Planetary Assault

by B.V. Larson, Vaughn Heppner, David VanDyke

Three novellas of future combat in one volume by the masters of military SF. Each tells the story of a planetary invasion by men on a do-or-die mission.

"An Army of One" by B. V. Larson (a novella in the Star Force series) – One man attempts to stay neutral…and fails. The Macros are invading from the skies. The only nanotized man who isn’t officially part of Star Force learns how hard it can be to avoid an interstellar war.

"First Conquest" by David VanDyke (Book #1 of the Stellar Conquest series) – In 2115, EarthFleet sends its best warships and bravest Marines on a one-way trip to conquer an alien star system, to win or die trying.

"Cyborgs!" by Vaughn Heppner (a novella set in the Doom Star series) – The Space Marines are in the Oort Cloud, racing in their insertion pods to the frozen planetoid of Tyche. Alone in the dark, outnumbered and outgunned by the cyborgs waiting for them on the methane-ice surface, the hour of desperation has arrived.

Genres: Science Fiction

300 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 20, 2013

About the author

Brian Larson is an American science fiction and fantasy author

Reviews

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 4 stars is for B V Laron's short story about a character on his Star Force series that I'm a fanatic about.

I couldn't get into the other stories. I had a hard time following along with the tech, the characters, the pacing...

[Laurence · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Cyborgs story was the least effective for me, but short and not offensively bad. The First Conquest was simple but there was enough plot and well written space combat and ground combat that it was able to stand alone. BV Larson's Army of One was also pretty basic but there is enough there to keep it readable.

Funnily enough I realised after reading most of this book that I'd actually abandoned books from all three of these authors. BV Larson's Lost Colonies series I thought was great but I hadn't found anything else of his that I liked, and the other two I ditched their most popular book (on goodreads) early on.

[Sebo · Rating 4 out of 5]

soap opera. pulp. quick read

[David VanDyke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author's review. Of course I think it's great, particularly my long novella/short novel First Conquest, a Plague Wars tie-in that launches a new series called Stellar Conquest.

Book 2 of Stellar Conquest, Desolator, will be coming out in June 2013.

Three military science fiction tales. Each ties in to one of the authors' series.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Might be some people's cup of tea but not mine. I had some issues with the structure, content, etc.

Word of advice to the authors - lay off the thesaurus. For this genre, it is a detractor from the action.