The Iron Dice (Breach of Faith book 7) by Gary Stevens and Daniel Gibbs

 The Iron Dice (Breach of Faith book 7)

by Gary Stevens and Daniel Gibbs

I've already gone into depth on Mr. Stevens and Mr. Gibbs in this review series at length, so I'm honestly gonna point you to the double hand full of reviews on other works in this universe. That said I will go ahead and repeat the disclaimer, I know Mr. Stevens. He's been a good friend and supporter of this review series for years. I'm also proud to consider him a personal friend. That said, all my remarks are my honest personal opinion, take that as you will (Same goes for me of course.).

The Iron Dice is the last book in the Breach of Faith series(For which the author is grateful.), set in the universe created by Daniel Gibbs. I won't spend too much time discussing the universe at large because I've already done so repeatedly, I'll just tell you to go ahead and check out other reviews that I've done on those books and there will be links at the end of this review. This book picks up the plot directly from the last book in the series Fortune's Favor and I'll go from there.

The Jalm'tar, an alien race that worships the concept of fickle fortune running the universe, had their plot to conquer the Independent Systems Federation through addiction to the powerful pain killer known as Curall fail. So they've decided they'll simply resort to brute military force (That tracks for Imperialist Scum.). After all the ISF doesn't have much of a fleet being a newly created weak confederation of worlds. Meanwhile, the Terran Coalition is still reeling from its decades-long war with the League of Sol, as are the alien races such as the Saurians. Because of that, their fleet is bigger and their worlds are untouched by war. The biggest issue is that the Jalm'tar didn't want to embark on a plan with so much risk, as the humans and their allies have shown themselves willing to go to in their eyes psychotic lengths to avoid being conquered.

Admiral James Henry of the ISF navy knows that his still small and frankly ramshackle fleet made up of a half dozen shiny new cruisers, former pirate flotillas, and planetary defense forces aren't gonna be able to win such a war. So he embraces a new plan, where he will attempt to prevent the war from happening at all by backing a rival to the current emperor of the Jalm'tar when he attempts to seize the throne and thus avert hostilities (Or so he hopes, the way these things go.). That rival is a prince of the blood and the actual son of the last emperor who lost the throne to his power-hungry uncle (This is why the Ottomans…. Ottomaned.). The prince was banished to a comfortable if boring exile on a frontier planet far from the centers of power in the empire but remains under heavy guard. On top of that anyone who wants to get to him has to go through the empire, as the frontier planet in question is on an edge of the empire that doesn't border human space.

So Admiral Henry needs a group of skilled, determined people capable of taking a spacecraft on a long journey through enemy space, landing on an enemy planet, and extracting someone likely under fire and keeping them alive. This group will then have to smuggle this person to the enemy's capital planet and into the palace of the Emperor! This is something that entire nations would devote millions of dollars worth of resources for training and equipment to pull off. Admiral Henry has the crew of the Venture Star, a group of independent civilian spacers with a single civilian ship.

However, the crew has already survived missions that would kill experienced special forces units or spies. Plus they're led by Captain Miriam Gaon, one of the best spies that the Terran Coalition ever trained. In addition, they have a pair of Jalm'tar defectors who have enough information to give them a shot of not only pulling this off but living to brag about it later. On top of that, the Prince still has supporters in the nobility so if he can get close enough to the palace before being discovered and then announce his challenge, the Emperor will have no choice but to accept. How will this contest for the throne of an incredibly powerful empire be decided? Literal rolls of the iron dice, as in dice made from actual iron. That's right the Jalm'tar will decide who rules billions of sapient beings through a series of dice rolls (What the actual fuck?  No way in hell.  I call bullshit on that society functioning. {It doesn’t seem any more insane than doing it through hereditary means.  That said only people with the right ancestry get to even try to roll, you can’t just walk in off the street}}). Whoever has the highest cumulative score after about 3 rolls... Wins everything. There's a lot to unpack here so I'm going to discuss it in the companion video.

Mr. Stevens does a good job of letting us explore the alien mindset of the Jalm'tar by letting us interact with them as individuals, who in many cases have common beliefs and a worldview but express them all in different ways. This is usually done in discussion with other characters in the story, letting us not just explore the Jalm'tar but the human and allied aliens in the setting as well. The book does a good job of expanding on characters like Piper, the 1st mate who has to make her peace with her active role in events and the weight of command. Janet, a survivor of League occupation and the student/mentor relationship she develops with Stephan the withdrawn Russian navigator who shows a truly inspiring level of patience and understanding with her. While also teaching her how to pilot and navigate the ship.

While the book does suffer the usual problem of Mr. Stevens's work of having so many characters that it's difficult at best to give each one the time and page count to really grow. Mr. Stevens does make a valiant attempt and at the very least keeps any of the characters from turning into cardboard cutouts with only 1 or 2 vague character traits. He also continues giving us a widely varied cast to work with of different faiths (or lack of), races, backgrounds, and species, among other things. He also manages to avoid turning the varied cast into feeling like something assembled from a list to give an appearance of diversity. Instead, you get a cast of people from different cultures, planets, and backgrounds who live and work together and sometimes engage in thrilling heroics for a common cause and it works well and feels real.

Mr. Stevens also puts an effort in to keep our heroes from winning too easily and ensuring that the victories they do win, while meaningful, come at a price. He also avoids wandering into misery porn but makes it clear what the full weight of that price is as well. We see this not just in the main storyline but in the character arc of Mei Ling Lou, who was serving as a Captain in the Federation Navy but during this and the last book finds herself weighing the cost of her service. Not just the risk to herself but how it affects her children.

