Caine's Mutiny, by Charles E. Gannon

I did not completely hate this book. It was a comfortable read at the end of a long day, just engaging enough to keep me awake but not enough to make me lose sleep. A comfortable read for a long, long time. There's enough plot here for a short novel or novella, but it is doled out over 800 pages. Gak. Very long and detailed battle scenes with lots of acronyms, which should be good for military SF buffs and seems to work for some, but way too much of it to make the action interesting. The plot is convoluted, which would be OK except I lost track of things because they occurred so many pages back. With a heavy editorial hand it might have been nominated for Gannon's fourth.

My Goodreads review

Raising Caine, by Charles E. Gannon

First up in my Nebula award nominees for best novel this year is Raising Caine, third in his Tales of the Terran Republic series.  This series doesn't pretend to be a trilogy--it will go on as long as it doesn't jump the shark.

My reviews of the first two in the series were only so-so, with lots of fun to be poked.  He improves with each installment.  This time he is solidly playing to his strengths--the romance is buried deep (his wife Elena is gravely injured and in a cold sleep chamber), the military jargon is thick, and the diplomatic intrigue has added layers.  Our hero Caine Riordan becomes ever more superhuman as he navigates the difficult territory of trying to keep the Terrans in the mix of more advanced species.

This time around it's coming out in the open that the K'tor are actually a version of humanity, bred to be fully ruthless and sociopathic.  Riordan battles a renegade faction of the K'tor while helping form relationships with the Slaasrithi, a "polytaxic" species with highly advanced biology.  They appear to be solid allies, but their advanced abilities make it hard to trust.

Lots of grand action and weaponry along the way.  But most interestingly, Gannon has hewed very close to the vision he started the series with--a throwback to the John W. Campbell era values of superhuman protagonists and generally clever humanity.  We might not be the tecbnological equals of all, but we make up for it in pluck and curiosity. 

Gannon has driven deep into his strengths to make this a strong three-star book.  But to keep getting award nominations I think he's going to have to demonstrate more range.  David Drake and Eric Flint are pretty good at this kind of fiction, but they haven't garnered a lot of awards.  This series could develop depth or become formulaic.  We shall see.

Trial by Fire, by Charles Gannon

Back to the Novel category for the Nebulas, for the past couple of weeks I've been reading Charles Gannon's Trial by Fire, sequel to Fire With Fire, which was nominated for a Hugo.  Trial by Fire likely would have been nominated in a normal year, but this wasn't a normal year for the Hugos.  So it goes.

I wasn't real appreciative of Fire With Fire.  Trial By Fire doesn't change the formula, but Gannon definitely refines it and plays to his strengths, making this a much better book. 

Gannon's strengths are definitely in the military aspects of the genre.  He really brings the otaku factor to his descriptions of current, historical and future weaponry.  We get pages of fine detail on weaponry and tactics, with lots of happy warriors.  Not our hero Caine Riordan, though--he continues to be disturbed by the carnage but capable of dishing it out.

This is a standard middle volume in a series, in that it is mostly setting the stage for what is to come.  The humans fight a war against the advanced but normally peaceful Arat Kur and the equal but very warlike Hrkh'Hkr (or something like that).  The humans have behind the scenes aid from the Dornaani, the most advanced of the alien species, while the Arat Kur have the K'tor, a very mysterious bunch.  Gannon layers the plot twists onto the battles in a way that keeps you guessing.

The technology speculation is amusing at times--the speculation is tight on weapons, pretty nebulous elsewhere.  Interstellar travel is done in well-defined lanes with acceleration (usually) but not too much detail.  Reading is done on "dataslates"--here in the 21st century we call them "tablets".  Too simple I guess.

So it's Golden Age SF, and as I said earlier, if you want more of it just go back to Heinlein.  But this one is decent, I will give it 3 stars.

Fire With Fire, by Charles E. Gannon

Fire With Fire was nominated for a 2013 Hugo award.  But for my money it could have been nominated for a 1963 Hugo. 

This is a story of the early period of Earth's interstellar exploration and exosapient contact.  We have all the elements of a very good early Heinlein here:

1. Powerful but limited faster-than-light travel (though not so fully explained)
2. Earth governments cracking under strain, thus a secret organization (named ISIS!) emerges to steer Earth down the right path in confronting the aliens.
3. A "true polymath" of a hero--investigative reporter, capable fighter, upstanding citizen to a fault.  And a hunk/ladies man to boot.  Named Caine Riordan.  How many action heroes have been named Riordan?  I think it's a lot.
4. Really awkwardly portrayed women/sexuality. 

I could go on for a long time.  You name the late Golden Age trope, Gannon hits it.

It's not a terrible book.  Caine generates interest once in awhile, and the diplomatic chess games are somewhat interesting.  But this is 2014.  I looked for any sense of understanding of how we've changed since 1963, and found none at all.  Yes, the book asserts that women are the equal of men--you can find that in 1963 SF too, though the writers mostly didn't fully understand what that meant.  There's no consciousness at all of how technology has changed us socially--it's early 60's mentality with spaceships.

I can see the award nominators' nostalgia in offering this up.  But really, if you want this sort of thing, go back to the originals.  Read Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, Asimov.  Don't bother with this one.  2 stars from me.