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Admiral #4
Innocence
No one's sure if I'm a hero or a monster, but there's no question that I'm locked up in the most brutal penitentiary in regulated space. This isn't just a prison, it's entertainment: everything that goes on here is for the enjoyment of the fans whose subscriptions keep the place running.
"You murdered twenty million innocent people," one of them tells me. And you know what? When he puts it like that, it sounds kind of bad.
I've come a long way to get here, but I'm just getting started. The whole galaxy is watching every move I make and listening to every word I say, so the only safe place is my mind.
That isn't very comforting.
"You murdered twenty million innocent people," one of them tells me. And you know what? When he puts it like that, it sounds kind of bad.
I've come a long way to get here, but I'm just getting started. The whole galaxy is watching every move I make and listening to every word I say, so the only safe place is my mind.
That isn't very comforting.
- GenresScience Fiction
302 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 8, 2019
10 people are currently reading
528 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 20, 2019
I was caught by surprise by the release of Innocence, and it instantly went up to the top of my To Be Read pile.
I have been eagerly waiting to know what happened to the Admiral after Free Space, the second novel of the series. Book 3, The Glory of the Empress, was a fantastic prequel that puts characters and events of both previous novels in perspective. I absolutely loved it, and it made me want to reread the first two novels to have everything in order in my head. They were as enjoyable, if not more, on a second pass.
The only downside to book 3 was that Free Space ended in an intense cliff hanger, so I was very eager to know how that turned out.
And then, we have Innocence, where we see the Admiral end up in a prison that uses their inmates for entertainment. His time is short, and everyone wants a piece of him.
We get to see both how ruthless the Admiral is when survival is at stake, and Danker also shows us more about his youth in Cohengard.
Like the previous novels, we get cameos from previous characters, so if your memory serves you well you will find some really cool connections, but even if not, Danker does a good job of reminding you who they are and what they did.
The novel is intense, unpredictable, and vicious. Also, we learn a lot about the Admiral's motivations... but one thing we have come to know is that he is not the most reliable narrator. This ends up giving us a number of turnarounds and surprises that made it worth waiting a few years.
There was a moment where I was asking myself about a void in the story that the Admiral hadn't addressed... and when he did, it blew me out of the water.
The end is very clearly a window to the next novel, but I bet it will be as unpredictable as this one.
Danker wrote that he expects the next one won't take as long to release.
I sure hope not, because I am hooked on these novels and I really want to know what happens next.
I have been eagerly waiting to know what happened to the Admiral after Free Space, the second novel of the series. Book 3, The Glory of the Empress, was a fantastic prequel that puts characters and events of both previous novels in perspective. I absolutely loved it, and it made me want to reread the first two novels to have everything in order in my head. They were as enjoyable, if not more, on a second pass.
The only downside to book 3 was that Free Space ended in an intense cliff hanger, so I was very eager to know how that turned out.
And then, we have Innocence, where we see the Admiral end up in a prison that uses their inmates for entertainment. His time is short, and everyone wants a piece of him.
We get to see both how ruthless the Admiral is when survival is at stake, and Danker also shows us more about his youth in Cohengard.
Like the previous novels, we get cameos from previous characters, so if your memory serves you well you will find some really cool connections, but even if not, Danker does a good job of reminding you who they are and what they did.
The novel is intense, unpredictable, and vicious. Also, we learn a lot about the Admiral's motivations... but one thing we have come to know is that he is not the most reliable narrator. This ends up giving us a number of turnarounds and surprises that made it worth waiting a few years.
There was a moment where I was asking myself about a void in the story that the Admiral hadn't addressed... and when he did, it blew me out of the water.
The end is very clearly a window to the next novel, but I bet it will be as unpredictable as this one.
Danker wrote that he expects the next one won't take as long to release.
I sure hope not, because I am hooked on these novels and I really want to know what happens next.
August 19, 2020
in fourth book (I need to catch up with third :)) we meet our protagonist, mysterious Admiral as he is unceremoniously dropped on a prison asteroid (after his arrest by Evagardian forces at the end of book #2) but with a catch. To profit off the various shady characters and criminals local authorities give them two options:
- get ransomed in 60 days or killed if not ransomed in time
- become a participant in live big-brother like show where people from the outside watch and follow the prisoner's life as a laborers but also as entertainers that kill each other off in a spectacular ways for extra points that amount to earlier release (remember Schwarzenegger's The Running Man? Now imagine entire place is size of the asteroid with prisoners, native alien life-forms and beasts to survive)
From the start it is obvious that Admiral has a secret agenda and that he is being hunted not only by inmates but also by Evagard and Free Space forces. We follow him as he slowly gets toward the climax of the novel where his past gets to him big way. I do not want to spoil anything here but twist was very interesting and unexpected. Admiral is a sort of a man who plans at least 20 steps ahead and it is joy to see how every action and step he makes starts making sense at the end. We also get to see glimpses of his past that start to explain Admiral's character. I hope this aspect of story-telling continues in future books.
