THE SHADOWS OF PEACE

A 200-year golden age of human space exploration and colonization is threatened by the resurfacing of an enemy long thought vanquished in Gibbons’ SF novel.

The year is 2402. A third World War waged two centuries earlier, initiated by the sinister Eastern League, cost over 90% of Earth’s population their lives. The League’s ultimate defeat led to the foundation of the Galactic Assembly, whose military now patrols the prosperous spaceways, protecting traders from pirates and watching for upstart enemies—and, of course, for the possible reappearance of the League. Capt. Frederick Langfield of the heavily armed supercarrier-starship Pax Aeterna truly believes the Assembly’s mission is one of peace. His resolve and somewhat rusty tactical skills are tested severely when a giant space-station hub hosting much of the Assembly fleet suffers a cunning EMP-pulse attack from unmanned star cruisers staged by the League. In an echo of Pearl Harbor, the base and sizable Assembly assets are cruelly wiped out. Due to the decimation of the military hierarchy, Frederick finds his command usurped by Commodore Anatoly Partov, a conceited superior officer with no people skills and a fighting style likely to cost the Galactic Assembly even more lives and territory—maybe the entire war. The gloating Eastern League warlord Shen Sato (proud owner of a relic sword from the legendary samurai Miyamoto Musashi) claims destructive martinets like Anatoly are the rule, not the exception, in the Assembly, which is not the force for good it pretends to be. As catastrophic events unfold, Frederick develops dreadful suspicion that Shen Sato may be right. Gibbons positions this novel as the first act of a trilogy (there is an open ending); it’s a somewhat retro-feeling piece, with its World War II–evoking villains and some prose that could have come straight from old Buck Rogers radio plays (“can Frederick and the rest of the Assembly forces respond in time to save the planets’ ten billion inhabitants, shielding them from annihilation?”). But the narrative also comes armed with affecting modern themes of military disillusionment and shattered ideals. The space-navy battle action and dizzying twists should recruit many SF readers.

Strong combat-SF material, somewhat retro in style but definitely forceful enough to engage genre fans.