Download Ebook Gunpowder God (Lord Kalvan #6) (The Kalvan Saga Volume 6)
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Gunpowder God (Lord Kalvan #6) (The Kalvan Saga, Volume 6) Rank: #1520819 in BooksPublished on: 2011Binding: Library Binding 2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.just like Piper would have madeBy Bruce EikeI was skeptical at first of anyone's ability to build on H. Beam Piper's classic 'Lord Kalvin of Otherwhen'- but John Carr did so magnificently! It shouldn't surprise me, considering that he is widely regarded in the science fiction field as the ultimate biographer of Piper and collaborated with him on other works. The six additional books that Carr wrote to complete the Lord Kalvan storyline are terrific- well-researched, with tons of historical allusions, just like Piper would have made. The style is not wholly imitative, though- Carr brings a lot of his own style through, especially humor at appropriate places.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.A series that has sadly lost its way...By Critic_in_my_own_mindThis is a general review of the series in addition to this book.Interminable, plodding, overly indulgent in transient barely connected subplots. This series having virtually abandoned Kalvan slogs onward with no ending in sight. Not to mention that it is rather over priced. I'm considering returning this book and, should Mr. Carr write another in this series, it's unlikely I'll read it. Unless you are heavily invested in this series and have a fascination with the myriad of supporting characters I recommend you skip this book.Taken as a series there are a number of problems which I found interfered with my enjoyment. A number of spoilers follow you have been warned.*********The basic storyline of a man from the present inserted into the past who takes advantage of his knowledge of technology, military strategy, and basic science, to save a kingdom and wed a princess forms the foundation of this series attraction to the reader. The further Mr. Carr diverges from this foundation the more he weakens the series.Mr. Carr intersperses a political plot line set in the home timeline involving Verkin, his wife Della, and his brother in law (who is student of Nazism and the dark predatory force wanting to seize control of the home timeline). The problem here is that it's pretty difficult to care about this always reoccurring plot, which connects back to Kalvan story only in the most peripheral fashion. Unlike the overly detailed descriptions of the political maneuvering, which over time becomes a club, the actual politics on the home timeline are more allusion than described. Characters come and go, the bad guy does or says things to reaffirm his evil nature, and the Verkin and his wife behave with utter stupidity so that mr evil can continue. Who can care much about that In essence we have two virtually separate stories in a single series, but one is given short shrift and fails as a result.Logistics. Carr harps on logistics, but he has armies of tens of thousands accomplish things that are incongruous for medieval forms of transportation. For example, an organization based on the east coast sends an envoy to purchase 35,000 mercenaries from a west coast based city state which then marches from the west coast to the east coast to support a war effort and this is accomplished in time for a spring offensive. lip service is given to sending out supply depots in advance of the army. How much faster could it move How long would it take to gather sufficient supplies Just the envoy's travel time would make this a dubious possibility. The army has to cross the Rocky mountains and the the plains on foot and horseback. That's a lot to provision and foraging get pretty grim on the plains. But it just happens.Battle losses. Kalvan suffers battle casualties and in the battle which causes him to abandon Hos-Hostigos he loses half of his army. In the battle he faces the "Host" which numbers around 100,000 men and, one assumes, a far large number of camp followers. The battle is described by the winners as a very near thing that could have gone either way. However the size of the "Host" remains described as 100,000 even though Kalvan suffered in the neighborhood of 35,000 casualties. Some of the "Hosts" losses are enumerated and at a minimum would be at least 25,000. Ignored by the author, probably because he wants to drive Kalvan from his lands so to continue to milk his storyline.The abandonment of Hos-Hostigos. - Why The superficial reason is that Kalvan wants to spare his people the suffering of having war fought in their homeland. This can't be supported. When Kalvan reaches the midwest he has about 35,000 troops and 600,000 refuges. We're told that the population of Hos-Hostigos was about 1.8 MILLION people. That country is reduced to a wasteland. Kalvan's decision causes 2/3rds of his people to end up dead or as slaves. The point here is that he didn't need to leave. He still had an excellent chance at winning and it's hard to see how fighting a maneuver war against the host would have been harder on his people than abandoning them. Even after leaving, as he burned everything on his flight to the midwest, he could have waited until the "Host" had stretched supply lines in the middled of a burned out wasteland and then returned and hit them. He would have been supplied and rested, the host would not.Technological superiority. Mr. Carr introduces various upgrades which convey significant military advantages to Kalvan. Unfortunately some of the advantages are rather dramatically overstated. Rifles. Rifled firearms are certainly more accurate than smooth bore weapons. Loaded with a ball, a rifled flintlock is, in the hands of a well trained marksman, effective against a stationary man sized target to about 200 