- Title:
- The Art of War
- By:
- Peter Cawdron
- Pages:
- 431
- Rating:
- 5
Commander Lisa Chao works in the US Navy’s Strategic Planning Center in Pearl Harbor. When tensions rise with China over Taiwan, she has to unravel exactly what is happening in the Pacific and why. What she uncovers leads America to war, but not with China.
Bullets and bombs are no match for an extraterrestrial warship that can fly between stars, but perhaps the answer to the coming war lies not in the present but in the past. Could Sun Tzu’s The Art of War provide humanity with a fighting chance against a technologically superior alien enemy?
FIRST CONTACT is a series of stand-alone novels that explore humanity’s first interaction with extraterrestrial life. This series is similar to BLACK MIRROR or THE TWILIGHT ZONE in that the series is based on a common theme rather than common characters. This allows these books to be read in any order. Technically, they’re all first as they all deal with how we might initially respond to contact with aliens, exploring the social, political, religious, and scientific aspects of First Contact.
“ET is going to have to skedaddle mighty damn quick if there’s a CASM on his tail.”
Oh, yes. How can you not enjoy this sort of thing? So the All-American Dreamboy thing is a little strong with this one but it works, because we see ISRO and all sorts of fantastic things happening too, puncturing the mystique. you actually come away thinking NASA maybe isn’t top dog, which is a clever twist; perhaps even more impressive reading it now thinking about Chandrayaan-3.
“Hang on,” the 2IC says, scratching the side of his head, still looking at the orders. “Am I the only one that doesn’t understand what’s going on here? What the hell is a non-indigenous orbital expeditionary force?”
Though perhaps less cerebral in some ways than other works of Peters, this was still hugely engaging, with good action bits but also clearly held together by scientific rigger and clear thinking. Another great one. Very glad I paid for it.