I'm not a parent, but even I know how difficult it can be to serve miles and miles away from your spouse and children. It's a strain that many families break under and never recover from. There are also plenty of families who can make it work but even then that comes at a cost to the person serving and to their loved ones. A cost in missed moments, doubts, and fears that can never really be completely exorcized for good, and the knowledge that you could lose the loved one serving at any moment and there's nothing you can do about it. It's a hard row to hoe and even wealth and privilege don't make it any easier. Mei Ling is forced to confront that and make a final decision on where her priorities and loyalties lie and the thing is there is no real right answer here.

For some people being there for their children and spouse is going to be more important and they're not wrong to choose that. For others, service for something they believe to be important and greater than themselves and overrides individual concerns and I'm not going to say that's wrong either (Though I will say, if you have that mindset, maaaaybe don’t inflict that on someone else unless that person goes into it eyes wide open.  And even then, maybe try not to have kids.  Just my two cents.). After all, our society couldn't function without people making that choice. Not just in the context of military service but consider the demands we put on medical professionals, firefighters, teachers, and the legion of other professions and services that keep society grinding forward through the efforts of good men and women doing hard and often personally painful work. (Yes.  But our society also expects too much of such people. They shouldn’t have to make that choice in the first place because their pay and working hours should be sane.)

This is the last book in the series as far as I am aware and Mr. Stevens does a good job of bringing the character arcs to a close or at least to a satisfactory stopping point. As far as conclusions go, I feel this is a pretty good one. We have seen these characters grow, change and become stronger and better people, even if they've collected injuries and wounds along the way. This is one of Mr. Steven's greatest strengths, his ability to move characters through a believable path of growth and advancement while keeping a plot moving with a good amount of action and intrigue going. That said I wouldn't call the book perfect as I mentioned before the cast still feels a bit too large and because of that some arcs do suffer. Not everyone feels like they're at a good stopping point for their character arc honestly. 

Additionally, there was a political plot where the Federation, the Coalition, and other powers came together to discuss alliances. I honestly feel that the antagonists were not handled as adroitly as they could have been... It's not as heavy-handed as the League was for example but could have been done better. For that matter, the Jalm'tar Emperor was a bit of a miss as a villain for me but he was more than made up for by the other Jalm'tar characters. Because of that, I'm giving The Iron Dice by Gary Stevens and Daniel Gibbs a B+. The action is good as is the intrigue and most of the faults are easy to breeze by. Keep in mind though if you start at this book you'll be hopelessly lost so you'll need to start at the beginning of the series.

I hope you enjoyed this review.  If you did consider joining the patron at https://www.patreon.com/frigidreads for as little as a dollar a month.  Where through polls and discussion you have a voice in what future content gets made.  Next month we’ll be examining Minority Report as part of Dick Month, a tradition that has been supported by a majority patron vote. Patrons also receive bonus content!  Either way, thank you for reading and I hope you join us next week, until then take care of yourselves, each other, and of course, Keep Reading! 

Red text is your editor, Dr. Allen Black text is your reviewer Garvin Anders Companion Video: https://youtu.be/iJJ3I73Fvs0 Prior Reviews in this universe: http://frigidreads.blogspot.com/2020/05/echoes-of-war-fight-good-fight-by.html http://frigidreads.blogspot.com/2021/12/echoes-of-war-strong-and-courageous-by.html http://frigidreads.blogspot.com/2022/01/so-fight-i-echoes-of-war-book-iii-by.html http://frigidreads.blogspot.com/2021/03/breach-of-duty-by-daniel-gibbs-and-gary.html

http://frigidreads.blogspot.com/2020/09/breach-of-faith-book-ii-by-daniel-gibbs.html

http://frigidreads.blogspot.com/2020/08/breach-of-peace-by-daniel-gibbs-and.html

http://frigidreads.blogspot.com/2022/03/breach-of-trust-by-gary-t-stevens-and.html

http://frigidreads.blogspot.com/2022/10/spacers-luck-breach-of-faith-book-5-by_21.html

http://frigidreads.blogspot.com/2022/12/fortunes-favor-breach-of-faith-book-6.html

Empire of the Black Sea: The Rise and Fall of the Mithridatic World by Dr. Duane W. Roller

 Empire of the Black Sea: The Rise and Fall of the Mithridatic World

By Dr. Duane W. Roller

There's not much about Dr. Duane W. Roller, the author of this book. He was born in the United States on October 7th, 1946, and graduated with a BA of Letters from the University of Oklahoma in 1966. He also got an MA in Latin from the same University in 1968. He then went to Harvard University where he obtained his Ph.D. in classical archaeology. Before I go forward, a quick note on what a BA of Letters is, because it's not a degree offered by most colleges or universities anymore. It's an interdisciplinary degree, meaning you have to pursue studies in multiple subjects, mostly History, Literature, and a variety of other courses depending on the student's interest (It’s basically a generalized degree in the Humanities).

After graduating he would take on a number of teaching positions, including work in India, Poland, Malta, and Austria where he received four Fulbright Awards. He also led or took part in archaeological digs in Turkey, Israel, Jordan, North Africa, and other locations. He later took a teaching position at Ohio State University, retiring and becoming Professor Emeritus of Classics in 2007. In 2008 he was granted the Karl-Franzens Distinguished Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Graz in Graz, Austria. On top of that, he's written over 200 articles and 14 books, the most well-known being a biography of Cleopatra released in 2010 and a look at ancient geography in 2015. Our current topic is his latest book.

Pontus was a kingdom founded during the fall of Alexander's empire, when his generals, surviving family members, and all manner of men and women fought over his empire, dividing it up between themselves (Because Alexander was an idiot manchild and basically told everyone that his empire would go to the strongest of them.  And left no clear lines of succession {I’m going to point out that the witnesses to that were the generals all of whom were trying to justify their claims to chunks of the empire. There are just as many claims that Alexander was delirious with a high fever and raving or that he couldn’t even speak in his last days.  So I would take that bit of lore with some salt.}) It was an incredibly dangerous time when alliances and fortunes shifted by the minute and a man could see himself a king one moment and a crippled beggar, if not a corpse, the next. Pontus was the name for the southern coast of the black sea, the northwestern part of modern day Turkey for the most part and like the entirety of the Greek and Persian world it was up for grabs. Because Alexander had utterly destroyed the old order but died before he could forge a new one.

