Book Review: Kris Longknife: Stalwart by Mike Shepherd

Kris Longknife: Stalwart
Author: Mike Shepherd
Series: Kris Longknife (Book 19)
Publication: KL & MM Books (December 5, 2019)

Description: The foolish Iteeche clans that hauled Grand Admiral Kris Longknife back to the Iteeche Capital and interrupted her campaign against the rebels, are dead. Very dead. Their clans are disgraced and their palaces in ruin.

However, while Kris was handling that noise, the rebels took back one of the planets she had recently captured, Arteccia, and are planning to take more.

Now it's time once more again for Kris to kick butts and take names.

However, life is never easy for a Human in the Iteeche Empire.

The Clan Chiefs expect Kris to retake what the rebels took from the loyalists because that is the Iteeche Way. That is a tune she will not dance to. So, the Clan Chiefs play their ace: Do what we want, or we won't give you command of our ships.

To their consternation, Kris does not give in. She gives them a literal middle digit salute and invites every minor clan to join the fun and games of capturing planets and gaining plunder.

Unfortunately, the rebels have used their time well and they have their own plans for Kris, plans that should leave her fleet in ruins and the young Iteeche on the throne dead. Unfortunately for them, their plans can't really hold back Grand Admiral, the Stalwart Kris Longknife.

My Thoughts: Having settled business on the Iteeche capital planet, at least for a while, Kris needs to get back out into space to continue the battle against the rebels who are threatening the empire and the life of the teenager on the Imperial throne. 

She'd like to add to her fleet and the clans do owe her and their emperor their support. But when she gets nothing but excuses from the major clans, she bypasses them in favor of offering the minor clans a chance at gold and glory or, actually, land and plunder. 

But the rebels have not been standing still while Kris was dealing with problems on the capital planet. They have taken back one of the systems Kris had won. Kris plans to continue capturing the rebel planets that are the most able to support the rebel cause. She plans to do it her way. If the planet surrenders to Kris, she'll let the local overlords keep their places which irritates the young lordlings from the capital planet who have been promised land and jobs and opportunities for plunder of their own. 

A large part of this story, told both from Kris's point of view and from the Iteeche Admiral leading the rebel fleet, is concerned with a space battle for control of one of the rebel planetary systems. It was filled with action and warfare.

This was another excellent adventure in the Kris Longknife series. 

Favorite Quote:

"I always assume we win. If I ever face defeat, I prefer it to come as a surprise," Kris muttered as she studied her board. 

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

Book Review: Kris Longknife: Indomitable by Mike Shepherd

Kris Longknife: Indomitable
Author: Mike Shepherd
Series: Kris Longknife (Book 18)
Publication: KL & MM Books (April 25, 2019)

Description: Grand Admiral, Her Royal Highness Kris Longknife, commander of the Iteeche Imperial Combined Fleets has the enemy on the run. Literally. The last time she entered a rebel system, every disloyal ship picked up its skirts and ran.

So why has she been ordered, as in requested and required, to make a formal report to the Emperor? Ron the Iteeche and his two young Iteeche Counselors have little to say on the subject except that some Iteeche think Kris is winning too much, too fast.

What human combat commander has ever heard those words?

Worse, when Kris returns to the capital, no one wants to sell her a ticket on the space elevator. Driving the streets is dangerous . . . not two roadside bombs but three detonate! Now she's got her embassy in sight and she can't get in!

What kind of games are the clan lords playing? What threats are being hatched against the young Emperor? Even more pressing, how does Kris get back into her embassy and back to her kids?

The Iteeche Empire claims it has a ten-thousand-year history and traditions for every possible situation. However, they've never run into Kris Longknife Indomitable.

My Thoughts: Kris Longknife has been running a very successful campaign against the rebels who want to take over the Iteeche Empire. Some think even too successful. No one thought it would be as easy to capture ships and planets as Kris Longknife makes it look.

Then she is called home to make a report to the emperor and finds all sorts of problems. First of all, she faces delays getting to her embassy in the form of bombs and armed troops. Then she has trouble getting into her embassy which is being surrounded by a million or so protestors who seem way to well organized to be an actual spontaneous demonstration. Bombs and having multi-story buildings dropped on her are not enough to keep her away from her duty which has become finding a way to keep the emperor alive.

I enjoyed seeing the way Kris deals with the Iteeche and life the way she keeps running into ways that the Iteeche are alien in thought and custom. Kris becomes concerned that she won't be able to do what she was brought to the empire to do unless she manages to find a way to change the culture of the Iteeche empire. But that won't stop this Longknife from doing her duty. 

This was an exciting episode in the long-running Kris Longknife series which lets everyone know that no one gets in of way of a Longknife who has a duty to perform. 

Favorite Quote:

"There's always the official reason, the real reason, and the actual reason why things happen," General Trouble said. 

