Status
Available
Call number
Collections
Publication
Ace (2004), Paperback, 400 pages
Description
Kris Longknife is a daughter of privilege, born to money and power. Her father is the Prime Minister of her home planet. Her mother the consummate politician's wife. She's been raised only to be beautiful and marry well. But the heritage of the military Longknifes courses through Kris's blood-and, against her parents' objections, she enlists in the marines.
User reviews
LibraryThing member SimonW11
Light, enjoyable, and not very realistic SF. Not a bad read but it would be totally forgettable if I had not found a bookworm living in it.
LibraryThing member Homechicken
As I began reading this book, I wasn't sure I'd be able to finish it, but the pace picked up soon and got more interesting. Perhaps I just didn't care at first, or perhaps it was the writing, but it seemed to have a big lull after the first action scene. Anyway, the further I got the more
The story is about Kris Longknife, a daughter of a very rich and powerful family who joins the space navy to both escape her parents and prove to herself what kind of person she is. Although only a boot ensign, she finds herself taking command in several situations, proving herself capable and competent despite whatever opposition comes her way. The story wraps up with her relieving the captain of her ship of duty when she finds he's about to start a war between the rim worlds and Earth forces.
For me, the next book will really determine how much I like this series. This one had its ups and downs, so I think the next one will prove whether Shepherd is a writer I would like to follow.
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interesting it became, and I ended up reading the last half of the book far more quickly then the first half.The story is about Kris Longknife, a daughter of a very rich and powerful family who joins the space navy to both escape her parents and prove to herself what kind of person she is. Although only a boot ensign, she finds herself taking command in several situations, proving herself capable and competent despite whatever opposition comes her way. The story wraps up with her relieving the captain of her ship of duty when she finds he's about to start a war between the rim worlds and Earth forces.
For me, the next book will really determine how much I like this series. This one had its ups and downs, so I think the next one will prove whether Shepherd is a writer I would like to follow.
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LibraryThing member jlynno84
This series is so much fun! The philosophy reminds me of Robert A Heinlein while the characters remind me of a cross between Elizabeth Moon's Ky Vatta and Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles.
LibraryThing member DinadansFriend
this is a competent story of a good girl, who is rich, but has been wronged. She gets her revenge...errr...justice.
LibraryThing member jjmcgaffey
I've read this several times before, though not for years. I remembered quite a bit and far from all of it. The skiff ride and the kid I remembered (though not all the details), bits of Olympia, not at all the last bit with the mutiny. I do like Kris - and the way the next step always makes sense.
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The one thing she can't do - that none of "those Longknifes" can do - is sit back and let things go wrong without trying to take a hand. It's interesting watching the world build up, as Kris fills in the holes in her knowledge - especially about Peterwald, and her own family. Show Less
LibraryThing member LisCarey
Kris Longknife is the daughter of a distinguished political family. Her father is the prime minister of the planet Wardhaven, a member of the Society of Humanity, a union of nearly six hundred worlds. She's joined the navy rather than pursuing either a political or a social career because she wants
She's smart and capable and sincere, and she has no idea what she's in for.
Her first assignment as an ensign is rescuing a kidnapped six-year-old girl, the daughter of another prominent political family on another planet. And Kris is nearly killed by a shuttle malfunction that only affects Kris's shuttle.
Her next is a relief mission on a planet that is suffering the climate disaster following a major volcanic eruption. Relief supplies that include modifiable boats and bridges also malfunction even though no similar equipment from those companies have ever malfunctioned. These crises aren't a coincidence. Competing political forces are stoking a crisis that will produce a war.
The plot is solid and keeps moving. I like the characters.
But Kris Longknife is improbably capable. She keeps being the best at pretty much everything, right through at least three quarters of the way through the book. Around that point, she starts to have experiences in which she really learns things, including that being smart doesn't always mean being right.
All in all, it's fun and enjoyable, but it has some over the top passages that flirt with being really annoying.
Still, it is enjoyable, and a worthwhile light read or listen.
I bought this audiobook.
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to do something useful.She's smart and capable and sincere, and she has no idea what she's in for.
Her first assignment as an ensign is rescuing a kidnapped six-year-old girl, the daughter of another prominent political family on another planet. And Kris is nearly killed by a shuttle malfunction that only affects Kris's shuttle.
Her next is a relief mission on a planet that is suffering the climate disaster following a major volcanic eruption. Relief supplies that include modifiable boats and bridges also malfunction even though no similar equipment from those companies have ever malfunctioned. These crises aren't a coincidence. Competing political forces are stoking a crisis that will produce a war.
The plot is solid and keeps moving. I like the characters.
But Kris Longknife is improbably capable. She keeps being the best at pretty much everything, right through at least three quarters of the way through the book. Around that point, she starts to have experiences in which she really learns things, including that being smart doesn't always mean being right.
