Treecat Wars, David Weber & Jane Lindskold

Treecat Wars, David Weber & Jane Lindskold

ISBN: 9781451639339

Read November 4, 2013

YA SF: Star Kingdom Novel #3, Treecats!  Stephanie Harrington!

I was in fine form for this one, as I had just gotten back from the very first Honorcon, in Greenville SC the previous day (it was great fun, lots of really awesome staff, volunteers, vendors, publishers, and authors, as well as a vibrant and happy audience).

Treecat Wars picks us right up after Fire Season left off, with Stephanie and Anders' beginning romance interrupted by the political and academic fallout of Anders' dad's stubborn and illegal activity.  All is not lost, as Anders is simply sent to Manticore - ONLY an hour's delay by com.  The two lovebirds work out their long-distance relationship, even when he gets to come back to Spinx, just as she's getting sent to Manticore herself for a plum assignment.

So Stephanie and Karl (and Lionheart) are off studying and trying to be ambassadors for Treecat Rights, Anders and Jessica are on Spinx, trying to run herd on a new crew of anthropologists, and to figure out what could be causing the treecat deaths and injuries they're finding on the edges of the burned-out forest.  

I seriously love these books.  They're a bit formulaic, and they are YA, but the themes (long distance relationships, falling out of love, being with someone who you know loves you more than you love them) are treated respectfully and thoughtfully.  The only real downside is one that's shared by the larger Honorverse - the good guys are really really good, and the bad guys are really really bad.  Rarely is there a conflicted character, and even if a good character is on the "wrong" side, it's still clear that they're a good guy.

Finally, I'd like to give a shout-out to the covers for these books - Daniel Dos Santos has done a great job with this one, as he has done for the previous two.  Really fantastic work with expressions (facial and body) and with overall color tones.  

I'm hoping that this isn't the last of these books.  I would very much love to keep following Stephanie and Lionheart (and all the others - especially Jessica and Dirt Grubber!) on their adventures.