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

Book Review: Kris Longknife: Commanding by Mike Shepherd

Kris Longknife: Commanding
Author: Mike Shepherd
Series: Kris Longknife (Book 17)
Publication: KL & MM Books (May 1, 2018)

Description: Grand Admiral, Her Royal Highness Kris Longknife is up to her ears in problems . . . again.

While summoned to the Imperial Iteeche Court to be humanity’s Emissary, it turns out that what the Iteeche really want is a fighting admiral!

You see, they’ve got this huge civil war going, and the Imperial side isn’t doing so well. Kris now has command of the entire Imperial Combined Fleet. Sort of.

The Iteeche Empire has a ten-thousand-year long history. There is nothing that won’t say, “We’ve always done it that way,” pointing to a track record lasting for thousands of years. Even when Kris reminds them they’re losing, many have a hard time changing.

Many Iteeche also wonder if letting a human win this war for them isn’t losing everything already

Kris managed to win a defensive battle with a scratch force. Now she’s thrown together a larger force and is ready to take the fight to the rebels.

It’s full speed ahead with Kris Longknife: Commanding.

My Thoughts: Having defeated the rebel battle force intent on taking over the Imperial Capital planet, Kris is tasked with taking the fight to the rebels. She and her crew identify the planets which are the centers of the rebellion and the ones that need to be defeated in order to put down the rebellion. 

The first planet chosen doesn't require space battles. They need to find the ruler of the planet and take him out along with his staunchest supporters. This task falls in part to Lieutenant Megan Longknife who has a way of connecting with computers that sometimes runs in the Longknife family. Megan and a small task force use her ability to get into and understand alien computer networks to locate their targets and take them out. 

They also have to deal with sabotage of the planetary infrastructure and, in doing so, get to know what some of the rank-and-file Iteeche are like and let them see what humans are like. Kris is determined to do the conquering the human way which is quietly bringing another form of rebellion to the Iteeche empire. 

The second planet they choose to take on is the one farthest from the Imperial Capital planet. They weren't expecting to encounter a fleet that outnumbers them by 4-to-1 but using some tactics from human history, including Nelson's at Trafalgar, and hitting a force that hasn't trained to anything like the human led fleet allows them another victory. 

And, though the planetary government isn't willing to surrender the planet to the loyal forces, Megan's skills with computers again allows the human led loyal forces to triumph.

This was another entertaining episode in the Kris Longknife series. I'm eager to see more of her efforts to defeat the rebels and bring her own brand of change to the Iteeche Empire. 

Favorite Quote:

"I fight," Kris said, "for every sailor that sails with me. I fight for every citizen in the United Society. Yes, from the richest and most powerful to the poorest and least of them all. But first. I fight for the man on my right and the woman on my left. We fight for each other and each of us matter to each other."

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

Friday Memes: Kris Longknife: Commanding by Mike Shepherd

 Happy Friday!

Book Beginnings is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader. She asks that the first sentence is posted along with the author and title of the book and the reader's initial thoughts on the sentence, the book, or anything else it inspires. 

Carrie at Reading Is My Superpower.org also provides a linky for sharing first lines and connecting with others. This meme asks that the chosen books be PG or marked as Mature if they are not. 

The Friday 56 is hosted by Freda at Freda's Voice. This meme is currently on hiatus but many of us are still including a sentence from page 56 or from 56% of the ebook. Anne @ Head Full of Books is picking up the slack until Freda is ready to return. I think this link will get you to the correct place. 

Beginning:

Grand Admiral, Her Royal Highness Kris Longknife of Wardhaven stood at attention. 

Friday 56:

Kris bowed her head from the neck for a moment. "It is an honor to see such an eminent advisor to the Emperor and wise leader to such a mighty clan," she said, modifying the Iteeche greeting she'd been given. She wasn't worshiping the Emperor. Granmpa Ray would never go along with that.

This week I am spotlighting Kris Longknife: Commanding by Mike Shepherd which is the 17th of a 19-book series of space operas. I hope to finish this series this month. Here is the description from Amazon:

Grand Admiral, Her Royal Highness Kris Longknife is up to her ears in problems . . . again.

While summoned to the Imperial Iteeche Court to be humanity’s Emissary, it turns out that what the Iteeche really want is a fighting admiral!

You see, they’ve got this huge civil war going, and the Imperial side isn’t doing so well. Kris now has command of the entire Imperial Combined Fleet. Sort of.

The Iteeche Empire has a ten-thousand-year long history. There is nothing that won’t say, “We’ve always done it that way,” pointing to a track record lasting for thousands of years. Even when Kris reminds them they’re losing, many have a hard time changing.

Many Iteeche also wonder if letting a human win this war for them isn’t losing everything already.

