Haraken (Silver Ships, #4) (2024)

A truly remarkable effort by an independent author, S.H. Jucha that makes his work stand out from run of the mill Military Sci-Fi Space Opera offerings that I've sampled to date.

The series is awesome and reads lightly, while it keeps getting better after each iteration along the storyline. It offers some 'Hard Sci-fi' elements without bogging the reader with exhaustive details, blending first contact among two disparate groups of human colonists (after centuries of isolation) together with an intriguing touch of truly alien cultures albeit with a bit of an anthropomorphic bias.

It also features great characters, cool world building and an interesting take on A.I entities that later acquire various forms of embodiment.
*This review summarizes my thoughts on the series from book 1 to 4.

Read: 05102022
Edit III: 07022023

This is book four in the series. Jucha is keeping things interesting. Just when I think the story is going one way, it zags. Alex Racine and the people of Haraken have had nine years of peace to build their world. A surprise visitor arrives and they are not alien but from Earth. They have first been to Meridien and want both worlds to join them in United Earth. Haraken does not want to and Alex is attempting to find out what is really going on. He discovers Earth wants their technologies and are willing to just take them. At last the Meridiens have elected a new leader and are more willing to cooperate with Haraken.

I am having such fun with Julian and his fellow SADEs now that they are all mobile. Julian and friends are AIs or SADEs (self-aware digital entities) and have full citizenship on Haraken.

I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. The book is just about eleven hours long. Grover Gardner does an excellent job narrating the story. Gardner is an award-winning audiobook narrator.

Very good, the whole series is.

I must admit I really liked this book and was contemplating giving it 5 stars. However there were a couple of minor issues, first I don’t like cliff-hanger endings. The second is why were the Harakens so ill prepared to fight a large ship without getting their pilots killed?

After their defeat of the Nua’ll the Harakens were given some indications that their might be more Motherships so after 9 years I would have expected them to have made some preparations. It seems that all they have done is produce more of the small Silver ships. I can’t believe that Admiral Tatia hasn’t been pushing to have a system for attacking the big Motherships
They already had a system of fast Multiple warhead missiles that, although not perfect, were effective against the Silver Ships, so as a simple stop gap why haven’t they at least developed something larger that can attack big ships without killing all their own fighter pilots?
I don't believe the author is being consistent with his own characters.

Another good installment in the Silver Ships series, but no silver ships in this one. After 1,000 years, Earthers have decided to pay a visit to the colonies, and not with the best of intentions. I'm not really into military strategies or political intrigue, so some of this book I didn't care for, but I really liked the new developments with the SADEs. I'm giving this a sound 3.5 stars.

3.5 Stars

This is probably the second best series I have ever read. I’m very surprised I’d admit that since the main feature of this story, is that the people involved are very nice! And I’m talking about the Haraken. S. H. Jucha has created a civilization that is almost utopian. He took a young asteroid miner who previously captained his small vessel and turned it into an entire civilization that represents freedom and equality for everyone. Now, President Alex Racine, is the leader of Haraken and responsible for the majority of changes that have taken place over the last three and now four books. The author also, very wisely, created a glossary at the end of this book which is an absolute necessity if you are just now coming into the series. There are so many, many people, SADEs, planets, colonies, and now Earthers to ever remember. But, I believe you will remember everyone of these books.

The Haraken’s are not only nice people, but apparently the only ones in this part of the galaxy who understand that there might come a time where you have to stand up and fight for the way you wish to live. The Confederation composed of mostly Méridiens, haven’t figured this out yet. Although they are pacifist, they did not learn any thing when the Nua’ll previously showed up and began systematically destroying everything in the Confederation system. The Méridiens chose to fleet their homes in gigantic colony ships which could not take everyone. Their leadership decided they would pay the price of those millions who were left behind as long as they were safe. Not the brightest of leadership!

