Balance Point (3)

Orphan's Legacy #3

by Robert Buettner

NATIONAL BEST SELLING SERIES #3 in the science fiction adventure Orphan’s Legacy series, a saga of spy games and military action on an interplanetary scale.

The balance point of interplanetary Cold War II between Earth and monolithic Yavet tips unexpectedly toward peace. Covert ops Captain Jazen Parker and his sharp shooting lover and partner Kit Born slide from world saving hazardous duty to escorting a telepathic alien monster home from Earth to mate. And the two of them are forced to consider a quiet domestic future together.

But when old enemies’ thirsts for power and revenge, Jazen’s problematic past, and his former girlfriend, upset Jazen and Kit’s personal balance point, the two cold warriors find their relationship, and their very survival, tested as never before.

Lost in space, and from one another, they must each penetrate Yavet, the universe’s most insular and repressive world, then foil a plot that could turn Cold War II hot and nuclear—or die trying.

The Orphan's Legacy
Overkill
Undercurrents
Balance Point

About Balance Point :
"Fans of classic military SF will enjoy the twists and quips . . ."— Publishers Weekly

"Buettner . . . conducts his thriller action with suspense and plausibility. All the separate threads balance neatly, as if in homage to the books themes of balance between antagonistic polities . . . and [ Balance Point] carries forward nobly the kind of core SF tale pioneered by writers such as Anderson, Gordon Dickson, Christopher Anvil, James Schmitz, and C. J. Cherryh, offering entertainment aplenty with thoughtful meditations on how humanity can get along with itselfor not!"— Locus

About Robert Buettner and the Orphan's Legacy
“Buettner goes well beyond . . . military science fiction . . . he understands . . . living as a soldier—the boredom punctuated by terror, the constant anxiety and self-doubt, the random chaos that battle always is, and the emotional glue that holds together people who may have nothing in common except absolute responsibility for one another's lives.” —Joe Haldeman, Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author

“[O]nce in a while . . . a contemporary author penetrates to the heart of Heinlein's vision . . . to replicate the master's effects. . . . [O]ne such book [is] Robert Buettner's Orphanage .” — The Washington Post

“Entertaining. Buettner shows the Heinlein touch.” — Denver Post

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Military Science Fiction, Adventure, Action, Ebooks

416 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published March 15, 2014

About the author

Robert Buettner’s best-selling debut novel, Orphanage, 2004 Quill Award nominee for Best SF/Fantasy/Horror novel, was called the Post-9/11 generation’s Starship Troopers and “one of the great works of modern military science fiction.” Orphanage has been adapted for film by Olatunde Osunsanmi (The Fourth Kind) for Davis Entertainment (Predator, I Robot, Eragon). Orphanage and other books in Robert’s Jason Wander series have been translated into Chinese, Czech, French, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish. Robert was a 2005 Quill nominee for Best New Writer.

In April, 2014 Baen Books released his eighth novel, Balance Point. A long-time Heinlein Society member, Robert wrote the Afterword for Baen’s recent re-issue of Heinlein’s Green Hills of Earth/Menace From Earth short story collection. His own first original short story, Sticks and Stones, appears in the 2012 anthology, Armored, edited by John Joseph Adams. Robert served as the author judge for the 2011 National Space Society Jim Baen Memorial short story writing contest.

Robert is a former U.S. Army intelligence officer and National Science Foundation Fellow in Paleontology. As attorney of record in more than three thousand cases, he practiced in the U.S. federal courts, before courts and administrative tribunals in no fewer than thirteen states, and in five foreign countries. Six, if you count Louisiana.

He lives in Georgia with his family and more bicycles than a grownup needs.

Visit him on the web at www.RobertBuettner.com.

Reviews

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having reread this after reading the first two books in this series makes SO much more sense, now! It is funny how that works! Despite having read it previously, enough time has passed so that I had forgotten a large chunk of it, which made it enjoyable all the more. It has interesting character development in it, overall. The story seems to come to a close, but the ending is ambiguous enough that there could be a potential book or two in the series later (if the author were so inclined). It is almost more of a 'chase-book' as opposed to a mystery, in a sense; there is a minimal amount of 'action-adventure' in it, unlike the first two books in this particular series. It also has some moments in it that seemed a little 'too convenient' in how things worked out for the heroes, but it still works (it made me chuckle, more than anything else, when it happened). It ‘still’ has the different P.O.V.’s in it – the first person occurring when it is from Jazen’s perspective and the third person when it is anybody else’s perspective.

