The Fortress in Orion

October 6, 2014
Resnick returns to his Birthright universe with this middling launch title for the Dead Enders series. His take on the military caper novel in space is entertaining, but it lacks the verve of his earlier space westerns. Col. Nathan Pretorius, recovering after a near-fatal mission, is recruited by the Democracy to assemble a crack team, infiltrate the world of the alien Kabori, and replace their top general with a clone. He gathers a strongman, a thief, a hacker, an empath, and a shapeshifter of sorts, and they set off. Along the way, there are surprisingly few challenges, most of them subverted with relative ease, so tension never has a chance to develop. As always, Resnick includes larger-than-life characters and interesting ideas (e.g., Proto isn’t a true shapeshifter because he projects images into people’s heads, but still remains his usual self), but the plot limits their opportunity to shine, and few of the folks Pretorius meets on the way offer interesting diversions.

November 15, 2014

Five-time Hugo Award winner Resnick ("Weird West Tales"; The Cassandra Project, coauthored with Jack McDevitt) begins a new series in his Birthright Universe with more of a whimper than a bang. Col. Nathan Pretorius is the Democracy's go-to officer for impossible missions, and this one is the craziest yet. Pretorius must smuggle a clone of the leading alien general into a fortress deep in enemy space, establish him there, and kill or kidnap the actual general. Rather than use a military force, Pretorius insists on choosing his team, which includes a cyborg, a computer whiz, a contortionist, and a not-quite shapeshifter. Once the team is assembled, everything goes pretty much according to plan, which is the novel's weakness. The characters are provocative enough, as is the mission, but Pretorius, as written, is just too clever. He anticipates and plans for all obstacles. This works out well for the characters but leaves little in the way of excitement or suspense for the reader. VERDICT This series opener establishes characters with potential; however, future volumes will need to ratchet up the peril in order to satisfy fans.--Eric Norton, McMillan Memorial Lib., Wisconsin Rapids

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2014
In the far-flung future, humankind is at war with a vast alien empire, the Traanskei Coalition. The human empire, the Democracy, concocts a bold plan: penetrate an enemy stronghold (the book's titular fortress) and switch out the Coalition's strategic commander with a human-engineered clone. Colonel Nathan Pretorius is the only man who could possibly pull off such an audacious mission. Pretorious assembles his crewa cyborg, a master thief, a computer whiz, an empath, a shape-changing alien, and the all-important human cloneand heads off into enemy space. The book has the feel of a late-1960s, early-'70s caper movie: slick plotting, broadly drawn characters, breezy dialogue. Best of all, it doesn't make a big deal about being set centuries down the road. Resnick takes the typical caper-flick elementsstealing a car, sneaking past the copsand gives them spacey new appearances (cars equal spaceships), but the message is clear: what is the future to us is just home for these guys. The book is the first of a new series, the Dead Enders, and if future installments are as fun as this one, it's sure to be a winner.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)