The Cobra Trilogy

An omnibus of the three Cobra novels: Cobra Cobra Strike Cobra Bargain An episodic novel that tells the story of a young man who signs up for a space force army when it seems that war with an alien race is inevitable. He then is picked to get what is the 24 million dollar man treatment - full bionics, plus weapons implants. The various novel sections follow him in training, in first guerilla action on a planet, coming home, as a colonist, and then as a politician. 3.5 out of 5 There are identical twins in the next generation of Moreaus - and one of them wants to become a Cobra. When a lost colony is discovered by their Troft neighbours - the 'switchability' of th ese very identical boys is seen as an asset for the diplomatic/covert mission to check out the new people. With the aim being to come to an understanding, hopefully avoid war, but if not, have enough Cobra firepower to get out of there. 3 out of 5 There's some political disagreement on the Cobra Worlds, as a governor uses the growing numbers of people that have signed up for Cobra training only to be rejected or washed out as a power base, looking to oust Corwin Moreau. At the same time, the next generation of Moreau's only child that wants to be a Cobra is female - something that has not be done. Along with this, a pattern has been noticed in the outages happening to the spy satellites left in the last book - and it looks like a new secret mission will be necessary, with Troft help. A female Cobra will be a useful element of surprise. The story gets involved with local politics there, as things go wrong. 3.5 out of 5 3.5 out of 5

This thing is hard to write a short review on since it is actually three books in one. It is about a family, beginning with Jonny Moreau, who for three generations were implanted with high tech weaponry to make them super soldiers. But as has been typical of Timothy Zahn throughout his career these stories are about far more than that. It deals quite a lot with how a society deals having such high tech warriors in their midst. A factor that leads Jonny Moureau into politics, and his oldest son Corwin, who is not a Cobra, follows in his footsteps. Being a Cobra and a politician can put a strain on family life. But it's hard to tell at times which is the bigger problem. The original story Cobra is written as a group of short stories because two of the "chapters" were originally published as short stories. I'm not sure which ones. This is well worth the read for any Timothy Zahn fan.

Like many readers, my first experience with Timothy Zahn was with his STAR WARS books. They were all outstanding, and they prompted me to read his other books. My first stop was COBRA. In a nutshell, this one-volume edition of the COBRA TRILOGY is a gem, collecting three hard-to-find books in one nice hardcover. COBRA is military-SF about a group of elite warriors in the 25th century, spanning across multiple planets. It is NOT loaded with unnecessary techno-jargon nor Clancy-esque hardware descriptions. Instead, you get Zahn's superb plotting, smart characters, and excellent writing. The production values of this book are good, too. The font size is above-average and is a pleasure to read. On the down side, a handful of typos were found throughout, but not enough to detract from the overall experience by any means. This book will provide you with many hours of consistently enjoyable sci-fi reading by master author Zahn. NOTE: I was originally confused about the book COBRAS TWO. But I learned it is only an "omnibus" containing the first two COBRA novels. So there's no need to worry about that. You get the complete series in this one-volume TRILOGY edition.

The Cobra trilogy was enjoyable but not worth raving about. I'd recommend it to voracious Sci-fi readers, but not many others. For someone who hasn't read much science fiction, this would be a great one to start with. There is enough science to make it seem plausible and yet not stifle or drown the stories for a new reader. The ideas and science applications are not totally new, but the stories, characters and settings make up for the lack of originality in the science. Also, Timothy Zahn has created a continuity with the characters and their family that really made the entire volume seems real and personal. There are many things that could be picked apart, but wouldn't do much good at this point. I liked it a lot, and for most Sci-fi fans, especially military Sci-fi fans, they will love it as well.