Author: Michael R. Hicks
Publisher and Copyright: Imperial Guard Publishing, LLC
Price: $10.95 (amazon.com)
Cathbad’s Rating: 8.5 of 10
A Review by, Cathbad
Empire
(In Her Name: Redemption Trilogy, Book 1)
By, Michael R. Hicks
What can one say when one can hardly get past the first chapter?
It’s not that it’s badly written; quite the opposite – Empire extremely well written! It’s just too…
Predictable.
I could absolutely, without error, have told you everything that was about to happen in that first chapter at least a page ahead of time.
But let’s not be hasty! There were some great preambles in there, and the action was hot and steady. My dislike of predictability notwithstanding, it was a good beginning to the novel.
The story follows a young boy named Reza Gard, who gets taken as a slave by the forces of the Kreelan army, whom humans have been at war with for over a century.
Reza and a young warrior named Esah-Zhurah find themselves bound together, fated by a millennia old prophecy.
The aliens of the Kreelan Empire are way cool. They have blue skin, fangs, razor sharp talons, and technology that is well advanced of the human Confederation’s. Yet, their warriors seek out close combat with sword and their natural weapons, those hideous claws. They believe that by fighting and dying, they honor their god-like Empress – which is everything to them.
The storyline is quite a bit over the top, but it is well-told, and there is never a let-up in the action.
The technology isn’t well explained, but the story isn’t about technology. It’s about growing up, the struggle for survival in an apocalyptic time, and relationships. And all of this interacts to bring an adrenalin-filled, emotional story to life!
I though the Queen was just way too over the top, but I’m convinced she did have to be powerful to command such awe and devotion from the war-like Kreelan.
The story never does become less predictable (but that’s my only real beef). It has an unsatisfactory ending… duh! It’s the first book of a trilogy, dude! And it does what a first book of a trilogy should do – it leaves you hungry for the next instalment!
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