Monday, March 10, 2014

Kris Longknife: Deserter by Mike Shepherd

9 March

After all the grimness and perversity of my last read, I needed a little good clean space opera to settle my mind and stomach. I am rather enjoying the saga of this improbable princess - only a princess because her great-grandfather was elected king. Didn't have the sense to turn the job down like old G. Washington did.

I believe the running cast is now complete. We have Penny, Abby, and Jack all on deck. There is Abby's niece who appears in the later books, and one must wonder where Tommy disappeared to - but that does seem to complete the crew.

In this one, Kris's friend and classmate, Tommy, whom she led from one disaster to another in the first book is kidnapped and she goes tearing off to rescue him. Of course, she knows that she is walking into a trap, but her inevitable line is "I had no choice."

The bad guy is apparently willing to destroy an entire world just to kill her. He does confess that "we" were behind all the attempts on her life from the first book, including the kidnap/murder of her little brother back when she was a child - actually, she was supposed to have been disposed of as well. What we did not learn - since he was blown to atoms - is who the rest of "we" is and why "we" are so determined to have her dead - even as a ten-year-old.

The score? On the one hand, she rescued Tommy, saved the planet, and prevented another war. On the other, she was trapped on the planet by the machinations of the bad guy and overran her leave by a couple of weeks, which made her a deserter. So, naturally, they promoted her and gave her a ship of her own.

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