The Myriad: Tour of the Merrimack #1 - Hardcover

Meluch, R. M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0756402794 ISBN 13: 9780756402792

Publisher: DAW Hardcover, 2005

Synopsis

A thrilling new military science fiction series begins.

The U.S. Merrimack was the finest battleship class spaceship in Earth's fleet, able to stand up against the best the Palatine Empire could throw at them, even able to survive attack by swarms of the seemingly unstoppable Hive. But nothing could have prepared the captain and crew of the Merrimack for what they were about to face: Three colonized worlds-the Myriad-in the midst of a globular cluster that the Hive somehow overlooked...

About this title

About the Author

R. M. Meluch is an American SF writer, and published the first of her Tour of the Merrimack series of military SF/space opera novels in 2005. She can be found at rmmeluch.com.

Reviews

Starred Review. Most military SF emphasizes the military, but while Meluch depicts combat and warrior culture as well as any writer in the subgenre, the true joy of this outstanding effort, her first novel since 1992's The Queen's Squadron and the first of a new series, lies in its inspired use of current speculation on the origins of the universe, quantum singularities and even the old chestnut of time travel. In the 25th century, an encounter with a voracious space-faring life-form called the Hive forces declared enemies, the United States and a breakaway colony that styles itself as a reborn Roman Empire, into an uneasy alliance to destroy the common threat. When the U.S. space battleship Merrimack makes first contact with a humanoid race whose star system has apparently been bypassed by the Hive, the U.S. crew is left to ponder how a species that hasn't developed FTL technology can exist in not one but at least three different star systems. Meanwhile, how can an artifact sent by the current ruler of one system exist as an archeological anomaly on another, an artifact 20 billion years old, in a universe only 15 billion years old? Meluch shows particular skill in creating memorable characters while exhibiting a refreshing ruthlessness in subordinating them to the logical ramifications of the plot.
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After a 10-years hiatus, a distinguished military sf writer returns to print with a zany adventure that might be considered a PG-13-rated Star Trek. The U.S. space warship Merrimack roams the stars and engages in battle with the all-devouring, space-faring, semisentient, and deadly Swarm. Her captain is Farragut; his chief adviser is a genetically enhanced "patterner" from a human culture that is striving to reproduce the Roman Empire; the air wing of single-seat fighters (a staple of Meluch's fiction) is flown by marines; and one of the pilots is dispatched to seduce the humanoid ruler of an alien race. Eventually, she winds up in bed with the marine CO, and the Merrimack winds up zapped into a parallel universe, with a Chinese female scientist supplanting the Roman patterner, and the whole adventure promising a good deal for the future of the series, Tour of the Merrimack, that it inaugurates. Those who make of military sf a religious observance may find it amusingly difficult to take; the more sensible will quite enjoy. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: DAW Hardcover
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0756402794
• ISBN 13: 9780756402792
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320