{"id":2655,"date":"2018-04-18T22:24:01","date_gmt":"2018-04-19T02:24:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?p=2655"},"modified":"2020-02-25T21:48:11","modified_gmt":"2020-02-26T02:48:11","slug":"galaxys-edge-galactic-outlaws-a-science-fiction-book-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/04\/18\/galaxys-edge-galactic-outlaws-a-science-fiction-book-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Galaxy\u2019s Edge \u2013 Galactic Outlaws \u2013 A Science Fiction Book Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Legionnaire (Galaxy\u2019s Edge) (Volume 1) by Jason Anspach & Nick Cole \u2013 A Science Fiction Book Review<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Back in January I reviewed Legionnaire, the first volume in the Galaxy\u2019s Edge series by Jason Anspach & Nick Cole.\u00a0 That story was a straight up mil-sf story set in a future where the human race has spread into the galaxy and formed a \u201cRepublic\u201d of worlds.\u00a0 At the point in this Universe\u2019s history that Legionnaire takes place, the Republic is beginning to devolve into an empire, ruled over by an elite that controls the rich central systems, with an underclass occupying the rest of the galaxy and the edge of the galaxy as an outlaw haven where even the powerful Legion can do little but skirmish with the rebels and pirates that abound out there.\u00a0 By the end of that story it\u2019s apparent that all the skill and valor of the remnant of faithful soldiers is being frittered away for political points by the bureaucrats that call the shots and wield the Legion as a bludgeon against the innocent inhabitants of the poorer sectors of the Republic.\u00a0 As I said back in January, it is an engaging military tale.<\/p>\n

So, what have Anspach and Cole done for an encore?\u00a0 It appears that Legionnaire merely set the stage for the main event.\u00a0 This is going to be a space opera of epic proportions.\u00a0 And it\u2019s easy to see what they intend to do is follow the space opera play book but dial it up to eleven.\u00a0 And in doing so they are following in a long tradition.\u00a0 Most recently, George Lucas mined that vein for all it would pay with his Star Wars franchise.\u00a0 His rebels revolting against a republic that has turned into an evil empire is the latest iteration of a story that goes back to the actual Roman Empire and the tales of Brutus and Spartacus and Masada.<\/p>\n

And when I say they\u2019ve dialed it up to eleven I\u2019m not kidding.\u00a0 The text is full of little blatant references to dialog and images reflecting some scene from Star Wars or Firefly.\u00a0 It was kind of fun finding them.\u00a0 And whole characters are parodied.\u00a0 There is a princess with the rebels named Leenah.\u00a0 There is a plucky scoundrel in a freighter who rescues the princess.\u00a0 There is a bot that guards a young damsel in distress.\u00a0 The bot speaks with some combination of the diction of C3P0 and the Operative from Serenity.\u00a0 You can literally hear the toff British accent.\u00a0 And then to make sure you don\u2019t miss any ingredients they are sometimes doubled.\u00a0 So, there are two scoundrels with freighters helping damsels in distress.\u00a0 There are two damsels in distress.\u00a0 There are two bounty hunters.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s even a cantina.\u00a0 There are mob warlords with bounties on the plucky scoundrels.\u00a0 There is something like a dark lord whose name is Goth Sullus.\u00a0 So far there are no Jedi Knights but some of the characters seem to live forever so something\u2019s going on there.<\/p>\n

Suffice it to say that a lot of stuff is going on.\u00a0 And by the end of the book you can see that this is just the beginning of the story.<\/p>\n

And now, what do I think of all this?\u00a0 Well, I have a theory about space opera.\u00a0 I believe that space opera has the potential to be very good or very bad.\u00a0 It entirely depends on the imaginative powers and writing skills of the author.\u00a0 Take an E. E. Doc Smith or an Edgar Rice Burroughs and you get the Lensman stories or Barsoom, fun and excitement.\u00a0 Take the likes of George Lucas and you end up with Jar Jar Binks or the latest Disney feminist trope with a light saber.<\/p>\n

