4.5 if I could but good enough to round up.

I loved this book. I was lucky enough to proofread it but don't feel any ownership in the story or production so I feel like I'm able to review it without bias.

This one has a much different feel than [b:The Caphenon|23201282|The Caphenon (Chronicles of Alsea, #1)|Fletcher DeLancey|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1415548646s/23201282.jpg|42745614]. Where that book's fight scenes and drama were pretty intense, this one is more romantic intrigue. The writing and storytelling is just as good as the first book in the series and I have no doubt that SciFi and romance fans will absolutely love this book. Just like I did. I would dock it a half-star because of the cliffhanger. But the good news is that I'm betting readers will immediately want to pick up the next in the series and it's being published about a month after this one so the wait won't be bad.

I'm getting ready to read it again now that I have the official version. I'm betting I'll love it even more. ( )

This second book in the ‘Chronicles of Alsea’ series is just as impressive as the first. It is set in the aftermath of Alsea, a pre-faster-than-light-flight society, fighting off an invasion from the technologically superior Voloth. The Alseans may have had help from the Gaians - humans of the future – but the final victory was won by using Alsean empathic abilities to destroy Voloth minds. The novel deals with the mental and emotional trauma suffered by the veterans of the Battle of Alsea, the difficulties everyone has adapting to the sudden influx of superior technology, and Lancer Tal’s very personal confrontation with her feelings in the context of a world trying to find its feet in a galactic context.

The world building continues to be excellent, and gave me an even deeper look into the priorities, issues, and morality of a society of empaths of varying levels whose laws and behaviors are determined by their mental abilities – abilities that are unique in this universe. In a society ruled by six castes, where everyone has a predefined position, any change causes all kinds of uproar. But even more than the world itself, what impressed me were the people. Lancer Tal is the main character, and I loved getting to know even more about her. Colonel Micah, her loyal friend and mentor, is as fierce and funny as ever. Lead Templar Satran gives more than spiritual advice; her comments and thoughts are among the key drivers for Lancer Tal’s personal journey. And there are a few new favorites as well, and I got very attached to them very quickly.

The first part of this book focuses on Lancer Tal dealing with the political implications of her planet discovering alien life populating the galaxy at large and the aftermath of an invasion that almost ended her civilization. The physical rebuilding is almost easier than the mental repairs that need to be made. Then there are the Voloth prisoners of war, most of whom are insane, and some of whom are applying for asylum. The biggest stumbling block, politically, is the introduction of matter transmitters into a society that has almost every one of the six castes worried about their survival under the new conditions. One of the groups most opposed are the producers (farmers), and Lancer Tal ends up accepting the challenge of finding out first-hand why the new technology will destroy their existence.

In the second part, Lancer Tal finds herself working on the agricultural holding of one of her most vocal opponents. Salomen may have been convinced it would be an easy win, but the two women are both equally stubborn, proud, and tough. This results in a more challenging battle for both of them than either would have predicted. And when Lancer Tal’s enemies step up their attacks, the effects are no longer limited to her or the warriors responsible for her security arrangements.

If you like science fiction with alien societies very different from ours, if you enjoy watching tough women fight and argue before they realize they have more in common than either would like to admit, and if you’re looking for a read that is as fascinating and suspenseful as it is amazing, then you will probably like this novel. There is one warning I need to issue – other than cautioning you about a possible addiction to this series – book two is not the whole story. The titles of books two and three being essentially the same pretty much make this clear, but the full impact of what that means did not hit me until the last page of book two. Talk about a cliff-hanger!


NOTE: This book was provided by Ylva Publishing for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews. ( )

After repelling an alien invasion, Alsea‰ÃƒÂ›Ã‚ªs leader Andira Tal now has the really hard work to deal with. Plenty of veterans and other civilians question her methods used to defend Alsea. She has squabbling castes who have differing views on what to do with the matter printers Alsea now has access to. How and when should they be introduced into the economy? The producers are afraid it will destroy their livelihoods. One such producer issues a challenge to Tal to live as a field hand for a month. Tal agrees, and finds new respect for the producers, and a chance at a life-changing love. However, a villain conspires to control Tal, and is just waiting for her to fall into his trap. My squees Delancey does an amazing job of describing landscapes and pageantry. The reader experiences so many aspects of society: farming, politics, the prison system, how castes work, and ceremonial swordfighting. Everything feels like it‰Ûªs been carefully thought out: Alsea is a complete and detailed world, and its struggles felt convincing to me. The romance builds slowly, and the relationship between Tal and her belle is a slow build from grudging respect to love as they interact with each other more and see beyond their preconceptions of who the other is. Tal‰Ûªs lady is more than a match for the leader of Alsea- according to Tal herself! Speaking of Tal‰Ûªs lady, so many characters have awesome and original names. They‰Ûªre pleasant sounds in my mind. Early on, Delancey handles questions of prisoners of war, euthanasia, and the unexpected victims of warfare. There‰Ûªs a lot to consider here, given the events of The Caphenon, and all the consequences of war and alien contact are given due consideration. My grumbles I‰Ûªm somewhat allergic to the ‰Û÷soul mates‰Ûª trope. Although Delancey handles the relationship well, with the women figuring out they would have bonded without divine intervention, it‰Ûªs something that tweaks me in any circumstance. This book is long and ends on a cliffhanger. The pace is slowed down by occasional vignettes about Tal‰Ûªs adversary. Unfortunately, I couldn‰Ûªt find much to latch on about the villain. He‰Ûªs vague about his machinations and his motivations seem pretty simple. I would have liked some more details (like his pet rabbit or something) about him to make him more intriguing to me. Read The Caphenon before reading this. It will make the issues surrounding the Voloth and Tal‰Ûªs despondence at the beginning of the book much clearer. I‰Ûªll definitely read Without a Front II: The Warrior‰Ûªs Challenge. ( )

