Book Review: Kris Longknife: Tenacious by Mike Shepherd

Kris Longknife: Tenacious
Author: Mike Shepherd
Series: Kris Longknife (Book 12)
Publication: Ace (October 28, 2014)

Description: There’s no rest for a Longknife—even if you’re a newlywed. Vice Admiral Kris Longknife’s honeymoon gets cancelled when she hears that the space raider’s home world may have been discovered. Finding where the raiders came from could be the key to saving humanity. If only uncovering their secrets was that easy…

As Kris returns home, she ends up tangling with a mutinous crew determined to take off on their own. The dissident group leads Kris straight into a new mess—a system filled with strange, deadly enemies poised to wipe another sentient civilization out of existence. Kris and her squadron are ready to prevent total annihilation, but the mutineers have other plans…

My Thoughts: Having beaten back the alien attack on Alwah, Kris takes a small fleet to search for the home planet of the alien raiders. There they discover a large pyramid which holds trophies - 412 different planets the raiders have conquered and sterilized. They also find and capture some remnants of the aliens. Kris has always wanted to be able to talk with them, but they have chosen suicide over talk every time Kris has encountered them.

She brings her captured survivors back to Alwah only to arrive just as a ship is fleeing to get back to human space under the command of one of her bitter rivals. While chasing the ship, they discover a new race of beings and an outpost of the aliens. 

Kris's small contingent of ships manages to defeat the aliens at the outpost but with heavy losses. Again they capture a small number of the aliens before they can commit suicide. Kris learns just how relentless the enemy is. 

She decides to send a couple of ships back home carrying all they have learned about the aliens and a new discovery from Alwah which has great scientific potential, while she waits for the potential alien invasion.

This was entertaining space opera. 

Favorite Quote:

"We can't afford to hate them," Kris said. "If necessary, I will destroy them, but I will not hate them. Hate like that is what turned them into whatever it is they are."

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.