The good news is this is fun space opera.\u00a0 None of the damsels in distress rescue the hero.\u00a0 No one mentions race or gender studies terminology and the good guys aren\u2019t ashamed of being good.\u00a0 I\u2019m pretty sure the authors have included the homages to Star Wars imagery to sort of point out that the story doesn\u2019t have to be bad just because of the space opera tropes.\u00a0 It just requires the story and characters to be interesting, likable and fun.\u00a0 And in this case they are.\u00a0 So if you like your space opera right up front without too much artistic restraint then I\u2019d recommend Galactic Outlaws.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kill Team \u2013 Galaxy\u2019s Edge (Volume 3) by Jason Anspach & Nick Cole \u2013 A Science Fiction Book Review<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Legionnaire (Galaxy\u2019s Edge) (Volume 1) by Jason Anspach & Nick Cole \u2013 A Science Fiction Book Review   Back in January I reviewed Legionnaire, the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[241,237,4,242],"tags":[68,979,2360,637,638,79,38,912,44,265,980],"class_list":["post-2655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-reviews","category-sff","category-sff-book-reviews","tag-book-review","tag-galaxys-edge","tag-galaxys-edge-book","tag-jason-anspach","tag-mil-sf","tag-nick-cole","tag-review","tag-roman-empire","tag-sci-fi","tag-science-fiction","tag-space-opera"],"yoast_head":"\nGalaxy\u2019s Edge \u2013 Galactic Outlaws \u2013 A Science Fiction Book Review - Orion's Cold Fire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/04\/18\/galaxys-edge-galactic-outlaws-a-science-fiction-book-review\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Galaxy\u2019s Edge \u2013 Galactic Outlaws \u2013 A Science Fiction Book Review - Orion's Cold Fire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Legionnaire (Galaxy\u2019s Edge) (Volume 1) by Jason Anspach & Nick Cole \u2013 A Science Fiction Book Review   Back in January I reviewed Legionnaire, the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/04\/18\/galaxys-edge-galactic-outlaws-a-science-fiction-book-review\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Orion's Cold Fire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-04-19T02:24:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-02-26T02:48:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"photog\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@orionscoldfire\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@orionscoldfire\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"photog\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/04\/18\/galaxys-edge-galactic-outlaws-a-science-fiction-book-review\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/04\/18\/galaxys-edge-galactic-outlaws-a-science-fiction-book-review\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"photog\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d11e80f83f3825ce9fe38a5303eb64d3\"},\"headline\":\"Galaxy\u2019s Edge \u2013 Galactic Outlaws \u2013 A Science Fiction Book Review\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-04-19T02:24:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-02-26T02:48:11+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/04\/18\/galaxys-edge-galactic-outlaws-a-science-fiction-book-review\/\"},\"wordCount\":774,\"commentCount\":2,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"book review\",\"Galaxy's Edge\",\"galaxy's edge book\",\"Jason Anspach\",\"mil-sf\",\"Nick Cole\",\"review\",\"Roman Empire\",\"sci-fi\",\"science fiction\",\"space opera\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Book Reviews\",\"Reviews\",\"Science Fiction \/ Fantasy\",\"SF&F Book Reviews\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/04\/18\/galaxys-edge-galactic-outlaws-a-science-fiction-book-review\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/04\/18\/galaxys-edge-galactic-outlaws-a-science-fiction-book-review\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/04\/18\/galaxys-edge-galactic-outlaws-a-science-fiction-book-review\/\",\"name\":\"Galaxy\u2019s Edge \u2013 Galactic Outlaws \u2013 A Science Fiction Book Review - Orion's Cold Fire\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-04-19T02:24:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-02-26T02:48:11+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/04\/18\/galaxys-edge-galactic-outlaws-a-science-fiction-book-review\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/04\/18\/galaxys-edge-galactic-outlaws-a-science-fiction-book-review\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/04\/18\/galaxys-edge-galactic-outlaws-a-science-fiction-book-review\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Galaxy\u2019s Edge \u2013 Galactic Outlaws \u2013 A Science Fiction Book Review\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/\",\"name\":\"Orion's Cold Fire\",\"description\":\"All the Secrets of the Universe and Some Really Important Stuff Too!