Rating: 
Summary: Don't buy this dreadful book
Review: This book doesn't deserve 1 star, but 0 stars doesn't seem to be an option. In fact, this book was so bad I couldn't bring myself to finish it. It's possible that the last couple hundred pages made up for the first 150+ I did read, but only if everyone woke up from a dream sequence and everything started over.I read the orinial Deathstalker series and enjoyed it. The last couple books weren't as good as the first two, but at that point you were already captivated by the characters and the action. The intrigue was great and the fights were excellent. You cared about Owen and his friends and wanted to see it through with them. This book has none of that. The only thing dumber than the characters is their supposed motivation. The dialog is mind-numbingly insipid and the action is non-existant. I can only guess that someone is ghost writing for Green or he has several children he's trying to put through Ivy League colleges, necessitating that he churn these out as fast as he can type. This book was so bad, I'm angry that I bought it or wasted my time reading part of it. My anger has even managed to overcome my inherent laziness, inspiring me to write a review for the first time. So, please, don't buy this book. No one involved deserves to make a dime off of it.
Rating: 
Summary: Great to be back!
Review: This book takes place two hundred years after the last Deathstalker novel and the galaxy seems to be a better place. But everything is not as it seems and the same evils that plauged the last empire under Lionstone are surfacing here, just with new faces. I loved this book but that's no suprise as I loved the entire Deathstalker series. Lewis is the Deathstalker now as he was a distant cousin and someone had to be named Deathstalker but as the book goes on you can plainly see that he truly is a Deathstalker. The villians in this book are as heartless and as evil as Shub, Valentine, and the Recreated were at their peak. And the Terror.......what I know I won't say but I will say they are bad bad bad. If you have read the other books I know you'll get this one as well, so basically I am preaching to the choir here but I just had to say what an awesome read this was. Can't wait to read the next one.
Rating:
Summary: Heros with clay feet and mortal needs
Review: This is a great sequel to the Deathstalker series. You knew they had to come back. Who the heck is Chevron? He has to be one of the Maze people, but which one? I have a guess. Ozimandus is back and the motley crew that the Deathstalker ends up with is more screwy than the one Owen was with, but what a crew! The universe had better watch out, because the Deathstalker is back ... I read it fast and furious and now I have to wait for the next one!
Rating:
Summary: Heros with clay feet and mortal needs
Review: This is a great sequel to the Deathstalker series. You knew they had to come back. Who the heck is Chevron? He has to be one of the Maze people, but which one? I have a guess. Ozimandus is back and the motley crew that the Deathstalker ends up with is more screwy than the one Owen was with, but what a crew! The universe had better watch out, because the Deathstalker is back ... I read it fast and furious and now I have to wait for the next one!
Rating: 
Summary: Space? Check. Opera? Check.
Review: This is unapologetic over-the-top space opera stuff. The villains are hissingly evil, the heroes are...hmm. Well, they're not chock full of virtue. Unless "butt-kicking" and "unleashing massive havoc" count as virtues. The so-called good guys are all pretty much rogues and misfits or folks that do what they do because of their own code of honor, even though they feel that society is worthless and weak. (Green tends to believe that the masses are ignorant and hateful swine.)
What I like about this entire series is that it's fast-paced and it takes pride in introducing characters with stupendous names like Kid Death, Jack Random, Valentine Wolfe, Captain Silence, Investigator Frost, and so forth. Not to mention uber-espers like the Mater Mundi and the Spider Harps and the Shatter Freak and so on. And even minor characters have spiffy backstories, like the one explorer dude who vanished, only to return years later with half his body replaced by an extradimensional force.
In any case, throughout the series there's plenty of sword-fighting, evil AIs and cyborgs, psi-freaks, Shrike-like aliens, bizarre artifacts, and sadistic empresses. In short, everything you need for a successful book (except flying ninja chimps).
This volume takes place 200 years after the first four, after the good guys of the preceding books have established a Golden Age and vanished into legend. Now, however, the rejuvenated Empire is threatened both from within by a sociopathic Paragon and from without by the Terror (which essentially seems to be the Shadows from B5's Z'ha'dum). Nineteen or so evil organizations band together in a plot to overthrow the government, betrayals abound, revelations are revealed, AIs and aliens posture cryptically, and heroes blast holes in everything that moves.
Tragically, the book is flawed in three serious respects.
Flaw the first: Green forgets his own timelines, and he'll state at one point that several key events took place within two weeks, and then later contradicts himself and says that they covered the span of a couple of months. It's hard to figure out just how slowly or rapidly things are falling apart. He seems to want to indicate that all of this stuff really did take place over 14 days, but that's ludicrously improbable and he lazily confuses the issue with conflicting depictions of the passage of time.
