Passage at Arms | 
 enlarge | Author: Glen Cook
Publisher: Night Shade Books
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $1.32
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Avg. Customer Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 65474
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.8
ISBN: 1597800678
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9781597800679
ASIN: 1597800678
Publication Date: March 29, 2007
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Condition: NEW GREAT BUY!!ISBN;1597800679
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Product Description
The ongoing war between Humanity and the Ulat is a battle of attrition that humanity is unfortunately losing. However, humans have the advantage of trans-hyperdrive technology, which allows their climber fleet, under very narrow and strenuous conditions, to pass through space almost undetectable. Passage at Arms tells the intimate, detailed and harrowing story of a climber crew and its captain during a critical juncture of the war. Cook combines speculative technology with a canny and realistic portrait of men at war and the stresses they face in combat. Passage at Arms is one of the classic novels of military science fiction.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
 Das Boot meets the Battle of Britain with a dash of 12 O'clock high March 12, 2008
Cook creates a universe, a conflict and a sense of war at the retail level in a Das Boot setting (close and stifling) at a Battle of Britain moment (never have so few...) in a conflict. He finds a way to create the excitement of battle without disturbing the overwhelming sense of ennui of an endless patrol in a a claustrophobic of environment. He uses the 12 O'Clock high premise (complete an impossible number of missions and you can go home) effectively, if somewhat deceptively. His characters are sketched a bit incompletely, but even that works. The last 20 pages are a triumph and a fullfillng end to a good story.
 Good, gritty military sci-fi January 12, 2008
Cook does an excellent job of depicting real people as soldiers, with their flaws, their individuality, and their feelings. Similar to the tone of the Black Company series, in a dark-humored, gritty, way.
 tedious and interminable September 16, 2007
1 out of 10 found this review helpful
The book is a reprint of one that originally came out in 1985. Reading it reminded me of Napoleon's adage about always reinforcing success, never failure. Cook is indeed a successful writer. Mostly of fantasy, with some well received series. This book is one (only?) of his few science fiction efforts.
Going thru it was an effort in tedium. For the first half of the book, not much of anything happens. The blurb valiently promotes it as great military SF. I differ. The narrative consists mostly of interminable descriptions of the interior and crew of a Climber ship. It bears no small resemblance to a submarine. Once I realised this, then inevitably, comparisons arose to the classic "Run Silent, Run Deep". Or in fact to many other works on submarine warfare. The book is just like that movie Outland, which is a glorified Western set in space.
The problem is, if you have indeed ever read any memorable fiction on submarines, then Cook's tale falls far short. What tension as exists in the plot is bled away, instead of focused at crucial points. Plus, the reader might have some curiosity about the alien enemy. Yet there is nothing of any substance describing them. What do they look like? Why is there a war? What are their motives? Surely the author might have expected you to ask these. And gone to some cursory effort to assuage you.
No coincidence that Cook chose to focus his efforts on fantasy. He's far better at that.
Not Exactly Croaker In Space June 6, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Cook has mastered the first person, eyewitness, in the trenches viewpoint, and this one delivers the usual deadpan stuff with a new twist, a nearly never ending space war. Instead of a foxhole, in this installment, the "cage" is a spaceship, and the challenge is to make it back from a mission from which few ever return.
At times, as can be expected, Passage at Arms is reminiscent of the Black Company, but mostly it carves out new territory for Cook's usual set of premises,and wackos, revolving around the daily grind of fighting an unseen enemy, against ridiculous odds, and somehow staying sane through it all. As always there are consequences, and the usual knocks against authority.
As will all of Cook's books, this will likely remain a niche player, since the mainstream is not so fond of books that put every day people in the mundane events that eventually congeal into something bigger like a war. As with many of his recent works, it takes a bit of time wading through some rambling before the story congeals.
But once again, Cook is able to bring what seems to be random, into a nice chaotic blend of non linear order.
For me, Glen Cook always delivers the goods. And this time it's no exception.
Dark, action packed space novel May 6, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Think Das Boot, but deep space in the distant future. Humantiy is fighting a brutal war of survival and, like many wars, the leadership, both political and military, leaves something to be desired. The story is told from the viewpoint of a journalist, an outsider to the crew (who is automatically suspect, as the crew is convinced [rightly so] that the powers that be plant spies on each ship to detect subversive thoughts), on a lone war vessel being hunted by an enemy fleet as it struggles to return to its home port.
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