2 comments

1. 

   Jamison - July 22, 2017 3:33 am

   This is my review of the barebones main file of Admiral’s Nemesis. I will do an executive summary, and then a longer, more involved version. I will number the longer version, so you can pause and come back to it whenever you want. (Something about my posts be long and you having to slog through them. )

   So, first, the Executive Summary: Awesome! As a recover/rebuild and political/spy intrigue story, it was excellent. I also really enjoyed the wider glimpses into the galaxy at large, and seeing the reasons of why the Spine was literally abandoned, and what the hells been going on out in the Empire. Really loved Jason getting back at Isaac the way he did, all the over the place. And the spy games played between Jason and Parliament agents was cool!

   All said and done; excellent rest, recover, build up, political intrigue and stage setting story.

   Now, for the longer, more in depth one:

   1) Loved the battle of wills and politics between Jason and Isaac! That was a long time coming and was really well done. By now Isaac has got to come to grips with the fact that Jason is clever, not deluded, and by and large, knows what the hell he is doing. The general hubris of the government people, and old salt high ranking military officers in the Spine has been hurting them more and more in regards to Jason, and Isaac, at this point, has got to see that by now, and maybe, much as he may hate to, address it, if only for himself, so he won’t be blindsided, again.

   2) What the hell is going on with Spalding and the Elder Tech stuff? I really hope that’s more of the extra stuff you are working on to fill that out, because you’ve whetted the appetite a lot, and it’s looking interesting. You’ve also been hinting at the big stuff coming, stuff you’re brother seems to be setting up, and it’s cool, but still pretty vague, which I guess is the point so far.

   3) I don’t fully get the political mess Isaac has; they won. Winning usually makes people feel better, and how do a collection of Core World populations, that number in the billions, each, get all bent out of shape of a war stopping a multi-Sector invasion costing only thousands? Are they that used to peace and good times? After a couple years of pirates, droids, inter-system wars, and warlords run amuck? Even Jason, being portrayed by them as the Tyrant of the space ways, after years of that, wouldn’t their mindset get tougher, if only to survive and deal with it? I’m glad he’s in the mess he’s in, but I don’t get all the emotional drive of the mess itself. They were invaded by an outside Imperial Force, that included a Command Carrier, suffered a war they didn’t start, yet still won. Shouldn’t people be celebrating?

   4) The cartoon stuff is hilarious! It needs a little more addressing, like Jason or somebody walking into a crew lounge and watching it with a big crowd and getting a kick out of it, then maybe some older hands, like Gants or whoever, mentioning how most of its actually accurate. But otherwise, loved the whole thing, including Jason disliking his midget doppelgänger! That was hilarious!

   5) Jason needs a wardrobe update; translation: He needs a badass overcoat that goes with the cartoon image of the Tyrant of Cold Space! I mean, if your enemies are going to make you out to be a badass, terrifying monster of a super villain, you may as well enjoy what you can out of it. Maybe some Storm Drake hide, treated to be a cool black color with Jason’s House insignia and Confederation symbol and ranks on it?

   6) His wife and family stuff was nice. There just needs to be more of it. That’s my only real complaint/suggestion here; more of the wife and kids, maybe even the mother and mother in law getting together for a big visit; that would be amusing to read.

   7) The political spy games were good. So happy some of that got some play. Gants and crew may not be the sharpest or best trained, but even they ought to wonder why the Chief they caught screwing with everyone’s placement and files suddenly got a jammer and fake ID’s after visiting the Fortune Tellers Shop, when he clearly didn’t have that stuff at the start. And if not the Armory Crew, then definitely his Armsmen should pick up on that when they get ahold of the files. I so want to see a meeting/confrontation between Sean and Fortune Teller Lady.

