Face of the Enemy

This is an excellent book, especially for a new author. Fawkes tells a great military science fiction story with lots of intrigue, a very interesting and well-realized setting, and a strong sense of mystery and dread as the characters probe into the mysterious aline menace, the Remor. The characters are very good,and Fawkes does a good job of keeping you interested in them even though some of them are extremely unpleasant people. Highly reccomended.

This is a well written book, complex and well thought out. Thebackground is deep enough to support a variety of follow-onstories. It is military SF for the thinking person. The bookis sequel ready but story tidies up nicely at the end.If you are looking for something stilted and mechanical readDavid Drake's latest book the Far Side of the Stars.

The first 150 pages of this novel are overly complex, but don't let that deter you from reading on. The storylines finally do intersect and begin to weave together with varying rates of success. The socio-anthopological complexity that is inherent in both the human and alien cultures is strange and sometimes hard to understand, but the overall concept is fascinating, if disgusting at how mankind can be so "in-human."There are a number of mysteries generated that are not resolved until the last few pages, and there are several storylines that go unresolved making you wonder if a sequel is pending. The writing is solid, the characters well defined (if somewhat unlikable), and the pace/action moves along briskly. Recommended for those who enjoy reading a bit of military sci-fi mixed with a bit of hardcore and sociological sci-fi.

The foreground story is more complicated and interesting than most military sci-fi. The people have believable, individual motivations, and the issues aren't black and white. There seems to be a LOT going on in the background, and not just the peculiar war against the mysterious aliens. I wish Fawkes had done more than just sketch in some of the governments, personalities, other interests that complicate things with their private agendas. Maybe this was deliberate, to whet our appetites for the rest of the trilogy (series)? If so, it worked for me.

This was a sci-fi book for the mind it was'nt so much action it was more, about getting into the minds of the charactors which is a welcome change to the old shoot-em up sci-fi books.