The Oncoming Storm (Angel in the Whirlwind Book 1)

Book one of this series. The rebellius daughter of a powerful Lord gets assigned to a remote station and stubles onto a plot. Involving a powerful neighbour, local rebels and incompentant superiors all leading to an outbreak of a major interstellar war. She becomes a heroine leading the shattered remains of fleet out an ambush that was inteaded to destroy them all.

___Christopher Nuttall does it again. I'm not sure how he can write so many books (good ones at that) a year. The main character is a woman trying to many her own way in the universe but her farther uses his connections to land her a post captaining a new star-ship she is not qualified for. He does this for a reason and wants something in return. Story is told in many different POV's but mostly in her own.
___She is a strong female character that does not pout every time something doesn't go her way. She does not leave the ship in the mist of a battle to look at something trivial. She does not join her marines every time they need to shoot something. I figured I would highlight some of those points sense i quit reading books that have to much of that going on.
___Over all a solid new start to a series. The plot was not all that original true but while i was not on the edge of my seat waiting in anticipation for each page i was never once board either. So i give it for 4 stars and will be reading the next book in the series (hopefully after the First Strike sequel) Keep them coming Christopher!

You know, this book is actually pretty insulting. Let's take Space Christians, give them a culture that inhibits all technological growth, and pretend this thing could have become a space superpower. Then let's take Space Britain, make it into pre-WWII America that ought to be a dominant industrial/military power but somehow isn't yet, and give it a surprise attack! And now let's round it out by plopping Blond Honor Harrington at the helm.

I was suckered by the store's recommendation list. I expected an homage to the Honorverse, with maybe a little Chris Longknife or Elizabeth Moon thrown in. I would have settled for a decent ripoff! This is tripe. The dialog is stilted, the characters are wooden, the setting is a clunky "let's insert thinly veiled political factions and ignore how they got there" cut & paste job, and the space combat is boring. Who on earth thinks this is five star material? I am offended that I spent money on this.

Not at all fulfilling... reads like a copy/paste of David Drake's Honor Harrington books. One-dimensional characters in a morally dualistic world. The good guys are good; the bad guys are bad. There aren't any surprises to speak of. The space combat scenes seemed flaccid and uninspired -- a typical line might read, "The Supreme blew up." There aren't any hand-to-hand combat scenes at all.

The protagonist is not only wildly wealthy, she's ALSO smokin' hot (due to her very expensive pre-birth genetic engineering). She's ALSO the youngest captain ever promoted to the class of ship she leads. She's ALSO a member of the nobility (her dad seems to be top dog in the CEO/Senate). She's ALSO cool-headed and tactically adept at space combat, despite her complete lack of experience. Mary Sue, anyone?

There's no character development. A single character (William, the XO) changes his mind about a single thing. Otherwise, the good guys do good things and the bad guys do underhanded, despicable, nasty things. At one point the protagonist doesn't like someone on her first impression -- and sure enough, the object of her disdain turns out to be criminally, even treasonously, incompetent.

Socially, the cultures described come out of the high Roman era -- a hereditary monarchy with a cadre of wealthy corporate executives vs. a fanatical, woman-suppressing theocracy. Guess who the bad guy is!

The technology? Meh. People have "implants" but they're only used for IMing one another as an alternative to speaking. The words "singularity" (as in black hole, not in the Ray Kurzweil kind) and "hyperspace" appear, but that's about it. There's nothing here for technophiles to sink their teeth into.

Overall, this has to be the least interesting military sci-fi book I've ever read all the way through. It's competent and workmanlike, and things happen, but overall I have no interest in the characters, their war, or their worlds. I have zero interest in finding out what happens next.

For a REAL treat, check out Marko Kloos or BV Larson (Kloos is vastly superior; Larson is much better AND quite prolific).

Likeable, but bland characters. Sometimes repetitive, with certain points getting repeated over and over again. Very stereotypical gender roles. Uninspired world building.

I like Kat and William, but emotionally they are flat. I did not connect with them and any other characters are one-dimensional and undistinguishable. The roster of characters feels as if the author took the crew of the Enterprise and gave them new names.

33% into the story nothing much has happened but setting the scene. I am totally uninterested in what happens next. They arrive at the soon-to-be-front, with the navy and the planet in shambles and the place run by an inept admiral. I guess they will land in a major mess and at the end of the book save the day, become heroes and move on to the next book to save the galaxy. Sorry, don't care. DNF.

Free copy, provided by NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Shallow principal character and not enough battle content but a nonetheless compelling four-book series

The heroine of the four-book series seems one-dimensional, sheltered, overly self-assured, and immature. Accordingly, I was not drawn to admire or really care what happened to her. And the same can be said for some, but not all, of the other “good side” people, except for her one-time XO and her long-time lover, both of whom were developed with more levels of awareness than the principal heroine. The villains also were well developed to be truly creepy and evil. Another problem with the series is that the battle scenes are too few and too short. But I still found the entire series strangely compelling. And so I might buy another multi-book series if one was produced.

I rather enjoyed this book. It doesn't get bogged down in technobabble and focuses more on the story and the setting. I liked the idea of the Commonwealth, essentially being a British Empire in space, and how well he portrays that, at least according to the history I've read. The "bad guys", the Theocracy, which in my opinion are a thinly veiled allusion to ISIS in outer space, which I liked. And it works. Too many times we've seen Nazis in space or Communists in space or aliens hell bent on destroying humans because reasons. Radical religion, especially when it is by humans, is something more people can relate to writing this in the 20-teens.

The characters were fleshed out OK for the first book in a series. The main protagonist, Kat Falcone, is likable if not entirely relateable, being an extremely wealthy member of the aristocracy. My one main criticism of her is that at least in the first book, she is TOO much of a good guy. She doesn't seem to demonstrate any flaws whatsoever. A central part of the early parts and most of the novel is how she received her command of her ship because of her connections (her father being an extremely wealthy and high ranking member of the aristocracy) and how she despised the fact that her influence got her the command, yet at the same time, she has few qualms about making decisions, knowing that BECAUSE of her family connections, she will be insulated from the worst possible outcomes, whereas less connected officers would be facing court-martial or worse. Overall though, she is a very likable character and as of writing this, I am currently about a quarter of the way through the second novel.

Other characters aren't fleshed out to the degree that Kat is (her being the main character), but you do get a decent enough background on her XO and even some of Admiral Junyard (sp?), a Theocracy naval officer. You get some insight in to his character, and I wish Nuttall would go in to more, it's nice to humanize the so called "bad guys" and see what makes them tick other than just vague notions of duty or religion or honor.

Overall, I would recommend this book to any space opera fans who enjoy a strong female lead and a healthy amount of not only military action but also the backroom politics that goes on during the run-up to war without going totally overboard with the politics.

My enjoyment of The Oncoming Storm was hampered by two issues: an incredibly miscast Audio book narrator and a plot that somehow managed to not bring anything new to the genre of military sci fi. As such, the story is serviceable and packs enough adventure to keep readers/listeners invested. But at the same time, this is a somewhat unsatisfying snack, leaving one hungry for more substantial fare at the end.

Story: Cat Falcone enlists in the military fleet in order to make her own life independent of her noble and extremely powerful father. But that same father will pull strings, get her a premature ascendancy to captain, and a mission to investigate problems at the Cadiz world outpost. With a former lover leading her marines, a highly experienced but overlooked non-noble executive officer under her, and a fanatical religious government set to declare war, she will get far more than she bargained for at Cadiz.

The premise is fairly simple and rather topical - aristocratic government versus religious fanatics in space. Nuttal smartly steers clear of making the zealots related to any particular current religion - they are an amalgamation of several monotheistic fundamentalists including tight control over citizens, lack of women's rights, and the usual 'God is on our side' rhetoric. Subthemes on the power of the aristrocracy over those born outside of nobility (think ancient Rome and citizenship) as well as military ineptitude and corporate greed are also covered. Perhaps because all the topics are timely that this book feels almost dated - contemporary religious fundamentalist struggles but with a heroine reminiscent of Honor Harrington or Kris Longknife (especially). I can't help but feel Jack Campbell did it all a bit better - and tighter.

That aside, the story flows smoothly enough though hampered a bit by characters making the same obvious conclusions over and over again. In that regard, I wish the editor had been a bit tighter and sharpened the focus more. Some observations were made so many times, I would have started counting them for a future drinking game if reading on Kindle (e.g., "take a drink every time the XO notes that Kat makes a non-self serving command that impresses him she's not like the other captains). The book feels overly long in that regard.

The Audible narration was truly bad and I had a hard time getting into the book because of the bland, staccato, over enunciated, narration. The narrator seems much better suited to a YA book like Twilight than military science fiction, to be honest. At one point, it was difficult to continue because I'd cringe every time I had to start Audible and listen to the dull reading.