Flaw the second: Overnight, the state church turns to Pure Evil, and all of its millions of followers are quite content to openly slaughter any sects that have suddenly been deemed schismatic. If a major Western religious leader of our world abruptly declared that some hateful group preaching intolerance was right all along, I somehow doubt that all adherents world-wide would erupt into a killing spree against minorities, but that's pretty much what happens in this book.
Flaw the third: Green anchors the central plotline on the Arthur/Guinevere/Lancelot conceit, with King Douglas, opera diva Jessamine Flowers, and the Paragon Lewis Deathstalker filling those roles. I always hated the idea that Guinevere and Lancelot were tragic lovers, when in my opinion they were adulterous lechers who couldn't keep their pants zipped, and so I feel exactly the same here where Jessamine and Lewis decide to essentially wreak grievous harm to the Empire in the name of True Love. To heck with that.
Oh, also, Green has some problems with female characters. Most of them in this series are either psychopathic monsters who live only to kill and seem to be devoid of any human emotion (Frost, Rose Constantine), brawling and profane adventurers of dubious goodness who also live to kill (Hazel d'Arc, Ruby Journey, the Paragon Emma Steel), or twittery and uselessly decorative lightweights like Jessamine. Pretty much all of his women are either out slaying or engaging in debauchery. The only notable exception is a Plain Jane in this book who everyone ignores and who is counted on to do all the scutwork to make everyone else look good.
But while these objections seem significant, really you just kind of shrug and roll with it. I mean, it's space opera, not high literature. And when you willingly pick up a book from something called the Deathstalker Series, you really have no grounds for complaints.
Rating:
Summary: space opera at its action best
Review: Three generations ago, Owen Deathstalker destroyed the Empress Lionstone and by that one feat alone, assured his place in history. He disappeared and nobody knows if he still is alive, but all the planets in the New Empire venerate his memory. At the time that King William passes the crown to his son Douglass, the empire was at its zenith, a golden age where peace was the norm and prejudices for the most part were set aside. Upon becoming King, Douglas appointed Lewis Deathstalker as the king's champion. This turns into a grave and fatal error for it was expected that Finn Durandel would get the position. Both men were Paragons (heroic soldiers that represented the King's justice) but Lewis is Douglas's trusted and only friend. Finn did not know how much he wanted the position until he lost it and he vows to take away everything and everyone that means something to the king before he finally destroys his highness. He becomes a mole in the palace, spreading dissension everywhere he goes and making sure that his enemies pay the price for standing against him. The golden age of mankind is ending due to one man's jealousy. DEATHSTALKER LEGACY is space opera at its action best. The novel is populated with heroic figures reminiscent of Lancelot and Arthur and villains that make Darth Vader seem like a nice person. The antagonist is so successful because he knows so many government secrets and enemies and willingly uses them to his own advantage. Once again, Simon R. Green has written a work that will appeal to Star War fans. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Another day in the life and times..
Review: Well when Simon R. Green released the DeathStalker series to the world, it was doubtful that he could ever top the epic series. Well, he has. DeathStalker Legacy is utterly brilliant to anyone who can appreciate a space opera/satirical/action adventure. Green again takes readers through the world of the Empire's home, into its workings, and down its streets. The forging of friendships, breaking of alliances, and secret dealings only elevate the already impressive plot. Lewis and company bring the readers through a tale easy to get lost in. Wont give away any of the plot, because its far too intricate and subtle, but to any DeathStalker fan, or anyone just wanted a great book, pick it up, you'll never think twice about having bought it.
Rating:
Summary: A Legacy paying too much homage to the past
Review: While I really enjoyed the first five books of the original Deathstalker series, the latest installment seems to have been hurriedly put together for the sake of profit and does not hold together as well as its predecessors. The original series was fun, light-hearted and never took itself too seriously. It moved about briskly, quickly introducing new planets, perils and adventures for Owen Deathstalker and his band of rebels as they fought to overthrow the evil empire. Deathstalker's Legacy, however, does not quite excite the way the first books did. The book starts off slow, gets even slower and only picks up in the end. The entire book takes place on one planet, the characters are dull and the plot is rather unbelievable, even by the standards of the previous novels. There is also this ridiculous plot development in which the King's Best Friend falls in love with the Queen To Be. This subplot has been done to death about, what, a million times? It seriously detracted from the other subplots, which were not exactly original either. I was very disappointed. I enjoyed the other series and I was eager to read on. However, the author should have stopped there and not followed the "Path of Jordan" and keep writing for the sake of earning more cash. Of course, much of the blame for this goes to the publishing firms and to we fools who continue to buy these novels. However, I noticed that the next one in the series, Deathstalker's Return, will be out in hardback soon. There is no reason to buy this book or any other in this series in hardback. I hope the next one is better, but I doubt anyone cares, much less the author.
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