The Apocalypse Troll

ISBN: 0-671-57782-4 Order from: Amazon.com Barnes & Noble.com

A light-weight, entertaining, fast-moving novel with combat scenes, rather superficial bag guys, and simplistic but sympathetic heroes.

Reviewed by David on May 23, 1999 (rev. 1)

Genre: Science Fiction (Military, Time Travel)

Synopsis: A desparate alien group tries a risky hyper-space maneuver, and travels back in time to Earth in 2007 in hopes of preventing the humans from becoming a space power. A human flotilla follows the homocidal aliens.

After a firce battle in the heavens, an injured human pilot from centuries in the future, and a malicious cyborg from the armies of the humanities' most implacable foe survive to crash-land on Earth. The pilot, a young woman, races against time to gather allies among the near-future nations as the powerful cyborg plots humanity's destruction.

Full Review: The novel features an attractive and courageous female pilot from the future, an middle-aged but still extremely capable captain of the US Navy, and a score of brave and competent miltary people. The adversary, the "Troll", is mostly a stereotype of hatred and sadism. While the pace is rapid, and the protagonists are quite sympathetic, for the most part the character development is non-existent, and the book seems more superficial than Weber's Honor series. There are several pleasant and mildly humorous interludes between the two heroes. However, for the most part, action takes the front stage, and the supporting characters are lightly sketched.

This novel is a mildly pleasant diversion, but has little intensity or complexity that characterize Weber's best work.

Note, the text of the book has been posted by Baen in the Sample Chapters.

Overall: 6; Plot: 6; Characters: 5.5; Style: 5; World-building: 5; Originality: 6;

ISBN: 0-671-57782-4 Order from: Amazon.com Barnes & Noble.com