Alex Racine and his mix of New Terrains and Méridiens chose to fight the Nua’ll and save what they could. In the end, they save themselves and the Confederation. Yet, for some unknown reason, the Council Leader of the Confederation, Ser Mahima Ganesh, is strongly opposed to anything associated with Alex Racine or his Harakens. And now, a “scout” ship has shown up from Earth, the Solar System. While these Earthers initially request to speak with the leader of the Confederation or Méridien, Council Leader Ganesh refuses to respond to any communications. She believes the Earthers will take their heavily armed “scout” ship and leave the Confederation System if the are not welcomed.

Alex Racine and his people are not so naive. They suspect that a “scout” ship as heavily armed as this one, is not on a purely friendly visit. Alex accepts communications with the Earthers and through his and his peoples subtle but thorough methods, they reveal that the Earthers are there to assume the Confederation into the Earth Union, at force if necessary!

The rest of the story is brilliant. The Earth scout ship even calls for reinforcements which arrive, but they have not learned that Alex Racine and his Harakens are a formidable opponent even to the power of the Earth Union. You need to read how this turns out. There is some fighting, but lots of maneuvering by both sides, some successful and others not so. No matter what happens in this first contact with Earth, the Harakens and the Confederation has a very difficult time ahead. Will President Racine, his fellow humans and SADEs be able to manage this problem?

A very, very good series with excellent writing. It will continue in “Sol”, and I’ve already pre-ordered it. I strongly suggest you do the same!

This is great entertainment with good characters, conflict and creativity. My rating 4.75.

Alex Racine is the president of Haraken, a planet of humans in a far system that includes two other planets, Méridien and the New Terrans. These peoples are distant decedents of two Earth colonies that went different ways over 700 years before. One group is much more technically advanced than the others which sets up conflicts and challenges, as well as alien attacks, which are presented in books 1 – 3.

Alex is clearly the “golden boy” to most of the population. Only the Counsel of the Méridien appears to be threatened by Alex’s control and popularity. She wants to control her government and people and keep them away from Alex and his AI friends, the SADEs, self-directed digital entities (AIs now mobile!).

An Earth explorer ship arrives in the system and is interested, then amazed by the advanced technology. The Méridien leader refuses to acknowledge or talk with the Earth ship. This puts the Earth leaders in the position of planning to overtake the planets by force is they can’t negotiate subjugation. Alex arranges to meet with the Earth leader in a social setting hiding his true authority. The Earth ship appears to have superior fighting power and Alex is aware of the threat of these forces. He must figure a way to convince them to leave his worlds alone. If not peacefully, or by trickery, then by force.

Alex’s character is a bit of a ‘super hero’ but he is likeable. I especially liked his interaction with the SADEs who are delightful characters, especially Alex’s best friend, Julien. The Earther personalities are forceful and several are unpleasant bullies with conquest mentality. I enjoyed the conflicts within the system and from the threat of the Earther ships.

The author slips in subtle (or not so subtle) portrayals of various political factors. It isn’t hard to think of our own world and leaders of differing styles, temperaments, personal goals and motives.

I was a little concerned that I had not read books 1 through 3. I think there could have been a bit more backstory as there was only a little hint of the prior stories. This adventure is fairly well self-contained with a full plot that can stand alone. I will be going back to get the prior books which have been on my Audible Wish List. I definitely want the next book, Sol when released on audio. I recommend this to sci fi fans who enjoy space opera.

Audio Notes: Grover Gardner is a well known, marvelous narrator. (I enjoy his narrations of the Andy Carpenter Series by David Rosenfelt.) Grover managers to portray the various voices and emotions so I become immersed in a story that comes alive. The narration made this an extra pleasure of reading entertainment.

My fourth book by this author and the fourth book in this series.

It’s . . um . . six to nine years after the end of the previous book and a new batch of problems have strolled in. They are in a heavily weaponized ship, claim to be from a ‘United Earth’ and would kindly like everyone to join them. Since they arrived in Méridien space first, and Méridien are Méridiens, their attempts to convey this information, and any and all communication are answered with . . . . silence. The Méridiens work on their own time and not even the entrance into their system of a spaceship that looks built for war will change their stance. Heck, they let half their civilization be destroyed the last time their confederation was invaded, why would they change now?

