Smoke on the Water (Gammalaw 1)

I went into this book feeling a sadness, knowing that with Mr. Daley passing away, this would probably be the last new material I would ever read from him. Although GammaLAW was broken down into 4 seperate parts, it was written as one book and was [probably] intended to be read as one book. I kept this in mind, and I think it gave me a deeper appreciation for it. GammaLAW is also a harder read than any of his other works, and so it might seem to some people who like other books of Daley's as not so enjoyable. I understand completely, but there are too many 2- and 3-star ratings for it. Brief synopsis: a force of Exts from the planet Concordance under Allgrave Burning are recruited to join LAW (the Legal Annexation of Worlds) and participate in a GammaLAW mission (Gamma is low priority, Alpha is high, and Beta is somewhere in between) under the command of Commissioner Dextra Haven, who believes that she can find an end to the interstellar war between Humanity and the alien Roke on the planet of Aquamarine. Murphy's Law strikes almost from the beginning, and they spend the rest of the time trying just to survive. A word of warning: it follows around 4 main groups of characters and is a harder read than any of his other books, but I believe that if you can see past these shortcomings and just read the book, you'll probably like it. If you like Brian Daley, but have a hard time with hard reads, it's probably for the best that you look elsewhere.In style, it's closer to his Coramonde books than Alactiry Fitzhugh and Hobart Floyt. It's more graphic and more serious in its tone, whereas Fitzhugh/Floyt, Solo & Company, and A Tapestry of Magics have a more playful, sarcastic tint to them. There are very few, if any, funny or light-hearted parts in GammaLAW. It's all about hi-tech military warfare, and the outcomes and repercussions of it. Don't be expecting anything close to his other works. Although this doesn't rank near the top of my favorite books, the story is solid and believable. Mr. Daley was very good about researching his topics and getting the facts and physics straight. I found only one problem, if it is a problem and not just me, but it's a minor one: he describes the sling guns several times as having a noticeable recoil (if I read it right). This would be accurate if you're talking about firearms, in which the bulllet has its own propellant that pushes backward to send the round out the barrel. However, the sling gun works much like a slingshot, pushing the round forward through the barrel with an elastical force, not backward. It would seem to me that the shock from this would travel forward, not back (I'm not an expert on this, so if ballistics, etc. is your area of expertise, you can confirm or deny what I have said. That's just what it seems like to me).Thanks for writing such interesting books, Brian. You're missed here.

This is a very complex story with a lot of characters. It's not obvious after reading the first novel what the "point" of all this is. However, it's clear that this first book is setting up a very involved story involving a number of different human groups and one hopes, aliens. Standing on its own feet, it's not an especially great story. But one hopes that the follow-up stories pull all the various pieces together into a cohesive unit.