Book #13: Helfort’s War Book 1: The Battle at the Moons of Hell

A re-read for me, and still great. I grabbed book 3 of Helfort’s War recently and wanted to get back through Book 1 and 2 to remember more details.

Newly graduated Michael Helfort, barely after an incident in his last year, gets posted to a deep space scout. He’s the son of two well known fleet officers, and struggles to begin his career in the Fleet, opposing the Hammer of Kraa, another human group of planets that seems to be a mix of a religious cult and Stalin’s regime. Brutal oppression, a secret police (DocSec) and a series of councilors. Their chief has a plan to hijack a Federated World ship on it’s way to terraform a planet. The Hammer is in need of economic help and while at a truce with the Federated Worlds, they do not allow the AIs, artificial intelligence agents, on their planets. Unfortunately the AIs help the Fed build a planet in a decade instead of a century.

Unfortunately for Helfort, his mother and sister are on the ship when it’s taken. Tasked with a few missions, Helfort’s ship plays a part of rescuing his family, along with starting another war with the Hammer.

It’s a well written, enjoyable and believable story. It takes place over months, as would any military exercise and the technology seems to be possible at some point. They jump through space, but it takes time, they still fire missiles and slugs, and often can’t dodge the enemy, having to deal with impacts from rounds. The Feds have neuronics, which seems to be embedded computers in their mind that they can communicate with, with limitations, and while the Hammer cannot hack in, they can detect them.

A great series, and I enjoyed re-reading this book.