, Sgt Davis gave his life that his fellow Marines could live.
When his body was returned to his family in his home town of Macon, GA, it could not legally be buried within the city limits. More than forty years later,  his burial site was rescued from obscurity, thanks to his fellow Marines, and by other concerned citizens.
I am honored to say I come from the same home town as Sgt. Davis.

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And for those of you WITH ad blockers, a text link: Ghost Marines: Integration

Preliminaries. This is the 14th book I have reviewed in the series for the 2018 Dragon Awards. This is only the THIRD military science fiction novel I have reviewed, which speaks of great restraint on my part, as mil sci-fi is by far my chosen diet of reading material. 

As straight-up military science fiction, it works, it works, it works! However, the author has chosen to have this work ALSO reflect a somewhat-ignored crisis point for Americans: the integration of blacks into all aspects of the military. He writes from the perspective of the Marine Corps, which is fitting, as he is a retired Marine officer. I was US Army enlisted, and I came along after the very worst resistance was over. There was plenty of hassle to go around, but I refer to the FORMAL resistance. The last person to hold the position of Secretary of War was forced to resign due to his refusal to cooperate with the orders to integrate all aspects of the services. As a trainee in 1972, I had some long-service instructors who had been in the Army since the earliest transitions, and one fine afternoon in a rage at some verbal example of trainee stupidity, an old black sergeant told us that in the old days, if a man called you by any name other than what was printed on your name tag, you just pick up your gun and shot him. The consequence: they fined you a dollar to pay for the cartridge, bought you a pack of cigarettes, and shipped you to another post. (I have since heard that procedure applied to a guard who shot a prisoner, but this was my first contact with the story.)

A review. Away off on some dusty backwater planet, young Leefe is beside himself with excitement, because his cousin is entering his coming-of-age ceremony. From context, we discover that these are not humans, and that the animal his cousin is facing is not a lion, and that there exists some tension between the dominant humans on the planet and Leefe's people. His cousin successfully fights off the deadly beast, and Leefe looks forward to his turn in some years later. That day is followed by the celebration of the preparation of the spices, and the entire village is geared up for the feast. In the midst of preparations, however, a human airship descends. To their horror, Leefe and the rest of the tribe discover they are slavers. The slavers quickly wipe out the elders, and begin paralyzing and binding the young, in preparation to loading them into the ship for transport. When all is lost, the Imperial Marines arrive, and make short work of the slavers, freeing Leefe and the other survivors.

A period of years later, Leefe and his friends have arrived at a Imperial Marine Corps recruiting station. He wishes to pay them back, and to become a warrior as well.

However, the prospective recruits are warned by a very senior elder that they must always be on their guard, because there is much resistance to them being joined to the Imperial Marines. Much of it, he doesn't understand; however, he does understand when he is treated with contempt, by those at the recruiting station, and later, by his training officers. 

Situations worsen when the small group of wyntonsn trainees are blended in with humans. Intended to keep Lief (his new, official name) and his people from suffering from discrimination, it has the effect of closing them off from self-support. 

We follow Lief and his companions through training, and see them encounter some often dramatic examples of bigotry. Other items, such as the lack of anything resembling their native food, are basically ignored as the cost of doing business. 

Deployment follows training, and the troops must individually determine the best way to make it forward. Frictions exist beyond the squad bay doors, and those must be addressed as well.

And if I haven't ALREADY tossed too many spoilers at you, then I'm stopping now. 

Closing comments.  As mentioned earlier, this book WORKS as a straight-up example of well-written mil sci fi. However, it's the recounting of the personal experiences that Leefe Leif had on their way to becoming Marines that is particularly striking to me. As I said, by 1972, when I entered the service, The worst of the institutional forms of racism were gone; that doesn't mean that there weren't still problems! But, I shared days in the army with guys who had been there, even before Truman had signed the first of the executive orders. And as a quiet mouse in a hole, stationed in the office as a runner, I heard some of the old-service guys talk about the old days, and whether they were better; it WASN'T a simple question.

Peace be on your household.

