The author is M.K. Wren and the Series is “The Phoenix Legacy”. The books are ”Sword of the Lamb”, Shadow of the Swan” and “House of the Wolf”.
In the 33rd century a mighty galactic empire ruled by several great families known as the “Concord” is on the brink of annihilation.
There is a deep unrest among the “Bonds” the servant class of the Concord that threatens to grow into an uprising that could bring about the next dark ages for all humanity.
The only hope for the future is the “Society of the Phoenix” a powerful revolutionary group that has sworn to overthrow the Concord.
By joining the Phoenix, Lord Alexand of the house DeKoven Wolf will commit the ultimate act of treason and sacrifice his own identity, and his love of a beautiful high-born lady, to help save civilization from total destruction.
Some readers may find the author syndical treatment of religion in the book to be a problem. Essentially religion is used as a tool to keep the servants from turning on their oppressors, the great Families. This is encouraged by the revolutionaries because an unorganized rebellion would most likely end in a massive slaughter of the Bonds (who are kept unarmed of course), as it has many times in the past, and if it were to succeed, civilization would crumble into anarchy.
One of the main characters in the first book set himself as a sort of profit to the Bonds, and even refers to himself as “The Lamb”. Eventually he is called upon to make a sacrifice befitting his title giving it the feel of a pseudo-Christian type religion. But otherwise there are no supernatural elements in the series
I had my own problems with the main character in the series as he professes to his great undying love for a particular lady, yet at one point visits a rich kids resort of sorts, and freely cavorts with whatever females may be at hand. His lady of course, is chaste and unswervingly faithful to him to the end. Somewhat of a double standard, but the author is a woman, so I can’t really claim it’s chauvinistic. But that kind of thing always bugs me and diminishes the character’s likability in my view.
Overall it’s well written and keeps the various plots moving along with dragging them out. One crisis is finished up just as another is developing, so it’s not the same thing through the entire series. Some may find it to be somewhat soap opra-ish but you will be gripped by the story and want to find out what happens next.
Caution. Do not stat the first book unless you can secure all three. You’ll be very bugged if you can’t finish it.
Amazon has all three available for over $20 per book for the 2001 printings, and a $12 for used books.
Mine are the 1981 editions and are quite worn out and the third book “House of the wolf, has the lamest cover art of any Sci Fi book I have ever seen. Seriously, it so bad you can’t even imagine.
Please let me know if you would like to be added or removed from the Sci Fi Literature Ping List.
UBIK by Philip K Dick is excellent.
Also, I highly recommend if you can find it, “Jack of Shadows” by Roger Zelazny.
“The Disappearance” by Phillip Wylie is also very good, but not sci-fi per se, kind of alternate universe stuff.
Ping
* Star Well
* The Thurb Revolution
* Masque World
"Peelgrunt," in Masque World, is arguably the most charming invention in science fiction.
Don’t forget Robert Heinlein’s SciFi books - he wrote quite a few books.
Hope this is not off-topic but what are people’s favorite post-apocalypse novels?
I just finished re-reading Day Of The Triffids and loved it. Also same author (Wyndham) The Midwich Cuckoos which was not so good.
It is an addictive little story. I enjoyed it VERY much. Now I am going to read more of them in the series...
First Meetings in the Enderverse, Orson Scott Card, 2003
Science fiction, hardcover. Found it in a Dollar Store in great condition. The book, which contains three stories plus the original Ender's Game novella is actually an update of a book released the previous year, First Meetings: Three Stories in the Enderverse. The stories are fun to read, although the original novella actually seems out of place with the story that follows it because the last story is a sequel to the novel. Also, the last story, "the Investment Councilor", was good, but weaker than the others and not the greatest note to end on. However, because the stories were presented sequentially, there wasn't much that could be done about that. Good book. My son enjoyed it also. Recommended.
Ender's Shadow, Orson Scott Card, 1999, paperback.
Science fiction. Library book. Having read Ender's Game not that long ago, I was curious about the non-sequel Ender's Shadow, which actually takes place concurrently with Game, but focusing on the character of Bean. I didn't notice any major changes (minor ones, I think), but I did wonder why Bean's story was so much longer to tell. For a while, I found myself thinking, "Get on with it already!" because I wanted to shift the story into battle school where it was more familiar. The end result is a book that makes it appear that Bean is the smart one and Ender is just in the right place at the right time, but largely because of Bean's influences. I have mixed emotions about the story and where Card is choosing to take Bean. Will I read more of that series? Maybe. If I'm not mistaken, the rest of the Bean books happen before the Ender books, but by being written later, they might spoil some of those. It's confusing.
those two reviews came off a book review page: http://www.geocities.com/tanniker/ that is slowly making its way to a new blog.
If anyone wants to discuss a related issue without discussing Ender or Bean in particular:
how do you feel about prequels -- books written later, sometimes much later, that take place earlier in the series.
Would you read them in published order or by the internal chronology? Does it depend if reading them chronologically will spoil some of the previously published works.
The obvious movie parallel is watching Star Wars IV after the first three. There are now new subtexts that weren't there before (although, the annoying thing is that most of those weren't meant to be there in the first place; just tacked on 20 years later). On the other hand, Star Wars V would contain no stunning revelations at all.
Dan Simmons “hyperion series” ( he’s the guy who wrote the essay-story “message from a time traveler” that gets posted to FR a lot and confused with be written bu Orson Scott Card : http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1610142/posts ) The first Hyperion book is an awesome spin on Chaucer’s canterbury tales set in space.
If you want to read really good sci-fi speculative fiction, try out Gene Wolfe. He is a devout Cathoic who uses Cathoilc imagery in his work. The “book of the new sun” series is fantastic, influenced heavily by Jack Vance. He’s the best writer going in my opinion. here’s the wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Wolfe
Jack Vance “the Dying Earth” series
Poul Anderson “ensign flandry” series
Freegards
I still prefer the old Asimov classics like Foundation.
But, everyone should read Starship Troopers. Remember, it is a book about a philosophy not about war.
Alan Dean Foster’s books always please me.
Just give me a rocket and blaster book every time.
Is this a ping list? Please add me to the list.
Right now I am working on Jack McDevitt’s, POLARIS, which is a sequel to A Talent for War and Seeker.
I’m finishing the Riverworld series by Philip Farmer. The last two are fairly preachy but I still like the concept. There is some language and sexuality in them.
The Raj Whitehall Series: The General by David Drake
The Forge
The The Hammer
The Anvil
The Steel
The Sword
Or any of his HAMMER'S SLAMMERS series.
Or Keith Laumer's BOLO series.