Impulse, Dave Bara.

Starbound, Dave Bara.

I read he first two books in Dave Bara’s "The Lightship Chronicles" and they are quick reads indeed as the plot flows effortlessly from page to page. The genre is Military Science Fiction and worth reading (if you like that kind of thing or Star Trek or Star Wars).

Humanity has spread to the stars, but society had regressed after a great war. The main character, a young Lieutenant in the Quantar "space navy" is part of the generation that gets to go back out into interstellar space and rediscover the lost colonies.

There are (at least to me) clear inspirations from Star Trek in the tone, plot and organization of the space navy. There is also (at least to me) inspiration from Warhammer 40K. Each Lightship carries a priest/historian from distant Earth and this priesthood controls lots of "ancient tech" that only they understand. In some ways religion has taken over responsibility for certain parts of science deemed dangerous, and they are afraid of introducing this tech on one hand, and afraid what happens if they don't as space is full of dangers.

Gradually the main characters are introduced to the technological and historical secrets as the rediscovery of nearby star systems with human colonies become more and more perilous, and they face spaceships installations or AI controlled robots with better weapons, as well as imperial marines (long live Star Wars) and nanotechnology.

For me the series don't rate as high as most of Jack Campbell's series, but Mr. Bera writes well, and you just keep turning those pages to discover a little more of their journey into the unknown. I had a lot of fun reading both books.

One thing that might also make you happy (or not) is that the ladies and men are very virile and sexy (especially in book one). Say welcome to some steaming Space Opera going on below decks! Don’t' misunderstand it’s not "Barberalla, Queen of the Galaxy" but Dave Bara "knows his stuff".

/Rune S. Nielsen