I was happy that the grezzen was in this book; now, it has a name - "Mort." Mort is being sent back home, as he is rapidly approaching puberty and all that that moment in his life entails. I know the second book was a 'different kind of story' in which Mort would not have fit well, but I still missed his character in the second novel. It felt like he was 'back home' being in this third novel. I also realize his appearance in this novel was crucial to the overall plot, but I still enjoyed his character. I thought he was probably the 'best character' from the first novel, and I enjoyed how his character had developed and was still developing over the course of this third novel.

One thing that really stood out to me, though, from reading the three books sequentially was how odd this book is in how it starts out. The second book ends with a 'cliff-hanger' in which Howard Hibble is essentially asking Kit and Jazen if they are 'ready to save the universe one more time,' to which the two lovers agree. THIS book starts out a few months after the end of the second book, and Jazen is back on Earth (well, both Kit and Jazen are back on Earth) and getting ready to find out why Mort is all riled up and destroying things on his 'preserve.' As it turns out, the character from the first book who was instrumental in killing his mother has been released from life-in-prison due to presidential pardon and the cashing of some 'personal chips' Cutler still had going for him. Mort discovers this while 'listening' to a minor character's mind as this minor character reads a newspaper article announcing Cutler's pardon and subsequent release from prison. So, what happened to the urgency at the end of the second book? What happened to the 'the entire universe is in danger and mankind might be wiped from existence if we don't solve this next caper'? It was funny how jarring it was, to go from that abrupt, "emotionally-charged ending," to the extremely-slow start to this book.

Also, the blurb on the back of the second book talks about how there are 'two women deeply in love with Jazen' but only Kit is ever mentioned in the book as being Jazen's love interest. In THIS book, there is a second woman introduced as being a part of Jazen's life for the two years he was separated from Kit and had resigned his commission in the 'spook service.' Jazen stops by his old bar on Mousetrap to see how thing are going (especially after receiving the 'paycheck' he had waiting for him; it was a pretty hefty sum of money) and meets his old lover, Syrene Dessele. As it turns out, things were pretty hot-n-heavy between the two of them and the implication is that they might actually have remained a couple and gotten married had Howard not lured Jazen back into service after Kit had been captured on a planet allied with Yavet. Which makes the second book very odd; one would have thought that, regardless of his deep feelings for Kit, Jazen would have felt somewhat conflicted after bailing out on Syrene like he did in the second book. One would have thought he would have had some kind of internal wrestling or inner conflict over how he was essentially dumping one beautiful woman with whom he had developed an intensely passionate, sexual, intimate relationship with to rescue the woman of his dreams that he felt equally passionate about. So, the author creates this artificial moment where Kit walks in and sees Jazen and Syrene appearing to be in an inappropriate moment (based on her current relationship with Jazen and the lack of knowledge about this prior relationship Jazen had had with this other woman for two years). This moment, plus Kit's subsequent reaction to it, are what gives Jazen the excuse (impetus?) he needs to leave the service and go find his 'mother' he left behind on Yavet when he escaped. So, yeah, it was a really contrived moment and made zero sense, as Syrene was never mentioned at all in the second book as being a part of Jazen's life. The implication one gets from reading the second book is that Jazen has been alone and miserable the two years he has been away from Kit, whereas the third book states that was not the case.

I did like that Jazen was FINALLY reunited with his birth parents and that they were still alive. Having finished these three books makes me want to start the first five books in the series that started it all. We'll see how that goes. It was also interesting to learn "more" about the Slugs and how they were 'finally defeated' at the end of that War that is hinted at throughout these books. I think it will be interesting to read that series and see how it ties in with this series as well as what changes may or may not have been made between that series and this one (in terms of the 'history' that has occurred). Well, it will be interesting if I remember to think about it, anyway, hahahah!

