Book Description
He was the most feared bounty hunter in the galaxy, the consummate killing machine, a man known only as the Widowmaker. Now, after a century of being cryogenically frozen, Jefferson Nighthawk has a new lease on life--and new enemies who want him dead....
Jefferson Nighthawk has been awakened from his frozen sleep, his deadly disease cured. But although he still has the experience and instincts of the legendary Widowmaker, Nighthawk is now biologically in his sixties. His reflexes slowed by age, looking only to live out his days in peace, he decides on a quiet retirement on a Frontier world.
Easier said than done. For while Nighthawk lay in cryogenic sleep, his two clones were killing in his name, leaving a trail of vengeful enemies in their wake. Nighthawk has one advantage: no one knows who he is just yet. But once word gets out that he's back, every assassin on the Frontier will be out to make a rep by gunning him down. Suddenly the Widowmaker has only two choices: pick up his weapons...or face death again--and this time for keeps.
Customer Reviews:
An Action-Adventure Far Future Personal Space Opera.......2000-06-21
I started reading this book because it was part of Mike Resnick's general set of future history books including the razor hot Santiago and the triumph of storytelling, Ivory (go put this one in your shopping cart right now if you're into serious dramatic SF). I was not to be disappointed.
In a way, The Widowmaker: Unleashed is a study in what it means to be a famous gunmen in an age of mass media in a vast territory where "the law" is only sparsely present and enforced on an irregular basis. As countless Westerns have shown, aging gunmen face death at the hands of those looking to make their reputations. However, being the best, the Widowmaker will not go down without a fight, and having walked through a hundred death traps unscathed in his younger days, he intends to get through this one last challenge: how to survive his own reputation and failing capabilities.
I started the book and within two days I came to the last page after two late nights up until two in the morning, the story really drives forward without tripping over itself in an attempt to get to the end.
Definitely worth my money and time.
A trilogy's highlight.......2000-02-15
Now the widowmaker's really back. Wasn't he two times before? He was. And he wasn't! What kind of answer is that you may ask. It is that kind of answer that may make your read not only this book but the whole trilogy, the story of a SF-hero, a gunman, a thriller that never gets boring. You want to read about a man who found some fountain of youth to return to a life where he's looking for peace and where he finds nothing but old and new enemies? You want to know how he fights his way through space and despair during dozens of years? Then you should start with the Widowmaker, see him reborn, and finally find him unleashed!
Mike Resnick's continues the story of the Widowmaker........1999-01-04
Over a hundred years have passed before the 62 year old Jefferson Nighthawk, aka Widowmaker, is revived and cured of his disease. Unfortunately, his dream of retirement with no enemies to worry about do not materialize. The two clones that had helped him maintain the finances to keep him in cyrogenic freeze had created new enemies for him. These enemies included the men of a criminal warlord terminated by his first clone. His second clone had exacted revenge by killing the first clone's killer/employer a powerful planetary leader. Further, the second clone terminated another corrupt planetary leader. With the help of Ito Kinoshita, the man who had trainer both clones and companion to the second clone, and Sarah Jenner, the lady he decides to spend the rest of his life with, they create a third clone and devise a plan to let the original retire in peace.
A good read, about as expected........1998-09-14
I read all three and I enjoyed them, but the whole series could have been one block buster novel rather than what seems like the basis for a continuing series or a spin off universe series. The third book was no better and no worse but I never got any surprises or tension. I was unable to suspend disbelief and left with the feeling that I had watched a good not great t.v. show. I'll buy more Resnick books but without too much anticipation.
Book Description
Jefferson Nighthawk, once the galaxy's most feared killer, is cloned again and given a new mission. This time he is not only armed with the Widowmaker's killing skills, but also with his lifetime of knowledge. Nighthawk's new mission involves the rescue of a corrupt politician's daughter, and the assassination of the rebel leader who holds her captive. But the daughter puts a wrinkle in the plan when she offers her father's fortune if Nighthawk kills her father instead. While the odds are overwhelming, the price may be right.
Customer Reviews:
Mike Resnick again brings the American Wild West to space........1999-01-04
The best lawman/bounty hunter of legend Jefferson Nighthawk, aka Widowmaker, is cloned for the second time to help maintian the fincances that keeps the original alive until a cure is found for his fatal disease. The first clone was age 25 with the original's physical skills, but not the survival skills to keep him alive at the end of his mission. The second clone was created to appear as the original at approximately 35 years old. This time he not only had the physical skills, but also most of the memories that had allowed the original to stay alive until his early sixities. His stated mission is to rescue a corrupt politican's daughter and kill the rebel who had taken her captive. The Widowmaker survives, saves the daughter, and ends the life of the corrupt politician with the her help. Further, he secures that needed money to help the original remain in cyrogenic freeze until the cure is found.