Kris managed to win a defensive battle with a scratch force. Now she’s thrown together a larger force and is ready to take the fight to the rebels.

It’s full speed ahead with Kris Longknife: Commanding.

Book Review: Kris Longknife: Admiral by Mike Shepherd

Kris Longknife: Admiral
Author: Mike Shepherd
Series: Kris Longknife (Book 16)
Publication: KL & MM Books (November 1, 2017)

Description: Admiral Kris Longknife should have known the job offer was too good. Really, she knew by now that what was too good to be true really, really isn't. Still, she jumped at the chance to be the first human emissary to the Iteeche Empire.

Only when she got there, and met the Emperor, a teenage kid swamped by his throne, did Kris find out that there was a little civil war going on in the Iteeche Empire. The loyal forces were losing, and they needed the best fighting admiral they could get. So they got Kris Longknife.

Now Kris is sweating out collecting a fighting force -- that won't make her their first target. Now she's trying to figure out how to fight ships identical to hers, that outnumber her four to one or worse. Oh, and she's got to keep the merchant princes in her embassy from making a mess of everything.

A whole lot of people are hoping this Longknife can pull a grizzly bear out of her hat. A whole lot of other Iteeche are hoping the bear takes off her arm.

This continuation of the Longknife Saga is 112,000 words of battle, intrigue and assassinations including a few wrong turns on Kris's part. Enjoy!

My Thoughts: Admiral Kris Longknife was sent to the seat of the Iteeche Empire as an emissary from humanity but finds herself dragooned into becoming the Admiral of the loyal fleet who must fight against rebel forces to keep the teenaged Emperor on his throne. 

She has 36 battlecruisers, the enemy has thousands. She needs to build a force using Iteeche forces and forge them into a fighting force that can win against three-to-one odds. However, all the rebels aren't away from the seat of power, and she has to face attempts against her life and her people right under the Emperor's nose.

Just as she's getting her troops trained to fight in the human way, news comes in that one of her strongest supporters among the Iteeche needs immediate help. His planetary seat is being taken over by the rebels. It would normally take a month to get there, but Kris can use the fuzzy jumps that humans have discovered which will cut the time drastically. So, the combined fleet is gathered and dispatched only to find that the revolt on that planet was a feint to clear her and her forces away from the Imperial seat. 

There are no direct fuzzy jumps into the Emperor's planet and when Kris and crew wind up one jump short, they discover a rebel force that outnumbers them five-to-one that they have to keep from making the jump and capturing the Emperor's planet.

The story is filled with space battles and strategies and constant reminders that the Iteeche are aliens and don't think at all the same way that humans do. 

It was an exciting story that carries on nicely from Emissary and leads neatly into Commander because it will take more than one battle, no matter how horrendous, to put down the rebellion. 

Favorite Quote:

"Ah, the old ways were never so good, though they are now much beloved and held onto so tightly even as they pass from our lives. How well I know that trait."

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

Book Review: Kris Longknife: Emissary by Mike Shepherd

Kris Longknife: Emissary

Author: Mike Shepherd
Series: Kris Longknife (Book 15)
Publication: KL & MM Books (May 1, 2017)

Description: Kris Longknife has discovered that this desk job is not at all what she expected. Being desk bound hasn't even decreased the number of assassination attempts! Then Kris gets home to find her two kids playing with an Iteeche. Ron has come back to human space with a request. Should Kris honor it? Can she finally get some straight answers for her Grampa Ray, King Raymond to most? Does she risk taking the kids into a situation with a whole lot of unanswered questions? Oh, and what can go wrong? Kris knows something will go wrong. Something always goes wrong.

My Thoughts: Kris has been getting very tired of her desk job trying to bring the Navy up to her specifications. Sure, she's enjoyed going home each night to her husband and two children, but work is not what she had hoped. 

When Ron, the Iteeche Kris knows best, comes from his Emperor asking that Kris be sent as Emissary of her people to the Imperial Court, Kris is intrigued. She knows that this is a big job that she may not be totally qualified for, but she has the encouragement of her king and a free hand to build the team she thinks will help her do the job.

Only things are not as they seem. It seems the Iteeche are in the middle of a civil war which no one thought to mention to Kris. And she has been saddled with the role of being Speaker for Humanity along with assorted ambassadors from most of the human settled worlds who all have differing agendas. This doesn't count the large horde of human merchants who are all looking to get rich as the interact with the Iteeche industrial base. 

Then there is the journey which includes an Admiral in command of the escort force who isn't on board with the new Navy Agenda and who needs to be relieved when their convoy is threatened by an Iteeche Rebel space fleet. 

And once they get to the planet where the Emperor lives, they have to fight their way to his palace through other forces who don't want them to meet. Once the meeting is achieved, Kris is saddled with another impossible job: the Emperor puts her in charge of his Imperial Navy and wants her to battle the rebels. Unfortunately, they are all equipped with the same ships and tactics as the Imperial Fleet. Kris has never fought a battle of equals. But she's a Longknife and a smart and tricky one. 

