On Silver Wings (and Beyond)
I seem to have been on a bit of a tactical scifi kick lately, including the seven books (thusfar) of the On Silver Wings series. From a raw, technical standpoint I have to say the books could use a little more proofreading. I'm guessing these were largely self-published online as an increasing number of books these days seem to be, and there is a little bit of a quality difference there with company published ones, usually. It wasn't so bad to really interfere with anything, but I did notice.
The series itself follows a (for the beginning) sergeant Sorilla Aida, part of a Green Beret-descended special operations team for the SolCom. Earth here isn't fully united, but it's less divided than it is in present day, with humanity building starships and using jump technology to expand and colonize several other systems. Implants are heavily used for communications and interfacing with technology. There are some definite scifi leaps there, but there's also an attempt to ground some of the technology, such as limits to trans-orbital shuttling due to fuel concerns that necessitate the use of orbital "tethers" which are basically space elevators, a lack of scifi artificial gravity (to start with) leading to limited ship speeds in realspace not for technical reasons as much as to not reduce crew to splatters on the bulkheads, communications and sensors limited to light speed, and so on.
The story kicks off with a sudden attack by unknown alien forces on the world of Hayden. Aida is part of a team dropped in from beyond orbit in power armor... only to be shot down. She suffers a concussion, the rest of the team dies, the ships that delivered then are so ridiculously outclassed by the aliens they barely manage to get news out of the system. The aliens are positioned with a clear technological advantage to the point of using gravity-based weapons that can implode starships and create mini-nuclear explosions while humans are largely relying on projectiles/missiles. They are also rather mysterious in their purpose as Aida meets up with surviving locals and prepares a guerrilla campaign.
Book two really changed things up, and I'm not sure if it's good or bad. I was invested and interested enough to go through the existing seven books, so it's "good enough" for me, but I wonder how things could have played out otherwise. The big change? We get alien perspectives. It turns out the aliens (dubbed Ross El or "Ghoulies") of the first book are a part of a larger, multi-species Alliance. While we don't get any Ross POV characters and they're considered largely inscrutable by the rest of the Alliance, we get to see things form the perspective of other Alliance members and that makes the aliens less alien. I kind of like the conflicting viewpoints, but I also kind of liked the mystery of not having that angle, so it's a toss up in my mind whether that shift was a good one.
The series really pushes humanity as adaptable. While primitive by most Alliance standards, SolCom manages to reverse-engineer Ross gravity tech to design and build capital ships with artificial gravity and accelleration to largely level the playing field in half a dozen years. Early losses become some actual wins in the war that breaks out, and though humanity could be wiped out by the Alliance if it really tried, internal divisiveness as much as some other factors prevent that until a truce is reached. That leads into a "cold war" arc that has Aida operating clandestinely with third parties or even alongside Alliance operatives. Overall, it might be a little optimistic in some ways, but it makes for a fine story.
That may have prepared by a bit for the 13th Age game. It also works well with Ghost Recon Wildlands, which I picked up inexpensively (more modern than future, but a tactical shooter).
The series itself follows a (for the beginning) sergeant Sorilla Aida, part of a Green Beret-descended special operations team for the SolCom. Earth here isn't fully united, but it's less divided than it is in present day, with humanity building starships and using jump technology to expand and colonize several other systems. Implants are heavily used for communications and interfacing with technology. There are some definite scifi leaps there, but there's also an attempt to ground some of the technology, such as limits to trans-orbital shuttling due to fuel concerns that necessitate the use of orbital "tethers" which are basically space elevators, a lack of scifi artificial gravity (to start with) leading to limited ship speeds in realspace not for technical reasons as much as to not reduce crew to splatters on the bulkheads, communications and sensors limited to light speed, and so on.
The story kicks off with a sudden attack by unknown alien forces on the world of Hayden. Aida is part of a team dropped in from beyond orbit in power armor... only to be shot down. She suffers a concussion, the rest of the team dies, the ships that delivered then are so ridiculously outclassed by the aliens they barely manage to get news out of the system. The aliens are positioned with a clear technological advantage to the point of using gravity-based weapons that can implode starships and create mini-nuclear explosions while humans are largely relying on projectiles/missiles. They are also rather mysterious in their purpose as Aida meets up with surviving locals and prepares a guerrilla campaign.
Book two really changed things up, and I'm not sure if it's good or bad. I was invested and interested enough to go through the existing seven books, so it's "good enough" for me, but I wonder how things could have played out otherwise. The big change? We get alien perspectives. It turns out the aliens (dubbed Ross El or "Ghoulies") of the first book are a part of a larger, multi-species Alliance. While we don't get any Ross POV characters and they're considered largely inscrutable by the rest of the Alliance, we get to see things form the perspective of other Alliance members and that makes the aliens less alien. I kind of like the conflicting viewpoints, but I also kind of liked the mystery of not having that angle, so it's a toss up in my mind whether that shift was a good one.
The series really pushes humanity as adaptable. While primitive by most Alliance standards, SolCom manages to reverse-engineer Ross gravity tech to design and build capital ships with artificial gravity and accelleration to largely level the playing field in half a dozen years. Early losses become some actual wins in the war that breaks out, and though humanity could be wiped out by the Alliance if it really tried, internal divisiveness as much as some other factors prevent that until a truce is reached. That leads into a "cold war" arc that has Aida operating clandestinely with third parties or even alongside Alliance operatives. Overall, it might be a little optimistic in some ways, but it makes for a fine story.
That may have prepared by a bit for the 13th Age game. It also works well with Ghost Recon Wildlands, which I picked up inexpensively (more modern than future, but a tactical shooter).
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