This book is quite different than the first two books. Well, it is more similar to the first one than the second one, I guess. Both the first and third books involved a 'long, drawn out chase' over the course of the book. The 'chase' is actually longer in the first book than it is in this book; the 'chase' does not begin until nearly halfway through this book. Most of this book (well, the first half, anyway) is devoted to setting up the back-end of the book; a good chunk of the latter portion of the book involves Jazen's trip to Yavet and some of the (mis)adventures he has along the way. All of this build-up culminates in the last three-or-four chapters of the book, which then ends fairly abruptly. It is over so fast that it is almost anticlimactic, and almost ruins the book, in one sense. It was very unusual, to have SOOOOOO much build-up followed by such a 'quick ending' where "all's well that ends well" and that's it.

I would say that Mort's character developed the most over the course of these three novels. He went from being completely self-sufficient and thinking only of his survival in the first book to being willing to sacrifice himself and his own life to save his friends in this book. I thought that was some huge character development, for him to change and adapt like he did. It was well-done and quite believable, I felt.

Overall, I still enjoyed reading this book. Mort was and is still my favorite character in these three books! It was a fun book to read, and I think it shows the author has a good range in terms of his writing skills (as each book in this series is pretty different than the other two). His character development is decent, overall, and the book does have a steady flow to it. It held my interest from start-to-finish and was entertaining. I would say, 3.5 - 3.669 stars, rounded down to 3.0 stars.

[Kyle Ellis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I looked for this book every time I went into a book store for the last few years. I read the Orphanage series like it was the air that I needed to survive. I enjoyed the first two books of this series, but just never saw the third. Judging by the lowish number of reviews it just never hit big, hence me never finding it. I finally decided to look if he had writen anymore Orphan's Legacy and saw that this book had come out years ago. I immediately downloaded a Kindle version and started reading. Made me want to jump right back into Orphange. I love this universe and style of this story. Not a 5 star book, but I try to reserve that. This book was everything I wanted it to be and fit well with both "Orphan" series.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like creative sci-fi, the orphan's legacy series fits the bill.

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting book. I picked it up mainly because of the cover, to be honest. It strongly reminded me of my old paper back copy of The War Against the Rull.

I did not realize it was the third book in a series when I started reading it; reading the first two books before this might have helped somewhat, but I felt this was a decent standalone novel as well [there is enough backstory filler in it to aid the reader without disrupting the narrative pacing too much]. The character development was all right, I suppose. The action is so-so; more a lot of talking than anything else. It did take me longer to read than I thought it would, considering how "short" the book is.

As to why it reminded me of The War Against the Rull, there were a few things that came to mind. For example, the covers of the two books [well, the old 1959 paperback copy I used to have]: both have a six-legged alien with three eyes above its mouth and horns protruding on either side of its mouth. On Beuttner's cover the alien [called a Grezzen is "black" in color whereas on van Vogt's book the alien [called an Ezwal is white. Both aliens are telepathic. The aliens in each story can communicate over large distances [but I do not remember the limit of Vogt's alien species]. Each race sought to hide its ability to communicate telepathically and to read minds from humanity for as long as possible.

I did find myself wondering if the Gateway was a reference to Poul Anderson's Gateway book. The description in this book about the ships and how they were used as well as there being a "foot-ball shaped nickel-iron meteor twenty miles long in its greatest dimension" that "drifted lifeless and cold for a billion years" (96) strongly reminded me of the object orbiting Venus in his novel. Not sure why, but it did.

I also wondered if the study of the strength, distance, and characteristic of Grezzen telepathy was a throwback to Heinlein's Time for the Stars. I wondered this because in that book scientists were studying the ability of gifted twins to communicate instantaneously via telepathy. This study allowed new "impossible" space drives to be designed and built, because the twins were able to communicate infinitely faster than the speed of light. The "nerd" scientists in this book were also studying Mort's telepathic capabilities in hopes of developing new sciences and theories that will further mankind along as well as provide newer, faster means by which mankind can travel around the universe.

The book is told partially from the first-person point-of-view as well as third-person point-of-view. I have read other books that alternate viewpoints; this one does a decent job of it. The author was able to keep the various "voices" [viewpoints] separate and distinct, which other authors have failed to do [such as Roth in Allegiant. It did have some nice historical tidbits about the Cold War, including comments on how spycraft was performed during this unsteady time in human history. Some of it was quite fascinating; some of it was "meh".