Book Description
The Soviet nuclear submarine K-19 was the pride of the Soviet Navy, but on July 4, 1961, during its maiden voyage to the North Atlantic for war games, it suddenly and unexpectedly developed a serious leak in one of the reactors. In a race against time, the officers and crew worked desperately and brilliantly, under intense exposure to radiation, to improvise a coolant system, averting a Chernobyl-like nuclear disaster. The toll for their efforts was certain and devastating: Eight men died painful deaths from acute radiation poisoning within days of the accident, and the surviving crew returned home to await their unknowable fate.
Featuring a complete history of the actual events, with passages from the submarine captain's memoir, and rarely published historic images, K-19 places readers at the apex of the Cold War's brinkmanship between the USSR and the United States. It is the companion book to the upcoming National Geographic feature film about this gripping tragedy, K-19: The Widowmaker, starring Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson. Including information on the making of the film, with production stills, and cutaway drawings of the submarine, this powerful volume combines authoritative history and the magic of moviemaking to give the reader the real backstory to K-19.
Customer Reviews:
Shallow exploration of Soviet submarines.......2007-04-06
I'd already seen the movie, but picked up this book figuring I'd get the true story behind the movie. Unfortunately, though the book does get the history behind the story, it's information value isn't that much more substantive than the feature film.
The True Story: K-19 was the Soviets' first SSBN - nuclear-powered, ballistic missile sub. Like their USN counterparts, Soviet SSBN's of K-19's "Hotel" class were really modified attack subs. (Unfortunately, the Russians were a generation behind in nuclear sub technology: American SSBN's were based on the Skipjack class, a second generation SSN, while Hotels were modified versions of the "November" class - the very first Soviet SSN.) Particulars aside, K-19 suffered a series of maladies endemic to the Soviets' military-industrial complex, not the least of which were design flaws in its nuclear powerplant. In the heady days of the early 1960's, the Soviets were forced to relax their standards in order to field any nuclear powered ships which were unreliable, unsafe and loud enough to allow easy detection by western ships. As a result, the history of Soviet nuclear subs is a catalog of nuclear accidents, shoddy design and maintenance, poor training and morale, and numerous radiation related injuries and deaths. The feature film "K-19" depicted a fictionalized version of K-19's maiden voyage in which the ship's reactor suffered a catastrophic coolant leak and nearly exploded. A breakdown of crew morale nearly led to a mutiny, but the ship eventually made port, was refitted, and returned to sea. Future patrols of K-19 were similarly marked by near catastrophe - including a fire that trapped some of the crew in one darkened compartment for over three weeks. Ironically, K-19 survived these maladies while other ships went to the bottom, taking many crewmen with them. Soviet authorities cover these accidents up (reports try to shift blame to the crews; injuries from radiation exposure are typically masked as stress-related).
But we knew all of that. Well, we didn't know many details, but the story of the soviet navy as one beset by incompetence, cover-ups and nuclear accidents is an old one, the grist of Tom Clancy novels of a distant era. This book, which includes the memoirs of Nikolai Zateyev, who commanded K-19 on its infamous 1961 patrol, adds little to the lore of the hidden Soviet naval history, and amounts to little more than a thick addendum to books like "Blind Man's Bluff". We get names of many in the Soviet hierarchy, and many anecdotes of Soviet engineering blunders, but again, these are old stories fleshed out with some names. Because its not clear how many of these episodes were witnessed by Zatayev, it's unclear just how useful his memoirs are as a firsthand record of systemic problems in the Soviet navy. At about 211 pages, including a digest of Russian naval accidents, "K-19" is no heavy read, and I finished it off in a little more than a day. (The digest is largely redundant - since the text of "K-19" already recounts many of these accidents; an afterword by "K-19" director Kathryn Bigelow, and an insert of pictures of both the real K-19 and from the feature film further plump up the book's weight.) Hunting the depths of this book gave me the sense that the author gave up trying to get the real story of K-19, and decided to make up for lost text by simply recounting many already documented incidents (like collisions between Russian subs and American ships like the USS Voge and the submarine USS Gato, as well as the loss of the subs Komsomolets, K-219 and K-129) brought again to public attention with the 1998 publication of "Blind Man's Bluff". In short, if you've read any histories of cold war submarines, Soviet or Western, this book will likely add little to your understanding.
