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The Riss Series #3
The Riss Survival
The Raider clans have been defeated and their planet under the supervision of the Riss, with Captain Reese the station commander. But while Reese sees the Raider clans as on probation, many in the SAS task force she commands, perceive them as prisoners and hope to break the Treaty and get revenge.
As Nadya attempts to maintain the fragile peace, the three empires are being invaded. They know the invading force is far more technology advanced than the SAS. But who are they, where did they come from, and what do they want?
One thing appears certain. The SAS cannot defeat the aliens alone. But can they overcome their prejudices against the Riss, hatred of the clans, and long years of distrust of the other empires, to combine forces and technology to meet the challenge. The fate of the three empires, Riss, and the Raider clans may depend on it.
As Nadya attempts to maintain the fragile peace, the three empires are being invaded. They know the invading force is far more technology advanced than the SAS. But who are they, where did they come from, and what do they want?
One thing appears certain. The SAS cannot defeat the aliens alone. But can they overcome their prejudices against the Riss, hatred of the clans, and long years of distrust of the other empires, to combine forces and technology to meet the challenge. The fate of the three empires, Riss, and the Raider clans may depend on it.
264 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 3, 2012
36 people are currently reading
59 people want to read
About the author
C.R. Daems
51 books284 followersI was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, and joined the military right out of high school. I served twenty-two years in the United States Air Force as a certified internal auditor. While in the military service, I lived in seven states and two foreign countries, and obtained two degrees: a BS in mathematics and an MS in computer science.
After I retired from the Air Force, I secured a position with Digital Equipment Corporation, located in Bedford, Massachusetts, as a software course developer and instructor. I worked twenty-two years at DEC and held positions as a course developer, course development manager, software engineer, and software engineering manager.
Today, I’m retired and live in Tucson, Arizona, with my wife of fifty-three years. My daughter and two grandchildren live in Maryland. I began writing several years after I retired, when I was seventy. My first two attempts remain in my desk drawer—good ideas, but poorly written. Subsequently, I co-authored, with Jeanne Tomlin, three fantasy novels: Talon of the Raptor Clan, Scales of Justice, and All My Friends Have Wings (young adults). Talon of the Raptor Clan was sold to ePress-online Books and came out in July 2009. Since then I have written two additional novels: The Laughing Hounds (urban fantasy) and The Riss Gamble (science fiction).
My hobbies for the past forty years have been kung fu and tai chi.
After I retired from the Air Force, I secured a position with Digital Equipment Corporation, located in Bedford, Massachusetts, as a software course developer and instructor. I worked twenty-two years at DEC and held positions as a course developer, course development manager, software engineer, and software engineering manager.
Today, I’m retired and live in Tucson, Arizona, with my wife of fifty-three years. My daughter and two grandchildren live in Maryland. I began writing several years after I retired, when I was seventy. My first two attempts remain in my desk drawer—good ideas, but poorly written. Subsequently, I co-authored, with Jeanne Tomlin, three fantasy novels: Talon of the Raptor Clan, Scales of Justice, and All My Friends Have Wings (young adults). Talon of the Raptor Clan was sold to ePress-online Books and came out in July 2009. Since then I have written two additional novels: The Laughing Hounds (urban fantasy) and The Riss Gamble (science fiction).
My hobbies for the past forty years have been kung fu and tai chi.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 21, 2022
I have to say that I quite enjoyed reading these three books, The Riss Gamble, The Riss Proposal and The Riss Survival.
The underlying premise of the story, the Riss who wants to go into space with the help of the humans and invades the bodies of a set of human volunteers, is a bit weird and maybe not that plausible but it is really just a pretext to build a story from so it is not a big deal.
The books follows our main protagonist as she enlists to be part of the program, bonds with her alien, trains to become a navy officer and finally becomes one. During this journey she has to fight prejudice from fellow naval officers, incompetence and, of course bad guys. Both domestic and external bad guys.
I like the main protagonist and her Riss symbiont. I do not understand why the books insist on referring to the Riss as parasites? That’s just bullshit. They are symbionts. Nadya are quite competent, thinks out of the box and does not hesitate when push comes to shove. There are several other likable, or at least competent, characters in the books, even at the Admiral level.
If we ignore this “Riss wants to go to space” nonsense the story is a good one. It is decently paced with plenty of adventure, advancement and action. The bad guys mostly gets the short end of the stick and we usually get to be there for that part. Not like in too many books where you have to suffer through a long build up getting to really hate the bad guy and then, wham, in a few sentences we are just told that he was arrested or fired or some stupid shit like that.
I rate these three books at 3 1/2 star with the first and third book being 4 stars and the middle one being a 3 star one. Why 3 stars for the middle one?
Well, that is because this theme in all of the books where there is a shitload of prejudice against these aliens and especially the Riss-humans. Everywhere Nadya goes she is not only resented but sabotaged in the most blatant and criminal ways. Seriously, almost all the navy personnel behaves in a way that is criminally unprofessional. In the first book it was acceptable. There was a lot of advancements and a lot of the asshats got what they deserved.
However, when the second book just continued the same way and the same, disproven, lies just got repeated by said asshats and Nadya’s accomplishments got swiped under the rug or flat out denied it was just too much. Like listening to the far left mainstream media repeating the same debunked bullshit over and over again.
Another thing that irks me a bit is the nonsense that are mentioned every so often that the Riss have no ranks but everyone is “the same” and just doing what is needed in every situation. This is just idealistic pseudo-socialist nonsense that have been proven not to work over and over again.
Overall however, I quite liked these books. They are fun reading with a main protagonist a little bit in the spirit of Harrington and Longknife.