Excellent spy action adventure novel, I am truly looking forward to future books in the series.
Recommended to all fans of thrillers and excellent SF spy action.
- get ransomed in 60 days or killed if not ransomed in time
- become a participant in live big-brother like show where people from the outside watch and follow the prisoner's life as a laborers but also as entertainers that kill each other off in a spectacular ways for extra points that amount to earlier release (remember Schwarzenegger's The Running Man? Now imagine entire place is size of the asteroid with prisoners, native alien life-forms and beasts to survive)
From the start it is obvious that Admiral has a secret agenda and that he is being hunted not only by inmates but also by Evagard and Free Space forces. We follow him as he slowly gets toward the climax of the novel where his past gets to him big way. I do not want to spoil anything here but twist was very interesting and unexpected. Admiral is a sort of a man who plans at least 20 steps ahead and it is joy to see how every action and step he makes starts making sense at the end. We also get to see glimpses of his past that start to explain Admiral's character. I hope this aspect of story-telling continues in future books.
Excellent spy action adventure novel, I am truly looking forward to future books in the series.
Recommended to all fans of thrillers and excellent SF spy action.
January 27, 2024
#4 in the Admiral series. I intentionally bypassed #3 to read this one because it's a continuation of the plot from Book #2. #3 is a story centering on a peripheral character and I had no desire to be sidetracked.
It's difficult to give any details without dropping a slew of spoilers so I'm not going to write anything about the plot. I'll just refer everyone back to the synopsis if there's any curiosity.
The narrative goes back and forth in time. The book opens with a bang to current events; these occur just after the ending of Book 2 as mentioned. The chapters dealing with Now are interspersed with chapters focusing on different periods in the Admiral's past. These were sometimes puzzling and other times very enlightening. He's been such a twisty puzzle himself for three books that I was tickled to finally get some background on him. He's always just dropped veiled hints or avoided personal revelations altogether. And we still don't even know his name!
This reminded me a little of one of Lois McMaster Bujold's novellas, Borders of Infinity. The Admiral is completely different from Miles Vorkosigan, so I don't want to give an impression that these characters are similar. I think it was the setting and the fact that nothing- words, actions, etc.- could be taken at face value.
As of right now I plan to keep reading this engrossing series!
It's difficult to give any details without dropping a slew of spoilers so I'm not going to write anything about the plot. I'll just refer everyone back to the synopsis if there's any curiosity.
The narrative goes back and forth in time. The book opens with a bang to current events; these occur just after the ending of Book 2 as mentioned. The chapters dealing with Now are interspersed with chapters focusing on different periods in the Admiral's past. These were sometimes puzzling and other times very enlightening. He's been such a twisty puzzle himself for three books that I was tickled to finally get some background on him. He's always just dropped veiled hints or avoided personal revelations altogether. And we still don't even know his name!
This reminded me a little of one of Lois McMaster Bujold's novellas, Borders of Infinity. The Admiral is completely different from Miles Vorkosigan, so I don't want to give an impression that these characters are similar. I think it was the setting and the fact that nothing- words, actions, etc.- could be taken at face value.
As of right now I plan to keep reading this engrossing series!
February 18, 2023
A sprint of fun and adventure.
July 26, 2023
For someone who says he doesn't like fighting, he certainly does it very well.
February 7, 2020
First thank you to goodreads giveaway. The admiral is back in an action packed tale. There are quite a few flashbacks to the admiral's young adulthood. I have to admit I was a little shocked at how ruthless he was in this tale but he is as interesting as always. While Danker does try and give the reader reminders I do feel that I probably should have reread Free Space before getting into this one as I had forgotten some of the facts and I did feel slightly lost at times.
December 17, 2019
Maybe I am missing something because I have not read the earlier books in this series. I won this version in a Giveway on Goodreads. So maybe I have missed some of the character development in the story because of this.
The Admiral is in a prison that uses the inmates as entertainment. Everyone wants to see him because he is not expected to be there long.
I found lost at times in the book, but some of the twists were entertaining and surprising. I am not sure if I really missed a lot from not reading the other books and this is why I did not totally get into this one.
The Admiral is in a prison that uses the inmates as entertainment. Everyone wants to see him because he is not expected to be there long.
I found lost at times in the book, but some of the twists were entertaining and surprising. I am not sure if I really missed a lot from not reading the other books and this is why I did not totally get into this one.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews