The Course of Empire

This one sat in my Kindle quite a while before I finally got around to reading it. Not sure why it took me so long as I know that both Eric Flint and K.D. Wentworth* are skillful writers.Anyway, TCoE is dammed good science fiction – alien invasion with a twist. The story starts a bit slowly as the world is built and characters introduced, but it really gets going in the second half.The cover text gives a pretty good idea what to expect. There are some plot twists and something I really didn't expect near the end.The ebook is available for zip in the Baen Free Library.Solid four stars. I will move on to Jao #2 ([b:The Crucible of Empire 6670281 The Crucible of Empire (Jao, #2) Eric Flint https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1347977238l/6670281.SY75.jpg 6865223]).*Unfortunately, K.D. Wentworth has passed. She is missed.

Have finished my third rereading of this book. This book and its sequel impressed me with the worldbuilding of the alien races. The story has at least three elements going for it. It has conflict between space faring races, strange but interesting cultural traits and habits of the races, and characters that I was intersted in. I was especially interested in Caitlin and Tully, and the minor houses of Jao. The authors introduce a great deal about the relationships of power and decisionmaking in the different cultures. I could see a school class spending a full semester using this book to explore alternative political power relations. The Ekhat would be the simplest. I really wanted to know what would happen to each character. Even minor characters are introduced with interesting stories.

The relationship between the Jao and the humans of Earth is complicated. It may be a path from hate to love over the history of the relationship. Fear, distrust, trust and promise are building the relationship and guide the decisions made by the members of the Jao and humans, as they prepare to fight the Ekhat. The relationship between humans and the Jao culture is fraught with tension and the potential for misunderstanding. There are many terms to explain the cultural differences the races have, but I found them easy to follow because of the good writing.

The world building is very impressive. There are three fully sentient races described in the story, the Humans, Jao, and Ekhat. Each has its strengths, weaknesses, oddities and traditions. I kept thinking that this reminds me of humans. The same 4 points could be made about me and all the people I know. This is a great way to relate the strange alien races to my own life and understanding.

The greatest tension in the book, after the difficulty of the different races communicating successfully across their barriers of difference is the looming threat of the Ekhat battle ships that will destroy anyone they encounter that are not Ekhat. This dangerous thread impacts every other storyline throughout the book, while not distracting from the interesting stories being told. I recommend this book to readers who enjoy military sci-fi or cross-cultural fiction.

I was intrigued by the faster than light technology used in the series. The frame point network is a unique addition to faster-than-light travel in science fiction and might possibly end up having some similarity to an actual technological solution to ftl, if humans ever achieve that.

When I finished the sequel I was ready to plunge into the next step in the story. Alas, I learned K. D. Wentworth died in 2012 and the third book in the series was not finished. My best wishes go to her family and friends.