This book definitely has a cliffhanger ending tempting me to begins Admiral which is the next in the series right now. 

Favorite Quote:

She found she had to chuckle. She was actually looking forward to getting her teeth into this whole mess. If she was hones with herself, she'd been missing the excitement of the new and awful.

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

Book Review: Kris Longknife: Bold by Mike Shepherd

Kris Longknife: Bold
Author: Elizabeth Peters
Series: Kris Longknife (Book 14)
Publication: Ace (October 25, 2016)

Description: Kris Longknife “can kick, shoot, and punch her way out of any dangerous situation,”* and her latest adventure in the New York Times bestselling series is as perilous as they come...

Despite her role as a fleet Admiral and protector of a planetary system, Kris is still beholden to her great grandfather King Raymond’s commands. She has been personally selected for a mission that, should she succeed, will save millions of lives.

The Peterwald Empire is in the midst of civil war. On one side is the tyrannical Empress, on the other is the last person Kris ever wants to see again—Grand Duchess Vicky Peterwald. Due to their shared history, the Emperor believes Kris can mediate between the factions and bring about peace.

But before Kris even begins her mission, she survives multiple assassination attempts on her family home world. Someone doesn’t want her interfering in the Empire’s affairs. Kris immediately suspects Vicky or the Empress, only to learn that it could also be a traitor among her own people...

My Thoughts: Kris has been called home from Alwah because her kingdom, in the person of her great-grandfather King Ray, has a problem for her to solve. The Greenfeld Empire is undergoing a civil war, and the emperor has asked for assistance. Since Kris knows the players having met both the Emperor and the Grand Duchess, she's the right person to send in to try to broker a peace.

However, the Empress who is really the power behind the rather clueless Emperor isn't ready to give up power. It was repeated assassination attempts on Grand Duchess Victoria that led her to fleeing the heart of the empire. With Vicky out of the way, it is now Kris and her team who are fending off the assassination attempts. 

With many of her former colleagues deciding to stay and build their lives on Alwah, Kris has to assemble a new team. This one consists of negotiators from various fields and their associates because finding a way for the civil war to end with take more than Kris's usual gunboat diplomacy. It also includes a corps of well-armed nannies because she's taking her infant daughter along with her. 

Conditions in the Greenfeld empire are awful. Trade and business have been disrupted, planets are facing starvation, and piracy is rampant. The Empress and her faction are willing to ruin everything if it means that she will have the power at the end of it all. 

Kris is sent in with a small fleet, but her fleet is the most up to date in space. She doesn't mind that her force will be underestimated. She knows that if needed she can wield her big stick...and it will be needed. As her payment, she has demanded a desk job for herself and her husband Jack after this task has been completed. She feels that it is time that someone else becomes the point of the spear for her home planet. 

This episode reconnects Kris with Vicky Peterwald who has done a lot of growing up since they were last together. It was an entertaining episode in a long-running series. 

Favorite Quote:

Kris eyed Jack. "Are you telling me that my exercise regime of jumping to conclusions and running away from my problems isn't restoring me to my svelte, prebaby, girlish figure?"

Smart husband, Jack just smiled at her.

I bought this one October 12, 2022. You can buy your copy here.

Book Review: Kris Longknife: Unrelenting by Mike Shepherd

Kris Longknife: Unrelenting
Author: Mike Shepherd
Series: Kris Longknife (Book 13)
Publication: Ace (October 27, 2015)

Description: In the New York Times bestselling Kris Longknife novels, “fans of the Honor Harrington escapades will welcome the adventures of another strong female in outer space starring in a thrill-a-page military space opera” (Alternative Worlds).

The aliens attacking the planetary system of Alwa are an enemy unlike any Admiral Kris Longknife has ever encountered before. She doesn’t know who they are, only that they worship a being known as the Enlightened One and are unafraid to sacrifice themselves against her fleet.

But Kris faces more than just the fanatical behavior of an alien armada. A saboteur has infiltrated the military’s medical facility and unleashed an epidemic that has spread throughout the fleet without warning.

Seventy-two career military women are down with something not even the aliens could do to them—including Admiral Kris Longknife…

My Thoughts: In UNRELENTING, Kris and 72 other career military women find themselves pregnant because of a sabotage of their birth control implants. Besides dealing with her pregnancy, Kris has to get ready to face an implacable enemy planning to come at Alwah with overwhelming force. 

Kris is also dealing with a near mutiny of the support people who are working to produce the goods Kris needs to fight the war. A section of this story has her putting on her Nuu Enterprises hat and her Viceroy had to work with people to find out how to get the supplies they need and still meet the needs of all of the beings on Alwah. 