The underlying premise of the story, the Riss who wants to go into space with the help of the humans and invades the bodies of a set of human volunteers, is a bit weird and maybe not that plausible but it is really just a pretext to build a story from so it is not a big deal.
The books follows our main protagonist as she enlists to be part of the program, bonds with her alien, trains to become a navy officer and finally becomes one. During this journey she has to fight prejudice from fellow naval officers, incompetence and, of course bad guys. Both domestic and external bad guys.
I like the main protagonist and her Riss symbiont. I do not understand why the books insist on referring to the Riss as parasites? That’s just bullshit. They are symbionts. Nadya are quite competent, thinks out of the box and does not hesitate when push comes to shove. There are several other likable, or at least competent, characters in the books, even at the Admiral level.
If we ignore this “Riss wants to go to space” nonsense the story is a good one. It is decently paced with plenty of adventure, advancement and action. The bad guys mostly gets the short end of the stick and we usually get to be there for that part. Not like in too many books where you have to suffer through a long build up getting to really hate the bad guy and then, wham, in a few sentences we are just told that he was arrested or fired or some stupid shit like that.
I rate these three books at 3 1/2 star with the first and third book being 4 stars and the middle one being a 3 star one. Why 3 stars for the middle one?
Well, that is because this theme in all of the books where there is a shitload of prejudice against these aliens and especially the Riss-humans. Everywhere Nadya goes she is not only resented but sabotaged in the most blatant and criminal ways. Seriously, almost all the navy personnel behaves in a way that is criminally unprofessional. In the first book it was acceptable. There was a lot of advancements and a lot of the asshats got what they deserved.
However, when the second book just continued the same way and the same, disproven, lies just got repeated by said asshats and Nadya’s accomplishments got swiped under the rug or flat out denied it was just too much. Like listening to the far left mainstream media repeating the same debunked bullshit over and over again.
Another thing that irks me a bit is the nonsense that are mentioned every so often that the Riss have no ranks but everyone is “the same” and just doing what is needed in every situation. This is just idealistic pseudo-socialist nonsense that have been proven not to work over and over again.
Overall however, I quite liked these books. They are fun reading with a main protagonist a little bit in the spirit of Harrington and Longknife.
April 26, 2022
I am really enjoying this series! It feels like a combo of his Red Angel & Tasmanian series with an noticeable improvement in his writing style. Those series were like candy floss for me - strong female lead that beats the odds in the military leadership with some kind of super hidden advantage. Red Angel was a symbiotic snake and Tasmanians was hard core martial art master she had been doing since childhood.
This series has a symbiotic angle but the it is intelligent & able to communicate. He calls it a parasite but it seems more symbiotic to me but much of the plot is driven by the bad guys not liking a person with a nasty parasite.
The peace loving parasites wanting to space travel is a great premise and well done in this series. I definitely recommend it to anyone who likes this genre.
This series has a symbiotic angle but the it is intelligent & able to communicate. He calls it a parasite but it seems more symbiotic to me but much of the plot is driven by the bad guys not liking a person with a nasty parasite.
The peace loving parasites wanting to space travel is a great premise and well done in this series. I definitely recommend it to anyone who likes this genre.
June 14, 2017
dnf @23% MC is conceited, worldbuilding is unbelieveable, supporting cast non existant.
January 19, 2019
it gets better and better
April 24, 2016
I enjoyed this third book of the series, fast pace to read and interesting from the start to the finish. This one is a little different than the ones before as while Reese our Riss-human is still hated she has achieved a high position so directed hatred to her isn't really felt. We get to see a small mutiny and how the clans have adjusted to the new status of their world, and they are becoming some of my favorite characters. We then reach into the heart of the book where we learn of planets going dark with no news or ships coming out of them, from this we learn that robot aliens are attacking and people are turning to Reese to get in their heads and come up with ideas to fight them. Overall a good third book of the series; while i wish it wouldn't have ended so abruptly it was good and a nice read that i would recommend to anyone that likes sci fi or the two books before this one.
June 27, 2015
Good read. Fast moving for the most part.
I've been enjoying this series a lot. This book got a bit slow for a while but if picked up steam and finished well. My biggest problem with #3 is the spelling and grammar mistakes. As an occasional copy editor I can't help but notice them. By midway through the book they happen at least every other page. It was distracting for me. His collaborations with the other author whose name I've forgotten are really well written. I'd like to see this book properly proof read. Then I'd enjoy it more. I may not go on to #4. But I might! Not today. The other books demanded their immediate sequels. This one does not for me.
I've been enjoying this series a lot. This book got a bit slow for a while but if picked up steam and finished well. My biggest problem with #3 is the spelling and grammar mistakes. As an occasional copy editor I can't help but notice them. By midway through the book they happen at least every other page. It was distracting for me. His collaborations with the other author whose name I've forgotten are really well written. I'd like to see this book properly proof read. Then I'd enjoy it more. I may not go on to #4. But I might! Not today. The other books demanded their immediate sequels. This one does not for me.
March 28, 2016
I already thought this with the first books but: The premise of sharing you body with an alien symbiote/parasite that can take control of your mind kinda feels wasted a bit when the symbiote is basically just along for the ride, there to provide commentary and give her some amount of super powers but basically leave every decision to the human host. Thalia could as well be a magical mascot character that sits on her shoulders and sometimes cast buff or heal spells. I just feel that the series doesn't really do much with its premise, well it does stories about discrimination with it I guess.
August 11, 2019
Not as much fun as the first two in the series, and ends without any resolution, just to be continued.
December 24, 2012
MOOOOOORE!!! Please.....Don't leave me hanging like that, man!
April 13, 2013
Eagerly awaiting the next book in this series.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews