Claire Thorne at Fanboy Comics has written my favorite review of “Angles of Attack” so far (and one of my favorite general “Frontlines” series reviews). It’s a very perceptive and detailed review, and you should go over there and read it. She has kept it mostly spoiler-free, for those who haven’t read Angles yet, and she really gets what I am doing with the story in general and Andrew in particular.
I only have to correct her on one minor detail: Frontlines is not a trilogy. I had planned it as one, but things got a little bigger than expected, and there will be at the very least a fourth book (called “Chains of Command”), and maybe more.
One hell of a story. I sprang for hard copy of “Angles”. May buy hard copies of first two to have them in my library.
Couldn’t agree more with the review. I’m a new and very satisfied fan of the Frontline series* who thinks your world and characters are solid excellence. Wonderful writing on all levels. Patiently awaiting the next installment. (Ditto above comments about the mother and Dmitry.)
All best.
*Discovered you and Annie Bellet through the Hugo controversy and have been well-pleased to make the acquaintance of (and purchase) both your bodies of work.
I liked Dmitry character, too. Also, I’m Russian and it’s always good to see when the author doesn’t depict us a collection of stereotypes. Looking forward to the 4th book already. Hopefully, we’ll learn something new about the Lankies. All this mistery is okay, but only to some point. If the ending will be something like ‘hooray, we finally kicked their asses, and isn’t it funny how we still don’t know shit about them’ it will be disappointing.
I very much look forward to the 4th book in the series and I feel that there is also plenty to room to grow the series outward after this arc. Plenty of good material to work with for sure.
Yes, a good review. Andrew is a very solid character, in more than one meaning of the word. I have no problem picturing him as a real person, as well as being someone I’d like to meet, have a beer with, and share some war stories.
Something that resonated with me personally was from Lines of Departure, when Andrew returns to Earth, reconnects with his mother, and is able to see her in a much different light after he has been matured by military training and combat. A year and a half ago, my younger sister, my only sibling, died from complications of “routine” surgery. She was the one who had always taken care of our elderly mother’s shopping, gotten her to her physician appointments, and generally looked after her. Now that I have had to step in to do all that, I’ve found that my relationship with my Mom, although always close, has reached a new level, and I have learned details of her life I never knew. I am glad that Andrew was able to experience something of that with his mother.
I don’t do Twitter, but ref your tweet the other day about Miller’s Crossing…yes, the best gangsterfilm ever. Best scene…when Leo takes out the fleeing assassins with a Thompson, while “Danny Boy” plays in the background. (So otherwise perfect I’ll even forgive the fact that he seemed to fire about 250-300 rounds from a single drum magazine doing it.)