The 'Red' Trilogy: Linda Nagata

Just posted reviews of the first two books of 'The Red' trilogy on Amazon under the general heading of good beach reads, if that's not damning with faint praise.

Here they are.

The Red: First Light

"Linda Nagata writes military SF and the result is .. interesting. Her depiction of tech ('linked combat squad', weapon systems, drones) seems spot-on, the action is relentless and the pages turn with no difficulty whatsoever. The plotting is driven by revelations: sudden changes of scene which introduce new mysteries. Most of the leading characters are women - Wait! you say, Lt Shelley is a man! - but Shelley doesn't come across to me as a male personality. Interesting.

This is a classic beach read. You will learn nothing about future technology, social issues or the human predicament from this book - everything has been done before. You will, however, be diverted by a fun read which makes this book (and volume 2, which I've just finished) better value than 90% of what's out there."

The Trials

"I was slightly in two minds after the high-octane action of 'First Light'. Was this second volume going to be mired in legal procedural stuff? Rest easy, the page-turning excitement is still there. It's still first-person narrative from Lt Shelley aided by the secret AI ('The Red') in the Cloud which seems to be babysitting humanity. In a good way. Maybe.

In the classic taxonomy, this, like its predecessor, is a 'fairly-good bad book' which makes easy and fun reading. I'm looking forward to volume 3 where I'm hoping for shocking revelations as the various mysteries and loose-ends get tied up."

I wrote a previous post about Linda Nagata, and some of the issues about women writing hard-SF here.