It was a place with a long-standing connection to the Greek world. The Argonauts were said to have adventured there. Allies of Troy were said to have marshaled armies that marched into the Epics to battle Achilles, Ajax, Odysseus, and the legion of other Greek Heroes that besieged the doomed city. At one point the Greeks believed it to be the homeland of the Amazons. In the Iron Age, the Greeks colonized the coasts of the Pontic region, founding cities and engaging in trade, intermixing, and fighting with the native peoples. Then the Persians conquered the region, settling their own cities and fortresses there creating a diverse array of peoples that called the place home.

Dr. Roller makes it a point to discuss these people in the book, giving you a view of what the region was like before the establishment of the kingdom. He also gives us a good look at the economy, and geography of the region, painting a picture of a prosperous and intermixed region that was divided into feuding city-states, independent temple states, tribes, clans, and federations. Onto this scene came an adventurer fleeing the collapse of the Persian Empire, Mithridates I. He claimed descent from Persian kings like Darius the Great, suggesting that originally the dynasty was made up of Persians. He would, with the aid of an uncle who would be slain in the riotous violence of the time, build a fortress and later declare himself a king, founding a city called Amaseia.

From there Dr. Roller takes through an at times spotty historical record, as Pontus was a minor power at the northern edge of what was considered civilization by the emerging empires of the time. In fact, there are entire Kings and their lifetimes who simply don't show up in recorded history because no one considered them important enough to write about. Remember this is a time when everything has to be handwritten, including all copies and most of the population can't read. So there is much that simply wasn't written down and worse much that was lost because no one was available to copy it.

Despite this handicap, Dr. Roller does a truly great job of leading us through the early history of the kingdom of Pontus and the region of the eastern black sea. We are taken through what records are available and shown how each monarch used a combination of warfare, marriage, and diplomacy to play great powers off each other and dominate smaller ones. As well as battle it out with other emerging rivals. We also see the dynasty increasingly claim a Greek heritage, taking on the trappings of Alexander and working to establish connections between the monarchs and figures of note in Greek history while not letting go of their Persian roots. Which creates an enthralling Hellene-Persian identity.

This takes up half the book and is fascinating to me because it's a whole world that was never covered in any of my history courses and involves things and customs both familiar and strange. This includes the incredibly repulsive things like the sibling marriages that Pontus and Ptolemaic Egypt both engaged in and the strangely interesting scholarly bent of the kings and queens of these eastern Mediterranean states where many of the monarchs were known to have written widely acclaimed books on topics ranging from economics, warfare, botany, and medicine.

But from the west arises a new power, a juggernaut that will end this world order as surely as Alexander ended the last. I speak of course of Rome and the 2nd half of the book is very much tied to Rome's advances into the Hellenic world. The 2nd half of the book is also very closely focused on the most famous of the Pontic kings, Mithridates the VI. Also known as Mithridates the Great, the Poison King, father of empirical toxicology, Eupater Dionysos, and the man who was determined to succeed where Hannibal failed and not just stop Roman expansion but to destroy Rome and conquer it.

Dr. Rollins leads us through his 57-year-long reign, and if I can be honest is a bit of a killjoy when it comes to the myths and legends surrounding Mithridates VI. Which I'm not criticizing him for, as he's writing as a serious historian, not a storyteller. Dr. Rollins openly doubts in the text that Mithridates spent his entire childhood in fear of being assassinated by his guardians. Well, in any more fear than a royal of his time and culture, which still meant a healthy amount of fear. This is an era where parents slew children and siblings murdered each other for the throne regularly. Dr. Rollins does point out that Mithridates himself worked hard to create a mythology around himself and build himself up as a figure of legend and take on the mantles of Alexander, Cyprus, and other legendary kings and emperors. On top of this the Romans gleefully mythologized fallen enemies because they knew that you're only as hardcore as the people you've defeated. Because of this, he rightfully suggests that some skepticism is called for when looking at the approved stories that came down from us from yore.

Even sticking to only the cold hard verifiable facts still paints a vivid and compelling picture, of a King throwing everything he has against a vastly more powerful opponent and coming so much closer than anyone thought possible to victory. It would take Roman generals like Sulla and Pompey the Great to finally put an end to this King and even a young Julius Caesar would get in on the action. These wars not only cemented Roman control over Greece proper but would ensure Roman rule over Asia Minor. A rule that was so complete and deeply rooted that the Romans continued to rule Asia Minor and the eastern Mediterranean even after the fall of Rome itself and would carry the banner of that empire for almost another 1000 years. All things considered, this is a pivotal moment in western history if not world history and I think Dr. Rollins rose to the challenges of describing and leading us through it with aplomb.

Now I would suggest you read some other works first if you have no idea what happened after Alexander died or don't know the basics of the late Roman Republic. Because to save space Dr. Rollins doesn't wander off to discuss what's going on in Egypt or Iran or Italy, he stays laser-focused on Pontus. Considering this is what the book is about, I consider it a good thing. So I would suggest looking at books like “Dividing the Spoils” by Robin Waterfield to get a broader view of things before picking this book up. That said if you do have a good idea of what was going on in the eastern Mediterranean at the time, this book is great and I think would help fill in some blind spots as most histories aren't going to spend time with smaller nations like Pontus until they become relevant to the history of larger more dominant empires or kingdoms.

So with that in mind I am giving Empire of the Black Sea: The Rise and Fall of the Mithridatic World by Dr. Duane W. Roller an A, but warning you not to make this the first book you read about the post-Alexander world. As for this book to have the best effect you do need some prior knowledge and at least a basic grasp of the era. If you have though, this is a great read, as Dr. Rollins looks at not just the superstar king Mithridates VI but his entire dynasty and how they built the foundations for his ambitions and rise to power.