But the main focus of this one is the battle against four mother ships that are getting ready to come at Alwah with the goal of completely destroying the planet and the people who live on it. Luckily, just as the battle is about to begin, help arrives from King Ray which really beefs up Kris's defense forces. 

This was a shoot-em-up episode but didn't stint on quieter moments between Kris and her baby-to-be and Kris and Jack. 

Favorite Quote:

Kris had never attacked one of those monsters without some dirty, sneaky, or underhanded trick up her sleeve. But then, Grampa Trouble always said the only fair fight was the one you lost. 

I bought this one October 13, 2022. You can buy your copy here.

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.

Book Review: Kris Longknife: Defender by Mike Shepherd

Kris Longknife: Defender
Author: Mike Shepherd
Series: Kris Longknife (Book 11)
Publication: Ace (October 29, 2013)

Description: Kris Longknife is back in the good graces of the brass—and to demonstrate that, they've promoted her to Admiral.  Now her mission is to find the home base of the space pirates who are plaguing the fringes of the galaxy.

But no mission is ever simple when your name is Longknife. And this time the complications range from the military to the personal, as Kris finds herself—reluctantly—having to make some command decisions about her future...

My Thoughts: Kris managed to save the people of Alwa from attack from an alien force that refuses to communicate and rediscover her own great-grandmother at the same time. 

Her great-grampa King Ray comes to try to rescue his long-lost wife who is determined to stick at her new home. He also puts Kris in charge of the Alwa Defense, makes her CEO of Nuu Enterprises, and Viceroy to the human colonists. He's dropped off a number of ships, personnel and supplies. He wants Kris to take on the aliens at least long enough for the rest of humanity to prepare to fight a war against them. 

Kris is busy as she can be because Alwa doesn't have an infrastructure. The colonists are on the near course to starvation and not ready to take care of an additional 20,000 personnel who have come to prepare for that battle. 

Between building ships, building infrastructure, and dealing with aliens who have no concept of organized warfare, Kris is finding it hard to find time to spend with her new husband Jack. 

There were lots of great characters in this one from Kris's core people to those sent to help prepare for war and build a planet. There was also a lot of preparing for and fighting a great battle to defeat the overwhelming number of aliens who have their eyes set on Alwa.

Favorite Quote:

"Well, Your Royal Highness, have you got any more ideas? I'm plumb out."

Kris sighed. She'd been about to ask Captain Drago the same question.

But she was the Longknife. Admitting she'd scraped the bottom of the barrel of ideas for how to keep alive while killing what was after you was just not part of the legend.

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

Book Review: Kris Longknife: Furious by Mike Shepherd

Kris Longknife: Furious
Author: Mike Shepherd
Series: Kris Longknife (Book 10)
Publication: Ace; Reissue edition (October 30, 2012)

Description: Having used unorthodox methods to save a world—and every sentient being on it—Lieutenant Commander Kris Longknife is wanted across the galaxy for crimes against humanity. For her own safety, she’s been assigned to a backwater planet where her Fast Patrol Squadron 127 enforces immigration control and smuggler interdiction.

But Kris is a Longknife, and nothing can stop her from getting back to the center of things—not when all hell is breaking loose. Now she’s on the run, hunted by both military and civilian authorities—and since the civilian authorities happen to be her immediate family, Kris soon finds herself homeless, broke, and on trial for her life on an alien world…

My Thoughts: When this story begins, Kris is in command of a fast patrol squadron on a very backward planet. In fact, she is being held there. When she learns that her Grampa Al is planning to equip and send a trade mission to the aliens Kris fought and ran from, she is determined to talk to him and convince him that this is a really, really bad idea. But first she has to escape the "command" she is running.

With the help of Abby and her niece Cara and a variety of friends, Kris finds herself at Wardhaven where she meets up with her Grampa Trouble and Jack, who is the man she loves, but who was sent away from her. She has also gathered her old friend Penny. Along with some other allies, they attempt to infiltrate her Grampa Al's supposedly impenetrable fortress. But her father the Prime Minister has tasked Senior Chief Agent in Charge Foile of the Wardhaven Bureau of Investigation to find her and save her life. 

Foile and his team which a includes a Kris super fan-girl manage to track her but are always one step behind. But Kris and her compatriots are one step behind Grampa Al too. In order to escape Wardhaven and track down Grampa Al, Kris surrenders herself to a Musashi ship at high Wardhaven even though this means that she will go on trial for her life when she gets to Musashi. Kris just wants a chance to tell her story since she's convinced that her Longknife relatives from King Ray to the Prime Minister are giving the citizens of their planets the straight story about her alien encounter.

I enjoyed all the part of the story that takes place on Musashi from her meeting with the Emperor to her trial. I liked that Kris and her friends are reunited. I liked that the Musashi realize the threat that the aliens present and are willing to help Kris do something about it. I liked that she and Jack have confessed their feelings for each other. 