   8) The anti-machine mutiny/parliament agent attempted assassination was well thought out and well done. Enjoyed Heirophant’s battle with the mutineers, and the Space Commando’s earned their keep! If I were Jason, after nearly having my children murdered with a bio-engineered plague in the middle of a anti-machine mutiny, I would be so mad I’d shove the whole droid situation right down their throats! After the mess was over, I would get the anti-matter production facility built, then just hire the droids, and pay them not with worker wages, since apparently that’s illegal, but with “equipment maintenance” fees, since technically they are equipment, just equipment that happens to be sentient. And if the mutineer guys or their sympathizes get worked up over it, I would just offer to have them work some shifts over in the radiation deadly facility for a few weeks, and see how they enjoy constantly being irradiated and then decontaminated, over and over. That would probably shut them up real quick.

   9) If anyone bitches about the droids after this mess, Jason can just come out and point out how their compatriots, who attempted mutiny, also tried to kill him, their commanding officer, by trying to infect and murder his infant children with an illegal Bio-Weapon. I imagine that’ll shut them up long enough for everyone to get used to the droids and get over it, or at least enough of them that any future anti-machine crap, which at this point is really a bunch of bigoted whiners, won’t get much traction. Certainly not before the next Imperial Invasion.

   10) The confrontation between Jason and Oleelander, that was great! But it did have a problem with it; didn’t Jason already learn that he was a clone, or a 95% clone from his Mom? For that matter, after his loony sister tried to assassinate him, all the AI background stuff came out in the open, for him at least. He learned of Capria’s bad past, or most of it, knew there was some sort of organization that his Mom and crazy Sister belonged too, and knew that they had some sort of connection with his wife’s people. And he knew that Parliament was involved in fighting them, and using the old, long dead AI’s as an excuse for any tactics they chose to use. Granted he didn’t know all of the nitty gritty mess, but he certainly knew more, or at least, I thought he knew more before Oleelander started ranting at him. Still love that scene, love the context and lore we get to learn, and the reaction after it, but I thought he already knew some of this stuff?

   11) He should’ve called Oleelander a klutz, and made fun of him being so incompetent at killing people that Jason thought his honest attempts to kill him were just him being a klutz.

   12) Jason’s Mom should be confronted, again. Also, his Mom should confront Oleelander, or at least, it would be cool if she did.

   13) The political knives, games, and battles inside the Imperial Senate and the Confederation Assembly were awesome! Loved it, and can’t wait to see the repercussions of it.

   14) Everyone wants to know where Gambit Shipyards is. That I thought was cool, but it needed more; a chapter or part of one where various groups have meetings on progress and attempts to find it, and the information they know about it, and why they want to find it. I mean, why the hell does Capital, a world in another Sector of space, even care? That was all cool, it just needs a little more meat or context or lore to it, or feels like it does.

   15) There should be some sort of issue made between the fleets at Easy Haven after Jason leaves, such as between the ones who switched over to the Govenerors control, and the ones who stayed loyal. Maybe Easy Haven will allow the loyal ships to dock in the future, but keep out the disloyal ones?

   16) Loved all the interplay between the various established characters and their banter. It was hilarious. The Sundered should be in there some more. Surely Glue has had a chance to heal? They should be at least mentioned other then when everyone was talking about what ships to give them. Love that they’re getting the Destroyer upgrade, but still holding out hope that one day Glue will get his own Battleship.

   17) Starfighters and Gunships have both proven their worth to service, considering Droids, Pirates, Imperial’s, Uplifts, and even Lynch have all used them too great effect, even against fleets and capital ships. Shouldn’t Jason, or somebody on his staff, get some MSP designs and production going? As well as a Pilot Core?

   18) It’s about time Jason got a proper staff! But the bit on how worried Stiener was of his wife’s opinion of her was interesting. There should be a little more expanded on that to explain it, or have some fun with it.

   19) Isaac beware! Akanatha’s mother is on her way to meet you! Oh, that’ll be real good!

   That’s it, you have reached the end of all the stuff I thought about, or could think of to mention/review/critique or suggest. Hope you made it this far, hope it was helpful, and thank you for the privilege of being able to read it early, and thank you for writing these awesome Sci-fi space opera war adventure books. They’re some of my favorites!

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     Joshua Wachter - July 22, 2017 5:27 am

     Thanks for the review! Loved to hear the feed back!

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