More action movie in book form. This one actually ends in a cliffhanger, so it's probably not meant to be read without moving soon to Revenge of the Damned. This is more of what you've been led to expect by the previous three books in the series, including the Mostly Unintelligible Scottish Sidekick whose dialogue I've learned to skim/ignore. Sten essentially goes through three different babes in this one, with each one neatly shoved out of the way for the next, and I wish there was a lot less of that, especially since there's not that much of it in the book anyway. Just get rid of all of it! Or make it a continual tantalization, continually seeming like it might happen but never actually occurring.There are also tons of anachronisms, references to current-day Earth culture. Some of those are winked at in the writing (e.g. some old military experts "Silbert and Gullivan" outlining what makes a good major general), and some are just included without acknowledgment, but that's not a big change from earlier books in the series. What makes this book stand out from previous ones is Sten now in a more regular command in the Navy, fighting a losing war against an enemy we alternatingly believe to be not that big a deal and too big a deal to win against. Also, one of the authors had recently discovered and fell in love with the word "anodize". I thought this may have only been a problem in the middle of the book, but one last reference was included three pages from the end as a send-off.
The Tahn War stars rolling, as the Eternal Emperor cuts Sten loose to join fight school -- just in time to be posted to the analog of the Philippines as World War 2 breaks out ...This installment of the series was entertaining, but didn't hold together quite as well as the previous volume, largely because a lot of time is spent in the setup -- Sten in flight school, Sten settling into his assignment -- prior to the real action actually kicking off.Still, it's good, unsubtle, nostalgic, blow-em-up fun, and the authors do get credit for making not all the hats pure white or black.
