Runo Knows...Crisis of Empire Book Two: Cluster Command
Well, this one doesn't quite have the breathless prose on the back of the book that An Honorable Defense had. And, instead of it being a David Drake & Thomas T. Thomas collaboration, this one is David Drake and W. C. Dietz.
You can tell, too, by the writing. While the first book definitely FELT like a David Drake book, this one feels more like an action-adventure story. It's not as well written, I don't think. It does have a rather similar feel to it in terms of structure and events. There's the hero, General Merikur, who we last saw at the end of An Honorable Defense. He's promoted to take command with a new governor in the sector - a governor that has the somewhat radical belief that aliens should be also allowed to be citizens of the Pact.
There's the usual - Haiken Maru treachery, Kona Tatsu intrigue, the beautiful relative who becomes romantically involved with the main character (and also is a trained combatant), a sabotaged aircar...
It's not the greatest novel in the world, or even as good as the first one. It's entertaining, and a fast read. Once the other two books in the series arrive, it'll be interesting to see how it fares against the rest of the books.
You can tell, too, by the writing. While the first book definitely FELT like a David Drake book, this one feels more like an action-adventure story. It's not as well written, I don't think. It does have a rather similar feel to it in terms of structure and events. There's the hero, General Merikur, who we last saw at the end of An Honorable Defense. He's promoted to take command with a new governor in the sector - a governor that has the somewhat radical belief that aliens should be also allowed to be citizens of the Pact.
There's the usual - Haiken Maru treachery, Kona Tatsu intrigue, the beautiful relative who becomes romantically involved with the main character (and also is a trained combatant), a sabotaged aircar...
It's not the greatest novel in the world, or even as good as the first one. It's entertaining, and a fast read. Once the other two books in the series arrive, it'll be interesting to see how it fares against the rest of the books.