What do you think?
Rate this book
The Nameless War Trilogy #1
The Nameless War
First came contact, then genocide, now war.
The Nameless have superior technology, numbers and a willingness to accept casualties that goes beyond comprehension. Their aim, nothing less than the total destruction of humanity. All that stands in their way, five officers, a handful of ships… and the human need to survive!
The Nameless have superior technology, numbers and a willingness to accept casualties that goes beyond comprehension. Their aim, nothing less than the total destruction of humanity. All that stands in their way, five officers, a handful of ships… and the human need to survive!
399 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 20, 2011
16 people are currently reading
92 people want to read
About the author
Edmond Barrett
11 books23 followersEdmond Barrett is a native of the North-West of England and a resident of Dublin, Ireland. An amateur student of history, a fan of Terry Pratchett and low tech science fiction. He writes military science fiction and urban fantasy. Currently he is working on the final book of the Nameless War Trilogy - The Last Charge which is due for release in October 2014.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
September 15, 2020
Yes it's mine, yes I think it's fantastic, no I'm not impartial.
February 15, 2015
I have to admit that this review might be colored towards the positive by the fact that this type of story is definitely one of my favorite ones. However, I did find this book to be, not only my type of story, but well written and with a set of characters that I took a liking to.
This book is perhaps less complex and have less world building than works like Doug Dandridge’s Empires at War but depending on your taste this may or may not work in the books favor. Personally, I like both the more complex Empires at War and this book.
The action starts fairly quickly with the first appearance of the Nameless. Then the book takes a bit of a pause while it introduces a few more of the main characters, deals with a bit of the usual depressing and destructive politics and generally sets the stage for the rest of the story.
After the first encounter I pretty much expected the war that is the name of the trilogy would start at full speed but the author threw in a research mission first just to expand the story a bit. Unfortunately, for the humans, this mission do not really reveal much about the nameless themselves but certainly about the effect of their actions. Let us say that it is not looking good for the humans unless they can repeal the nameless’ aggression.
After this little interlude the real action commences and the humans are quite rapidly learning, the hard way, that assumptions are the mother of all fuck-ups. Especially when making assumptions about the capabilities, or rather lack thereof, of your potential military adversaries. Speaking of action, the action in this book is generally well done with believable science fiction physics and decent enough military tactics and strategies.
Throughout the book we are following several key characters that I felt were all rather likable in different ways. They are all rather heroic of course but their careers have their ups and downs. Sometimes due to dumbass politics and sometimes due to their own actions.
Bottom line for me is that this was a book that I enjoyed quite lot and I will definitely read the rest of the series. I do hope that get to learn the reasoning behind the nameless seemingly fanatic wish to destroy other civilizations.
This book is perhaps less complex and have less world building than works like Doug Dandridge’s Empires at War but depending on your taste this may or may not work in the books favor. Personally, I like both the more complex Empires at War and this book.
The action starts fairly quickly with the first appearance of the Nameless. Then the book takes a bit of a pause while it introduces a few more of the main characters, deals with a bit of the usual depressing and destructive politics and generally sets the stage for the rest of the story.
After the first encounter I pretty much expected the war that is the name of the trilogy would start at full speed but the author threw in a research mission first just to expand the story a bit. Unfortunately, for the humans, this mission do not really reveal much about the nameless themselves but certainly about the effect of their actions. Let us say that it is not looking good for the humans unless they can repeal the nameless’ aggression.
After this little interlude the real action commences and the humans are quite rapidly learning, the hard way, that assumptions are the mother of all fuck-ups. Especially when making assumptions about the capabilities, or rather lack thereof, of your potential military adversaries. Speaking of action, the action in this book is generally well done with believable science fiction physics and decent enough military tactics and strategies.
Throughout the book we are following several key characters that I felt were all rather likable in different ways. They are all rather heroic of course but their careers have their ups and downs. Sometimes due to dumbass politics and sometimes due to their own actions.
Bottom line for me is that this was a book that I enjoyed quite lot and I will definitely read the rest of the series. I do hope that get to learn the reasoning behind the nameless seemingly fanatic wish to destroy other civilizations.
March 7, 2013
Really competently written! Mr Barett has a flowing prose and something really rare among sci-fi authors nowdays, a working knowledge of matters scientific and military.
Get it!
Get it!
June 16, 2016
space opera in my opinion is on the other side of the spectrum from fantasy ,but in most cases, it shares a very important quality with it's strange brother
ABUNDANT PRESENCE OF EUROPEANS
few books manages to balance the writer own influence and an acceptable vision of the future
and like most space opera books ,this books also failed
PS:what the hell is new zealand doing with a permanent seat in the security counsel,my dick is bigger than that county
ABUNDANT PRESENCE OF EUROPEANS
few books manages to balance the writer own influence and an acceptable vision of the future
and like most space opera books ,this books also failed
PS:what the hell is new zealand doing with a permanent seat in the security counsel,my dick is bigger than that county
April 28, 2021
That's a very nice series. Quality stuff, an order of magnitude better than the usual run of the mill garbage other writers produce by the dozen.
September 14, 2020
A good early work. There were a few editing misses, fortunately they were few enough that they didn't detract from the story. First contact and World War II inspired combat in a science fiction setting. This was reminiscent of submarine warfare books of the late 19th century; Up Periscope and Run Silent Run Deep come to mind. The action is completely different, but the pacing and style are similar. Good enough to buy another.
October 16, 2021
The entire series needs editing.. spelling, grammar and general thats-not-how-that-works science errors... Meh I read all three books.. but it was a struggle ... more regret than pleasure at the end.
January 10, 2019
Interesting MIL SciFi
Plenty of action. Good characters. Cool tech, too. Author needs to grammar & spell check. Bone upon MIL slang. Proofreading would be beneficial, too.
Plenty of action. Good characters. Cool tech, too. Author needs to grammar & spell check. Bone upon MIL slang. Proofreading would be beneficial, too.
October 25, 2020
Probably the best space warfare I've read since the early Honor Harrington books
March 11, 2016
Thoroughly enjoyed this book, although it reminded me in many ways of another book (who's name I can't remember) with the dead civilisation on the planet bit, but on the whole a really good story that keeps the pressure up almost from the start.
The massive let down of this book was the lack of editing - words missing, correctly spelt but wrong versions of word (their/they're/there for example), sentences that have obviously been retrospectively changed but the context not checked. The author's spellchecker obviously works, shame about their proof-reader. Already started the second book and the same problem continues....
The massive let down of this book was the lack of editing - words missing, correctly spelt but wrong versions of word (their/they're/there for example), sentences that have obviously been retrospectively changed but the context not checked. The author's spellchecker obviously works, shame about their proof-reader. Already started the second book and the same problem continues....
July 13, 2015
Written by a third grader who needs remedial english
Uses the wrong words for the most basic things, how about their mission being "Stella cartography". No imagination, a ship that's subject to full vacuum using light bulbs???
A spell check would fix a lot of the errors if the author had enough common sense to use one.
Uses the wrong words for the most basic things, how about their mission being "Stella cartography". No imagination, a ship that's subject to full vacuum using light bulbs???
A spell check would fix a lot of the errors if the author had enough common sense to use one.
September 12, 2012
Excellant book but where is the sequel. Submarines space i was thinking alot.
November 21, 2012
Why people who either don't know grammar or don't care enough to use punctuation marks properly rush to publish their writings?
February 9, 2013
Great fast paced sci fi space drama
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews