Book 2, Honor's Flight: Fallen Empire

Dang, my engagement with this series was short-lived.
Gone is the cocky, strong willed woman from the first book. Replaced by a teenage girl in love, who would do anything to please Leonidas and his muscular body. She had a thought or two about her daughter, but it was mostly what he would think of her and her actions. I don't know, I think a mother would do anything for her child, even if it ends pissing off the most beautiful and muscular guy in the universe.
So I ended up at 70% of the book with a main character that I very much disliked. The whole thing crumbled around that.
I'm done with the series.

In her outright fantasy works, Buroker handles characters and plot with skill and flair. In this second installment into a space opera series, the characters just don't quite come alive, at least not to the degree they do in her other work. The plot keeps bumping up against physics and collects some painful bruises, even playing by space opera rules, not hard SF.

Or maybe it's just me, feeling embarrassed for the characters as they say their lines and pretend not to notice the stage sets falling over.

This ain't the Kinsella universe, for sure.

The omake, "Starfall Station," gets the character interaction tuned up a bit, and only has one plot device that belongs in a fantasy world. Onward and upward -- I'm buying the next episode anyway.

The pace and the action are fast, but the characters are unfurled slowly. It's an enjoyable right because Buroker's writing isn't predictable, an the crew of the Star Nomad can almost never catch a break--but it doesn't feel like a cheap way to draw out the story. There is still a lot of the main mysteries (the location of Jelena & the deal with the orb) to discover, and it's clear that current secondary mysteries will probably play a bigger role (Yumi's past, the Emperor's son, the starseers in general).
I want more & I'm appreciative Buroker is cranking them out as quickly as she is.

Honestly, I loved this book, and am really enjoying this series. I am reading the third book now. Buroker does a great job of creating complex characters that you like, while at the same time making them realistically flawed. I enjoy the quip-filled interchange between characters just as much as the combat action sequences. The plot is simple and logical, but also unpredictable. I am a voracious reader, but not a critic. I have been reading books all my life, so for me, if a book is fun to read, then it is good. Lindsay Buroker's Fallen Empire books are just plain fun to read. So much so that I'm going to investigate some of her other fantasy books. I have already recommended this series to some of my high school students (I teach high school physics and astronomy) and it is very easy for me to recommend to fellow the store customers.

In the past, I have usually avoided space fiction as many seem to feel that if they load you down with unfamiliar and made up words for their world building, it will make it feel more realistic. Of course some should be included, but if you can't tell if a bloaxt is a monetary unit, a weapon, or a another species by the context, then the enjoyment is minimal for me. Lindsay managers to straddle this dilemma with ease, and has given us a fantastic story that should still capture die hard futuristic space fans, plus those of us that just like a good read no matter the setting.

If your going to compare yourself to authors known for balancing scifi, romance, character development, great plots than you should be able to do that too. Not just focus on one. There are a lot of interesting character interactions and growth.

Unfortunately, Lindsay Buroker's "Honor's Flight: Fallen Empire, Book 2" is not as good as the first book in her "Fallen Empire" series ("Star Nomad: Fallen Empire, Book 1"). The first issue is that nothing really happens. It starts right after the end of the first book with a fight to land on a planet, has a bit of material involving a fight on the planet, and finishes with another fight just after leaving the planet. No plot elements are resolved. It raises the question of whether Buroker is just churning these things out to make money instead of to tell a story. The second problem is that the Romance aspect of this book is far more prevalent than it is in the first. A bit of romance (small "r") is fine. But, this book seems to be turning the series into a bodice ripper. And, finally, the last fight makes no sense. I can't be specific since it would be a spoiler, but our heroine needs to fight it in a certain way. So, she comes up with some nonsensical, convoluted, never-in-a-million-years plan that she ends up dropping half-way through (thus violating her requirement). Yet, even so, once they miraculously win, the losing side doesn't seem to have a problem with what she's done. Overall, the book's not bad. But, the downward trend here makes me worry about the rest of the series. I'm rating it at an OK 3 stars out of 5.

Star Nomad, Honor's Flight, Star Rebels anthology and Relic of Sorrows by Lindsay Buroker provided substantive science fiction that would be enjoyable reads for most SF readers. While the author promises some romance in the series the these books did not hit the mark there. So, if you are a serious romance reader, you may be disappointed or impatient. That said, the story continues to move in that direction for Alisa and Leonides.

This series might as well be called "mixed bag of nuts in space". Because Alisa and her crew & passengers are very much an eclectic mix of characters. The wise cracking, sassy Alisa Marchenko, with her penchant for inappropriate humor especially at the worst of times is the star of the series. She is a former Alliance pilot embarking on a personal quest to reunite with her daughter. In the process, she picks up a collective of characters - one snarky former Alliance engineer, a former Alliance/soldier/BBQ chef wanted by the mafia, an Empire cyborg which is Leonides (the "enemy"), a mysterious Doctor/monk with definite Empire affiliation, and a science teacher/hippy with a gaggle of chickens and a suitcase of who know's what but apparently it will get you high. This cast of characters and their misadventures just getting from place to place offers excitement, mystery, amusing moments with witty dialogue. Unfortunately, each these characters comes with their own troublesome "baggage" making Alisa's quest that much more challenging,

The books are well-written with witty dialogue and interactions between characters. It's not terribly heavy on SF details or world building. It's more focused on the interrelationships between the characters and the characters to their personal or collective circumstances.

On the downside and the reason for only 4 out of 5 stars is the inconvenience of having to go on my own quest to find the standalone stories in the Star Rebel Anthology and on the author's site for the Sanathe Station story, both of which were written from Leonides' point of view. There is convenience when all story content is located in one downloadable book or at least multiple books directly associated with the series. Keep it together whenever possible is my advice to authors.

This is the second book in the series "Fallen Empire". The first book just knocked me out, and this one is even better.

Buroker has given us lots more foundational history in this one, and given up lots of clues about each of the primary characters' secrets. All of the characters have secrets.

Alisa Marchenko, Captain of the space freighter, and ex-fighter pilot in the preceding wars, now finds herself coping with the additional problems of her young daughter's kidnapping, her passengers' personal problems, and facing questions of honor and integrity. Her difficulties are compounded by the fact that her passengers are not being forthcoming with her, and, in fact, one of them is contemplating assassinating her. Which she must keep to herself, since no one on the ship knows that she has a comm line into all the rooms on the ship, and can eavesdrop to her heart's content.

Leonidas Adler, human/cyborg ex-Colonel of the Cyborg Corps, and on the opposite side as Alisa in the preceding war, having a very large bounty on his head, complicates things for her. She feels a connection to him, and both of them have saved each other's lives along the way. She has loyalty to him, and refuses to allow other passengers to attempt to disarm him and collect the bounty. But, she also knows that he plans on leaving the ship soon, with another passenger, and abandoning her. Also complicating things is that she is beginning to fall for him, something that he can barely comprehend.

The other primary characters are also more completely fleshed out in this second book. We already know that Beck, the chef running from the White Dragon Mafia for failure to pay back a debt, (and Alisa's inept bodyguard), has designs on Leonidas and the bounty. He has been loyal to their scruffy little group up until now, but the pressures on him are increasing, and it's becoming unclear about whether or not the Mafia would even now consider a payback which doesn't include his death.

Dr. Dominguez, carrying out his "special mission", a deathbed request from the previous Emperor, is running from practically everyone, and is the one with the least honor on the little freighter. His mission is tangled up with Leonida's, in a way that we don't know just yet, and Alisa is reluctant to toss him off the ship because of her growing feelings for Leonidas.

Yumi Moon, psychedelic popping, ganja smoking, mystic babbler, and now chicken farmer, is revealed to have connections with the Starseers, the group guilty of having kidnapped Alisa's daughter. She is also running from something, or someone, and we have, as yet, no idea at all of who or what that might be.

Mica Coppervein, the most "normal" of the bunch, is a brilliant engineer from an end-of-the-galaxy mining planet, who served in the war with Alisa, and just wants to find a good job somewhere. She's now entangled with this gaggle of crazies, and her hopes of decent employment are shriveling by the minute. She is also sexually indeterminate, and keeps everyone guessing as to who or what she wants.

Added to this stew are a whole lot of incidental characters who add bits and pieces of information about the group, and help to expand our big picture.

The action is, as usual, over the top, and incandescently insane. Although the characters are extraordinary in their talents, the odds against them are higher than anyone could ever surmount, in the ordinary world. Luck seems to live with them, however, and their unbelievable bravery in moments of chaos, where the rest of us would be speechless just trying to process what was happening, is what drives the action.

In this book, one of the incidental characters also, towards the end, with one word, gives us very important information on Leonida's "mission". We now "get" a lot of the whats and whys about him.

At the end of this book, we also get a short story about an incident which takes place after the main book has ended. This story gives us a great deal of information, specifically about Leonidas, and drives the story forward in regards to the relationship between he and Alisa.

This book is not to be missed. Buroker has combined ideas and concepts she's had over the years, and explored in other books. If you've read the Emperor's Edge series, and the Mandrake Company series (written under the name Ruby Lionsdrake), and the Dragon Blood series, then try to imagine all of them cooking together in one big stew.

Fantastic series! I hope it's not just a trilogy. I can read about these people for a long time. I also hope she keeps to her schedule, because each book will leave you slavering for the next one.

In the second installment of Lindsay Buroker's Fallen Empire series we find our intrepid captain, Alisa Marchenko, and her rag tag crew and passengers finally reaching their destination of Perun. Unfortunately, once they arrive none of them find what they are searching for. Alisa can't find her daughter. Yumi and Mica can't find jobs. Beck can't find a way to get the White Dragon mafia off his back and open a new restaurant. Alejandro can't find the information he is seeking about his mysterious orb. And Leonidas can't seem to catch a break regarding his secret quest.
The answers to the majority of the dilemmas faced by Alisa and her companions seem to lie with the mysterious and elusive Starseers. In their quest for answers they experience multiple chases, several close calls and a couple of space battles before resuming their journey. All the while, Alisa continues to grapple with the ramifications of a war which may or may not have been the best thing for the galaxy and her growing attraction to Leonidas.
Will Alisa and her companions find the answers they seek at their next destination? Will Leonidas reciprocate Alisa's feelings? Is the cyborg even capable of such human emotion? Will Alsia be reunited with her daughter? Will Alejandro figure out what to do with his orb and rejuvenate the empire? Will Yumi and/or Mica find alternate employment and leave the ship? Will Beck turn Yumi's chickens into world class bbq? I look forward to seeing if any of these questions are answered in the next installment.