Come and Take Them

I’ve followed Tom Kratman’s books as much from reluctance to drop a storyline/character set I’ve invested so much time in reading as from interest in his universe. I have been tempted to drop the effort, with one too many paternalistically dense tales. So this admission is an apology. Tom Kratman is showing real growth, and while the sheer mass of invented weaponry and supply routes and orders of battle could be numbing, they are instead engaging and actually more carefully done than Clancy’s stuff; while far more detailed even than W.E.B. Griffin’s tales, they do not lag or lack for action during development as Griffin’s work does.

Kratman excels in bloody and horrifying executions, in graphic descriptions of outrages and suffering. No change there. His invented technologies are believable; this is, after all, science fiction. He’s never met a politically correct idea he does not despise, and that has never been more obvious.

The timocracy of Balboa, under the guidance of Francisco Carrerra, is maneuvering and building to resist the inevitable push by the Tauran Union, under the nefarious guidance of the Earth Fleet, determined to keep Terra Nova split up and warring. The attack comes unexpectedly and before Balboa has fully prepared. A classically well crafted story.