I hoped you enjoyed this review and the companion video that I’ll link to below.  If you did, consider joining the ever-wise patrons of this work for as little as a dollar a month where you can vote on upcoming content and discuss the reviews with others.  Next week, we turn back to science fiction and look at the last book in the Breach of Faith series by Mr. Stevens and Mr. Gibbs, the Iron Dice.  I hope to see you there until then take care of yourself, each other, and of course, Keep Reading.  Watch the video: https://youtu.be/9QP2svbBzn0 Join the ever-wise: https://www.patreon.com/frigidreads Red text is your editor Dr. Allen

Black text is your reviewer Garvin Anders.

Fortune's Favor (Breach of Faith Book 6) By Daniel Gibbs and Gary Stevens

 Fortune's Favor (Breach of Faith Book 6)

By Daniel Gibbs and Gary Stevens

A quick disclaimer, I know Mr. Stevens and consider him a friend of mine. While everything in this review is my honest opinion, I feel that I would be remiss not to state that upfront. (Same for me.)

Once again we return to Mr. Gibbs's universe through the lens of Mr. Stevens. A science fiction universe originally structured around a confrontation between the (idealized)Capitalist, Democratic, and mostly Religious forces of the Terran Coalition and the (strawman)Communist, Totalitarian, and enforced Atheism of the League of Sol. (Sometimes I think the John Birch Society had a hand in the raising of Mr. Gibbs) Mr. Stevens's books however branch away from that conflict to take a look at what is going on in the neutral corners of human space and what other hostile forces may be lurking in the fringes of the known galaxy. Looking at the universe through the eyes of a crew of a small interstellar starship that is often swept up in historical events that will have an impact long after they are gone. For further details, I'm going to encourage you to look at past reviews of books in the series that I will link to below. 

This book focuses on the crew of the Venture Star as they are asked by their former Captain (now Admiral) James Henry to commit a daring act of espionage. It's a necessary act of espionage as an alien empire known as the Jalm'tar have been using a highly addictive drug known as Curall to spread their influence and outright control over the human population of neutral space. Curall is marketed as a miracle medicine capable of curing almost any disease and at the very least is an incredibly effective painkiller. I do mean incredible here, as fighters can use it to basically shrug off a bullet in the gut or keep fighting with broken limbs or worse. In reality, it's incredibly addictive and only masks the symptoms of the diseases it's taken to “cure.” A single dose is enough to addict you, as it takes over neutral transmission functions in your body and withdrawal is 100% deadly (Gonna be honest here.  Spreading that drug into a population is a straight-up act of war.). 

For the Jalm'tar the plan is simple, spread their miracle drug far and wide at a ridiculously low price and then slowly racket up the price by claiming that demand is outstripping the supply. While this is going on large parts of your population now hopelessly addicted and dependent on Curall will get... Rowdy. Even if they are not prone to rowdiness, don't worry! The Jalm'tar have helpfully seeded your world with agents to encourage... Rowdiness. Of course, it doesn't need to come to that. The Jalm'tar aren't heartless, they have nothing but compassion for the suffering and downtrodden of all worlds! Which is why demand is outstripping supply but... If you just sign a little treaty of association with the Jalm'tar, well then you would be moved to the head of the line. After all, people willing to align with the empire should be considered more than mere customers right? (Yyyyeeeeaaaah, this is when you do the security crackdown.  This is in fact what a state security apparatus is for.{What happens when half your security force has family members taking the drug?} Not against the users.  The sellers and enemy agents. {Which would cut off those family members from the drug, killing them})

As for the treaty, it's nothing major. Just granting the Jalm'tar control over your foreign policy and preferential trade rights. Also some extraterritorial enclaves for the Jalm'tar on your world and some minor basing rights. Plus immunity from your legal system to all Jalm'tar while on your world as well. Sure some alarmists would call this a virtual annexation but don't you feel that? That burning feeling in your veins? That shaky weakness in your limbs? The increasing struggle to take a deep breath? Shouldn't you focus a bit better on the clear and obvious benefits this treaty provided, like complete free access to the Jalm'tar market and all the Curall you need? By now, you all need it don't you? (I read this in the voice of Weyoun. {Thank you!})

Because while the crew of the Venture Star under Captain Miriam Gaon managed to bring back a sample of the Curall and prove that it's not medicine, just a super addictive pain-killer (I feel like there should be an FDA for this? {there are several agencies and no planet’s/governments FDA has approved this but the drug keeps getting smuggled in and people decry their FDAs as just propping up corporate profits. It doesn’t help that there are government officials singing the same tune.}). Many disbelieve the announcement considering it pure corporate propaganda trying to keep them from their miracle cure (That tracks, given various antiparasitics since 2020. {Before 2020 I would have been doubtful of this plot point}). They decry any effort to stop their access as mere actions to protect the medical industry's profits at the cost of the lives of the poor and ill. Even those who believe that Curall is just a drug are willing to fight for it, however, because they know without it, anyone who uses it will die in terrible agony if the drug stops coming. When the choice is to fight for a drug or watch your children scream themselves to death... Most people will fight tooth and nail for the drug and I can't even blame them for it. 

That said, here is some good news, given that intact samples of Curall were recovered, humanity now knows the chemical makeup of Curall. This leads the scientists and doctors of humanity to the certainty that there is a cure for this addiction. However, figuring out what that cure is from just Curall could take years. Years where the Jalm'tar will be taking over neutral space one planet at a time. So there's only one way to keep the new and relativity fragile union of the neutral worlds intact. Someone has to go to Jalm'tar space to find and steal a cure for Curall addiction. This is going to be a problem since the Jalm'tar keeps much of their space closed to outsiders but they do keep one world open for aliens to come and trade. 