Recommended.......2004-08-01
This book gives you the real story behind the dramatization presented in the motion picture: K-19: The Widowmaker. More than just a companion piece, the book provides passages from a diary maintained by the captain of K-19, extensive research materials on the incident itself as well as the Cold War Soviet Union conditions and motivations that contributed to the incident.
If that were not enough, a wealth of information is provided on other (known) incidents involving Soviet/Russian nuclear naval vessels/projects. Starting just after WWII and continuing up to the loss of the Kursk in Nov 2001, the bravery of the Russian sailors, the alarming loss of life and the environmental impact is well documented.
Too many pages.......2004-07-23
This book has 211 pages and some addendums that you can read or not depending on the mood you will be at the end of the book, so we will only count the 211 pages of the story.
The first 112 pages will tell you how to build a nuclear submarine and some tips on how to maneuver it. If you want to learn to do this it is fine to read it, but I think that if you only read this book to know how to build the nuclear sub you might find some trouble doing it.
The next 50 pages is the real story of what happened to the K-19 and it is interesting what was going on at the sub.
The last part of the book tells us why that happened to the sub and tells us that the Russians didn't learn anything about this accident and maybe they had the same failure at Chernovil.
So, if you read from page 112 and read about 70 pages you will get the story.
The hidden side of the Russian navy.......2004-03-31
Normally I don't like reading books that are then used in movies. If the movie follows the book too closely then what is the point of both reading the book and seeing the movie. This book however is quite different to the film. They compiment each other nicely.
It was fasinating to read of the problem encounted by the Russians in trying to match the US navy particularly once they went to nuclear power. Once they did so the dangers both to themselves and the enviroment went up dramatically.
What I did notice while reading the book is that you get a feel of how much there is to get it right on a submarine. It certainly was a tribute to the Western navy designers that most of these problems did not occur like these in their ships.
I was also very impressed with the bravery and skill of the soviet sailors and commanders that went out in ships that were sub standard and how well under pressure they did behave.
"These are good weapons we're building,comrades!".......2004-02-14
A great expose on the Soviet Navy.Although we all remember the Cold War and the phychological war between the USSR and the West,particularly the US.The massive buildups on both sides seemed to be without end.With the continual blustering of Russia,and continual expansion of communision we all wondered where it would all end.Little did we suspect that the powerful Soviet system would collapse from within with hardly a wimper.Many still don't understand how such a powerful system could fall apart so easily.Well,reading this book will show how the whole system was rotten to the core and totally inept in every aspect except brutality and deceit particularly towards their own people.It's amazing after all the slavery,sacrifice,brutality,forced labor camps,oppression and all the other evils carried out by the government, that so little was accomplished.
This book shows that while we feared these Soviet subs,the real threat was that they were so poorly designed,constructed,maintained and operated that the biggest threat was that they would have a malfunction and cause a major disaster.
To quote a little that sums up the Cold War from pg.210...
"The Cold War ,after all,was not just a military chess game,an effort to maintain the balance of nuclear power,with that wonderful concept Mutual Assured Destruction. It was also a war in a much more literal sense,a war of attrition.Our strategy in constantly upping the ante in the arms race was to push the entire Soviet system to the breaking point.And of course,that strategy succeeded.The Cold War is over,and we were the winners."
The book is well researched,well written and very informative.
Book Description
One of the major voices in science fiction, Mike Resnick presents the first volume in a bold new trilogy.Jefferson Nighthawk--known and feared by many as the Widowmaker, the consummate bounty hunter--has been frozen for a century in order to defeat a deadly disease. Only now the cost of his care has risen, so the Widowmaker is called out of retirement for one special commission, and a very large chunk of cash. A notorious assassin has been wrecking havoc on the Frontier; who better but the Widowmaker to defeat him?
Customer Reviews:
Simply Awful.......2001-12-16
The backcover blurb about a "killing machine," a bounty hunter who is cloned to track down a notorious assassin certainly sounded intriguing. Unfortunately, it didn't take long to realize the author had pretty much wasted the interesting premise through pedestrian (and worse, at times amateurish) writing. All of the characters, except perhaps Father Christmas, are pretty annoying and cliche'ish. Father Christmas is just cliche'ish. The dialogue is inane and too often juvenile prattle, which is really bad because the book is virtually all dialogue. I think this was the first Resnick book I've read. It will be my last.
