Frank Chadwick

Chadwick, Frank. The Forever Engine. Baen, 2013.
Frank Chadwick is best known as a game designer, especially for Space 1889. The Forever Engine is a novel set in that universe but not, as far as I know, based on a particular game script. It is steampunk without magic but with some convenient exceptions to the normal laws of physics. Protagonist Jack Fargo is an ex-U. S. special forces soldier from 2018, who now teaches ancient history. An old buddy calls on him to examine an unusual Roman coin, ostensibly found at a high-tech weapons research facility. He discovers that the coin does not match our history. An explosion at the site propels him into a version of 1888 England where there is already a colony on Mars and dirigibles use an antigravity material called “liftwood.” British intelligence sends him with a small team to thwart a high-tech weapon being developed by an unstable genius in the mountains of Serbia. Characters are more nuanced than are usual in the genre, and the steampunk plot is plausible if one accepts its premises. 4 stars.… (altro)

Frank Chadwick’s Chain of Command is ab military space opera inspired by Guadalcanal and the World War II battle in the Solomon Islands. His hero, Sam Bitka, is a character type common to the genre from C. S. Forester to David Weber, a rapidly promoted captain, who keeps a stiff upper lip despite his own insecurities. He battles bureaucrats and gains the respect of his crew. Chadwick has thought through his spaceship design and pays attention to such details as orbital mechanics, the health effects of long-term weightlessness, and the inherent danger of hydrogen as a fuel. Refreshingly, his enemy aliens are not monolithic and have as many political divisions as their human counterparts. Battle scenes are especially well done. 3.5 stars.… (altro)

Chadwick, Frank. Ship of Destiny. Sam Bitka No. 2. Baen, 2020.
In Frank Chadwick’s Ship of Destiny, human beings are contacted by an interstellar civilization in 2041, and a century later they have already fought and won a multispecies war. Since all the starship technology comes from advanced aliens, Chadwick is saved the trouble of explaining much, and he can keep the human cultures close to home. The protagonist, Sam Bitka, is a war hero who has received a field promotion to starship captain and been assigned to an armed troop transport. The plot begins when his ship’s systems are taken over by an unknown force and the ship is drawn to a distant star system. The story and characters follow the Horatio Hornblower in space pattern we have come to expect from Baen space opera, but both the plot and the characters provide some unexpected twists. 3.5 stars.… (altro)