In Fury Born, 2

If you read the Honor Harrington books you will love this. Even if you own a copy of Path of the Fury buy this. It takes you back to the start of Alicia Devries career right up to & including Path of the Fury. Finaly read about what happened in the Shallingsport raid. All we need now is to know what happens next.

David I must apologise, I thought the Path Of The Fury was excellent and didn't need expansion, I was wrong. This explains how the superwoman Alicia DeVries can become an ally of the Fury Tisiphone, a creature of the Greek Gods; turn her back on the Empire and the Emperor she was a paladin for; and, almost, single-handedly capture the elusive pirates who killed and tortured her family. We also see how important family and friends are in the development of individuals. This is also a study in the difference and importance of revenge versus Justice, and why justice is so important to the creation and sustenance of any civilisation. Why I love this book. First the exploration of what it takes to be a profesional soldier, something that takes up 2 thirds of the book, also the sacrifices those soldiers take to protect their citizens. We see it explored in discusions with her Grandfather, and between her Father and Grandfather, and between her trainers in her carreer from PFC. Marine to Lt. in the Imperial Guard. We also see why a single incedent in her carreer can turn her against her empire and to a blind alliance with the Fury Tisiphone. What is also fun is watching the creation of a new Fury triumvirate of Tisiphone, the real thing; Megaira, the AI ship Alicia has stolen and linked herself to; and the Human Alicia DeVries. David, you now have 2 masterpieces, the Honorverse and In Fury Born. Your time and effort in competely re-writing Path Of The Fury is well worth it, and this is a must read for fans of Weber, military fiction of both the Science Fiction variety as well as more typical Military Fiction and Histories of various military battles and campaigns.

The tale/series begins in the middle of the thirtieth century. Alicia Dierdre DeVries is only fourteen-years-old when the military took an interest in her. Very few teens pop the test filters. Even fewer complete schooling shortly thereafter. Her psych evaluations are already astronomical. Age fifteen finds her in college. Before most people graduate high school, Alicia has finished college and entered the Marine Corps. Camp Mackenzie, the most grueling training ground where Marines are almost taken apart and totally rebuilt, is considered "fun" for Alicia. Directly afterward, she asks to join the Recon Marines and actually gets it. The Recon Marines are considered, even by their fellows, as among the Corps' elite. Once in the Gyangtse System, Alicia's military career really begins...round page twenty-five. Alicia is considered "larva" by her fellow Wasps until her first real combat duty. Everything hits the fan eventually and Alicia matures quickly, very quickly, under fire. Those watching her at age fourteen still are and Alicia finds herself recruited into the Imperial Cadre, just before her nineteenth birthday. The Cadre are the Emperor's personal sword, paladins, and champions. They are the elite of the elite of the elite. Everyone else has one synth-link to worry about. The Cadre each have three. Alicia must undergo lots of surgery to have it all implanted. She also has a pharmacope, where her body injects itself with needed meds, from the inside, whenever needed. Some of those meds are unique only to the Cadre. One of those drugs is a neurotoxin which would automatically kill her if the need arises. The chance of long term survival in the Cadre is small. Here I must skip lots. Let us just say that author David Weber outdoes himself with the battles and brilliant tactical moves. No one "retires" from the Cadre. They are simply classified "inactive". They may be reactivated at any time during their life to serve the Emperor and the Empire. Alicia is inactive only a few years when her entire family is massacred by pirates. Almost dead, Alicia finds help from an impossible source. She is "reactivated", of course, but believed to be insane when she tells how she accomplished the impossible. None believe her, yet no one can figure out how Alicia keeps doing the impossible. So Alicia and her impossible source go after the pirates themselves. Problem is that the pirates are not what they seem to be. If Alicia manages to find out the truth, the Empire may very well collapse! ***** Fans of David Weber's Honor Harrington series will fall in love with this new series featuring Alicia DeVries! Other than words such as "Fleet", "Imperial", and the military hardware used in Honor's novels, nothing is the same. You will NOT see familiar characters. To my knowledge, they are not even mentioned. No treecats either. As I stated, this is an ENTIRELY new series. The enemies within this story are not always human either. The Rish are giant and lizard-like.

More Is Better In Fury Born (2006) is a greatly expanded version of the novel Path of the Fury (1992). The earlier novel has already been the subject of a prior review and, insofar as I can tell without the book in hand, the latter half of this work is basically unchanged from that work (with maybe a minor correction or two). This volume, however, adds 436 pages (more than doubling the length) which cover the life of Alicia DeVries from the age of fourteen to the day she resigns from the Imperial Cadre. Alicia first came to the attention of the Cadre through the results of the standard exams taken in her fourteenth year. However, the Cadre was constitutionally restricted from minority enlistments and she was only added to the recruiting watchlist. After her graduation from the Emperor's New College and immediate enlistment in the Imperial Marines, the Cadre began actively manipulating her career. Her first assignment after basic training was to the Recon battalion on Gyangtse, where she displayed conspicious awareness of both the military and the political environments. Her subsequent deployments continued to demonstrate her brilliance and competence, so she was rapidly promoted to staff sergeant. She was slated for a transfer to the Raiders when the Cadre offered her an alternative. Thereupon she became one of Brigadier Sir Arthur Keita's proteges. Alicia only resigned from the Cadre after the Emperor betrayed her dead by making a deal to allow the traitor of Shallingsport to live. She settled on Mathison's World with her family for four years. Then the "pirates" raided her homestead, but missed Alicia because she was out hunting direcats. Her family was dead by the time she could return, but shortly thereafter all the raiders were also dead. Unfortunately, Alicia was dying as well, but everything changed when she made a deal with the remanents of the Fury Tisiphone (see my prior review). With David Weber, more is better. The first half of this novel is just as engrossing as the latter half. It is a long read, but well worth it. Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys military and naval action novels. -Arthur W. Jordin

When I first read Path of the Fury some years ago I enjoyed it greatly, so when I heard Weber was doing another Fury story I was overjoyed,subsequently I was disapointed on finding out it wasn't a sequel but a rewrite.Now I've read it I can safely say it is so much more then *just* a rewrite it is a fleshing out of an already excellent story, the backstory is well realised and fits in seamlessly with the original plot. This story remains an excellent example of an old fashioned revenge drama. Unfortunately I found the terrorist subplots in the additions to be very typical of recent american media treatments and this did detract from them in my opinion. This is a book which all fans of David Weber's work will enjoy, drama, character development,300 million reasons to forgive someone and Weber's trademark exploding spaceships.