Helfort's War Book 1: The Battle at the Moons of Hell

The Battle at the Moons of Hell (Helfort's War: Book I) Book was received in a timely manner, book is in excellent condition. Have not had the opportunity to read yet.

It was a page turner. The author kept the technology within bounds, giving it sufficiently advanced capabilities to make it consistent with the time frame but not so fanciful that it flew in the face of common sense and challenged that oh-so-important willing suspension of disbelief. A very well balanced, thought out and believable extrapolation of modern warfare to the airless void. It did tend to be on the technical side and might not appeal to those who do not appreciate the mechanics of warfare in space but, at the same time, the characters are reasonably 3D and the relationships and story line sufficient to support the technical preoccupation. If I had to criticize, it would be that things were just a bit too uncomplicated to satisfy my personal experience of life. But what the hell, too much reality is a bore. I look forward to the second book in the series.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book on a long flight between Melbourne and Tokyo. It started slow but picks up speed and the battles at the end are well worth the wait. The characters are very interesting and the descriptions of the technology credible. Another David Weber is born! Keep em coming Graham!

Well written, tied together, lots of themes developing that will lead to future story lines, without sacrificing the current book. Michael Helfort is a classic hero - a dastardly plot against him by another envious student clique, he is punished, but family ties keep him from being booted out of the service. So he's gets to move on, to less than what he could have expected as an assignment but he moves right into a convergence of events that sets the stage for what could be another Worlds War. His family is caught in a hijacking and his first ship is called in to confirm the intelligence. Author needs more time to develop the characters, but I see this as the first enjoyable salvo in a good series of books that will entertain as well as provoke comparisons to our current situation on Earth. I wish the book had been longer but I have great hopes for the next one.

This is the start of a space opera/military SF series with a number of pluses and some detractions. On the plus side, the author is an experience RN and RAN naval officer which let's him permeate the book with authentic sounding detail - far more authentic than David Drake's Lt. Leary books for example, though a bit less fun (more on that). Also, his ear for political and military dialogue is more authentic than, say, David Weber. Finally, the author is smart and well-educated, and this comes through in well-written if sometimes stilted prose. Good space battles, some tense action, nice overall political sweep, good villains. I have alluded to a couple of minuses. Not a lot of "fun" - our hero is a bit stiff, his love interest is hard to get excited about and I found him wooden. I also thought that the book could have been a little longer and in some parts skipped days of storyline too abruptly. That said, I liked the book, liked the universe and enjoyed this as the start of a new series with a more "real-world" hero than lots of these military SF series have and a potential for a number of exciting, richly detailed sequels.