Well, one of the Méridien house leaders is unhappy with how things are playing out and heads off to ask help from someone who has shown that they can handle themselves and threats. Namely Racine, President of Haraken. President Racine proceeds to examine the situation.

The book is a good and interesting continuation of the series. Mostly quite fun and exciting. Just one specific thing that has been a relatively reoccurring issue keeps popping up to annoy the hell out of me – the author likes taking time, and pages and pages of text to give backstories for every little itty bitty character he comes across (well, not really, but he likes suddenly thrusting readers into unimportant characters backstories; the not really has to do with he doesn’t actually give everyone’s backstory). It slows everything down and, quite frankly, I don’t need to know, deeply know, a character that will never again be seen by the reader. Either because they, right after that, die, or because . . . they just disappear from the active story-line.

Otherwise, as I noted, a good continuation to the series. I look forward to the next book.

March 18 2016

The time line was moved forward 9 years since the last novel but the characters and worlds seemed unchanged. That's the one thing that I found most difficult to accept. With the complete upheaval created by Racine, its hard to see things standing still.

The arrival of the Earth ships is about what I would expect and the characters there feel well developed despite not a lot of introduction time.

The ending was a bit more of a cliff hanger then I expected and Ill read the next novel.

Several spelling/grammar issues do detract, another round of proofreading/editing would have been useful.

Alex is back, 9 years later, and no one had learned from experience.

This is my favorite book, since book 1. However the reintroduction of all the previous story could have been trimmed a little, in my opinion.

From a story point, it is very interesting. Alex is finally being challenged and for the first time in 4 books, he is shown not to be an all knowing God. He doesn't "learn" anything, nor is he shown to be "wrong" in some way, but finally doesn't have all the answers.

Having said that, it's been 9 years and there has been no improvement on the fighters, or creation of other fighting ships. They have, apparently been resting on their laurels. They know the silver ships have a home world, they presume there are other threats, but they don't take time to improve on the ships that they out matched in book 2. It seems short sighted.

So when the earthlings show up, Alex can over power them 1 on 1 but their technology is barely able to deal with the earthlings numbers or tactics.

Then there's the ending. Alex let's the earthlings go, to tell their people about the 3 world's they know about. If they never returned the earthlings would know about only 1 planet. A easy defense if they send a scout ship. But now Alex has to go to Sol before the sols come to Alex.

It's good to see Alex make stupid decisions, however I would prefer if he learned from them. Can't wait for the next book.

I made it through the first 4 of this series. Had the potential to be really good. Main problem for me was the protagonist. Never come across someone so utterly perfect who wasn't some kind of superhero and even then, they probably can't hold a candle to this guy. He is unmatched as a military leader, military strategist, spy master, political leader all the while being physically very powerful, a perfect son to his parents, perfect older brother to his sister, perfect husband to his wife, a master capitalist but very egalitarian regardless (I know that's a perfect oxymoron).

It was a little too much for me when the pilots are screaming his name while flying into battle and likely death. This is because the protagonist in real life would likely be the target of derision from those pilots. They would likely be saying "Can we turn around and shoot that smug jerk instead?"

The most fast paced book from this series

Finally Alex Rancine finds a worthy enemy and things are not to easy for him. This book brings new players and new story lines. We know what really happened back at Earth and how they have evolved. Are few details on the storyline that bugs me. If the NewTerrans didn't had an advanced technology because all the struggles at the beginning I wonder how come the Earthers with all the terrible struggles where able to be more advanced than the NewTerrans. Another detail is how come the Harakens forget about the misiles and the dagger that give them the edge to be successful against the Silverships, how you build such a massive carriers with no defenses and only rely on the Swei Swei technology

Our amazing hero having defeated the invaders establishes his new colony on the path of further invasion, and then spends the next 8 years equipping his forces with the silver ships he has just defeated, completely ignoring the weapons he has used to defeat them. In contest with the Terran invaders it transpires that these Silver Ships are incredibly fragile, and easily destroyed by the Earth forces (in contrast with the difficulty he faced). What is going on?
The only reason this gets a 4 star rating is the SADE storyline, where he explores AI gender, something which I haven't seen much of before.

