Cobra Bargain (Venture SF Books) [Paperback]

"Cobra Bargain" is actually the third of what I guess would be the Cobra trilogy. I never read the first one (see special note) but I did read the second one, "Cobra Strike" that was fast-paced but flat. That is largely corrected with "Cobra Bargain"--and not just because it's longer. There's more character development in this story that makes it more enjoyable to read.

This is the third in the series, but each book is separated by 30 years or so and focuses on different generations of the Moreau family. The original "Cobra" focused on Jonny Moreau, who signed up to become a cyborg warrior known as a Cobra and fought aliens known as Trofts. The second book, "Cobra Strike" focuses on Jonny's children, especially Justin Moreau, who also becomes a Cobra and goes to a mysterious planet called Qasama that's populated by humans who make up for their lack of technology with paranoia about outsiders. "Cobra Bargain" then focuses on Jonny's granddaughter--Justin's daughter--Jasmine Moreau, who becomes the first female Cobra. The "bargain" in the title comes in large part because Jasmine is allowed to become a Cobra and go on a spy mission to Qasama when her uncle agrees to quit politics if Jasmine fails.

Once the mission gets underway, though, the bargain becomes secondary to survival. The scout team's shuttle is shot down, leaving Jasmine as the lone survivor far, far behind enemy lines. On the plus side, Jasmine is fluent in the Qasama language. On the negative side, Qasamans view women as only a notch better than outsiders.

Jasmine is taken in by the Shammon family, whose young son becomes her warden--and maybe a bit more than that. While she recovers and tries to come up with a way to get home, Jasmine finds out there's bad stuff afoot on Qasama that could mean very bad things for everyone back home.

For the most part this retains the fast pace of "Cobra Strike" or Mr. Zahn's other books I read. In many ways it's similar to the later "Conquerors Trilogy" that similarly focuses on a multi-generational family and delves into the culture of an alien race. (The difference here being the "aliens" are human.) But as I mentioned before, there's more character depth in this book as it focuses mostly on Jasmine and the younger Shammon family son. There could perhaps have been a little more romantic tension, but for a sci-fi action story it's pretty good.

As a fan of Mr. Zahn's work since his "Star Wars" novels, it was interesting to read some of his earlier novels. The Jasmine character could be seen as a prototype to the Mara Jade character in his "Star Wars" books in that both are strong, independent females. (The difference being that Jasmine comes equipped with all sorts of cool lasers embedded in her skeletal structure while Mara Jade has a lightsaber.) I already mentioned the Conquerors books, which again these could be seen as a forerunner to. If you like a good light sci-fi story, then this isn't a bad read.

That is all.

This 1988 military science fiction novel was the third book in the saga of the cybernetically and biomechanically-enhanced "Cobra" soldiers, and therefore the final volume in the first of two trilogies written a quarter of a century apart.

The first trilogy consists of:

1) Cobra, published 1985, story begins in 2403
2) Cobra Strike" published 1986, set a generation later
3) This book "Cobra Bargain," published 1988, set another generation on in 2474.

Much more recently Zahn has revisited these stories to produce a second set of three books known as the "Cobra War" trilogy, which is set another generation later (the heroine of "Cobra Bargain" is the mother of one of the main characters in the Cobra War books). This second trilogy consists of

4) Cobra War Book 1: Cobra Alliance
5) Cobra War Book 2: Cobra Guardian
6) Cobra War Book 3: Cobra Gamble (Due for publication in 2012).

"Cobra" and "Cobra Strike" were published together in one volume as "Cobras Two" and the first three books are also available in one volume as the Cobra Trilogy.

As the first book in the series began, some four hundred years in the future and many light years away on the frontier of human space, a group of human colony worlds are under attack from an aggressive alien race known as the Troft. The first planet they attacked was over-run in only three weeks. In a desperate attempt to stop the invaders, the Dominion of Man creates the enhanced "Cobra" guerillas: the name stands for COmputerised Body Reflex Armament.

The Cobras are indistinguishable from a normal human from the outside, but with a whole host of computer-controlled weaponry and enhancements built into their bodies and their very bones. These soldiers are deadly in combat but the process of turning a normal human into a Cobra is irreversible - which means that those who survive the war will have all manner of problems returning to civilian life afterwards. The novels examine some of the personal and social consequences of turning people into supermen - have they given up their own humanity to save humankind?

"Cobra Strike" began a few years after the conclusion of "Cobra" and continued the story both of the world of Aventine, now cut off from the rest of human space, and of the next generation of the Moreau family. Where the first book told the story of Jonny Moreau who was one of the first generation of Cobra solders: the main character of this one is his son Justin, who followed him into the Cobras, and one of the supporting characters was his older son Corwin, who follows him into Aventine politics. During that book an astonishing request comes from the alien Troft, who the Cobras were originally brought into existence to fight. They asked the Cobras to assist them in dealing with a world called Quasama which they claimed was a threat to Troft and humans alike - and they offered Aventine a hugely valuable payment if the Cobras could deal with that threat.

Cobra Bargain is set another generation later - the back cover of the book says that it is set in 2474, and although I can't find this date in the actual text, it is consistent with the chronology of the series. Corwin Moreau is now a governor of Aventine: the heroine of the book is his niece Jasmine or Jin, who is the daughter of Justin Moreau and determined to follow her father and grandfather into the Cobras.

At first there is enormous opposition to making a woman into a Cobra, but then the need arises for a dangerous mission to the world of Quasama (the world which her father visited in the previous book.) Because Jin is one of the very few people on Aventine who has mastered the difficult Quasaman language, the Aventine authorities reluctantly allow her to become the first female Cobra.

But when she arrives on Quasama, the mission begins to go wrong almost immediately ...

By the way, the three paragraphs above do not not give away any more about the plot of Cobra Bargain than is stated on the back of the book.

This book and the other two novels in the original "Cobra" trilogy are reasonably well-written, entertaining, and exciting. Having been published in the eighties during the early days of Timothy Zahn's writing career, I don't personally feel that they are in the same league as the best of the brilliant novels which he has produced over the following decades.

If you read the first three Cobra novels expecting anything like "Warhorse," "Deadman Switch, "The Icarus Hunt" or any of the "Grand Admiral Thrawn" books set in the "Star Wars" universe, you may be disappointed.

Nevertheless if you are into Military SF it is extremely likely that you will enjoy these books, and you will also find that some of the ideas in them appear to have inspired a number of more recent books by other popular SF writers.