{"id":3601,"date":"2018-07-16T23:03:58","date_gmt":"2018-07-17T03:03:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?p=3601"},"modified":"2020-02-25T21:46:58","modified_gmt":"2020-02-26T02:46:58","slug":"galaxys-edge-volume-4-attack-of-shadows-a-science-fiction-book-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/07\/16\/galaxys-edge-volume-4-attack-of-shadows-a-science-fiction-book-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Galaxy\u2019s Edge (Volume 4) \u2013 Attack of Shadows \u2013 A Science Fiction Book Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kill Team \u2013 Galaxy\u2019s Edge (Volume 3) by Jason Anspach & Nick Cole \u2013 A Science Fiction Book Review<\/a><\/p>\n

The fourth installment in the Galaxy\u2019s Edge series is a straight up mil-sf story chronicling the Battle of Tarrago.\u00a0 In this sense, it most resembles the first book in this series, \u201cLegionnaire.\u201d\u00a0 But whereas Legionnaire involved a small force of soldiers scrambling to survive on the outskirts of a larger action, \u201cAttack of Shadows\u201d is the chronicle of a full-blown invasion that plays out not only on the surfaces of a planet and its moon but also in open space.\u00a0 There is a full contingent of minor characters and any number of set pieces.\u00a0 There are dog fights between attack fighters, pitched infantry battles, kamikaze bombing runs and battle ships going toe to toe with the big guns.\u00a0 And then there is Goth Sullus, basically the bogey man.\u00a0 He is probably modelled after Darth Vader and shares many of his abilities and personality traits.\u00a0 If you\u2019ve been following my book reviews of the series then you know that the authors have obviously riffed on some of the central features of the Star Wars story.\u00a0 There is a Galactic Republic rapidly turning into an Empire.\u00a0 Corrupt leaders are forcing normally loyal military men to become outlaws and apparently there is no shortage of smugglers, bounty hunters, space pirates and even princesses!\u00a0 And surprisingly, the imitation is far superior to the original.\u00a0 The characters are infinitely more interesting, the plots actually make sense and the action is extremely well done.<\/p>\n

One of the interesting features of the story is the civil war aspect to the conflict.\u00a0 Basically, the fighting is taking place between Legionnaires fighting on both sides.\u00a0 And whereas the leaders on both sides are often shown as underhanded there are no cardboard cutout villains in the trenches fighting for either side.\u00a0 Valor is prominently on display on both sides and realistically, it is often rewarded with death.<\/p>\n

Because of the large number of subplots and characters, the chapters are broken down into a very large number of independent scenes that ping pong the action back and forth between the two sides and the multiple locations.\u00a0 But the storytelling doesn\u2019t suffer because of it and my interest was never lost.<\/p>\n

From my point of view this book confirmed my feeling that the military sf aspects of this series are the best part of it.\u00a0 When the series veers into other scenarios like espionage or individual adventures the story is satisfactory but when the battle scenes erupt the story sings.\u00a0 It is definitely their strong suit.<\/p>\n

So the rebels are led by Darth Vader.\u00a0 Who am I supposed to be cheering for?\u00a0 Actually, at this point I\u2019m cheering for Darth Vader, uh, I mean Goth Sullus.\u00a0 And based on the way the elite leadership of the Republic despises the general population of the galaxy I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if Goth takes of his helmet and is revealed to be Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

So, do I have any complaints?\u00a0 Yes, there are a few too many women running their military and flying their fighter ships.\u00a0 But at least they don\u2019t appear to be feminist scolds.\u00a0 And they haven\u2019t tried to add women to the Legion.\u00a0 That elite fighting force is all men.\u00a0 So on balance no real problems with the world building.<\/p>\n

Summing up, \u201cAttack of Shadows\u201d is the most entertaining book so far in the Galaxy\u2019s Edge series and I highly recommend it to fans of military science fiction.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Galaxy\u2019s Edge (Volume 5) \u2013 Sword of the Legion \u2013 A Science Fiction Book Review<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kill Team \u2013 Galaxy\u2019s Edge (Volume 3) by Jason Anspach & Nick Cole \u2013 A Science Fiction Book Review The fourth installment in the Galaxy\u2019s<\/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":[68,979,2360,637,79,38,44,265],"class_list":["post-3601","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-nick-cole","tag-review","tag-sci-fi","tag-science-fiction"],"yoast_head":"\nGalaxy\u2019s Edge (Volume 4) \u2013 Attack of Shadows \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\/07\/16\/galaxys-edge-volume-4-attack-of-shadows-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 (Volume 4) \u2013 Attack of Shadows \u2013 A Science Fiction Book Review - 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