Dragon Award Finalist, Best Alternate History: Uncharted

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Preliminaries and Disclaimers. This is the 13th book I have reviewed in the series on Finalists for the 2018 Dragon Awards. This is the fourth book in the category of 'Best Alternate History Novel,' and will in all likelihood be the very last I review in this category(!), as thus far, requests for review copies of the other two finalists have gone unanswered.
I obtained my copy directly from the Baen website, although the book is also available on Amazon. I'm pretty sure I have never gotten a BAD book from Baen, although there have been a couple, but ONLY a couple, I didn't finish. I've also never gotten a bad book from either Sarah A. Hoyt or Kevin Anderson, DESPITE having to silently close the Magical Shakespeare trilogy and sneak away under the cover of darkness; I'm just not enough of a Shakespeare/ Shakespeare era scholar to catch the nuances. It's a personal failing, although not one that causes me much remorse. On the other hand, I'm neither a dragon scholar nor a diner scholar, and I love 'Draw One In The Dark' and the follow-up books. Go figure.

The review. Halley's Comet was destroyed in a massive battle of wizards. This resulted in some bizarre outbreaks of magic in North America; as far as the rest of the world, we just don't know, because there is an impenetrable barrier in the Atlantic Ocean, and thus no communication with any place in Europe.

Some of the same figures that were prominent in colonial America are still influential in this timeline. Thomas Jefferson lives as a wealthy planter, but has no role to play in government. Benjamin Franklin, on the other hand, has magically had his aging process arrested at about a vigorous 70, and is the most prominent wizard on the continent. He is quite famous, and fabulously wealthy, and at least as inquisitive as he was in real life.

He has been considering sponsoring a trip to explore the land west of the Mississippi, both to see what lies out there in that great undiscovered territory, as well as to determine if there is a possible route to Europe by crossing the Pacific. Following a serendipitous introduction to Meriwether Lewis, during a dragon attack of all things, he proposes that Lewis head up the expedition.

And thus, the famed Lewis and Clark Expedition of OUR timeline is initiated in theirs. Although this is a private venture, and not sponsored by a non-existing government, the essential purpose is the same, except for the magical components of this expedition.

A pleasing bit of research & writing: the names of the members of the fictional L&C expedition are the same as those of the real expedition. I wouldn't have noticed that, had I not been jotting the names of the characters down. In fact, even the original expedition dog Seaman is included in the book. That's nicely done, don't you think?

The 'Uncharted' expedition encounters the same environmental challenges that the original trip did: rivers, mountains, hostile natives, bugs, weather. And, just as happened on the original trip, Sacagawea appears to serve as a guide. However, her motivation in the book is that she is looking for the magical dragon warrior who can protect her and her child, and rescue her husband, along with the rest of the country, from the depredations of the evil wizard. Nasty, nasty person, this evil wizard: raises up long extinct predator animals (which we recognize as dinosaurs), who have a devastating impact on the buffalo herds; kills people an reanimates their bodies. Nasty guy.

The characters are depicted with sympathy. I can't really go into detail about this without spoilers, but I'm struck by how Sacagawea is presented as such a resolute and courageous figure, based STRICTLY on her human qualities. William Clark pours out his heart to his young fiance in Virginia, knowing his letters may never reach her; he strives to find the right words to tell his story, without bringing the horrors into her living room.

Alas, tragedy does strike others not a part of the expedition. One luckless trader/trapper, not very good at his work, is brought low by the pinpricks of a tribe of pygmies. Poor fellow, he was at one point forced to boil and eat his boots during a particularly bad winter, and was ever after known as Barefoot Johnny.

Even the deities of the natives are treated with respect. The two principals here are Coyote and Raven, and the writers do an excellent job, in my opinion, of demonstrating that whatever standard they think they might be judged by, it's doubtful that the opinions of the rapscallion explorers will be a factor in any way.

Concluding comments. The historical character of Meriwether Lewis just couldn't get a decent break, afer coming back from the expedition. He died alone, not many years after returning, and there is controversy to this day as to whether or not that was a result of murder or sucide. Read up on him; it will be enlightening. In THIS book, however, Anderson and Hoyt manage to put into his character some resiliency factors. It's a nice thing they did for him.

With respect to your vote for the Dragon, THIS is an alternate history novel, as are two other entries in this category ("Witchy Winter," by DJ Butler, and "Minds of Men," by Kacey Ezell). I can't speak for the two I requested but did not receive ("Dark State" by Charlie Stross, or "The Sea Peoples," by S.M Stirling), but any one of these three would be an excellent choice.

Tough call, isn't it?

Peace be on your household.

Dragon Award Finalist, Best Alternate History: Dream of the Iron Dragon

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Preliminaries AND Disclaimers. This is the 11th book I have reviewed in my series on the Finalists for the 2018 Dragon Awards; I've also written two additional blog posts ABOUT the series, that don't review specific novels. This is the third nominee in the category 'Best Alternate History Novel.'

