A Talent for War

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Historical Whodunnit?

Alex Benedict's life is immersed in history. He is an antiquities dealer and his late uncle was an archaeologist. When his uncle dies, he is left with his uncle's last remaining mission.

The problem is that he doesn't know what the mission is.

This seems to be 9,000 years in the future, when humanity has expanded into a fair portion of the galaxy and run up against the Ashiyyar, an alien species that communicates telepathically. 200 years before the book, the Ashiyyar was systematically conquering the divided human worlds. A resistance emerged to oppose the aliens and unite the frontier worlds led by the heroic Christoper Sim, who beat the Ashiyyar time and time again, even though he was outnumbered and outgunned. Sim died in an epic way that united humanity against the Ashiyyar.

The mystery seems to involve this history.

The story was an easy read. Ironically, it seemed almost more of a history retrospective than an action adventure book, with long stretches devoted to uncovering bits and pieces of the past. Action-adventure was well-represented throughout the book, particularly at the end where Benedict and his pilot, Chase Kolpath, who is not much of a major character in this book, have to make some tough decisions.

I was going to give this book four stars as a journeyman effort, with a bit of dragging out of the story, but the final chapters managed to convince me that this was a book I would recommend to people looking for a nice bit of space opera.

PSB

Having just read Leviathan's Wake by James SA Corey and given it 5 stars, I was hesitant to give out another 5 star review so quickly. But I think this book deserves it.What a pleasant surprise! I have read a few of this author's other novels ([b:Chindi 382161 Chindi Jack McDevitt http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1298783780s/382161.jpg 3098946], for one) and I don't recall being outright impressed, but that was some time ago. I decided to read this one because one of the books in the series was nominated for a Nebula Award. This book outright impressed me.From the beginning, I was absolutely hooked. The suspense was great, and made for some sleepy mornings. The story is really a mystery in a science fiction (future) setting. Perfect for me: I love science fiction, and I love good mysteries. I loved the way the author interwove the story with bits and pieces of Greek history as well, drawing a lot of parallels between this future universe and what we know of the past here on Earth. In particular, the author wrote of Thermopylae, and who isn't intrigued by that story?The two main characters were well-developed with distinct personalities and histories. The battle scenes were vividly written and easy to understand and follow (which I don't often have success with in space operas, take [b:On Basilisk Station 35921 On Basilisk Station (Honor Harrington, #1) David Weber http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1168651292s/35921.jpg 965345] for instance.) I also think that this particular novel's idea of the future is very plausible and very human. It isn't a simple future with stereotyped liberals and conservatives, but a complex one with so many different views of warfare. I enjoyed the politics and the moral analysis.And the plot and story were excellent, no plot holes spotted by this reader. Great space adventure with a believable human touch. I'm looking forward to checking out the next books in the series.