Good, but the second one is better.......1999-10-19
This book is very good, it entertained me, but I enjoyed the 2nd book in the series better. This also caputres the naievete of a three month old in a 20 yer old persons body. Very interestin.
A mildly entertaining, yet fast read.......1999-10-08
Perhaps I expected too much of the Widowmaker, with its sexy blue-skinned babe and Elfin, mildly effeminate and dashing captain at the helm on the cover. Although I did get interstellar adventure, interplanetary shoot-outs, dramatic, but awkwardly choreographed fight scenes, and yes, titilating sexual innuendo, the book ultimately left me a little flat.
Although I really did like the set-up for the ending, the actual sequence of events at the end was kind of abrupt. I do like the irony of the main character's downfall using a scantily clad stray tail, and I did like the scathing cynicism thrown at organized religion, relationships and politics.
Maybe I will check out the second book, and maybe I will not. One thing is certain, though; the premise is quite intriguing, and perhaps the story gets tighter in the second book.
I highly recommend all 3 Mike Resnick's Widowmakers books........1999-01-04
Mike Resnick has done a great at translating the Old West lawman/bounty hunter to the frontiers of space. However, Jefferson Nighthawk, aka the Widowmaker, the best at his job is sent on a mission ill prepared to face the emotional realities of his world. This Widowmaker is a clone that is trained with the original's physical skills, but not the his emotional mind set or memories. Read the book to see if the young Widowmaker survives to complete his mission.
Average customer rating:
- Widowmaker SciFi Western Trilogy
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Widowmakers
Manufacturer: SFBC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Similar Items:
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A Gathering Of Widowmakers
ASIN: 1568659504 |
Product Description
Includes three stories: The Widowmaker, The Widowmaker Reborn and The Widowmaker unleashed. Jacket art by Donato.
Customer Reviews:
Widowmaker SciFi Western Trilogy.......2007-03-09
WIDOWMAKERS(1998) is a SFBC omnibus trilogy of SciFi Western stories, set in the same universe as the fairly similar "Santiago" galaxy-frontier bounty hunter stories, also by Mike Resnick. Unfortunately, the three WIDOWMAKER stories; THE WIDOWMAKER(1996), THE WIDOWMAKER REBORN(1997), and THE WIDOWMAKER UNLEASED(1998), don't compare very well to the orginal and very excellent SANTIAGO(1986)*****, or even THE RETURN OF SANTIAGO(2004)****1/2.
Here are brief reviews of each of the three Widowmaker stories in this trilogy:
THE WIDOWMAKER(1996)**1/2 - Mediocre story, fairly short at about 200 hardcover pages. The most famous "bounty hunter" of the galaxy frontier is Jefferson Nighthawk, AKA The Widowmaker - but at 60 years of age he has contracted an incurable disease, and has put himself in suspended animation... but, after 100 years, there still is no cure, and his investments are running low, and the payments to the institution that is keeping him alive are due. But, just in time, some planetary military leader foots the bill to have The Widomaker cloned to help hunt down the assasin of a planetary leader... the clone has the reflexes of the original, but the hormones and lack of experience of a teenager... The clone is sent out to bring in the assasin, in order to earn enough money to foot the bill to keep the original Widowmaker alive until a cure can be found. The clone ends up killing all those who stand in his way, but also ends up falling head over heals in love with a stripper, which leads to a lot of frustrating situations. Young Jefferson is not a likeable character, and neither are any of the other characters for the first half of the story... finally Resnick introduces one likeable character known as Father Christmas - but, in the end, you end up asking yourself why he even bothered hanging around young Jefferson.
THE WIDOWMAKER REBORN(1997)*** - About 210 pages, and better than the first story, but still lacking in originality, believability, and good characters. We have some interesting aliens, and 35-year-old Jefferson (with the memories of the 60-year-old original) is slightly more likeable than young Jefferson, but the action is repititious and sometimes contrived.
THE WIDOWMAKER UNLEASHED(1998)**** - Shortest (~180 pages), but best of the bunch. The original Jefferson Nighthawk has been cured, and after an intense rehabilitation, the 62-year-old lasergunslinger wants to fade into retirement obscurity on a peaceful frontier world - but The Widowmaker's reputation won't allow for that.
One other thing worth mentioning about this book - it had an excellent front cover, by Donato... I've scanned it, and provided it as an image.