Unfortunately, the Independent Systems Federation as a government system is more like the Articles of the Confederation than anything else, so there's not much of a budget for a spy service (This is one reason why I’m not an anarchist.  Loose confederations like this cannot function. {Their new central government doesn’t have the ability to levy taxes just put the cherry on top, that’s a lethal problem for a government} Marx Preserve Us). Fortunately, they have Captain Miriam Gaon, a former spy of the Coalition and a woman desperate to appease her own guilt over actions she took as a spy in conquered Coalition territory during the war. So once again she will walk into the lion's den to do a good and necessary deed in the murky shadows of espionage with a rag-tag crew of maniacs, who have become frighteningly experienced in these kinds of do-or-die missions. They're going to need every bit of skill and luck they can muster for this. 

This isn't the only reason she and the crew will take the job. Bridget, a former citizen of the League who escaped, is savagely devoted to maintaining not just her freedom but the freedom of others. New crew member Janet has lived under brutal totalitarian systems before and will do whatever she reasonably can to prevent a new one from rising. Even Piper the reluctant first mate, is willing to take the job out of a combination of loyalty to Admiral Henry and horror at the effects of Curall. Each crew member has their own reason for being willing to risk their life and freedom in this effort and they're all rather believable with varying intensities and levels of personal commitment. This is one of Mr. Stevens's strengths, as he can juggle a rather wide cast without having them blend together. 

To do that he does have to have characters take a back seat in some stories. Samina the engineer's mate and Pieter the chief engineer, for example, aren't as prominent in this book as they were in the last one. On the positive side, Admiral Henry also takes up less of the book, taking more of a mentorship and patron role. I'm a fan of this since as I mentioned in my last review I really feel that his arc has reached its completion. We do see new characters on his side introduced, most notably Mei-Ling Lou, who serves as a staff officer for Admiral Henry and provides us a viewpoint of the neutral world of Ubana, a human world where the secondary plot plays out. 

Mr. Stevens also shows his ability to create somewhat sympathetic antagonists in the form of the Chancellor of Ubana, Olivia Lilley. Chancellor Lilley is a champion of Curall, fiercely attacking any critics as corporate shills for big Pharma and decrying the Independent Systems Federations for feeling out an alliance with the Terran Coalition.  Her solution is to sign a Treaty of Association with the Jalm'tar to protect Ubana from being enslaved by the Coalition. As her motivations for doing this become clear, it's hard not to understand why she would do this. I won't say anymore because I want to avoid spoilers but it's because of Lilley that you find yourself thinking that even if the crew of the Venture Star pulls this off. It's not going to be an entirely happy ending. 

Which is a good thing, because it adds complexity to the plot that makes it feel all the more real. Yes, the people who decide to believe in Curall instead of their own doctors and scientists are throwing reason and caution to the winds but the suffering that Curall abates is just as real. The underlying resentment of corporations that profit from medical treatments and products is also real. If you don't feel that resentment, I'll encourage you to speak to someone in your life who is dependent on insulin and take a look at what they're being charged for it. I'll admit that's an American-centric example but according to my data, a vast majority of my readers are either American or very aware of our current system. Because of things like this and other fairly recent events, the book plays out with a good deal of sub-text that provides food for thought. I don't know if Mr. Stevens intended that but it's hard not to see it in the book. (He’s very intentional in his writing. {I do think even a socialist medical system would experience issues vs Curall but bluntly I think the issue would be easier to deal with than in a for-profit medical system.  At the very least you can’t scream about corporate profits if medical treatment is kept low-cost and easily accessed by the government})

I enjoyed this book a lot more than I did the last one and found myself provoked to stop and think more about it as well. On top of that, I really enjoyed the peek at the completely alien and different worldview of the Jalm'tar.   Mr. Stevens was able to bring that to life in the story, even in causal conversations between humans and Jalm'tar. I'll be discussing that more in a companion video that I'll be linking below. Fortune's Favor is getting a B+ from me. This is my last review of the year but I'll be back in January and hopefully, y'all will join me then.  What we’ll be looking at is up to my ever-wise patrons, who you can join here https://www.patreon.com/frigidreads for as little as a dollar a month.  Whether you join or not my readers and friends, let me say Happy Holidays, I hope you have a wonderful time with your families and friends, you stay safe, and of course, that You Keep Reading. 

Red text is your editor Dr. Ben Allen

Black text is your reviewer Garvin

Spacer's Luck (Breach of Faith Book 5)

By Daniel Gibbs and Gary T Stevens

Welcome back everyone to the first fiction book review we’ve had in a while. Today we're returning to a series we've been covering for a while set in a universe we've discussed fairly extensively. Now I will be linking to the other reviews at the bottom of this one so if you want to take a look at those for an update as to the core concepts of the setting feel free. I will however give a quick update and a disclaimer here. Gary T Stevens is a friend of mine and someone whose friendship and support I'm very grateful for (Same.  I’ve co-authored fanfic with him.). He is also a patron of this review series. That said, everything below is my honest opinion and I do not pull my punches here. 

