“The Lost Stars: Perilous Shield,” by Jack Campbell

FM's ratings:

1. Premise 8
2. Prose 9
3. Plot 8
4. Characters 9
5. Overall 8

Comments (optional - but try to keep it under 3000 words!)

I admit, the only reason I picked this book up for a dollar is because the author and I share a last name. I have never read a “military novel” before (other than the excruciatingly longwinded tomes by Tom Clancy, which try to be so much more), though some of the space ship oriented sci-fi I used to read almost exclusively did contain elements of “military sci-fi” and came rather close to this genre - so, what a pleasant surprise to find this book not only readable, but rather gripping. There is an overall plot thread to this novel, but it reads more like a series of separate situations, space battles, assassination attempts and so on. Normally that would sound boring to me, but the intelligence with which this novel was written completely overcame any preconceptions on my part. There is even some fairly deep exploration of political philosophy involving the two main protagonists – again, not at all tedious, but rather thought-provoking. I now find myself a lot more curious about those novels featuring soldiers in the battlefield on the front cover!

Here’s the May line-up!

"The Year of the Flood," by Margaret Atwood [5-6-17]

"Victims," by Jonathan Kellerman [5-13-17]

"Bite Me,' by Parker Blue [5-20-17]

"Bite Me," by Christopher Moore [5-27-17]

(As always, if there are any books you’d like to recommend for next month, please do so. Also, if you have already read one on our previous lists, you are invited to send your ratings and or comments for that book!)