Book Description
There is only one thing that Jefferson Nighthawk, the original Widowmaker, really wanted to do and that was retire on a far away planet and raise a garden. There were still two clones of him to keep the peace and carry on his legend. Unfortunately for him, his two clones have come to a disagreement. When a widowmaker takes on a widowmaker everyone runs for cover. There is only one man who can stand up to the clones of the Widowmaker... the Widowmaker himself.
Customer Reviews:
Great book, plenty of action, nice wrap-up.......2007-03-01
Resnick delivers another great book - we get plenty of backstory, and see what really makes the Widowmaker. No fan of the series should miss this book!
Average customer rating:
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The Black Widowmaker
Manufacturer: Grizzly Bookz
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000CN5L72 |
Product Description
This is the story of a ykoung black girl with not a chance since the day she was born.
Book Description
Her sister was murdered, and Kirin hungers for revenge. Using the power of her "blood magic," the young necromancer creates grotesque and inhumanly strong creatures by calling men's souls back into their dead bodies. These "sweetlings," as she calls them, are utterly devoted to her, and Kirin cherishes them as if they were her own children. But while fighting a bloody war against a relentless enemy, she meets Lia Cho, a beautiful and gentle woman who can call the power of storms... and soon, Kirin learns that there is more to life than pain and vengeance.
Customer Reviews:
fantastic fantasy series.......2007-09-20
She was brought up to be a lady and to make a good match but when her twin falls in love and marries the drunken womanizing Marcus; she insists her twin marry his best friend. Both women are brutalized by their spouses but where Kirin accepts it her sister learns blood magic from the local herbwoman. When Marcus kills her Kirin while in a drunken stupor assumes her identity and using her blood magic to suck the life out of him and brings it into her.
She runs away from her village using the dead who obey her command until they crumble into dust. Her magic is taboo by the other religions but Kirin ignores their pious mouthing and does what she needs to do in order to survive. The Mor, monstrous creatures, emerge from their caves and underground tunnels to make war on humanity as they do every few decades. Kirin becomes a scout in the Imperial Army and she watches five thousand soldiers killed by five hundred Mor. She aids the refuges healing with blood magic even though Brother Ato condemns her and Element Master of Air Lia Cho tries to support her even if she doesn't approve of the use of blood magic. However, that might be the only way humanity can defeat the Mor although the people she is trying to save won't accept her methods.
BLOOD MAGIC is a spellbinding sword and sorcery tale about a young woman who goes from an innocent girl to a person who kills when she needs to survive or when helping people who scorn and fear her when she helps them against a common enemy. It hurts her not to be accepted for what she is but she knows she is not evil and does what she thinks is right although many question whether the means is acceptable even if the end is saving humanity. The Mor remains an unknown quantity as people (and readers) don't what motivates them. This is the first book in what looks to be a fantastic fantasy series.
Harriet Klausner
Dark, fast, fun.......2007-09-18
Running from the remorseless Mor, from the doomed battle at Gamth's Pass, Kirin draws on her forbidden powers to protect her love, Jazen Tor--but too late to save him, too late to retract her "sweetlings," the things she has "birthed" of the spirits of the dead.
The story of Kirin, blood magician, scout, mother, bear-killer, "abomination," starts at a relentless pace and never lets up through skirmishes, political turmoil, prejudice, deadly encounters with the Mor, and the challenges of controlling powers she doesn't understand. In alternate chapters, Cook skillfully guides the reader through Kirin's past, growing up in the shadow of her demanding twin sister, haunted by a marriage gone bad and her sister's brutal murder, but empowered by the teachings and the hidden books of wise old Edena.
When Kirin is saved by the beautiful Lia Cho and suspicious Brother Ato, her life takes on a new set of difficulties and hard lessons to learn, mourning her old love, fostering the possibility of something new. Lia, a runaway student with the extraordinary power to summon lightning, is taken with the mysterious Kirin, in defiance of the priest of Shanira who openly declares Kirin an abomination--damned, someone who manipulates the dead, and draws her power from the blood of the living.
Matthew Cook's Blood Magic is a dark feast of loss and blood and love, a fast paced fantasy in a world reminiscent of Lois McMaster Bujold's Chalion, compelling characters with the ability to draw on otherworldly powers, who push the boundaries of life and death. I look forward to reading the sequel next year, exploring Cook's world further, and discovering where Kirin's tale takes us.
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Contemporary
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| Literature & Fiction
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The Widowmaker Reborn (Widowmaker Trilogy , No 2)
Fearless (The Lost Fleet, Book 2)
Mutiny (Starship, Book 1)
Santiago: A Myth of the Far Future
