Title: Orphan’s Triumph
Author: Robert Buettner
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: June 1, 2009
Synopsis:
The Slug War has been going on for 40 years now, and humankind is finally seeing a glimmer of hope that the war will soon be over. Jason, ever skeptical of what the Slug have up their… err… sleeves, isn’t so optimistic. The political and military bureaucracy is convinced that they have the weapon that will end all Slug life (no… not a giant salt shaker, let’s get serious here!) and more importantly, the location of the Slug home world. Should be easy as one, two, three… right?
They feel so confident, in fact, that they pretty much bully Jason into retiring just before the final battle is to be fought. Well, if they thought that was going to keep him from at least being a spectator, they have another thing coming. If Jason thought he could get away with just being a spectator, well, the universe (which is apparently always laughing a Jason) is indeed having a belly laugh at that idea. When nothing goes as planned, can Jason save the human race one last time from the Slugs? Can he come to terms with what this war has asked him to do, and what it has done to him and millions of others?
Review:
Seeing a series end is always a little difficult. You’ve been with the characters for all of the triumphs and downfalls. You’ve watched them, in some cases, grow from a snot-nosed kid into a world-weary adult and you still want the story to continue. Questions pop up, like: Did all of the loose ends get tied up? In Orphan’s Triumph, I say yes, they did.
What starts out as the finale to a fun, fast paced military science fiction series really is more of a commentary on modern war and what it does to the people who must fight it. I am being deliberately vague in the hopes that you are intrigued enough to go pick up the series, because it is really worth reading. While in some places the whole series may feel a little bit formulaic (i.e., the good guys finally get their footing, oh #&@$ something really bad happens to them) it never stops being a page turner. Essentially, I’m trying to let you know that I’m in love with this series, but without spoiling the ending…
Whether or not the ending is entirely believable is up to you when you read it. I absolutely loved it, though. One of my big questions whenever a series of any kind ends is “was the ending satisfying,” and after all that Jason has been through, it’s for once the best possible result — shocker I know. If you’re a fan of intergalactic battles with non-humanoid bad guys, humans fighting at horrible odds but, because of their own ingenuity, managing to make it, or just a good read, you should start at the beginning with Orphanage. I promise you will not be disappointed. This book gets a solid A from me, and the series as a whole get’s an A+ in high action science fiction.
