Re: "War Child: Wolfhounds - Book Four" by John Van Stry

On 8/10/2026 12:24 AM, Lynn McGuire wrote:
> "War Child: Wolfhounds - Book Four" by John Van Stry
>     https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0D9T83DKN
> 
> Book number four of a six book science fiction space opera series.  And 
> there is a prequel series of two books and a sequel series of a few 
> books.  I read the well printed and well bound POD (print on demand) 
> trade paperback self published by the author in 2025 that I bought in 
> 2026.  I own the other two books in the series and will read them soon.
> 
> I love Space Opera.  And I love pulp science fiction.  This series is 
> both and a great example of the merging of the two.  In fact, this 
> series reminds me very much of the Robert Heinlein juvenile books, the 
> Piers Anthony "Bio of a Space Tyrant" series, the "Mutineer's Moon" 
> series by David Weber, and the Perry Rhodan series.  The dialog is very 
> frequent and the action moves along quickly.
> 
> Chase Collis is a street rat.  He and his mother lived in government 
> housing in Imperial City until she died of a drug overdose when he was 
> 12 years old.  Just before that was the last time he saw his estranged 
> father who screamed at his mother to keep hiding Chase or else the 
> Emperor would kill them all.  Chase ended up on the street at the age of 
> 12, running with the street gangs, being arrested by the police time and 
> time again.
> 
> When Chase became an adult, he murdered another street rat and was 
> caught by the police.  He purposely got caught to go to the Imperial 
> Prison for a few years to get more street cred and rise to the top of 
> the street gang.  But to his shock, when he went to his trial, his 
> father was the judge.  His father sentenced him to ten years in the 
> Imperial Navy rather than the four years in Imperial Prison that he 
> expected, and then escorted him to the Naval Basic Training school.
> 
> In the far distant future, The Solarian Imperium consists of 38 star 
> systems including Earth and the Solar system which were made 
> uninhabitable in the War of Succession.  Emperor Charles Morgan, Chase's 
> grandfather, was the latest in a long line of Morgans ruling the 
> Imperium.  His family keeps power because they are genetically modified 
> with machine interfaces in their DNA.  So are all of the Nobles: the 
> Dukes, the Earls, the Counts, and the Barons.  Any machine of any 
> importance, and especially the space ships and the military weapons, 
> requires a human with machine interface to tell the AI what to do.  And 
> the Imperial family machine interface in their DNA is the best of all 
> the interfaces and has special rights with all of the machines in the 
> Imperium.  And nobody knows or understands how tight the Imperial human 
> machine interfaces are with every AI in the Imperium.
> 
> Chase Collis ends up in the Emperor's own Wolfhounds after his Navy 
> machinists mate training to be a glorified broom pusher.  The Wolfhounds 
> are special military fleet embedded in a large asteroid capable of FTL 
> flights to anywhere in the Empire.  The Wolfhounds were standing down in 
> cryosleep until needed by Emperor to protect him or to take care of a 
> special task.  But their cryosleep lasted for over ten years when it was 
> supposed to be for six months at the most.  And upon the Wolfhound's 
> accidental awakening, the Emperor and his family were dead for ten years 
> and the Parliament and the Speaker have taken over the Imperium.  So now 
> Prince Chase and the Wolfhounds have to reconquer the Imperium, one star 
> system at a time.  But, Prince Chase has just been captured by the DPRS 
> (Democratic People's Republic of Solaria) and put on trial in the 
> capital city.
> 
> The author has a website at:
>     https://jvanstry.blogspot.com/
> 
> My rating:  6 out of 5 stars
> Amazon rating:  4.7 out of 5 stars (2,952 reviews)
> 
> Lynn