Rating: 
Summary: Sloppy, Repetitive and getting old
Review: Despite the fact that little is resolved in this book and it leaves the never-ending story of alien colonization very open-ended, It's time to retire this series. While entertaining in the beginning this series has grown old, uninspired and has passed the point of retaining any hope for suspension of disbelief. It ... The numerous contradictions and glaring errors are everywhere. For example around page 310 (HB edition) Pierre Dotourd shows up at his sister's door freed of prison by the Nazi Kahn and a mere 100 pages later he is still referred to as being in jail. A gaping error and aptly representative of the quality of writing in this book. One other reviewer made the point of comparing this series to a soap opera and it is a quite fitting comparison. The writing is poor, the plot devices paper-thin and the story line has become one ludicrous mess. The same handful of people continue to run across each other over the entire span of the globe in the most unlikely manners. The politics and technology have become ever increasingly asinine in a feeble effort to drive the plot forward. Sorry, while I greatly enjoyed the first few books in this series this will be my last. If you have not read the worldwar series - I would recommend stopping after the fourth book. If you have read it up to this installment - do yourself a favor and move on to other books. If you are expecting writing of the caliber of Turtledove's Guns of the South or How Few Remain then you are likely to be disappointed.
Rating: 
Summary: Empire strikes back "no pun intended"
Review: "The Empire Strikes Back" was a great movie that leaves us hanging at the end. I remember almost dying as a kid when I realized that I would have to wait about 3 years (more than 30% of my life at the time) until the next movie. This book is the same. Great...but... I guess we are hooked in for the next one. If you have read up til now, there is no excape. You are probably as addicted as I am <emphatic cough added>.
Rating:
Summary: Exciting read - but fluffy aftertaste
Review: ... I'll get to the point quickly:
- Best aspect: very easy read (if you have read the prior books in the series) - no new characters of note are introduced (yeah! there are too many to track as it is). So you can just sit and read and enjoy this book. Actually, one character gets killed off.
- Worst aspect: Maybe only 2 years elapse in this book with very little geopolitical changes on the scene. The prior book had really stirred things up with the German/Race war. So after you read the book you are left with a pleasent sense of having just finished a good book - but as you ponder it you come to the conclusion that not much progression has occured. It is time for the author to start concluding the series or if this will become a 300 year epic, to not write books that cover only 2 years of that timeframe.
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