Martinez

Michael J. Martinez, The Venusian Gambit (2015)

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Just last week I reviewed one excellent, trilogy-concluding book from Night Shade Books. It’s not entirely a coincidence that this week I’ll write about the final instalment of another Night Shade trilogy, Michael J. Martinez’s The Daedalus Series. It’s title is The Venusian Gambit and it makes a nice conclusion to a very fine series.

The nineteenth and twenty-second centuries collide for an explosive finale in the jungles of Venus

That’s exactly what happens and Martinez delivers third book that is just as good as previous tomes. Which is good, and bad – I hoped for some improvements. Still, The Venusian Gambit was a pleasure to read and a book I happily recommend.

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Now the story is complete and anybody to whom the premise of hardcore s/f combined with steampunkish Nelson in space through alchemy alternative sounds cool – can safely grab volume one.

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Michael J. Martinez, The Enceladus Crisis (2014)

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I’ve read – and liked well enough (7/10) Michael J. Martinez’s Daedalus Incident, so it’s only natural to continue with the second part of his trilogy, The Enceladus Crisis. And the third one will follow, it’s still good and I want to know the conclusions of all the stories.

So we are back to a multiverse (duo-verse at least, and places in-between) where a hard sf reality of 2132 AD Earth meets steampunk, alchemy & sail-ships in space of 1798 AD alternative-Solar System. I’ll assume all the readers know the first instalment, if you don’t – well, I will limit the major spoilers (although heroes’ names alone will tell you, who the survivors of the previous books are), but remember it’s better to start at the beginning.

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Michael J. Martinez, The Daedalus Incident (2013)

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It seems that, for the time being, Ola takes on the big books and authors, and my role is to explore… not the bottom of the barrel, certainly, but less distinguished parts of the genre literature. Cool ideas of less known authors, guilty pleasures for specific audiences, things like that 😉

So… lets continue with Royal Navy in space, this time – with Michael J. Martinez, and his “The Deadalus Incident”, volume one of the “Daedalus” series. And this time its not “Nelson” in space, like was in case with the Honor Harrington. It’s Horatio Nelson himself, and his friends, in space. Thanks to the power of alchemy, pseudo science of our world’s past that works in this alternative universe.

An alchemist on board allows a classic man-o-war not only to sail through the space, but to do so without its crew dropping dead. Science of this… there are explanations that satisfy XVIII-century protagonists, for modern readers – it’s cool enough no to discourage from reading the book 😉

So we have a man-o-war, called… you guessed it, “HMS Daedalus”, sailing the Solar System under Cpt. William Marrow, among his crew – our main protagonist, Lt. Thomas Weatherby. When HMS Daedalus takes aboard Ms Baker, a servant of deceased giant of English alchemy, Dr. McDonnell, they become part of an adventure that involves international intrigue, piracy, aliens and great evil that threatens entire humanity. And characters like Benjamin Franklin, Count de St. Germain and Cagliostro (in this universe – famous alchemists).

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