Disclaimer: I am not on the Dragon Awards Committee, and that's something for which I am truly grateful. However, if I HAD been on the Committee, I don't think I could have allowed this as an entry in the 'Alternate History' category. Yes, it SAYS it's alternate history, right there in Amazon listing, the full version of which is: The Dream of the Iron Dragon: An Alternate History Viking Epic (Saga of the Iron Dragon Book 1). But, for those of us of a certain age, we remember that there used to be a product known as 'Carter's Little Liver Pills' that had absolutely nothing to do with the liver. Saying it don't make it so; this is a time travel story, mostly. A bit of mil sci-fi as well. But I just don't see calling it alternate history. 

The review part. In the present day, an American air force colonel and a British air force major are engaged in a cover-up of ancient artifacts related to space travel. The current find is a thousand-year-old space helmet.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, two hundred years in the future, humans have zoomed all the way from space flight to space colonies to space empires to space refugees, with only a few, out of the way planets still alive on the losing side of the genocidal war waged by the Cho-ta'an. An exploratory probe ship picks up a beamed transmission of the first 17 numbers in the Fibonacci sequence. The author, by the way, includes those number, split into two bite-sized pieces, for those of us who have forgotten what the Fibonacci sequence is. I appreciated that.

The beam is, of course, from the aliens. A splinter group, actually, evidently infected with a love of numerology, and SERIOUSLY out of favor with the Cho-ta'an leaders. They have discovered a planet-busting bomb in the ruins of an abandoned race, and have flagged down the humans so they can present it to them, so the humans can wipe out the Cho-ta'an home world.

I was seriously tempted to spell the alien name differently every time I used it in this blog post. Cho-at'an, Cho-ta'ra, Cha-ta'ru, and so on. Would you have caught me in that feeble attempt to protest alien names, Gentle Reader? I think not.

Wait: we haven't gotten to the weird part yet.

A different alien faction decides to retrieve the planet buster (it liquefies solids, briefly, long enough for all life to die and buildings to fall) , and chases the human exploratory ship. At high accelerations. High enough that it's not safe to use a warp gate, but there is no other option, and at the warp gate, SHAZAM! enough bad things happen that the humans AND the aliens are transferred back through time, to Earth in 883 AD. The human ship is damaged, no longer capable of interstellar voyage, and the aliens are still after them.

However, this IS an exploratory ship, after all, and thus there are a number of scientists and engineers aboard, in addition to the regular Navy-type ship's crew, so they put their heads together and come up with some CRAZY ideas. One of them, of course, is So Crazy That It Just Might Work, and so they send a landing party of four down to Earth so they can fix the Big Metal Thing That Makes It Work. Those four are Head Engineer, Chemist/Geologist, Biologist/Shuttle Pilot, and the (usually red-shirted) security guy who is a former Marine/amateur historian, and y'all ain't gonna BELIEVE this, but in the future, Space Marines provide their own MEDICS, and he is one of those, too! I don't know HOW that happened, because the Navy provides the Marines with medics, but, this IS a work of fiction, right?

And then, all the typical clash-of-cultures-across-time things happen. Book ends, not so much on a cliff-hanger, but on a 'here's what we are gonna do next' note.

Commentary. I do NOT know how you can communicate a Fibonacci series unless you have a shared language system, but evidently all that is worked out.
I also don't know how you go from where we are today to the peak of technology they were at before the aliens appeared, in only two hundred years.
The social/ political systems have changed enough that there is support for a galaxy-wide ban on eating meat. That's carried over to the point that the engineer has a conniption fit when she discovers that some horses are going to be used as meat. It's a big issue; really it is.
I found this to be fascinating reading. Even though I didn't particularly like any of the characters, except for a couple of the Vikings on 883 Earth, I was intrigued at how they were going to survive, once they lost the high-tech weapon systems.
In all of the other time-traveler stories where the people from the future have to go back to black powder, the sulfur is just...there. In some cases, and I'm thinking particularly of 'The Wheel of Time' series, the future-tech people have access to a highly developed transportation system, and mines are already established. However, I had no idea that iron pyrite (fools gold) could be processed to produce sulfur, but the author did; and that is, by the way, a real thing, that was at one time a common industrial process.

A sort-of conclusion. The book is highly entertaining, and I can recommend it as an interesting read. With respect to the Dragon Award in the 'Best Alternate History' category, though, I'm just not making the connection. However, it's pretty obvious that others do NOT hold to the rather narrow definition of 'Alternate History' that I evidently have developed, else it would not be included in that category. So, you be the judge; that's the way it works!

Peace be on your household.