In Her Name (2)
This is an update to the previous post about the story line In Her Name by Michael R. Hicks.
Now I've completed the two trilogies of the In Her Name story. I read the 6 books in a little over two weeks. The story is so great that almost everything of my real live came to halt, which was ok since I've been on vacation anyway.
The story consists of two trilogies: The Last War and Redemption and I urge the reader to start with the newest one, because it acts in an earlier time than the latter. So, the order to read the books is:
- The Last War: First Contact
- The Last War: Legend Of The Sword
- The Last War: Dead Soul
- Redemtion: Empire
- Redemtion: Confederation
- Redemtion: Final Battle
- From Chaos Born
The seventh book, From Chaos Born, can be seen as a kind of "bonus", since it doesn't continue with what happened after Final Battle, but instead tells the story how the first empire of the Kreelan race was founded one hundred thousand years ago.
As already said in the earlier post linked above, the story is at a first glance simple. An alien race invades humanity. Not a new idea at all. However it is indeed one of the best realized I've ever read and I read a lot. The alien race - the Kreelans - are a worrior race of females. Males are not intelligent and being used for reproduction purposes only. They don't invade the human sphere for the purpose to conquer worlds or to exterminate our species. The sought honor by direct combat using bronce age style weapons like swords and knifes.
As predictable, humans don't get the picture and wonder frightened about their enemy. Hicks succeeds very well in describing the horrors of those close combat battles. You can feel the pain, hear the sound of clashing weapons and gunfire as it were for real. But that's not what makes the story such a great thing. Most important is, that the universe and especially the alien culture is so carefully crafted. The characters, be it human or kreelan, are complex while their intentions and emotions explained comprehensible. I've encountered such a universe only rarely, Ian Banks' Culture universe for instance.
It needs to mentioned as well, that the second trilogy is not only a space opera but a love story too. Usually I don't read love stories so I can't tell how it compares. But from what I can tell it's impressive and overwhelming. More than one times I had to stop reading because of tear filled eyes.
I just loved it. And it's really sad, that it is finished. Hicks might write another twenty or hundred more books acting in the In Her Name storyline and I'd devour them all no matter the costs or time it'd take.
So, Mr. Hicks in case you ever recognize this: please make more of this. I beg you!