This was an entertaining and exciting episode despite the fact that it ends on a bombshell cliffhanger. 

Favorite Quote:

Kaylin paused again. "If I had a ship, one of the first things I would do would be to take it back to that planet. To see if they were attacked by the surviving alien ships or if the aliens moved on to some easier target."

Kris raised her hands in a shrug. "But I have no ship, and my movements are, at the moment, restricted by law. So, no, I don't know if the bird people are still alive. I only know a lot of good men and women died to give them a better chance than they had before we fought."

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

Book Review: Kris Longknife: Daring by Mike Shepherd

Kris Longknife: Daring
Author: Mike Shepherd
Series: Kris Longknife (Book 9)
Publication: Ace; Reissue edition (October 25, 2011)

Description: Lieutenant Commander Kris Longknife leads a reconnaissance mission of the vast uncharted regions of space. No one, least of all Kris, expects to find a hostile alien starship. Now, she must determine the extent of the alien threat-and whether to start an interstellar war...

My Thoughts: This time Kris might have bitten off more than she can chew. Her plan to take a group of scouts into the unknown to look for the aliens who are eating Iteeche ships, is "improved' by the addition of battleships from Greenfeld, Musashi, and Helvetica - all commanded by Admirals. And Wardhaven has sent a new secret weapon of immense power with her too.

They discover a planetary system where the unknown invaders have killed the population and strip mined the planet of everything including the air. That made them all a bit more cautious, but when they sent survey ships through one jump, they found a mothership the size of a rather large moon and thousands of ships attached bigger than even their battleships.

When they try to get around them to work their way home, they discover another settled alien planet that is in the path of the invaders. Kris proposes reversing by one jump and trying to ambush the invaders as they jump through. This plan has quite a bit of opposition from the Greenfeld delegation who favor running for home and letting the innocent alien planet fend for itself. Kris convinces them that they shouldn't do that, but the battle causes very large losses among the human fleet, and leaves Kris and just a few of her ships running for home chased by invaders.

When Kris does make it home after a harrowing voyage and with many more losses, she finds that she has been convicted in absentia of crimes against humanity. But King Ray and his advisors want to put off any thoughts of a new war until they have more time to win over the people and build up resources. 

When the story ends, Kris is being sent off planet again to get her out of the way.

Favorite Quote:

"We are going out there to see, identify, and run back. You remember that old saying. 'I came, I saw, I conquered.' Forget it. Our goal is, We came, we saw, we ran like hell away."

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

Book Review: Kris Longknife: Redoubtable by Mike Shepherd

Kris Longknife: Redoubtable
Author: Mike Shepherd
Series: Kris Longknife (Book 8)
Publication: Ace; Reprint edition (October 26, 2010)

Description: Lieutenant Commander Kris Longknife has precise orders: seek out, engage, and destroy pirates, slavers, and drug lords operating beyond the rim of human space-without interfering in Peterwald family affairs. But when slavers kidnap a twelve-year-old girl, Kris's mission becomes personal. And if destroying the pirate compound flattens some Peterwald interests-well, to hell with politics.

My Thoughts: In this episode, newly promoted to Lieutenant Commander Kris Longknife has been assigned to the Rim very near the Greenfeld planets to track down pirates, slavers and drug lords. 

After tracking down some pirates over Kaskatos, Kris learns that the planet has taken in so many refugees from Greenfeld's New St. Peterburg that everyone on the planet is starving. Kris's mission to hunt pirates has now turned into a humanitarian mission to transport food and other necessities to Kaskatos. And she has to do it in such a way that it doesn't appear to Greenfeld that Wardhaven is making a grab for more territory.

When she goes to New St. Petersburg, she meets old enemies who just might be allies in this case in the persons of Admiral Kratz and Vicky Peterwald. She learns that a lot of the Greenfeld association is in turmoil. Since Vicky's father had most of his secret service killed, it has become an open field for anyone looking for power. 

As they team up to hunt for the pirate's base, Abby's niece Cara is kidnapped by slavers and taken to the planet they have been looking for. Now, Kris and her crew have even more incentive to find that and rescue Cara.

This was another great spacer opera episode in Kris Longknife's career.

Favorite Quote:

"Vicky, free men and women will fight to their last breath to keep their freedom. But don't you ever mistake that fighting will for a willingness to take what isn't freely given."

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

Book Review: Kris Longknife: Undaunted by Mike Shepherd

Kris Longknife: Undaunted
Author: Mike Shepherd
Series: Kris Longknife (Book 7)
Publication: Ace; Original edition (September 23, 2009)

Description: Kris Longknife encounters some peaceful aliens who have come to warn humanity of an unidentifiable force that is roaming the galaxy, obliterating everything in its path-a path now leading directly toward the human worlds.

