Book Note: David Weber, The Apocalypse Troll

This note contains spoilers for the book.

Shockingly, this appears to be a standalone.

Kinda fun. By playing the odds just right the author manages to get one surviving fighter and one surviving cyborg catapulted into a past, or alternate (or both) Earth. From some 500 years in the future. (The Earth they hit is a bit in advance of us.)

If the Troll isn't killed, he'll destroy humanity in that timeline. Seems kinda single-minded, but then he's insane by design, his masters prefer them that way.

The other survivor is a post-human 87-year old who looks 19, holds multiple advanced science degrees, and is a hot-shot space fighter pilot. She is not, however, named Honor Harrington.

The final conflict leaves the troll thinking she's destroyed, her severely damaged, most of the electronics on that side of the world EMPd by a 500 megatone airburst, and several ships from a USN carrier battle group missing (nuked). The injured pilot lands closs enough to the sailboat of an about-to-retire Navy Seal guy for him to rescue her.

Did I mention that the Troll can read minds? Within his range, and only for about 1/3 of the population. He can control them, too, but detailed control tends to cause damage.

Kinda fun; although I never did understand how the symbiote, carrier of a 99.5% fatal disease, managed to come to terms with any humans, how an alien parasite can manage to be a perfect symbiote by chance, and whether her presence on Earth, or her infecting her boyfriend with it, didn't risk letting that plague loose on Earth.