So update on the universe, the long, long-running war between the Terran Coalition and the League of Sol is over! An alliance of stalwart Saurians, mysterious Mantrinds, and Independent worlds organized into a new confederation called the Independent Systems Federation alongside the Terran Coalition met the last gasp offensive of the League and broke it in a final, bloody decisive battle. This was a counter-assault meant to rip the heart of the Coalition out after the Coalition fleet advanced into League space liberating many worlds. While the League is temporarily exhausted, everyone except the most pie-in-the-sky peace activists assumes they'll be back (Yeah, unless you can strike at the industrial base and remove their capacity to wage war, they’ll be back.). So the Coalition attempts to create a permanent defense alliance uniting everyone against outside aggression. However, some leaders in the Mantrind Alliance and ISF are more worried about the Coalition overwhelming and absorbing them (Given that the coalition is basically Space US, valid concern.{A reminder that I take no responsibility for the opinions of my editor here folks})

Against this Admiral James Henry, former captain of the Shadow Wolf, now Admiral of the ISF navy is working to hammer the navies and people of dozens of worlds and organizations into a coherent fighting force. Given the government he works for is dependent on donations from member worlds and has no way of taxing members just to start with, he's got his work cut out for him (Oh Jesus. Worst. Thing. Ever.). The fact that the council of the ISF is dragooning him into meeting with the Coalition to figure out if they even want to be in the alliance is an extra complication. On top of that is the fact that a mysterious new drug called Curall is showing up, claiming to cure just about every disease and ailment that afflicts humans and aliens alike (Panacea are always grifts). Unfortunately, Admiral Henry has little in the way of a formal intelligence service but he does have friends (He needs to fix that.  A navy without naval intelligence is blind and stupid.{There’s an issue of with what bloody money to consider}). 

Among those is Captain Miriam Gaon, a former Coalition spy carrying enough guilt to kill five men and the new Captain of the independent trade ship, Venture Star. While she's not looking to be an intelligence asset, it's hard for her not to get pulled into things, as she has what I call Peter Parker luck (The poor thing…). She'll get pulled into the worse situations you can imagine but she'll always get out alive through a combination of talent, training, and dumb luck. Captain Gaon inherited the crew that didn't end up in the ISF navy with Admiral Henry or became part of the government after a successful revolution on the oppressed world of Hestia removed their corporate oppressors, or died. We reviewed that book so I'll just tell you to take a look at it. 

That crew would be the returning characters such as Pieter Hartzog, the often innovative but crusty chief engineer.  First Mate Piper Lopez is a woman who wants to just be a normal spacer and as such is in the completely wrong place. The third mate, Brigitte Tam'si, is a woman who escaped the League of Sol and is bound and determined to make the most of her freedom. Engineer mate Samina Khan, is a practicing Muslim who loves machines and ships and is enthralled at the wonders of the universe she is allowed to see by working as a spacer. Some of these characters, Piper and Brigitte most of all, were a bit neglected in my opinion so I was eager to see them get more space. Mr. Stevens does do a good job of giving them more space and characterization now that there's more room in the narrative and I do like that. 

We're also introduced to new ship characters, there's Allen Markson a former member of the Coalition armed forces. He's the second mate and honestly feels a bit bland. We also have Stepan Vasilievich Zakarov, a taciturn, introverted Russian pilot who is talented but rather standoffish. As well as Janet White, who lived on a Coalition World that was occupied by the League of Sol and is deeply scarred by her experiences. The friction between her and the rest of the crew is interesting and Mr. Stevens manages to make her sympathetic without making her pathetic. There's also Doctor Laila Opema who is a member of an alien species called Tal'mayans. Tal'Mayans seem fairly human but there are plenty of other aliens that appear in the series so I'm not going to fuss about it. Lastly is Khalid bin Tawfiq, we don't get much about him in this book other than he is also a Muslim and fairly pious. I'm hoping he gets more development in later books. A decent amount of space is also given to the new characters but with so many characters it's hard to give all of them the time on screen for good development (Mr. Stevens loves his huuuuge ensemble casts…). 

However, I also feel too much space is given to Admiral Henry. This may sound odd as he was the protagonist of the last 4 books, but after book 4, I question what's left of his character arc. He's redeemed his name, reforged his faith, and found a place for himself in the wider universe. I'm not saying he should disappear from the narrative but it might time to relegate him to a periodically appearing background and mentor character in my view (In full agreement.  His arcs are done.  Off to be the quest-and-advice-giving guy). In this book, he takes up a good amount of space in a political arc, which while important just didn't hold my attention as much as the ship's crew did. I suppose you could argue that his part of the plot provided needed context but I was left lukewarm. I would have rather spent more time with what are supposed to be our main characters but your mileage may vary. 

The main plot is interesting as Captain Gaon takes a job running medical supplies out to a far-flung colony world called Starfall. This world earned the name due to a quirk of the star system resulting in dense fields of debris that the planet's orbit takes it through causing weeks at a time when no starship can land or take off. Because of this and the sheer distance from other settled worlds, Starfall is a divided world, with fairly well-off city-states and large stretches of wild, ungovernable land held by quarreling warlords. When a pirate attack forces the Venture Star to stay longer than planned on Starfall, Captain Gaon and the crew are pulled into a rapidly developing situation. 

One of the warlords is called the Droog Lord, which is a name that I love in all honesty but I also giggle a bit when reading it. This guy is something out of a mad max movie and I love it. He's the leader of a cult of violence-worshiping, mask-wearing, maniacs, who call themselves Droogs. Everyone who is not a Droog is a Skrag and deserves nothing but abuse. The Droog Lord is using a new drug named Curall, to subvert the populations of the city-states and expand his control of the wilderness. Because Curall does seem to alleviate symptoms and pain, it is also wildly addictive and the withdrawal kills everyone. When the Droog Lord conquers a settlement, he ensures that enough people have been forced onto Curall that there is a large group of people who will do anything to ensure their supply. Meanwhile, Curall is being sold on the streets of the larger City-states to increasingly desperate addicts who believe it's the only thing keeping them healthy. This is... pretty damn evil I’ve got to be honest but is certainly something I could see all sorts of powers and groups doing as a means of profit or power. 

It doesn't help that the Droog Lord also has some mysterious benefactors (And I wonder who those could be… Hmmmm.{Read and find out folks!}). After all, it's not like the Droogs have the medical or scientific base to come up with Curall all on their own. Oh no, someone or something is providing it to them. When the Venture Star's crew gets pulled into this, they have to find local allies and resources quickly or risk being butchered to protect a secret they haven't even figured out yet. This is complicated by yet another opponent; the pirate who started this whole mess decides to carry a grudge and try to hunt them all down to kill them. So now they have to dodge threats from above and below while figuring out just who is trying to kill this time and why. 

