From Newsgroup: alt.fan.heinlein

On 8/10/2026 12:24 AM, Lynn McGuire wrote:

"War Child: Wolfhounds - Book Four" by John Van Stry
-a-a https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0D9T83DKN

Book number four of a six book science fiction space opera series.-a And there is a prequel series of two books and a sequel series of a few
books.-a I read the well printed and well bound POD (print on demand)
trade paperback self published by the author in 2025 that I bought in 2026.-a I own the other two books in the series and will read them soon.

I love Space Opera.-a And I love pulp science fiction.-a This series is
both and a great example of the merging of the two.-a In fact, this
series reminds me very much of the Robert Heinlein juvenile books, the
Piers Anthony "Bio of a Space Tyrant" series, the "Mutineer's Moon"
series by David Weber, and the Perry Rhodan series.-a The dialog is very frequent and the action moves along quickly.

Chase Collis is a street rat.-a He and his mother lived in government housing in Imperial City until she died of a drug overdose when he was
12 years old.-a Just before that was the last time he saw his estranged father who screamed at his mother to keep hiding Chase or else the
Emperor would kill them all.-a Chase ended up on the street at the age of 12, running with the street gangs, being arrested by the police time and time again.

When Chase became an adult, he murdered another street rat and was
caught by the police.-a He purposely got caught to go to the Imperial
Prison for a few years to get more street cred and rise to the top of
the street gang.-a But to his shock, when he went to his trial, his
father was the judge.-a His father sentenced him to ten years in the Imperial Navy rather than the four years in Imperial Prison that he expected, and then escorted him to the Naval Basic Training school.

In the far distant future, The Solarian Imperium consists of 38 star
systems including Earth and the Solar system which were made
uninhabitable in the War of Succession.-a Emperor Charles Morgan, Chase's grandfather, was the latest in a long line of Morgans ruling the
Imperium.-a His family keeps power because they are genetically modified with machine interfaces in their DNA.-a So are all of the Nobles: the
Dukes, the Earls, the Counts, and the Barons.-a Any machine of any importance, and especially the space ships and the military weapons, requires a human with machine interface to tell the AI what to do.-a And
the Imperial family machine interface in their DNA is the best of all
the interfaces and has special rights with all of the machines in the Imperium.-a And nobody knows or understands how tight the Imperial human machine interfaces are with every AI in the Imperium.

Chase Collis ends up in the Emperor's own Wolfhounds after his Navy machinists mate training to be a glorified broom pusher.-a The Wolfhounds are special military fleet embedded in a large asteroid capable of FTL flights to anywhere in the Empire.-a The Wolfhounds were standing down in cryosleep until needed by Emperor to protect him or to take care of a special task.-a But their cryosleep lasted for over ten years when it was supposed to be for six months at the most.-a And upon the Wolfhound's accidental awakening, the Emperor and his family were dead for ten years
and the Parliament and the Speaker have taken over the Imperium.-a So now Prince Chase and the Wolfhounds have to reconquer the Imperium, one star system at a time.-a But, Prince Chase has just been captured by the DPRS (Democratic People's Republic of Solaria) and put on trial in the
capital city.

The author has a website at:
-a-a https://jvanstry.blogspot.com/

My rating:-a 6 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating:-a 4.7 out of 5 stars (2,952 reviews)

Lynn

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