The Honour of the Knights (The Battle for the Solar System - Book 1) by Stephen Sweeney

Book Description:  When starfighter pilot Simon Dodds is enrolled in a top secret military project, he and his wingmates begin to suspect that there is a lot more to the theft of a legendary battleship and an Imperial nation's civil war than either the Confederation Stellar Navy or the government are willing to let on.

Within weeks of being reassigned to the Confederate border system of Temper, the five would begin to untangle a web of lies and a cover-up that seemed to span the length of the entire galaxy. And it would not be long before they themselves would come face to face with that which destroyed an empire: an unforgiving, unstoppable, and totally unrelenting foe.

There seemed to exist only one glimmer of hope of driving back the darkness: The ATAF Project - a secretly developed set of starfighters that may well just harbour some terrible secrets of their own.

Review 4 of 5 Stars

All in all I guess the best recommendation that can be given to a book is that I enjoyed, was entertained and intrigued enough by the book to buy the second one in the series.  It was pretty much a fighter (ATAF) pilot story and the only real land-based scenes take place at the beginning on the Dodds' apple farm.  Everything else is on a ship, space station, etc. so it's very much about the characters and the story unfolding. Even after reading the book I really don't know enough about the enemy or what's going on in Imperial space to satisfy my questions so I'm hoping the second book will provide me with more of those details. Never fear though, there's plenty to keep you interested as you move along through the story and lots of unanswered questions, which I appreciate in the first book of a series.  Simon (Dodds), Estelle, Chaz, Kelly and Enrique are the White Knights and after having not been chosen for the secret ATAF project they are later thrust into the middle of it with many questions of their own and not nearly enough answers from the brass.  Overall, I enjoyed the book and as I stated at the beginning I did buy the next one in the series as it caught my attention enough to make me want to know more.  There were some typos and incorrect word usage (and I don't mean the kind that's the difference between the US and UK) that tripped me up a couple of times (though not too bad), but the author suggests that if you're going to read the whole series that you start with the second edition of this book instead of the first.  I read the first version which may account for some of the editing issues, etc. Either way, no reason to pass up a good story for a few mistakes.  Just roll right over it and enjoy the show.

Monsters by Peter Cawdron

Book Description:  Monsters is a dystopian novel set against the backdrop of the collapse of civilization.

The fallout from a passing comet contains a biological pathogen, not a virus or a living organism, just a collection of amino acids, but these cause animals to revert to the age of the mega-fauna, when monsters roamed Earth.

Bruce Dobson is a reader. With the fall of civilization, reading has become outlawed. Superstitions prevail, and readers are persecuted like the witches and wizards of old. Bruce and his son James seek to overturn the prejudices of their day and restore the scientific knowledge central to their survival, but monsters lurk in the dark.

Review 4 of 5 Stars

Life has been busy and it took me forever to get around to reading Monsters, but I'm glad I did.  It was a good story. Generally I read more of the reaching and playing in the universe brand of stories, but I really enjoyed this story.  Monsters is a post-apocalyptic type of story, though civilization doesn't fall to nuclear weapons, zombies or anything of the type, which was refreshing. The destruction of civilization as we know it was much more subtle and leads to the theme for this book, which is really how much would we lose if we as a civilization lost the ability to read and how would our lives be affected through the generations. The beginning of the book was a little bit too much narrative for me, but it wasn't so much that I couldn't get through it.  It picked up nicely along the way in the battling of Monsters, both wild and human. I was really into by the end of the book and hated to see it end. If I had to be in this world I would surely take the risks that the characters do to get their hands on books, because I too am a reader. All in all it was a good read and a interesting way to pass a couple of evenings at home.