Book Note: David Weber, Mutineer's Moon

This note contains spoilers for the book.

This is the start of the series that Heirs of Empire is the third of. It certainly gets off to a pretty zippy start.

Hmmm; I seem to be in a pissy mood, no doubt left over from that Op-Center book. On page 89, Colin worries that his friend Cal is going to be on an open mike to the mutineers when he walks in, and that he might thus give the alarm. All well and good; but then he thinks he can scarper before they get there, so he should go ahead. Sorry, pal; there's nothing so urgent that you should go ahead under those conditions. And in particular keeping them from knowing that Dahak is active and has at least one human agent is vital right then. Yes, I know events are about to prove this an irrelevant worry; but Cal doesn't know that.

Overall, fun. I don't recall any more meteoric blood-pressure increases, either. Weber seems to be uncomfortably good with the dysfunctional internal politics of repressive regimes (like the Peeps in the Honor Harrington universe, or the south-polar mutineers here). Easy to hate them, easy to hope they fry. Nice when they do.

Colin makes a good leader in this sort of situation. His command authority is somewhat questionable, and in fact he works with the Nergal's council to make major decisions. But by the end he's solidly in command.

Good thing, since nobody else is going to show up to help them defend Earth. I'm worried; how can they possibly defeat the alien invasion single-handed? Won't the aliens just divert forces from elsewhere until Earth is overwhelmed? I found the book at Dreamhaven, so soon we'll know.