Starfire: Extremis (book six)

The New York Times-bestselling Starfire series was created by Dave Weber and Steve White, and quickly gained a loyal fan-base that is comprised of both military-sf fans and gaming grognards (and there is, of course, quite a lot of overlap between those two groups). It is one of the longest-running, and best-loved, space operas still being published. After the most recent, novel (Exodus) there was a sustained pause in the series, largely in order to define and refine the forthcoming content—and during which I was recruited as the newest collaborator.

Originally based on a very popular table-top SF wargame of the same name, Starfire's emphasis on far-future interstellar fleet actions framed in a hard-sf tradition was a natural fit for me, given my background writing for Traveller in the early Nineties. After David Weber left the series to meet the burgeoning demands of his rapidly expanding career, Steve White's search for a collaborator ultimately ended upon my doorstep after we'd joked about it for years! The first fruit of that partnership-Extremis (book 6 in the Starfire series) is available for advance order through Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and a variety of other book providers.

(Note: some distributors have erroneously labelled the book title as In Extremis. This (as you can see from the cover, shown to the right) is not to be believed—or searched: you might not find the book, then.

Reviews for Extremis:

Midwest Book Review

Extremis: A Starfire Novel tells of a unified planetary alliance changed by the arrival of a huge fleet of ships fleeing the loss of their home planet when their star goes nova. They've traveled for centuries, they have their eyes on an inhabited world, and death doesn't deter them, as they believe in reincarnation. But the humans offer them more than a planet; they hold the key to technology that could result in a conquest of the entire inhabited region of the galaxy. A powerful, engrossing story, this is a pick for any collection strong in military science fiction.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦  A pick for any collection strong in military science fiction.

Publishers Weekly

White and Gannon continue the space opera epic of 2006's Exodus (by White and Shirley Meier) with this vivid novel. The Baldies, refugees from a sun that has gone nova, have reached their long-anticipated destination, the planet Bellerophon, recently settled by humans. The telepathic Baldies, who remember their past lives, cannot come to grips with the idea of mind-mute sentients that only live once; their increasingly militant warrior caste advocates extermination. As Ankaht, a Baldy scientist-philosopher, attempts to bridge the gap that inhibits mutual understanding, pressures from off-planet naval forces and indigenous resistance fighters drive the Baldy militants to desperate extremes and estrange them from their own culture. Ankaht and her allies must overcome mutual suspicion to restore the balance before one species destroys the other. Battle sequences mingle with thought-provoking exegesis on what it means to be a sentient and moral being. (May)

Library Journal

Formed from four starfaring species—humans, Orions, Ophiuchi, and Gorms—to combat common enemies, the Rim Federation has grown lax in its watchfulness and in the deployment of its fleets. When a hive-minded race of creatures seeks to colonize the Rim worlds in lieu of its own shattered planet, the Federation must once again rally its troops, this time against an enemy whose religious zeal and belief in reincarnation make it nearly unstoppable. The latest entry in the authors' military series (Insurrection; Crusade; In Death Ground; The Shiva Option) offers scenes of hard-hitting battles in space and heroic actions on both sides of the galactic war. VERDICT Series followers and fans of military sf and space opera should look forward to more of what they love.