STG's

Citadel  - by  John Ringo is the second book in the Troy Rising series. I have read and reviewed Live Free Or Die  last month. In the series, an interestellar gate is installed near Earth,  and trouble soon ensues. But Earth is fighting back, and Troy is the biggest weapon - a massive asteroid, with plenty of guns and armor. In the second book, there is a lot expansion into secondary characters, and an interesting view from another angle of the shuttle incident in the end of the first book. Of course, the fight continues in neat ways. While it is a bit of spoiler, I was surprised that it took this long for the characters to go with a Project Orion style propulsion. Very good, strongly recommended.

I've just finished  Live free Or Die, by John Ringo. It is, oddly enough, derived from a webcomic - Schlock Mercenary  . As quite usual for Ringo, the topic is aliens suddenly attacking an ill prepared near future mankind, who rise to the challenge. I really liked this one. The book starts with an interstellar gate being installed near Earth. Right away aliens come to trade - and to demand tribute. One man figures out exactly the right thing to trade for, and builds on that to start defending the planet... Very nice tech and large scale engineering, particularly loved the "Death Star" design. Very much recommended. In fact, I just went and bought the two sequels - together with a bunch of other books - on Webscription.net