Mr. Stevens is at his best when he can focus on a diverse range of characters and their interactions with each other. As well as develop colorful antagonists and supporting characters and when he's able to do that in this book he shines. When he's pulled into further developing Mr. Gibbs' world I feel like it slows the book down a bit. Parts of this book are awkward because he's trying to weld a political/diplomatic high-stakes plot with a more small-scale plot of "figure out why everyone is mad at us this time". He can do it rather effectively but the fact he has to take up time and effort is better spent elsewhere in my opinion. That said, I love that the Droog Lord, despite his name, isn't a Saturday Morning Cartoon villain but comes across as a cunning leader of savages willing to exploit every opportunity while refusing to do wasteful things like kill messengers or murder people over failure. The larger foe in the background is interesting as well and we're given just enough information to hold our interest in them. All in all, I'm rating Spacer's Luck by Daniel Gibbs and Gary Stevens a B. It's a fun novel but I think some parts don't gel as well as they could. 

I hope you enjoyed this week’s review.  If you did, consider joining us at https://www.patreon.com/frigidreads where you can vote on upcoming content, see bloopers from the videos (That you can watch here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLxet0k0gJBuYTkZgkprIlg ) and more for as little as a dollar a month!  Next week we’re going to turning a discussion about kidnapping in mythology and folklore and I’ll be posting a video on that.  Hope to see you there and until then stay safe and keep reading! 

Red text is your editor Dr. Ben Allen

Black text is your reviewer Garvin Anders. 

Prior reviews in this universe:

http://frigidreads.blogspot.com/2020/08/breach-of-peace-by-daniel-gibbs-and.html

http://frigidreads.blogspot.com/2020/09/breach-of-faith-book-ii-by-daniel-gibbs.html

http://frigidreads.blogspot.com/2022/03/breach-of-trust-by-gary-t-stevens-and.html

http://frigidreads.blogspot.com/2021/03/breach-of-duty-by-daniel-gibbs-and-gary.html

http://frigidreads.blogspot.com/2020/05/echoes-of-war-fight-good-fight-by.html

http://frigidreads.blogspot.com/2021/12/echoes-of-war-strong-and-courageous-by.html

http://frigidreads.blogspot.com/2022/01/so-fight-i-echoes-of-war-book-iii-by.html

The Greek Overseas: Early Colonies and Trade By John Boardman

 The Greek Overseas: Early Colonies and Trade

By John Boardman 

Professor Boardman was born on August 20, 1927, in Ilford, England. He attended Chigwell School, a boarding school established in 1619, graduating in 1945. From 1945 to 1951 he attended Magdalene College in Cambridge, earning a Bachelor of Arts and a Masters of Art in Art History and Classical studies. He married his wife Shelia Stanford in 1952 and they would have two children together. After graduating he served two years of national service in the British Army Intelligence Corps (Having an art historian and classicist in this kind of position is not as strange as it sounds). Leaving the Army he served three years as an assistant director at the British School in Athens. In 1955, he returned to England and became assistant keeper at the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, this led to him also becoming a Reader in Classical Archaeology at the University of Oxford in 1959, as well as being appointed a Fellow of Merton College in 1963. He remained there until he was appointed Lincoln Professor of Classical Art and Archaeology, as well as becoming a member of the Fellowship of Lincoln College in 1978. In 1994, he retired and became an emeritus professor, a position he still holds.

During all of this, he was also leading and attending archaeological digs across the Mediterranean world and produced numerous written volumes. For example, ten catalogs on ancient gems and rings, four handbooks on Greek Vase painting, three handbooks on Greek Sculpture, and an additional 6 books focused on archaeology. For his work he would be awarded, receiving a knighthood in 1989, the Kenyon Medal in 1995, and the Onassis Prize for Humanities in 2009. He has been declared Britain's most distinguished historian of Ancient Greek Art. Today we're going to look at one of his main works, The Greek Overseas. 

  Now I came to this book because I was interested in looking at Greek Colonization after doing some studying on various Greek myths linked to the Trojan War, this ended up being an entire continuing video series on youtube that I'll link to. However, I couldn't find much in the way of history books that focused on that. Plenty of books focused on the history of mainland Greece sure, but the colonies and the colonization process? Not much, at least nothing under 150 dollars. The Greek Overseas focuses relentlessly on that; it was however first written in 1964 and the last update was in 1999. So a good amount of the information is out of date. That's not great news honestly but sometimes you have to work with what you have (True, but pottery shards are forever.). 

The Greek Overseas focuses on the colonization efforts of the Greeks before Alexander, mostly in Classical times, although there is some discussion of Mycenaean colonization in the Bronze Age (not that much survived the collapse…). This is focused on Greek efforts in the Eastern Med, with 119 pages out of 287 talking about Egyptian and Eastern Med settlements. To be fair, the oldest Greek colonies are on the coast of what is now modern-day Turkey. From there the book moves west, focusing a lot on Sicily and Magna Graecia on mainland Italy. Given that these were the larger and more successful colonies I can't blame him for this focus there either. Considerably less attention is given to Greek colonies in Libya, Southern France, and Spain, which is unfortunate because I know very little about these areas and I wanted to know more. From there he moves us back north and east to focus on colonies in the Po Valley, Thrace, Macedonia; and around the Black Sea but you can tell he's not especially interested in those colonies for reasons I'll get into later. 

