Doomsday Came About Every Five Years
Someone Out There really hated humans. Twenty years have passed since Shiva I first swept aside Earth's crude defenses and rained down destruction. Now Shiva V has entered the Solar System, more powerful than any of its predecessors.
The Shiva cannot be destroyed by fleets of ships: we tried, and it was the fleets that were destroyed. It cannot be defeated by a clandestinely developed super-weapon based on new principles of physics: no such weapon exists. It cannot be defeated by a forceful American President and his faithful generals: they do not know what to do.
There is only one way to defeat a Shiva: get inside and kill it. Once again, in the personae of five champions, four billion of us are about to do just that.
"A high-voltage adventure story" and an intriguing look at what the worldwide web may become."
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Product ReviewExcellent, tense and gripping. Left open for a sequel. Can't wait.
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Product ReviewOne of my all time favorite books. So many interesting ideas, such a wide variety of interesting, well-developed characters.
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Product ReviewLoved it! Totally absorbable premises, a nice mix of characters, personalities and motivations, and a good solid weave of the story lines, leading to a satisfying conclusion.
I hope to find more works by Mark Stiegler.
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Product ReviewNice story.
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Product ReviewEnjoyed the story a great deal but really struggled to get a grip of what it was about for a little too long at the start.
When it did start to make sense, I really loved the idea, the concept, the casts... and Shiva itself.
I liked that the author doesn't ever explain what or who the Shiva is...
Agree with another commenter that there is a little too much moral lecturing inserted, and somewhat clumsily at that, but it didn't deter too much from a good story.Posted on
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Product ReviewSome good elements. The idea that a game was created to find a warrior, hero is corny and some other parts seemed contrived
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Product ReviewAs a general SF book this isn't bad; the characters, plot and suspense are convincing, the setting carefully but quickly explained, etc. Certainly as a quick (and free) read, it is not a complete waste of time.
That said, it also contains yet another decent helping of "Libertopia" polemic that Baen seems to publish quite a bit of, and this distracts from the main story. The book endlessly mentions the "crash," (later revealed to be a financial apocalypse brought about by the collapse of government entitlement programs) and a supporting character (the mother of one of the main characters) exists solely to expound on the evils of fiat currency, government-supplied police, government regulation, etc. While I make no judgment here on the correctness of those views, I can say that if I was the editor, I would have cut it all out, as it adds nothing whatsoever to the story, it adds little to the setting and most importantly, does nothing to change how the characters act or behave. The political commentary is just stuck in there for the hell of it. I would have given the book another star if it had been cut out.
In case anyone cares, this book seems is largely based on a possible answer to question 11 of a test the author wrote here: http://www.skyhunter.com/marcs/finalexam.html
P.S. (And this has no bearing on my judgment of the book...) I would hope the author has some more complete ideas of how the "'casts" in the book work, because as presented, there are enough holes in them to drive a truck through. I certainly don't expect a short SF book to be an academic tretise, but given that the 'casts are pretty much the whole point of the book, more explanation of how they work would have been welcome.Posted on