‘The Gift’

S J Jucha has presented readers with a ‘gift’ in his eloquent and wonderful prose of what could be in store for humanity for as long as man aspires to be better than who we are are today. I, for one, eagerly look forward to reading ‘Sol’ and in that regard have but one price of advice for Mr. Jucha - Please Write Faster. I HIGHLY endorse all ages and peoples and recommend Mr. Jucha’s books for both the enjoyment of his storytelling but his obvious ability to improve with each book he writes.

I really enjoyed this installment of the Silver Ships saga. This time there is a new enemy and what was so unique is that humans from Earth are the baddies! This was such a unique twist that it let me overlook the fact that the earth humans hadn't really evolved in 1000 years whereas everyone else had.
Again there were quite a few laugh out loud moments and the good natured humour and general camaraderie is heart warming. The story jogs along pretty quickly and the baddies are believable as are the actions of the heroes.

It is rare for a series to take until book 4 to really hit its stride but in Haraken the Silver Ships have finally found a pleasing balance. Though Alex's gruff introversion has always jarred with his hero status the disquieting subtexts evaporate when held up against a truly obnoxious (almost caricatured) antagonist. What is left begins to lean more towards a light mil-sci-fi genre in a quite pleasing way.

Another good book

I am enjoying this series and the evolution of its characters as the story proceeds. The SADEs, in particular, continue to be an interesting and distinctive component, unlike any other treatment of AIs that I can recall in that they are also changing as the story develops. I am looking forward to the next step in the journey.

Failed Diplomacy

Not once, but twice in the same story arch we find the story following failed diplomacy efforts with two different cultures. The author also continues to create moments which tug on the heartstrings, tempering the positive spin for the series. And while science is creative, it’s not always immediately able to resolve to everyone’s needs.

Compelling read.

Another chapter in this interesting saga. Having not recently read the Silver Ship books I took a while to familiarize myself with all the characters again. So almost giving up it wasn't until a third in that I really got to grips and became hooked in the story. Glad I persevered and now just can't wait to read the follow-up, Sol.

Still going strong

Excellent story with an mostly unbelievable hero. But SciFi has always been that way since Lazarus Long, and Michael. I started reading ScFi at about 9 years old in 1952. If you are planning to read this, make sure you read, at least the first 2 books. Otherwise you will be lost and confused as a nun hipped alien.

Improving steadily!

The pacing of the silver ships books continues to improve. Some great action in this one, decent tension at times. Let's hope.for more of that and greater suspense.

Better than previous books in series

I was about to stop reading this series due to its lack of excitement and long drawn out plot bit this book has picked it up a notch and I plan to continue to read the series.

One of the most amazing series ever written.
S. H. Jucha truly is an amazing writer with an incredible imagination and an excellent story writer!
Coupled with the narrator Grover Gardner no less of a masterpiece was created.

Absolutely full heartedly recommended !!!

Exciting

I read too much. So when I say I couldn't put this series down. Well, that's saying a lot. I loved every book and love how Jucha puts you into each and every character. Wow! My heart rate was jumping on this one. Well done ser Jucha.

Sooner or later

I will go back and review books 2 and 3, but currently I am busy starting book 5 and why are you reading this and not ordering book 5 yourself?

Moments of joy in every book.

TTFN
-Will

Another cliff hanger

As the three books before, we find this deeply gripping take of a SyFy dream, the hero and his beautiful partner saving their worlds and gathering more sheep to the flock. Pushing on to book five. Love the story.

I think so far this one is my favorite. I've heard people talk about the amazing twist on the third book, but I think I like this twist more and I'm looking forward to what happens next with the events sent in motion... off to the 5th!

Continues the series into a new area with the same strengths and weaknesses as the previous stories. I'll read the next book, but not sure if I really care enough to continue to follow the series.