Vigilante

Major Ariane Kedros #2

by Laura E. Reeve

Amidst an uneasy peace between the Autonomists and the Terrans, Major Ariane Kedros and her partner, Matthew Journey, have discovered alien ruins on a remote planet - ruins that bear evidence to an ancient and highly advanced technology. But their discovery has drawn the interest of high stakes players from every corner of the universe - including that of the rogue leader of a fringe Terran sect. Ari must find a way to stop him, before they all become ancient history...

Genres: Science Fiction, Military Fiction, Space Opera, Military Science Fiction, Space, Fiction, War

336 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Laura's first novel, PEACEKEEPER, began a series from Roc called THE MAJOR ARIANE KEDROS NOVELS (read more about the series at www.AncestralStars.com). Publishers Weekly calls it a "crisp military SF debut" and says, "Reeve drives the story at a breakneck pace." Laura was a US Air Force officer for nine years, giving verisimilitude to the military flavor of her novels. She currently lives in Monument, Colorado with her "Dr. Science" husband.

Reviews

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terrific! Lots of action and a complex plot, but characters were not neglected. Everything felt so real, from ships to strategies, motivations to emotions. Even minor characters were presented in a way that made them feel completely real. I didn't exactly enjoy reading about the crazy, misogynistic terrorist, but it certainly drove a complex plot forward.

In addition, the fascinating Muse 3 developed further and faced greater dangers. Some details about the Minoans were revealed, leading to even more curiosity on my part. And there was a lot of character development, not only about major characters Ari and Matt, but also Parmet and his wives, Edones, Joyce, the Terran Maria, and a few new characters as well. I'm looking forward to book 3!

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vigilante by Laura E. Reeve is the second book in the Major Adiane Kedros series. Laura E. Reeve has again written a riveting story filled with action and betrayal. The characters are complex, the world building first rate and the plot filled with unexpected twists and turns. Vigilante is science fiction space opera at its best. Adiane and her partner Matt are caught up in a plot set off by a Terran fringe group that requires former enemies to work in a united action. Tensions rise as each tries to gain the upper hand. With all the loose ends at the conclusion of Vigilante it looks Major Adiane Kedros will be back with another book. I hope the series is long running.

[Mardel · Rating 5 out of 5]

cover-Like the first cover, love it...however, the gun and the hair don't really match the story - small potatoes though when compared to the other factors of the cover.
I LOVED this series. Emotionally scarred, functioning alcoholic, n-space pilot, military reservist with undercover assignments, mixed feelings for her civilian boss, a job on an exploration ship, Destroyer of Worlds, Explorer of Worlds, Ariane as Kedros, full of guilt and ghosts in her head - and that's just one woman. The other characters are just as interesting. Her military commander, her civilian boss, the newly growing Aritifical Intelligance, the spies/enemies turned "allies". This is one hell of an interesting novel full of intrigue, betrayal, twists, aliens, space ship travel and danger. Loved it.

One of the best things about this book is the dialog and the differing pov's in the narration. I guess some would call this the characterizations. Each character had a distinct voice and style. The dialog between all the characters was so believable because it all read so naturally - all the differing characters had their idiosyncracies and manners of speech. I feel like I might be raving a bit, but sometimes in these SciFi books, the dialog can be a bit....over-dramatic or overly formal to denote a different planet or country. These all meshed nicely. Some of the characters even had the added depth of a type of sign language - little flicks and gestures that added to the conversation.

In Vigilante Ariane Kedros is off duty, traveling with her business partner to a generational ship that is in a new system. Things are complicated when the generational ship is attacked and taken over by extremists - extremists who don't care how many people they kill or if they cause a sun to go nova. They have an extremist agenda - and yet the leader is being led by someone else. Many layers are well - layered on this plot. Once again Ariane has to deal with a weapon of mass destruction, only this time it's a stolen one and she has a very slight chance of saving the system. Her former enemies are suddenly uneasy allies, because everyone wants to survive and they're all under attack.

There is one more book to go in this trilogy (which I've read by now)
I think the trilogy is worth reading and I wish Roc/Penguin would ask for more from Reeve. Fortunately, Reeve is working on a prequel to Ariane's story and hopefully it'll be available for purchase...I'm hoping. anyway, you can check out the website and sign up for notification, which I did. sometimes, I'm quite the geek. The website also includes some of her worldbuilding, alternate history, info about the mysterious Minoans (the aliens) and the characters. I'm already missing the novels, now that I've finished reading them. It's fantasy/UF time now, though. I've ran the gamut of all the SciFi I could find that caught my eye. (I am a bit picky about my SciFi Space Travel novels)

[Michael Perry · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice follow up to Peacekeeper. Can the combined forces of the AFCAW, Terrans, Minoans and the Generation ship return control of a star system to rational minds from terrorists? A good read, but I question that a ship, the Generation ship, would have such poor security. The concept that the Generationalists are completely self reliant because of the lack of aid on the frontier is reiterated several times, but their ship of thousands is cowed in hours. No security procedures, no enforcement or protection personnel...nothing. Other than that, this story is well worth the read. I look forward to reading book 3.