All in all, it's fun and enjoyable, but it has some over the top passages that flirt with being really annoying.
Still, it is enjoyable, and a worthwhile light read or listen.
I bought this audiobook.
Show Less
LibraryThing member kmartin802
KRIS LONGKNIFE: MUTINEER begins a multibook series. It is space opera writ large. For me it was a combination of the Miles Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold and the Honor Harrington series by David Weber containing the best parts of each.
Kris Longknife is a newly minted Ensign in the Navy.
As this story begins, Kris is serving about the Typhoon and about to take part in a rescue mission to save the six-year-old daughter of Sequim's General Manager. When something goes wrong with the sled taking her and half of the rescue squad from orbit to the site where the kidnappers are holding the child, Kris uses her experience racing skiffs to save her people. She and her people rescue the child and Kris becomes suspicious of the circumstances of the planned rescue making her wonder if it was an assassination attempt against her and making her wonder about the motives of her superiors.
In thanks for her quick thinking and successful rescue, she's assigned to Olympia where a volcano has erupted causing massive climatic changes which means that those on the planet are starving. She lands to find that things are a mess. Food isn't getting to those who are hungry. The command structure is being overseen by an officer who just escaped a political court martial. Kris uses the skills gained in helping with her brother's political campaigns to get things moving the right direction. However, a call for help from an isolated farm which is also sick with a contagious disease that can kill any of the remaining survivors on planet, sends Kris and her crew to try to save them. Things go wrong with the smart metal boat they are using which might just be a second or third assassination attempt.
Back home on Wardhaven, Kris goes to her trusted people - a great aunt and two of her great-grandfathers - to try to figure out who wants her dead and why. An Ensign, even a rich, politically connected Ensign, shouldn't be attracting assassins. But politics is playing a role. Many planets are looking to end their relationship with Earth and go their own way and are doing all sorts of underhanded and above-board things to make the outcome match their goals.
When Kris is recalled to her ship, their destination is where a meeting has been convened with Earth representatives to see if their relationship can end peacefully. Except, there is a faction in the military who want to start a war and it is up to Kris to mutiny and keep the ship she is on from starting that war.
This was an exciting and engaging story. I liked the worldbuilding and really liked Kris. She's smart and honorable. I am looking forward to reading more in this 19-book series.
Kris Longknife is a newly minted Ensign in the Navy.
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She's also the daughter of the Prime Minister of a powerful Rim planet and a descendant of powerful and well-known people who were and are the political and economic movers and shakers of her world. She's very rich. She is an alcoholic who suffers from survivor's guilt because, when she was 10, she couldn't save her younger brother from kidnappers who murdered him.As this story begins, Kris is serving about the Typhoon and about to take part in a rescue mission to save the six-year-old daughter of Sequim's General Manager. When something goes wrong with the sled taking her and half of the rescue squad from orbit to the site where the kidnappers are holding the child, Kris uses her experience racing skiffs to save her people. She and her people rescue the child and Kris becomes suspicious of the circumstances of the planned rescue making her wonder if it was an assassination attempt against her and making her wonder about the motives of her superiors.
In thanks for her quick thinking and successful rescue, she's assigned to Olympia where a volcano has erupted causing massive climatic changes which means that those on the planet are starving. She lands to find that things are a mess. Food isn't getting to those who are hungry. The command structure is being overseen by an officer who just escaped a political court martial. Kris uses the skills gained in helping with her brother's political campaigns to get things moving the right direction. However, a call for help from an isolated farm which is also sick with a contagious disease that can kill any of the remaining survivors on planet, sends Kris and her crew to try to save them. Things go wrong with the smart metal boat they are using which might just be a second or third assassination attempt.
Back home on Wardhaven, Kris goes to her trusted people - a great aunt and two of her great-grandfathers - to try to figure out who wants her dead and why. An Ensign, even a rich, politically connected Ensign, shouldn't be attracting assassins. But politics is playing a role. Many planets are looking to end their relationship with Earth and go their own way and are doing all sorts of underhanded and above-board things to make the outcome match their goals.
When Kris is recalled to her ship, their destination is where a meeting has been convened with Earth representatives to see if their relationship can end peacefully. Except, there is a faction in the military who want to start a war and it is up to Kris to mutiny and keep the ship she is on from starting that war.
This was an exciting and engaging story. I liked the worldbuilding and really liked Kris. She's smart and honorable. I am looking forward to reading more in this 19-book series.
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Language
Original publication date
2004-02
Physical description
400 p.; 6.76 inches
ISBN
044101142X / 9780441011421
Local notes
Kris Longknife, 01
DDC/MDS
| Fic SF Shepherd |