\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Orion's Cold Fire\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/DSC06141.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/DSC06141.jpg\",\"width\":4022,\"height\":1419,\"caption\":\"Orion's Cold Fire\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/orionscoldfire\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d11e80f83f3825ce9fe38a5303eb64d3\",\"name\":\"photog\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/photog-image.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/photog-image.jpg\",\"caption\":\"photog\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/author\/photog\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Galaxy\u2019s Edge \u2013 Galactic Outlaws \u2013 A Science Fiction Book Review - Orion's Cold Fire","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/04\/18\/galaxys-edge-galactic-outlaws-a-science-fiction-book-review\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Galaxy\u2019s Edge \u2013 Galactic Outlaws \u2013 A Science Fiction Book Review - Orion's Cold Fire","og_description":"Legionnaire (Galaxy\u2019s Edge) (Volume 1) by Jason Anspach & Nick Cole \u2013 A Science Fiction Book Review   Back in January I reviewed Legionnaire, the","og_url":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/04\/18\/galaxys-edge-galactic-outlaws-a-science-fiction-book-review\/","og_site_name":"Orion's Cold Fire","article_published_time":"2018-04-19T02:24:01+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-02-26T02:48:11+00:00","author":"photog","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@orionscoldfire","twitter_site":"@orionscoldfire","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"photog","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/04\/18\/galaxys-edge-galactic-outlaws-a-science-fiction-book-review\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/04\/18\/galaxys-edge-galactic-outlaws-a-science-fiction-book-review\/"},"author":{"name":"photog","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d11e80f83f3825ce9fe38a5303eb64d3"},"headline":"Galaxy\u2019s Edge \u2013 Galactic Outlaws \u2013 A Science Fiction Book Review","datePublished":"2018-04-19T02:24:01+00:00","dateModified":"2020-02-26T02:48:11+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/04\/18\/galaxys-edge-galactic-outlaws-a-science-fiction-book-review\/"},"wordCount":774,"commentCount":2,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#organization"},"keywords":["book review","Galaxy's Edge","galaxy's edge book","Jason Anspach","mil-sf","Nick Cole","review","Roman Empire","sci-fi","science fiction","space opera"],"articleSection":["Book Reviews","Reviews","Science Fiction \/ Fantasy","SF&F Book Reviews"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/04\/18\/galaxys-edge-galactic-outlaws-a-science-fiction-book-review\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/04\/18\/galaxys-edge-galactic-outlaws-a-science-fiction-book-review\/","url":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/04\/18\/galaxys-edge-galactic-outlaws-a-science-fiction-book-review\/","name":"Galaxy\u2019s Edge \u2013 Galactic Outlaws \u2013 A Science Fiction Book Review - Orion's Cold Fire","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2018-04-19T02:24:01+00:00","dateModified":"2020-02-26T02:48:11+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/04\/18\/galaxys-edge-galactic-outlaws-a-science-fiction-book-review\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/04\/18\/galaxys-edge-galactic-outlaws-a-science-fiction-book-review\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/04\/18\/galaxys-edge-galactic-outlaws-a-science-fiction-book-review\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Galaxy\u2019s Edge \u2013 Galactic Outlaws \u2013 A Science Fiction Book Review"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/","name":"Orion's Cold Fire","description":"All the Secrets of the Universe and Some Really Important Stuff Too!","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#organization","name":"Orion's Cold Fire","url":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/DSC06141.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/DSC06141.jpg","width":4022,"height":1419,"caption":"Orion's Cold Fire"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/orionscoldfire"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d11e80f83f3825ce9fe38a5303eb64d3","name":"photog","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/photog-image.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/photog-image.jpg","caption":"photog"},"url":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/author\/photog\/"}]}},"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2655"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4327,"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2655\/revisions\/4327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}