The seventh book that I’ve read by Fletcher DeLancey. Second one in the Chronicles of Alsea series. I’d actually read the first book in that series, ‘The Caphenon’, before I had read the five Star Trek Voyager books. Meaning that it’s been a month and roughly 20 days since I read the first book in this Alsea series.

I had initially planned to read the second book immediately after the first, but then I noticed that the Captain and her bonded mate weren’t in the second book. Which confused me since the first book seemed to have ended with them saying ‘bye for now, we’ll be back shortly.’ Well, however long shortly is, it’s not short enough to include them in this here book. Granted only sixth or so months have passed between books – I just thought more time was going to pass between books, for some reason. That time I just mentioned, the months, is internal chronological time. Not my time or publication time.

Right, so, this book here. It is six months later in story time and Lancer Andira Tal is suffering greatly. So much so that she ducks out on her own guards so that she can have some time by herself. It takes her friend and chief guard, Micah, to pull a blaster on her for Tal to realize that there are other options available to her. So, after a lot of work is done to make it possible, Tal goes on vacation for a short while.

Why is she suffering? She has a ton of people pounding her regarding that new technology that she had gotten from the Caphenon (well through the treaty with the Protectorate). And the various castes are not agreeing with each other or with Tal about the pace of change. In addition, Tal is suffering from an unexpected source – separation. She had made it about a month operating ‘relatively well’ regarding that separation, since the departure of the Caphenon, but then communication got reestablished and adversely impacted her. Adversely impacted because she had shared, intimately, with a tyree connection – and it’s almost like her own tyree mate was dead/gone/etc. Doesn’t help that she, in addition to that, actually did develop a love for one of the pair. Which was further not helped when she learned that the other would have been agreeable to seeing what might have developed if she hadn’t been a part of a tyree. And so, suffering.

Tal, Micah, and a bunch of guards visit the beach. Run around, kick the sand, etc. During one of her jaunts around, Tal runs into a woman and they strike up a nice little relationship. Is she the one? Has Tal found someone for herself? Well, things are complicated, because Tal hadn’t been running around as herself – she’d been in disguise. And failed to reveal who exactly she actually is before things went too far and the woman got pissed at her.

So. That happened. And Tal had not, in fact, ‘found her one’. She’s somewhat better, though, from having had a vacation. So, back into the political combat of her life.

The book is subtitled ‘The Producer’s Challenge’. Am I actually ever going to mention said challenge? Well, just like me taking a while to get to it, the book itself took a while to get to this challenge. As I’d mentioned, the various castes were fighting/bickering/arguing over the new technology, and the pace of interdiction. As part of this, Tal meets with various delegates. One such delegation involves the Producers caste. After returning from her vacation she has a meeting with the delegates. But immediately calls into question the appearance of one member of the delegation. Apparently that woman, Salmon Hol-Opah (there’s a good chance I’m misspelling her first name), was taking the place of another member ‘because he is ill’ (he isn’t ill). One thing leads to another and Salmon makes some comment or another, or some words occurred that lead to ‘the challenge’. The challenge consists of Hol-Opah hosting Tal for a month (or was it nine-days? I forget now; there was some argument over the length of the challenge, but I believe it ended up being a month). Thereafter, Hol-Opah would be hosted, in turn, by Tal. Hence the second part of Without a Front being subtitled ‘The Warrior’s Challenge’.

This was an interesting book. More interesting, actually, than I had expected. And the romance that occurs, and yes one does occur beyond that vacation fling one I mean, seemed quite good. Unique ‘relationship troubles’ occurred that was both innovative and not stupid.

I liked roughly 95 to 99% of the book. The part I didn’t like? Well, two parts actually. Somewhere near the end, but not specifically the end, the author suddenly switched from ‘showing’ to ‘telling’. It’s as if she knew that she would need to ‘wrap things up’ shortly and didn’t have room to ‘do it right’. Show she speed things up by ‘telling’ things. Then the ending returned to the more accepted ‘showing’ style of writing. And immediately ran into the second part I didn’t like. The abrupt ending to this specific book. Lives are literally hanging in the balance. Or however that’s worded. Right, but that’s okay-ish and didn’t detract from the rating.

An enjoyable book. My understanding is that this book here used to be combined with ‘The Warrior’s Challenge’ and be called Without a Front – and stand on its own without the Caphenon book. Since that is the case, I’ll note that there is a good enjoyable story in this specific book here, though it kind of ends in a cliff-hanger, and – while it can be read without the first book in the series, there are many issues that will be much easier to understand if the first book is read before this book here. And so, with all that, I say that this was a good almost solid second book to a series. Almost solid because of its cliff-hanger ending.

February 25 2016
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