War To The Knife (The Laredo War)

Peter Grant's "War to the Knife" is the opening novel in a new military sci-fi trilogy, set on a far-future colony planet (Laredo) that has been overrun by a neighboring star nation. The Bactrian Empire wanted Laredo's resources, so they simply took the planet over in a sort of interstellar blitzkrieg attack and obliterated Laredo's capital in a demonstration orbital strike. The surviving remnants of Laredo's military are now guerillas, fighting a desperate and losing battle against their conquerors, reduced in the main to using low-tech weapons - many of them nearly a millenium out of date in design - and hiding in well-dispersed locations, remote from human habitation, to avoid detection and destruction by Bactrian forces.Laredo's surviving defenders do have enough strength left for one last major attack, and the chance to smuggle a few of their number off-planet to continue the resistance, perhaps with the help of the international community...and in this first novel, they make the most of both opportunities.A couple of reviewers have noted the superficial resemblance between this book and "Firefly," especially the opening gunfight scene in the rustic cantina between resistance fighters and Bactrian troopers, which I took to be a deliberate nod to the series. (Two of the remnant Laredo Army formations are designated "Drake's Regiment" and "Niven's Regiment," which I also suspect reflect some of the author's tastes and influences in the genre...and good for him if they do.) However, to me the overall tone of the book seems more akin to tales of the French Resistance from a childhood's worth of WWII movies, with overtones of the Warsaw Uprising, "Red Dawn" and - in the reflection of the hopelessly corrupt, static, Persian-themed Bactrian Empire - Frank Miller's "300." This is a goodness thing, as John Ringo might say; hence the title of my review.The writing is taut and well-paced, with in the main decent characterization of both heroes and villains (and I found myself actually liking a couple of the latter, who were portrayed as decent, even honorable and courageous, people who happened to be on the wrong side). The gunplay and action scenes are well-described, and (one imagines) draw heavily on the author's own combat experiences, which if I recall correctly involves considerable experience in the southern African bush wars.One minor quibble for me was that the Laredo guerillas seemed a bit too independent of their surviving population, given the desperate straits described in the novel. On the other hand, the Laredoans' final desperate - yet wildly successful - ground assault on the Bactrians' local capital seemed all too plausible, reading this novel as I did contemporaneously with the fall of Mosul...where less than a thousand radical Islamists with mostly small arms and anger routed a 30,000-strong Iraqi Army contingent that was blessed with modern high-tech weaponry like Grant's "Bactrians" (comparatively speaking), but cursed similarly with weak and corrupt leadership.And finally, judging from hints given in the final couple of chapters, the next book in the series will shift the fight for Laredo onto an entirely new, exciting - and much broader - battlefield, to include espionage and skulduggery on an interstellar dimension."War to the Knife" was the first of Grant's novels I've read, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the series, I give it a solid four out of five stars.

It is always disappointing to write a two-star review because I appreciate the effort that goes into writing a novel and applaud those who do, so I feel both let down, and that I am letting the side down, when my reaction is negative.Still, Grant is not a first time author and this is not a debut novel so I am less inclined to forgive the lack of fizz and pop in "War to the Knife". My particular disappointment centered on the dialog which was stilted, and because for a full-on military novel there seemed no core military competency. Specifically, apart from a smattering of terms, the deep conviction of battle and command structures was missing.Indeed, I took time out from reading "War to the Knife" to devour Dietz's very solid " By Blood Alone (Legion) " and probably should not have. "War to the Knife" did not generate anywhere near the visceral feel of combat and lacked the myriad incidental details that support the 'been there, done that' vibe that Dietz brings to the table. Grant's bio cites "military service" but whatever that was, it did not seep through strongly enough for me.I also wondered about the air-gap in technology. For example, the good guys circumvent the bad guys surveillance at will, which is attributed to the sheer genius of one of their team. It seemed artifice rather than a likely capability of a future resistance force, and the blasé lack of cryptography seemed lazy. Likewise the story arc about getting evidence of atrocities off planet in person that simmered in the background. I kept wondering what it was about a single personal account of the situation that would convey more credibility than petabytes of digitally signed content, especially when that person was a third party with only one side of the story.Apart from that, Grant's plot is straightforward and linear. The baddies are initially portrayed as arrogant incompetents, but a change of character mid-way sets that to rights and it raises the tension at least. The good guys are your basic white hat brigade, fighting the good fight in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, and the slow, pointless grind of their circumstances was well handled.But because the dialog was so leaden pretty much across the board, I never really felt immersed in the action and was not invested emotionally in their situation. Certainly, I am not sufficiently compelled to want to purchase any subsequent chapters in what is clearly - by the title alone, if not the ending - a trilogy or more.So, the summary. I think that Grant has written a good YA adventure novel. It is innocent enough in tone and content for the teenage audience, and does not introduce too much moral ambiguity to undermine them forming their own 'good citizen' ethic (actually, the reflection on how war has changed the good guys sensibilities is nicely done, I liked that a lot). It moves at a reasonable pace and the characters are recognizable stereotypes - on both sides of the divide - some of which have a dusting of gray for good measure.Still, that is not enough for me and Grant fails to concentrate the military experience and slap you about with it, veer off in unexpected and delightful directions, or challenge you with an ending you are not expecting. If you want that, go read Dietz...or better yet, Morgan's " Altered Carbon ", a brilliant debut that grips you by the throat from the start and never lets go.

Peter Grant's new release, War to the Knife, is also the start to a new series. It opens like a scene from a Western novel, on a frontier planet, but we learn quickly this is just camoflage, the people who live on this planet have been invaded by another. The invaders, also humans, are committing genocide, and have driven the rightful inhabitants of Laredo to the brink of despair. But a small group of valiant warriors will not give up, and they pursue war to the knife.His first novel was flawed, but still an enjoyable read. The second and third were good, too… and this one hits the ball out of the park. His characters are real, and well-developed. His villains are mostly not-evil, just following orders, which feels about right. For every war, you have dozens of people trying to do their best to win it, not for evil, but because it's the right thing to them. War to the Knife explores that dichotomy.When the war leaves the planetary sphere, it's even more complicated as they must prove to the UP, an organization which seems to resemble the UN, that they are worth bothering over. With Grant's history coming out of a life in Africa, I was on tenterhooks here… the UN has not been kind to Africans. And in fact, we don't get to see that wholly play out… it is left for the next book. I can't wait to see what happens!

Good read.

love it

Good start to a new series in the Maxwell universe that uses more a wider cast. Hope the sequel is out soon.

Really great read and looking forward to more in this series!

I liked the way he got things kicking off right from the start leaving the reader wanting more to follow on