yards. Loaded with a minie ball, introduced later in the series, that flintlock is effective to perhaps 300 yards. These distances are "best case". While the exact distance of a "march" was never given, at least I never found it, references to artillery ranges indicate that a two marches are about a mile. Mr. Carr has his riflemen sniping at man sized targets from a march (a half mile) away. A half mile is 880 yards, even with a minie ball, that is simply ridiculous. While we have excellent data from the late 1800s of people shooting black powder rifles at distances in excess of 1000 yards, they were using falling block rifles and metallic cartridges. Which means superior chamber design, bullets and load control. Even with a paper cartridge you can't get the loading precision of a metallic cartridge.Rifled cannon. Mr. Carr introduces 18lb rifled cannons that claim an effect range against individual targets at 10 marches (5 miles). He has these cannon sink ships underway at ranges from 2.5 to 5 miles and they score hits 75% of the time. Couple of problems here. Prior to the development of automated aiming calculators (basically post WW1) what were then modern naval rifles typically had a hit rate of under 10%. Those guns had optical aiming systems, and did not have to be returned to battery and reset after every shot. Yet using primitive threaded systems to control elevation and traverse by hand his rifled cannon score 75%. Whatever the maximum range of the cannon if deployed against stationary targets where the gunners can "walk" rounds to the target eventually scoring a high hit rate is believable, not against moving targets.Rifling in and of itself does not dramatically improve range. It does allow non-spherical rounds to be used which, generally will improve range rather dramatically. The last generation of 18lb cannon used was by the British in WW1. This was modern cased ammunition with "streamlined" shells and modern smokeless propellent. At it's zenith of development the maximum range using special shells of this cannon was 11,000 yards (6 miles) in its earlier development its range was 6900 yards. As a comparison the 18lb revolutionary war cannon had a maximum range of 2.25 miles and an effective range of about a mile. There is no description of the development of non-spherical shells, but even allowing that, no way to get an effective range of 5 miles from a muzzle loading black powder cannon.There are other examples where technological superiority of advancements are over stated. The sad thing is that Mr. Carr doesn't need to do this. A, roughly, 100 yard advantage over a smoothbore can be devastating if properly deployed. A half mile or more advantage in effectively aiming a cannon can be devastating if properly deployed. Whether from a lack of homework or lazy writing, this kind of thing detracts from Mr. Carr's work.Muddled politics. The basic plot line of an insane priest who kills or maims virtually everyone captured in the wars prosecuted by Styphon's House becomes ever more difficult to accept. With their lock on gunpowder broken Styphon's priests have lost the ability to predetermine winners and losers of military conflicts. So they fall back on money, debt, blackmail, assassination, etc. All well and good as far as it goes, but why would a king who wants to retake lands that he's lost allow a thriving region that contained 1.8 million former subjects be reduced to a wasteland that will likely remain unoccupied for decades No amount of money and support is going to make that degree of loss profitable. Given the duplicitous nature of the nobility, the "mad priest" would have had an "accident" long before his Investigation got very far at all.As a Kalvan fan, I was able to set aside all of this. But as the series progressed, we got less and less of Kalvan and more contrived interactions of formerly minor characters, ever more unbelievable mechanics, like endless recruits every season for Styphon's forces despite huge losses, political intrigues that are either obviously ignored or require a level of naivety that doesn't hold to the storyline, and my interest ground to a halt.Sad really.2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.Another Good edition to the Kalvan series, given you like what makes the series what it is.By Damon BarleyI honestly blew through this book on my phone in a week, I have read of the Kalvan of Other-when novels, and have continued to like the creative direction of the story. I am in favor of the Otherwise part versus the small sections that take place on Home-Time line, but I do at least appreciate the breaks from Kalvan's timeline in order to prevent any long periods of inactivity between campaigns. In addition, I have to agree with the comments regarding the speed of travel on Kalvan's timeline being too fast, but I also understand the perceived necsssity, or at least liberty in order to prevent tedium. Overall, I believe the book is a good evolution from previous novels.See all 25 customer reviews... Hostigos.com : The home of H. Beam Piper's Lord Kalvan saga The home of H. Beam Piper's Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen Saga and John F. Carr's Kalvan sequel. This site contains information on Lord Kalvan his world in which he lives ... 23 Best Military Science Fiction Books - The Best Sci Fi Books The best military science fiction isn't just a bunch of space battles (although those are fun). It also examines what combat can do to a person's mind. Hostigos.com : The home of H. Beam Piper's Lord Kalvan saga The Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen saga continues. Welcome to the home of H. Beam Piper and John F. Carr's Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen Saga. This site is a tribute to science ...
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