I've never liked the Honor Harrington books, and I resisted taking this up since it sort of sounds like a similar story arc. I kept wavering because Christopher Nuttall has become one of my favorite authors and I was getting withdrawal symptoms. Then I realized that it was included in Kindle Unlimited, of which I am a subscriber. So I figured I had nothing to lose by downloading it.

I'm glad I did. This was very much up to Nuttall's usual standards.The plot was well thought out with no glaring plot or logic holes that the reader has to either choose to ignore or feel contempt for. Everything made sense and the story flowed in a logically consistent manner. One of the reasons I like Christoper Nuttall, I don't recall any such failures on his part in any of his stories.

The plot revolves around a beautiful young woman who is born into one of the Wealthiest aristocratic families of an interstellar nation-state. (think pre WW2 Britain) She rejects her birthright and attends the Naval Academy called "Pikers Peak". After graduation, she serves honorably and rises rapidly, though not spectacularly fast, through the ranks to become a Executive Officer on a significantly sized ship (2nd in command). She looks forward to being named Captain of a small naval vessel and then slowly begin her rise through the command hierarchy.

But she is surprised to find herself appointed to be captain of a ship far above what her seniority, age, and, frankly, her experience, should have allowed. Instantly, she suspects that her father has pulled some strings to secure this appointment and she confronts him.

What he tells her shocks her. Her father suspects that a neighboring theocratic empire is believed to want to conquer their interstellar empire, and he is hearing disturbing rumors of very lax behavior on the part of the fleet, stationed nearest to the logical point of initial conflict between the two empires. He wants her to go out there look around, and report back to him, and not through regular channels.

This is the start of the first novel. A VERY good read.

A fun read, but the marketing hype would lead one to believe that it's all about Kat--it's not. In order to give us a view of how the outside world sees her, Chris gives us plenty of other points of view. So set your expectations to have more than one POV character (in case that's the sort of thing that bothers you). Kat is certainly no wilting flower, but neither is she entirely a proactive hero all the time, either.

The novel is well-constructed, but some of the plot and descriptive elements are a bit heavy-handed. I expect that his "villains" (the evil religious empire that are totally not the Space Taliban on steroids--no, not at all) will get more nuanced, based on some hints that Chris gives here. Unfortunately, the Theocracy and most of the pirates we get to see are pretty one-dimensional.

There are some strong similarities evident between the Into the Dark (Alexis Carew Book 1) and this book, despite the significant difference in age and background of the two protagonists. I enjoyed both similarly.

Ok, I really enjoyed the beginnings of this space opera. A tad midshipman Honor Harrington meets a young Herris Serrano.
I know the plot is somewhat familiar but that didn't lessen my enjoyment one iota.
It's 2040 and war is on the horizon for those with eyes too see between two empires, the protectionist Commonwealth, a loosely democratic empire espousing free trade, and the Theocracy governed by religious fanatics whose main object is to convert the masses to their religious beliefs at any cost including of course mass death and destruction. (Nuttall's comments on social engineering were illuminating.)
Katherine 'Kat' Falcone, daughter of a powerful industry magnate has fled the family trappings to carve out her own destiny as a naval officer. Kat suddenly finds herself in command of the navy's latest warship 'Lightning' having been leap frogged over others higher up the rung by her father's machinations. Her command is being sent to Cadiz, a nation recently annexed by the Commomwealth for its own protection from the Theocracy. Before leaving Kat's father has secretly given her data about the situation at Cadiz. What she finds is chilling. The naval battalion stationed there is in virtual stand down and not at all battle ready thanks to incompetency or the deliberation of the assigned Admiral.
Kat has to lead her ship, convince her officers that she's capable of command, look for a way around the Admiral to bring the stationed battalion up to scratch, and investigate the battle readiness of the Theocracy's fleet. Of course things quickly go to 'hell in a hand basket' and Kat is faced with huge command decisions that might see her drummed out of the service--if she survives.
I am certainly wanting to see how things evolve and the forthcoming challenges that face Kat and her crew.

A NetGalley ARC

This is a lively space warfare tale, pitting the Commonwealth against the Theocracy and showing us many individuals including some who are not strictly on either side.

There are echoes of classics such as Star Trek The Next Generation in the ranks, ship setup and other features, but we meet a newly appointed female captain from a wealthy family who thinks this is a better option than being a socialite. She's still obliged to attend balls and be diplomatic, even as war looms. Refugees are fleeing the oncoming Theocracy which we are shown as aggressive and inflexible, but later we meet a smuggler who makes good money from supposedly prohibited goods.

I liked a lot about the tale and I think the series might improve as it continues, because the initial setup always takes time and the battles have just begun. Those who enjoy military space opera can have a good time.