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book started off a little slow fir me since it has to work in some background from the first book. Still once it got moving I enjoyed learning more about old characters and meeting new ones. Reeve spent a lot of the book in Joyce's point of view and made him my new favorite character. She also delved more into Ari's alcoholism which was fascinating . Now, on to the next book!

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

More solid sci-fi, though too much of the plot was given away at the start and made parts quite predictable.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this second book much better than the first one. I felt like the plot was better thought out and followed a better series of events. There was more action and it was more exciting than the last book. I didn't feel there was much character development for any of the characters. Ariane struggled with her alcohol addiction in the last book and eventually did ask for help at the end. However, in this book, she disregards the help that she asked for and I found that annoying. Hopefully in the next and final book she gets some closure on her problems and gets to grow as a character. The other characters also didn't get any more development. I did enjoy seeing returning characters like Joyce and even some of the Terrans. The bad guys in this book were also easy to dislike and to hope the Minoans got ahold of them.
The last book has a lot of wrapping up to do for the plot. We have to find out what happens to the AI, Muse, what are the Minoans going to do with Ariane for her actions in the second book and what happened to Ara-Guinn's people? Overall 3 out of 5 stars.

[Karen Ford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ariane Kedros and her partner, Matt Journey, find themselves battling fanatical terrorists who are intending to set off the ultimate weapon on a far flung moon, an act that could kill millions. But there is dissension in the ranks of the terrorists, and Ariane must use that to save her life and the lives of an entire solar system.

Ariane, who is still haunted by her role in discharging a similar weapon during a war, is a more than capable heroine who can kick butt when it's called for. There are also numerous supporting characters that make the story even more interesting, the book moving from scene to scene seamlessly and, above all, easy to tell who is who.

My only complaint is that this is the second in a trilogy, and I only have one more adventure with Ariane to look forward to. I love the character and wish there were more books!

[Terry Marine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm sure I could find reasons to hate this story. Like it's not very unique. There are several series of books which have an almost identical setting, plotline; and characters. But as a subgenre, it was well done enough to be engaging, and fun.

[Mathias Juhl · Rating 3 out of 5]

nice world-building, I liked the way it is written. I give "only" 3.5 Stars, as I don't like the many intrigues.

[Terese Damhøj · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked 1 and 3 in the series better, this felt mostly like a bridge.

[margaret4]

DNF

[Lexie · Rating 3 out of 5]

First, you have to read the first book Peacekeeper in order to understand this book at all. A good third of the beginning is given over to exposition that glances over the facts of the first book. That said you can commence reading the second book.

Ariane is once again up to her neck in trouble, though to be fair some of it is leave over from Peacekeeper. She isn't a reckless character, but circumstances and past events have made it hard for her to live a peaceful life...even if she wanted one. She's guilt-ridden, fully accepting the death sentence that's being cried out, but she won't toss her life away when she can instead be using it to protect people. Her determination to, not really atone for the past, but never make those mistakes again, make her a tough customer and driving force to be reckoned with. Her partner Journey isn't a meek shade either, but Ariane is clearly in charge of the story.

As I mentioned above there's a whole boatload of exposition in the beginning that made this tough for me to wade through at first. Even having read the first book within the last four months, I found myself growing weary of all the facts being thrown at me. I wouldn't call this a light read for the casual science fiction or military-action fan, Reeves assumes that if you're reading the book then you're going to be able to keep up with the pace of the facts. This isn't so with myself. I thought this was less hardcore then it turned out to be and found myself reluctant to continue on with the book initially.

The latter half of the book is better, focusing less on what's happening every where at once and concerning itself more with Ariane and her dilemmas. If you enjoyed Peacekeeper, then you're sure to enjoy Vigilante, but for casual fans this might be a lot to swallow to get to the interesting part.

[Liviu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Major disappointment after superb debut in Peacekeeper; should be as one star by rights but I give it two for Peacekeeper's sake; next novel (if any) with Ariane is a check before read since another like this and I am dropping out of the series; just all the cliches you can imagine based on the blurb; read Peacekeeper and skim this, hoping it's just a fluke

[WillowBe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wish these came more quickly. and wish there was more romance, not just self hatred, etc. But maybe it will happen book after next. At least they are beginning to acknowledge their feelings for each other to themselves.next step, saying it to each other. And maybe now that she stopped drinking, it will help?

[Unwisely · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally tracked this book down at a used book store in Madison. Despite being a little fuzzy on some of the details, I was more sucked in than before. Of course, the library is now claiming they don't actually have book 3, so it's going to be another trek to find the next book....and I gotta know what happens. (I have my suspicions about the Minoans!)

[Lynn Calvin]

Amazon preorder,Amazon received

[Peter McC · Rating 5 out of 5]

2nd in the series and I love the world Laura has constructed. Looking for the next one.

A space opera with enjoyable tech.

[Jack · Rating 2 out of 5]

A typical disappointing middle book. The first and third of the trilogy are both good, so middle book syndrome is understandable.

[Circuit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly, Since the first was ok, I decided to read this too. Mostly because it only takes me like a few hours to do it and need a distraction from my previous Gabaldon binge.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great sequel to the first book. I'm enjoying this series and the characters.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I continue to really enjoy this world.

[Volpot · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars. Very entertaining

[Zé Manel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This author is improving, slowly, but surely.

[Chuck Ledger · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing got better. Very good ending.