My Thoughts: This was another exciting episode in the Kris Longknife series. Kris and the company on the Wasp are out on the Rim looking for pirates and scientific opportunities. They really don't expect to find an ambassador from their former enemies the Iteeche who is looking for help from Grampa Ray.

As Kris and crew get to know Ron'sum Pin'sum qu Chap'sumWe, they learn more about the war that ended more than eighty years earlier. Unfortunately, there are still military veterans of that war on both sides including Kris's Greatgrandpa Ray who have very strong hatred for the Iteeche. Which means that she needs to sneak Ron and company back to Wardhaven so that he can meet with King Ray and lay out his needs. 

They take a brief detour on the way to Wardhaven to see Kris's Aunt Tru because her computer Nelly is developing some questionable characteristics. She seems to be developing a real mind of her own which is causing Kris some problems.

Once they get to Wardhaven, things don't go very well. Ray says essentially "I'll think about it," sends Ron and his entourage back home, and sends Kris to Texarkana to solve a political problem. Texarkana happens to be the home of two of Kris's college friends. Kris finds a sticky political situation. The original settlers who are farmers and ranchers are in conflict with later settlers who were industrialists. It seems that someone from outside is trying to stir up even more trouble between the two factions than their own stubbornness is causing. Kris finds herself victim of an assassination attempt on one of her old school friends. 

Kris does manage to find a solution to the discord between the two groups using Longknife charisma and Longknife money. But Ron's problem is far from being solved and Kris keeps get pulled away from it by King Ray's needs leaving Ron's problem a dangling plot thread for another book.

Favorite Quote:

She was very surprised at how very much she felt insulted not to be the center of attention at an assassination attempt. She really needed to talk to a professional counselor.

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

Book Review: Kris Longknife: Intrepid by Mike Shepherd

Kris Longknife: Intrepid
Author: Mike Shepherd
Series: Kris Longknife (Book 6)
Publication: Ace (October 16, 2008)

Description: Kris Longknife has been assigned to The Wasp, the best warship beyond the Rim of Human Space. But while hunting for pirates, Kris stumbles upon something. It’s a plan to kill one of the members of the aristocratic Peterwald family—and the would-be killers are setting her up as the assassin.

My Thoughts: Kris Longknife should be far enough away from the centers of civilization to keep out of trouble. Assigned to The Wasp and packed with scientists who are exploring the Rim for new planets and new opportunities should keep her out of politics.

However, just because she's far away doesn't mean she's trouble-free. After all, pirates and slavers like to be away from the center of civilization too. She and her crew capture the Compton Maru and find it filled with cargo and slaves. She takes her captures ship to Cuzco in hopes of selling the cargo and ship for prize money and dumping the pirates on Cuzco' legal system. While there she has a chance to connect with a couple of old enemies - Captain Kratz and newly made Ensign Vicky Peterwald. 

While stuck on Cuzco where the legal system makes the pirates look good, Kris and her crew meet Andy Fronour of Pandemonium - one of the illegal colonies beyond the Rim - and are convinced to take him and his cargo home on their way to doing the exploration the scientists are agitating for. Upon arrival, they find that the colony has been captured by another set of pirates hired by businessmen to loot the planet for their profits. 

Kris and her crew come to the aid of the first group of colonists in retaking their planet with lots of nice maneuvers which make use of Kris's ingenuity. This second group of pirates is commanded by Kris's own first captain who left the Wardhaven Navy just ahead of his own court martial and who blames Kris for his problems. 

After solving problems there, Kris and her crew go to Xanadu which has been settled by Abdicators who were agitating for all humanity to return to Earth to get away from alien hordes that they believed were coming. Only they have gone beyond agitation and have sent out a group of young fanatics to start a war between Wardhaven and the Peterwalds. It is up to Kris to find these terrorists and stop them. Since it is well known to her that a war between parties of equal strength doesn't do much beyond creating a lot of devastation and can have no clear winners.

Now Kris has to find a way to save her and her planet's greatest enemy before they can be edged into outright war. 

This story was entertaining science fiction with a larger-than-life main character and many other intriguing characters too.

Favorite Quote:

"I'm not a princess," Vicky snapped, "except I guess you have a point. My dad is acting like an emperor or something, and I guess that makes me a princess or something."

"Mostly, it makes you a target or something," Kris observed.

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

Book Review: Kris Longknife: Audacious by Mike Shepherd

Kris Longknife: Audacious
Author: Mike Shepherd
Series: Kris Longknife (Book 6)
Publication: Ace (October 30, 2007)

Description: You can't keep a good woman down - Kris Longknife returns.