I think the book did have some decent character development in it. I probably liked Mort the best, in terms of that kind of development. I mean, the book was basically about two lovers who are trying to find their place in the universe as their department has been officially "shut down" and they have lost their careers, their future, their identities. They have to figure out what they are going to do next; before they can, they have a spat and Jazen Parker subsequently learns his "mother" is still alive on a planet subbing for some kind of communistic totalitarian regime. His parents are tricked into coming to Yavet, too, as they have only "now" discovered Jazen is still alive and well. Kit Born, Jazen's lover, is coming to Yavet to save Jazen and his birth-parents. Meanwhile, Mort is being taken back to his home planet because it is time for him to mate. It will be both the first and last time Mort father's a child; the only way he might try again is if either his seed does not take with the female with whom he has mated, or he can try again with another female. He uses his phenomenal powers to find Jazen and Jazen's parents on Yavet, assisting Kit with her search for her lover. In the end, all's well that ends well as Jazen and Jazen's mom pilot a top-secret stealth ship off Yavet and into the freedom deep space.

It was a good book; it was a fun book. The character development was fairly believable, overall. I am glad I read the book.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the 3rd book in Orphan’s Legacy series. It continues the stories of Jazen Parker and company, and involves events during a second Cold War between Earth and Yavet. What stuck out about this book were the historical parallels to the cold war, with lots of tidbits about the original cold war, spying + covert actions. It was a very entertaining continuation of the story, involving all of the characters from the past two books. I would say it has a bit less action sequences as the previous books, but made up for that by containing a great story. It actually prompted myself to look up some true life Cold War events on Wikipedia (The author instructed to look it up).

The Orphan’s series contains a well fleshed out, interesting universe, and I hope to see more books involving its characters. And like Buettner’s other books, it contains great humor and entertaining writing, making it an enjoyable read.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Balance Point is book three in the Orphanage Legacy series, itself a sequel to the Jason Wander series.

The follow-on to the Orphanage series features tanks. Buettner's father was a tanker and he wanted to write something dealing with his father's experiences as told to him. This is good, because it means I get to read stories that cover the whole spectrum of war, and the reasons why wars are fought. I very much enjoyed the intelligence spy-craft aspects of the series, and the inclusion of operational aspects affected by logistics was good to see. The question of how does one compel an opponent to stop doing what you don’t want them do is very much at the heart of the Orphanage setting. The only downside of the series is that the story stretches the plot quite thin at times. Still the big shout outs to A E van Vogt's War Against the Rull means I loved the books.

[Henry Lazarus · Rating 2 out of 5]

The monster on the cover of Rober Buettner’s third tale of the Orphan Legacy series is one of the heroes. Mort is very intelligent and a super telepath and a great help to Jazon and Kitt when they go to Yavi to meet the dying woman who raised Jazon. The Yavi authorities have let the midwife go in the hope of drawing in Jazon and his parents who have the secret of ftl travel the Yavi’s desperately want. Yavi is a heavily overcrowded planet where child murder is acceptable and the human worlds would be at a Balance Point (trade) if Earth’s secret were shared. Lots of light fun.Review printed by the Philadelphia Weekly Press.

[Dale (Aus) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up my first book in this series after being hooked by the Orphan series and loved the way it changed the whole direction of the story but remained in a familiar set of worlds. This book was a great finish dwelling on the cold war aspects of relationships which the author openly admits are reflective of our own. Like all good science fiction books it sets familiar themes where we can explore them and explore our reactions to them from a distance. Loved the characters, loved the final linkages, but ould have loved the ending to be a little more drawn out as it all finished with a bang. Great book, keep writing

[Jaq · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cracker finale to the end of a great series. The humour however just wasn't there this time, I love Jazen as a character but in this book he seemed to have lost the classic funny wry observations that I've come to enjoy.

[Marc · Rating 5 out of 5]

All the chickens come home to roost in this one. A fitting end(?) to the Orphan's Legacy series.

[David]

Awesome book

[Michael Rutkowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a pretty good book that successfully brought a 3 book series to an adequate end ! It kept my interest and was well paced !