From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Dec 17 12:35:33 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!nntp.primenet.com!nntp.gctr.net!howland.erols.net!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!dreaderd!not-for-mail ~Sender: wex@deepspace.media.mit.edu ~From: "Aaron M. Renn" Approved: wex@media.mit.edu ~Subject: Review: Code of Conduct by Kristine Smith Organization: GNU's Not Unix! ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written ~Date: 08 Dec 1999 15:28:59 -0500 Message-ID: X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.5/Emacs 20.3 ~Lines: 47 NNTP-Posting-Host: deepspace.media.mit.edu X-Trace: dreaderd 944684940 29390 18.85.23.65 ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:2509 Code of Conduct by Kristine Smith Review Copyright (c) 1999 Aaron M. Renn Conclusion: Recommended This is a very solid outing for a first novel. In the first few pages I noticed a typical amateur writer's penchant for flowery wording, but either I adjusted to it or it rapidly faded. The rest of the book was a fairly well done and an interesting mystery. Jani Kilian was living under a false identity on a backwater world because she was wanted for a few past crimes. Her past catches up with her in the form of Evan van Reuter, a former lover who needs her to return to Earth in order to track down the killer of his ex-wife Lyssa. Jani is the only one Evan trusts, and also is an expert document technician who would be able to sort through the paper trail that might solve the crime. She reluctantly agrees, and soon finds - of course - that there is much more to this than meets the eye. The good: lots of the tough, hard edged characters that I like, a fairly interesting alien culture, the unusual societal focus on documention, the fact that some things are not resolved but in a manner that doesn't necessarily require a sequel, and the good plot twists as Jani unravels the mystery. The bad: a few cliches, a couple plot holes, and a spoiler on the back cover that actually contains information I didn't recall reading directly anywhere in the text. If you like a good hard-boiled detective story, you'll probably like this book. Though I must confess I probably cheated just a little to rate this books as "Recommended" instead "Worth Reading". I couldn't resist because it was a first novel, and because the author lives near me (Chicago) and is such a babe. %A Smith, Kristine %T Code of Conduct %I Avon Eos %D 1999-11 %G ISBN 0-380-80783-1 %P 346 pp. %O mass market paperback, US$5.99 Reviewed on 1999-11-30 Aaron M. Renn (arenn@urbanophile.com) http://www.urbanophile.com/arenn/ From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Aug 1 13:36:11 2000 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!news-peer-europe.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!nycmny1-snh1.gtei.net!news.gtei.net!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!dreaderd!not-for-mail Sender: wex@poison-ivy.media.mit.edu From: tillman@aztec.asu.edu (P.D. TILLMAN) Subject: Meta-review: Code of Conduct by Kristine Smith Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Organization: none Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 31 Jul 2000 11:25:50 -0400 Message-ID: X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.5/Emacs 20.3 Lines: 59 NNTP-Posting-Host: poison-ivy.media.mit.edu X-Trace: dreaderd 965057152 9443 18.85.23.103 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:2769 [Once again, I'm pushing the explicit bounds of this group's charter. Peter's been a regular contributor and I feel this is useful information, even if not precisely a review. If readers object, feel free to email me: Compliments accepted too. --AW] Code of Conduct by Kristine Smith Copyright 2000 Peter D. Tillman Rating: "A" (me), 4/5 (Amazon). Hard-edged tough-girl SF political mystery-thriller. The best first novel I've read ths year. Recommended. I started to write a review, but found that Catherine Asaro had already done an excellent (and spoiler-free) one: http://www.sfsite.com/12a/code70.htm Back already? What She Said -- this is an exceptional first novel, and a writer to watch. You can safely ignore the Baen-surplus neutronium master-blaster that "graces" the cover, no doubt to the author's chagrin. At least Avon ran a nice author photo. A cover blurb compares her to Bujold and Moon, and while Smith has a distinctive voice, her book is likely to appeal to fans of both these authors (I'm one). Conduct comes to a satisfying closure, while planting hooks for the sequel, Rules of Conflict, due out in September 2000. I'm looking forward to it. Smith mentions influences from Patricia Highsmith, John Le Carre, Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie: http://www.sff.net/people/ksmith/ Smith is a chemist at a Chicago-area pharmaceutical company. She is a nominee for this year's John W. Campbell Award for best new writer. Other reviews: http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue140/books.html -- I disagree with this reviewer's comment that the main character is "simply dull." Rather, she is the classic Kinsey Mullhone - Kate Shugak - VI Warshawski "loner with a dark past," straining to get youthful performance from her damaged, aging body, and better done than most such. Tom Easton wrote a nice review for the March Analog --it should be up at: http://www.analogsf.com/home/features.html Amazon readers' ratings: 4/5, 11 readers, range 3/5 to 5/5 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0380807831/ Read more of my reviews: http://www.silcom.com/~manatee/reviewer.html#tillman %T Code of Conduct %A Kristine Smith %D Dec 99 %I Avon %O US$6 %P 348 pp. %G ISBN 0-380-80783-1 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Oct 26 18:15:18 2000 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!feed2.onemain.com!feed1.onemain.com!newsswitch.lcs.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!dreaderd!not-for-mail Sender: wex@deepspace.media.mit.edu From: arenn@urbanophile.com Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Subject: Review: Rules of Conflict by Kristine Smith Organization: GNU's Not Unix! Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 25 Oct 2000 15:22:38 -0400 Message-ID: X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.7/Emacs 20.4 Lines: 39 NNTP-Posting-Host: deepspace.media.mit.edu X-Trace: dreaderd 972501760 5716 18.85.23.65 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:2792 Rules of Conflict, Kristine Smith Review Copyright (c) 2000 Aaron M. Renn Conclusion: Recommended I liked Kristine Smith's Code of Conduct a lot and apparently so did a lot of other people, because Smith was nominated for the John W. Campbell Award. With that success under her belt, perhaps it was inevitable that we would get a sequel. Luckily, Rules of Conflict does not disappoint. All of the things I liked about the first book are still there in the second: tough characters, a good mystery, interesting aliens, and some action scenes to keep things interesting. The writing style is similar, which is good, though I did notice a few clunky phrases in there. This book appears to have tightened up some of the storytelling to eliminate the plot holes I noticed in its predecessor. Again, no sequel is required, though the door is certainly left open for one. I fully expect this to become at least a trilogy. Rules of Conflict picks up where Code of Conduct left off. Evan van Reuter and Jani have both been arrested for their role in events back at Rauta Sheraa. Both suspect that there's a lot more going on than their own private pasts catching up with them. And they're both right. Overall, another strong outing for Smith, who has a very promising writing career ahead of her. %A Smith, Kristine %T Rules of Conflict %I Eos/HarperCollins %D 2000-09 %G ISBN 0-380-80784-X %P 373 pp. %O mass market paperback, US$6.50 Reviewed on 2000-10-07 Aaron M. Renn (arenn@urbanophile.com) http://www.urbanophile.com/arenn/