Professor Boardman goes to great lengths to map out the Greek trade relations with the eastern powers and Egypt and carefully denotes the influence these powers had on Greek art, architecture, and material culture. Just real quick when we say material culture, we mean the literal material goods that people were making at the time. To give a modern example, art posters, Tupperware, furniture, as well as books, and movies are all examples of material culture. Perhaps due to his art history background, Professor Boardman backs this with exhaustive lists and descriptions of artifacts found on various digs across the Greek world. Now I will say this if you're looking for extensive lists of things like pottery, art objects, belts, pins, and so on, this book is the mother-load for you. If you're an aspiring writer looking to fill out a hoard of a long-lost civilization or even just a GM looking for novel treasure, you could do worse than pulling open a book like this and taking a look at some of the lists. Unfortunately for me, one of the things I learned in college is I hate looking at or reading about pottery shards or comparing art on vases. So this book didn’t go well for me (95% of archaeology are coins, belt buckles, and pottery shards; because these can be used to trace time and place of construction, allowing you to do things like trace trade relations {Which means digging through trash heaps, which I didn’t care for}).

On top of that, if you're more interested in the description of the political, social, and economic life of the colonies or how they related to each other, the natives of the lands they were settling, and their mother cities…there's not as much to read. Now I'm not going to say there's nothing because Professor Boardman does take some time discussing these things but he does so in a very bare-bones fashion with none of the attention and detail that he lavishes on discussing the style of various pots and vases found in the various dig sites. Serious students of archaeology will likely enjoy or at least be interested in that. Because he takes a lot of care and effort giving intense details to various finds as well as carefully going over their context. 

People who, like me, are more inclined toward the social anthropology aspect or the historical aspect won't be so thrilled, however. Now there is good information in this book, Professor Boardman does detail how the majority of Greek colonies in the East and Italy were established for trade reasons. In Egypt and the Eastern Med, colonies mainly started as trading posts or as treaty ports of sorts. These ports and trading posts gradually expanded over time as more and more people came east to seek their fortune or learn more of eastern arts and technology. In Egypt, we see the first settlement of Greek Mercenaries as later day Egyptian Pharaohs turned to Greek soldiers to wage wars both against rival claimants and invaders from the south and east. Before finally falling to Persians, who in turn relied on Greek mercenaries as well and allowed further settlement of Greek soldiers. 

We also learn that the Mycenaean Greeks settled in the east as well, although not in the numbers or the extent that the Classical Greeks did. Many colonies seemed to have entirely failed and were abandoned during the Bronze Age Collapse, only for the Greeks of the Classical age to return and found new ones in the same location. This is mainly due to the fact that there are only so many places you can build a trading port if you want to be successful. Colonies in nearby Libya were driven more by a desire for good farmland and because of that, there are fewer material goods here so Professor Boardman isn't interested in them (At that point it might not even be “interest, so much as just being outside his wheelhouse, and the scope of the book.{Then he shouldn’t have written that the book was about Greek colonization!  He should have said it was about Greek artifacts left in Greek colonies!}). 

There's less to no evidence of Mycenaean colonization in the west from what I can find but it was trade that brought the Greeks to Italy and Sicily. It's in these chapters we get some brief discussion on Greek and Phoenicians interaction. The Phoenicians were the other group of expansive traders and colonizers in the Mediterranean Sea at this point in history and they're mainly remembered for founding Carthage. Carthage wasn't their only colony however and they had settlements in France, Spain, and Italy as well. Where they would have been competing with the Greeks pretty heavily I would think. Professor Boardman doesn't spend a lot of time here on these interactions although he does give a general outline. He also gives a general outline of Greek-Etruscan interactions. The book shows its age here by being rather dismissive of the Etruscans as a civilization. This is incredibly frustrating for me because all I know about the Etruscans is that they were conquered by the Romans and learning anything about their pre-Roman days would be fantastic! 

Spain, France, and the Po Valley also get the short end of the stick in my opinion. Frustratingly so, as I don't actually know anything about Greeks in the Po Valley of northern Italy or Southern France. Professor Boardman spends some time implying that much of the Gauls' urbanization came from interaction with the Greeks, which honestly I'm a little doubtful of. That may be because everyone and his mother wants to take credit for the Gauls building walled towns and moving from semi-nomadic to settled farmers in the mid-Iron Age. While the Southern French settlements also seem built on trade, it seems the settlements in the Po Valley were farming sites. 

Much like Libya and the Po Valley, little time is spent on the Black Sea colonies beyond really focusing on the Scythian trade interactions. Again we're treated to lavish details on archaeological artifacts but little discussion as to the societies at the time except for a rather badly dated comparison of the Scythians to Native Americans. It's in sections like this that the book shows its age and I think it's time for an update with a younger author. 

I found the Greek Overseas to be informative in a limited fashion but really dry and somewhat of a slog to read. Maybe I've been spoiled since graduating college but I'm also going to say that college textbooks can be interesting and compelling to read! You don't need to make a textbook dull! I also think that Professor Boardman was overly dismissive of texts from the time frame and showed way too much favoritism to archaeological artifacts. Not that we should ever just take Herodotus' word without several grains of salt mind you but the belts of noble women buried in a burial mound can only tell us so much while the written works of Greeks who were alive at the time give us a much bigger window into their world view and what was going on around them 

I'm afraid I have to give Greek Overseas a C-, partly because the last update was 23 years ago. A lifetime when it comes to archaeology and history. Unless you're really into tracing Athenian and Corinthian pottery this is likely not your book. Maybe we'll get lucky and someone will write something a bit more accessible when it comes to Greek colonization in the near future. That said I hope this review was more entertaining than the book. If you enjoyed it why not join us at the patron where you can vote on videos and book reviews? You can join us here at https://www.patreon.com/frigidreads for as little as a dollar a month. Speaking of patrons, a special thank you to Big Steve for his support. I hope y'all join us again soon for the upcoming review of Spacers Luck and a video on “romantic” or bridal kidnapping. Until then, stay safe and keep reading! 

This week, I discuss Greek Colonization further in this video: https://youtu.be/dX4oVsiy4a4

Red Text is your editor Dr. Ben Allen

Black Text is your reviewer Garvin Anders