Once again Kris finds herself caught in the crosshairs of unknown enemies who want her dead. Factions, both legitimate and underground, vie for control of the planet New Eden. And someone is taking advantage of the chaos to unleash a personal vendetta against Kris.

My Thoughts: Kris Longknife has made the Rim too hot for her, so her king and Navy boss send her to New Eden as part of a procurement team. The only problem is that Kris knows there is more to her mission than her superiors told her about.

New Eden is an interesting world. It was one of the first settled when people from Earth began to leave the planet. Kris finds a society that is big on secrets and information security. She also finds a stratified society with the rich, original settlers who have the right to vote and all the others whose ancestors might have come to the planet as indentured servants and whose descendants are still disenfranchised. 

The government has a lock on the news. Only good news gets reported in the powerful press. Neither of the two assassination attempts on Kris manage to make the news. Gun control is supposed to be absolute with only hired security services allowed to carry. But the security firms don't advertise and need word of mouth recommendations. Getting a permit to carry for herself, her team and even the Marines at the Embassy is not an easy task.

We also learn that New Eden is Abby's home planet - the one she was very glad to leave fifteen years earlier. As she goes looking for her mother and sister, she discovers that she has a twelve-year-old niece and that her mother and sister are aiming to get themselves out of the slums where they live by latching onto powerful men.

Kris also gets a chance to meet Vicky Peterwald, the little-known sister of Hank Peterwald who met his fate in the last book. Vicky has a major grudge against Kris and is the author of the assassination attempts. She's supposed to be on the planet to learn from Peterwald agents who are attempting to overthrow the current government in order to take over New Eden. Her actions bring that plot to overthrow the government to Kris's attention and she finally knows why King Ray sent her to New Eden.

However, she doesn't know if she is supposed to stop the revolution or begin it until she finds out the Peterwalds are on the other side. Whatever they want, Kris knows her home planet wants the opposite.

This was another great episode in the Kris Longknife series.

Favorite Quote:

"King Ray sent me here for a reason. That reason has nothing to do with paper clips. But as is Ray Longknife's bad habit, he didn't tell me what the real reason was, did he, Panny?"

"He never does," the intel officer said.

"He never does," Kris reinforced for the slow thinkers at the table. "He has a Longknife-size problem so he sends a Longknife out to solve it, but old Ray never does bother to let me know anything."

"One revolution, one Longknife." Gramma Ruth said dryly. "Even odds."

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

Book Review: Kris Longknife: Resolute by Mike Shepherd

Kris Longknife: Resolute
Author: Mike Shepherd
Series: Kris Longknife (Book 4)
Publication: Ace (October 31, 2006)

Description: Kris Longknife has been given her first independent command in the very remote system of Chance, an assignment that's as much exile as promotion.

But Kris isn't on the job long when she captures pirates hiding the location of an uncharted and unpopulated planet of miraculous technology.

My Thoughts: Kris Longknife has her first independent command. She's been sent to command Naval District 41 orbiting the planet Chance. When she arrives along with Penny, her bodyguard Jack, her maid Abby, and a Naval Chief named Beni, she finds the place empty. She learns that Lieutenant in charge had put in his tweny years and retired - as a lieutenant. 

She visits the planet to see what is going on and soon learns that the planet is filled with rugged individualists who don't see the need to have Wardhaven's protection and certainly don't want a Longknife there. A number of the older citizens had served with one or the other of Kris's great-grandfathers and knew that Longknifes were trouble magnets.

But Kris has another issue besides her unstaffed and mothballed station. Her computer Nelly wants to go exploring using some of the maps left by the ancient races that have long disappeared. She sends Penny and Abby off to rent a ship since the only one at the station was state of the art when her Great-Grandpa King Ray took it into battle many, many years ago and is now suitable mainly as a museum. 

Their explorations lead to the discovery of a couple of planets with remnants of those long-gone aliens. The first is in poor condition, but the second looks like someone could move in if they could defeat the automated defenses. Determined to bring the news of her discover back to Wardhaven, Kris returns to Naval District 41 to find that four Peterwald ships have come through the jump commanded by Kris's old rival Hank Peterwald. Their goal is to conquer Chance and add it to the Peterwald empire. 

Neither Kris nor the citizens of Chance are in favor of this, but both are radically outgunned. Luckily, the brains are on Kris's side. I enjoyed seeing all the different plans that were developed to defeat the Peterwald fleet, hopefully, without bloodshed or lives lost. 

This was another great episode in an engaging Space Opera series. I liked seeing how Kris is growing in responsibilities and getting to know herself and her companions. 

Favorite Quote:

"Why send a fleet when a certain princess will make do?" Jack said.

Which almost made Kris miss a step. Was she getting so good at yanking miracles out of hats that someone thought all they had to do was send a hat and her?

I bought this one in 2006 or 2007. I know it has been sitting on my TBR stack since February 2008. You can buy your copy here.