Yes, there will be Traveller posts based on this book.

Seapower States: Maritime Culture, Continental Empires and the Conflict That Made the Modern World by Andrew D. Lambert

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Absolutely brilliant. Lambert explores the histories of those states that rejected the usual path of land conquest and empire in favor of building trade empires and strong navies. Athens, Carthage, the Netherlands, and England are all examined in some details, as well as looking at states that became sea powers, but were never true seapower states, notably Portugal and Russia under Peter the Great.

What really made the book sing for me was the in-depth examination of the necessary political environment for a true seapower state to come into being. The requirement for a strong merchant class with true political power to control the building of a navy designed more for trade protection and forcing economic policies that favor free trade means that almost all of the states profiled were, to some extent, republics with varying levels of enfranchisement.

Reading this, mostly at Burning Man, made me think about the established setting for the SFRPG Traveller. The Third Imperium is really a seapower state in space, more concerned with free trade and communication than expanding and controlling territory. This inspired me to start writing, in my head, an essay on how to make the Third Imperium a true spacepower state. I love it when a book inspires me to create, and Mr. Lambert did it in spades.

If I have any complaints, it's that the author tends to hammer the same point over and over, almost like a student trying to fill his word count. It's mildly annoying but does not detract from the overall quality of the writing.





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As always, the best books are about people.

Titanicus by Dan Abnett

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Another great entry in the Black Library. This story follows Legio Invictus, a Titan Legion that's deployed to Orestus, a vital forge world supporting the Sabbat Crusade (which is pretty much Abnetts Dark Tower at this point) to help defend the planet from a sudden incursion of Chaos Titans and skitarii. This helps to illustrate the dichotomy between Imperial and Mechanicus, as one seems to have all the power in the universe, and the other is essentially at the mercy of that power.

The storyline falters slightly by trying to branch together two separate plotlines, involving a stray squad of auxiliary PDF with the Titan Legion engagements. While I'm a fan of ground pounders, and Abnett can write that incredibly well, it was hard to hold the squad members in mind, and I kept losing track of who was doing what why, and who was augmented and who wasn't. The Titan battles are incredibly well written, and the technology at the disposal of the Mechanicus was both impressive and disheartening, in that its knowledge lost that can't be regained.



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