cbaker8887's Full Review: Robert Buettner - Orphan's Triumph
Orphan’s Triumph is the fifth and last book of the Jason Wander series. The series started off with Jason Wander as an orphaned, directionless, wayward young man given the choice between jail and the army. The Earth had been attacked by an alien force called “the slugs” and Jason goes off to boot camp and war.
As the series progresses Wander matures into a unique, outside the box thinker that sees him rise to a general and leader in the war against the slugs. As he matures he is given other assignments, such as becoming a diplomat trying to bring newly discovered outlying human colonies into cooperation with the mother planet to protect the human race from extinction. That’s not an easy task as these colonies are technologically backward and have developed cultural divisions and hatreds. But Wander succeeds in bringing a modicum of peace and a bit of cooperation.
Orphan’s Triumph takes up where Orphan’s Alliance leaves off, although Jason now finds himself somewhat more peripheral to the action as an aging general. Colonel Howard Hibble, the eccentric scientist who heads the very secretive group of xenobiologist dedicated to finding new ways to fight the slugs, has been working on a way to find a quick way to the slugs’ home world to deliver a final and decisive blow in the war and destroy the slug threat once and for all.
Jason, as he often does, ingratiates himself with those in charge of the operation, and gets himself near the thick of the action. He’s not quite done yet.
The first two novels in this series, Orphanage, and Orphan’s Destiny were top notch, very entertaining, military science fiction novels. The last two works in this series, Orphan’s Journey and Orphan’s Alliance, almost seem like filler leading up to this concluding novel. While Orphan’s Triumph does not quite reach the level of the first two volumes in this series, it offers a very satisfying conclusion as we see Wander continue to mature and progress throughout. This novel suffers some of the same problems as the previous two installments, being almost written as vignettes or short stories that culminate in the whole, but at least here the events tie together much more nicely and lead in a clear direction.
Orphan’s Triumph also evokes more emotion and drama, similar to the first two installments in the series, and as the characters age and progress, those who have followed the series from the beginning will start feeling rather nostalgic and at times sad.
The ending is also very relevant to how Jason Wander has developed emotionally and philosophically and for this reader was very satisfying.
While I am less enamored of the third and fourth books of this series, the journey taken from beginning to end has been enjoyable and one I would take again.
Jason Wander is ready to lead the final charge into battle. After 40 years of fighting the Slugs, mankind s reunited planets control the vital crossro...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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