The War Minstrels

War Minstrels #2

by Karen Haber

When her own powers are drained by a dark empath, Kayla John Reed assumes an alias and seeks refuge on a Free Trader ship, but an evil magnate is attempting to control all free trade, forcing Kayla to join the War Minstrel rebel troops. Original.

Genres: Science Fiction

304 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Karen Haber is the author of nine novels including Star Trek Voyager: Bless the Beasts, and co-author of Science of the X-Men. In 2001 she was nominated for a Hugo for Meditations on Middle Earth, an essay collection celebrating J.R.R. Tolkien. With her husband, Robert Silverberg, she co-edited Best Science Fiction of 2001, 2002, and the Best Fantasy of 2001 and 2002 for ibooks and later, co-edited the series with Jonathan Strahan through 2004.

Her recent work includes Crossing Infinity, a science fiction novel of gender identity and confusions. Other publications include Exploring the Matrix: Visions of the Cyber Present, a collection of essays by leading science fiction writers and artists, Kong Unbound: an original anthology, an essay in The Unauthorized X-Men edited by Len Wein, and Transitions: Todd Lockwood, a retrospective of the artist's work.

Her short fiction has appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction magazine, the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and many anthologies. She reviews art books for LOCUS magazine and profiles artists for various publications including Realms of Fantasy. She is currently at work on a major survey of fantasy and science fiction artists to be published in 2011.

Reviews

[Scott Holstad · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh my God, is this a stupid book! Needless to say, I didn't get very far in it before giving up and putting it aside. The protagonist is a dumbass and, frankly, it seems that all of the characters in this book are morons. I don't know why the author chose to write them that way, but it makes them all quite unlikable from the beginning, so it seems like a bad idea to me. Kayla is an empath who comes up with the bright idea of becoming a prisoner to be put on board a prison ship to contact another prisoner who owns and knows the location of a valuable jewel -- like she would give it up??? -- so that she could get that information and then use her empath abilities to contact her shipmates who would swoop in on the prison ship and save her. Except that the guards use drugs on her, which dulls her abilities to use her empath skills. Etc. Also, the dialogue in this book is quite bad. The scenarios are stupid. And Kayla is part of a "legal" smuggler ship that is now an "illegal" pirate that boards a freighter. With three people in its boarding party. To fight five people on the freighter. Now I admit that I've been reading too much David Weber over the past couple of years, so I'm sure my views are pretty skewed, but his freighters always have something 300, 400, 500 personnel or more. Five? Really? When freighters are boarded in his books, it's usually a company of armored battle Marines with pulsar rifles. Three people? Really? And then these three people transfer the contents of the freighter to their ship somehow? Right. Like I said, stupid. I hate stupid sci fi authors. And there are so many of them. I'm sure not going to read Haber again. Not recommended.

[Sophie · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 - average sci-fi book