The Apocalypse Troll

by David Weber

Ebook, 1999

Status

Available

Call number

Fic SF Weber

Genres

Science Fiction

All Topics

Fiction

Collections

Read, ebooks, High rated read

Publication

Riverdale, NY : New York : Baen ; Distributed by Simon & Schuster, c1999.

Description

There he was in his sailboat in the middle of the Atlantic, all alone and loving it. Well, there was a US Navy carrier group on his southern horizon, but he was US Navy himself, so he didn't mind. Then came the UFOs, hurtling in from the Outer Black to overfly the carriers at Mach 17. Their impossible aeronautics were bad enough - but then they started shooting at each other. And at the Navy. With nukes. Little ones at first, but winding up with a 500 megatonner at 90 miles that fried every piece of electronics within sight. Richard Ashton thought he was just a ringside observer to these now over-the-horizon events. Until the crippled alien lifeboat came drifting down and homed in on his sailboat; suddenly he had his hands full of an unconscious, critially wounded alien warrior - who just happened to be a gorgeous female, too. And that was when it began to get really interesting...… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member gilroy

This book started with the usual technical flare David Weber has for Science Fiction writing. It gives a chapter or two for background, leading up to the story blurbed on the back. It was well written and the excitement draws the reader into the book. I celebrated as one of the bad guys was not

just stopped, but utterly destroyed. Definitely worth a read.

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LibraryThing member michaelbirks

According to comments made of Weber's newsgroup (alt.books.david-weber) when this was published, Troll was one of his earlier books, but wasn't published untill after he'd made his name with Honor Harrington.

In that sense, this is very much a prototype for the later character and universe. The main

character is _very_ Honoresque, while the brief Space battle at the start is very familiar, right down to the concept of 'layers' of Hyperspace.

It's not bad as a story, although it's difficult to maintain a proper suspension of disbelief when you're dealing with SF set in the 'Now', rather than the future. FWIW, I actually have the same problem with CLancy, too, so...

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LibraryThing member jamespurcell

Quick read, reasonable premise, good characters, plot moves along with a shoot-em-up finish and the Earth is saved. Some nice ties if Weber wants to do a sequel.

LibraryThing member jjmcgaffey

Love this, as usual. The parallels with the style of the Honor Harrington novels are obvious, though the tech is slightly different and the war is far more intense. I really like Milla - both as a person and her 'superpowers'. And Dick is great. Milla was incredibly lucky with who her ship found to

save her. Someone tough-minded _and_ open-minded enough to believe her, who also had the ear of people who had the ear of the highest levels...There was a heck of a lot of luck involved in the story. Still, it hangs together reasonably well. Given the setup - that Milla did end up with Dick - the rest makes reasonable sense - and there were plans (not very good ones, but plans) for if the Troll was outside the influence of those who knew what was going on. There's a lot of lovely scenes - several points in the initial battle, that first talk on Dick's ship, meeting the President, when the Marine Major joined them, the repairs to her suit, seeing the kangaroos, several points in the final battle - and the unexpected happy ending. And the memorial moment at the end is wonderful. I always wonder about making more Thuselahs, though - offer it as an option to people who are dying anyway. A quick death or something a lot better...you might get quite a few agreements. Anyway. Neat universe, and I'm glad he didn't write any more there - the story's pretty well finished. I mean, he could write the Kanga's first arrival in the new timeline...but there's not much point, is there?

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LibraryThing member Katyas

Please note: I wrote this review after reading the book in March of 2006. Just copying it over!

While waiting my turn at the Honor Harrington series, I picked up this book in order to get a taste of David Weber. I was very happy with what I read. This book is a great deal of fun - lots of action, a

great work of military science fiction (read: SCIENCE FICTION to those who are going "oh, but this doesn't make sense" - yeah - it's SCIENCE FICTION!! Who knows what might make sense in an alternate reality?? Heh - maybe the laws of physics, etc. are different there? *laugh*) and, of course, for those who are interested, just a teeny, tiny bit of romance thrown in. Or lust - maybe you could call it lust. At any rate, it was a very enjoyable read and I'm very glad I picked it up and took the time - I will definitely put it on my "read again after I get through the hundreds waiting to be read" list. Another I highly recommend to those who enjoy a good military science fiction book that adds a bit of humor, a bit of fun, and whole lot of action.

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LibraryThing member jimmaclachlan

It was pretty good, although a bit predictable. Anyone who likes the Honor series will like this, too. The same ideas of upstanding military characters, evil villains & lots of heroism. A fun read, but not as memorable as the Honor series, IMO.

LibraryThing member BruceCoulson

This was an early work by Weber, and it definitely shows. Good action scenes combined with over-the-top wish fulfillment. Not recommended.

LibraryThing member Karlstar

A great, quick, humans vs. aliens scifi novel, with the added bonus that it is not part of a series! Think of Battlestar Galactica type ships (the original, not the reboot!) fighting against human hating aliens, flying around the galaxy via dimension-skipping drives that give the effect of FTL.

When the aliens, desperate for a victory, head off to Earth at incredible speeds jumping more dimensions than ever before, there's only one small human fleet that can stop them. One way or another, this ends up with Marines fighting aliens in a plot that reminded me of Terminator. Decent characters and like all Weber military sci-fi, great action and meticulous military detail.

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