Fire with Fire  

Contributors: Kennedy, Sam.

Year/Format: 2013, Book, [x], 475 p.

I enjoyed this book tremendously.  This is how you write adventure Sci-Fi.  I have recommended it to my husband as it is a spy thriller styled story – almost a 007 in space.  This is the 1st time I’ve read this author’s work.  The review [from the publisher!] is a bit odd as I am not sure they read the book closely but rather skimmed the 1st chapter or so.    I was 100% committed to the characters and the story line.    I did get a bit lost as to who was who, but after a few minutes back-tracking I was Ok with the facts and the names.  This is hard-core Sc-Fi and at times you think you are back at school listening to a science lecture you’re sure you’re going to fail at mid-term.  The reviews by established writers and journals do not lie.  I imagine it will have a sequel.  It was a satisfying read and not a small book.  In this case the large soft cover edition is quite a handful.  Nicely put together by the publisher.

Library Summary:

Original trade paperback. New Science Fiction Thriller Series An agent for a spy organization uncovers an alien alliance in nearby interstellar space–an alliance that will soon involve humanity in politics and war on a galactic scale.

2105, September: Intelligence Analyst Caine Riordan uncovers a conspiracy on Earths Moon–a history-changing clandestine project–and ends up involuntarily cryocelled for his troubles. Twelve years later, Riordan awakens to a changed world. Humanity has achieved faster-than-light travel and is pioneering nearby star systems. And now, Riordan is compelled to become an inadvertent agent of conspiracy himself. Riordans mission: travel to a newly settled world and investigate whether a primitive local species was once sentient–enough so to have built a lost civilization.

However, arriving on site in the Delta Pavonis system, Caine discovers that the job he’s been given is anything but secret or safe. With assassins and saboteurs dogging his every step, its clear that someone doesn’t want his mission to succeed. In the end, it takes the broad-based insights of an intelligence analyst and a matching instinct for intrigue to ferret out the truth: that humanity is neither alone in the cosmos nor safe. Earth is revealed to be the lynchpin planet in an impending struggle for interstellar dominance, a struggle into which it is being irresistibly dragged. Discovering new dangers at every turn, Riordan must now convince the powers-that-be that the only way for humanity to survive as a free species is to face the perils directly–and to fight fire with fire.

About “Fire with Fire:

“”Chuck Gannon is one of those marvelous finds–someone as comfortable with characters as he is with technology, and equally adept at providing those characters with problems to solve. Imaginative, fun, and not afraid to step on the occasional toe or gore the occasional sacred cow, his stories do not disappoint.”–David Weber

“If we meet strong aliens out there, will we suffer the fate of the Aztecs and Incas, or find the agility to survive? Gannon fizzes with ideas about the dangerous politics of first contact.”–David Brin

“The plot is intriguing and then some. Well-developed and self-consistent; intelligent readers are going to like it.”–Jerry Pournelle

” The intersecting plot threads, action and well-conceived science kept those pages turning.”–“SF Crowsnest”

About Starfire series hit, “Extremis,” coauthored by Charles E. Gannon:

“Vivid. . . Battle sequences mingle with thought-provoking exegesis . . .”-“Publishers Weekly”

“Its a grand, fun series of battles and campaigns, worthy of anything Dale Brown or Larry Bond ever wrote.” -“Analog”

About Charles E. Gannon:

” A strong writer of. . .military SF. . . much action going on in his work, with a lot of physics behind it. There is a real sense of the urgency of war and the sacrifices it demands.” -“Locus”