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Accidental Conscript #1
Accidental Conscript
Sam Levine knows what it means to struggle. After several missed opportunities, he’s been forced to turn his talents to freelance work, picking up whatever dirty job he can find only to make ends meet.
But there’s an end in sight. An opportunity to change everything. And when a dangerous, high profile job comes his way, he sees light at the end of the tunnel. Hope has been in rare supply, but even with the dangers inherent in his decision, he puts his life on the line for a chance to elevate his situation.
But there’s an end in sight. An opportunity to change everything. And when a dangerous, high profile job comes his way, he sees light at the end of the tunnel. Hope has been in rare supply, but even with the dangers inherent in his decision, he puts his life on the line for a chance to elevate his situation.
- GenresScience Fiction
346 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 26, 2024
809 people are currently reading
54 people want to read
About the author
John Walker
1,210 books163 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
May 4, 2024
GREAT STORY AND HOPEFULLY, A GREAT START TO ANOTHER GREAT SERIES.
Accidental Conscript by John Walker is well written, full of suspense, struggles, and thrills throughout. There are a lot of different characters in this first book and John has defined them very well though it takes the majority of this first book for them to come together in a way that you understand where John is taking you on this really intriguing story of different social classes, corporations that run everyone's lifes, and an upper class of monarchy which rules as what appears to be just the face behind the Board which seems to be the corporations in charge of everyone and everything with the exception of the military.
Through it takes awhile for all the characters to come together were it seems you know who's who, John places different twists into the story line that will leave you in suspense trying to figure what's coming next.
This is a very good lead in to what hopefully will be another great series by John Walker. I enjoyed reading this first book, and I am looking forward to starting book two shortly. Hope you will also find yourself enjoying this book.
Accidental Conscript by John Walker is well written, full of suspense, struggles, and thrills throughout. There are a lot of different characters in this first book and John has defined them very well though it takes the majority of this first book for them to come together in a way that you understand where John is taking you on this really intriguing story of different social classes, corporations that run everyone's lifes, and an upper class of monarchy which rules as what appears to be just the face behind the Board which seems to be the corporations in charge of everyone and everything with the exception of the military.
Through it takes awhile for all the characters to come together were it seems you know who's who, John places different twists into the story line that will leave you in suspense trying to figure what's coming next.
This is a very good lead in to what hopefully will be another great series by John Walker. I enjoyed reading this first book, and I am looking forward to starting book two shortly. Hope you will also find yourself enjoying this book.
March 28, 2024
Not a good book
Do your self a favor and do not get this book. It jumps all over the place. It has over a dozen characters to follow and you don't really care for any of them. It was really hard to read. I had to force myself to read it and I wish I hadn't.
Do your self a favor and do not get this book. It jumps all over the place. It has over a dozen characters to follow and you don't really care for any of them. It was really hard to read. I had to force myself to read it and I wish I hadn't.
May 3, 2024
This book jumps for one place to another, then to another and then to another, you get the picture. The proof reading people for this book need to be fired. There are so many errors throughout the book, they make you stop to try and figure out what the author is trying to say. Then there is the problem being so long winded in places, which makes it boring in parts. So many problems with this book, it doesn't flow making the story engageable.
May 9, 2024
Ok, stay with me on this one, it has a couple of interesting story lines. There’s the Board like in Corporate Board with Directors that make all the executive decisions for any large and vast company. Only this company happens to be the Imperial Human Empire. The Empire has a King and Queen and a whole bevy of royalty. They do their royal things, hob-knob with the rich and famous and generally have fun and give the appearance that all is well within the Empire.
It’s not! The Board knows this but aren’t necessarily in a hurry to fix things or even change much. The Board knows that it makes all the real decisions for humanity and they like it that way. Individual Board members have lots of responsibility, but they make lots of money also. They do by and large try to keep the King, Queen and the royalty happy and informed of things the Board thinks they should know about.
Samuel Levine isn’t any where close to being royalty nor is he anything of interest to the Board. He knows how the system works because he’s had several jobs within the system, one of which was with the Security Corps and then with a private firm doing similar security related jobs. Neither worked out for Sam so now he’s already spent his last dollar, can’t pay his rent so he turns to the only thing that might get him out of his predicament.
Sam is going to do a job for the Constance Family. That’s like working for the mob only this Mob controls an entire planet name Constance. They control almost all the crime on every human occupied planet and you usually have to work for them if you’re going the criminal route. Sam doesn’t have a choice. He thinks he can score a big pay-off if he can just do this one more job. He believes he’ll earn enough money to get off the planet and go live somewhere else, any place else.
Sam has a technical partner that goes by the name of Shep. She’s usually tied to him by earbud comms when he’s doing a job. She is the computer expert that can break into just about any system and shut-down alarms and especially security cameras. Sam has convinced one of the Constance mob bosses that he can break-in the Security Corps HQ and steal a codex. That codex contains all the code required to allow a person or persons to travel freely throughout the Empire. There are not very many of them on Mars so having one is worth a whole bunch of money. But, breaking into the Security Corps HQ is just sort of insane, but Sam believes he can do it.
Then we start following a small squad of military out on a colony planet that has been hit by the Gorlans. These are very angry aliens that consider every planet theirs and don’t want humans on any of them. Oh, they don’t actually want the planets themselves, they just want the humans to be gone. Their usual attack is one of total destruction. They bomb the planet to rubble and then land their troops to kill every last living human, and then they leave. Sergeant Jeff Culver (Cully) has only a few troops left at his outpost on Calliope. The Gorlans have already decimated the major colony city and now they are systematically stomping out all the military bases and post. Sgt. Cully has to get his remaining troops to an evacuation point if they are going to live. He has to fight some idiot civilians who believe this is a perfect time to raid an army outpost even though they are going to die since they aren’t part of the last evacuation airlift. You will meet up with Sgt. Cully and his troops on another mission later in the book.
Lastly, Caden Raines is the Justiciar who gets assigned to find out who broke into Security Corps. HQ. Will this lead him to Sam Levine and how does the names of Rodrigo Knowles and Aldo Cassidy fit into this story. Well, it’s going to be a surprise for sure. Very scientific and a lot is going to change for a number of people especially Sam and Aldo.
This story doesn’t end here although it could. I’m not sure if we follow everyone into the next book, but I think Aldo has a big part. Book 2, “Losing Ground”, is avialbe on Amazon right now.
It’s not! The Board knows this but aren’t necessarily in a hurry to fix things or even change much. The Board knows that it makes all the real decisions for humanity and they like it that way. Individual Board members have lots of responsibility, but they make lots of money also. They do by and large try to keep the King, Queen and the royalty happy and informed of things the Board thinks they should know about.
Samuel Levine isn’t any where close to being royalty nor is he anything of interest to the Board. He knows how the system works because he’s had several jobs within the system, one of which was with the Security Corps and then with a private firm doing similar security related jobs. Neither worked out for Sam so now he’s already spent his last dollar, can’t pay his rent so he turns to the only thing that might get him out of his predicament.
Sam is going to do a job for the Constance Family. That’s like working for the mob only this Mob controls an entire planet name Constance. They control almost all the crime on every human occupied planet and you usually have to work for them if you’re going the criminal route. Sam doesn’t have a choice. He thinks he can score a big pay-off if he can just do this one more job. He believes he’ll earn enough money to get off the planet and go live somewhere else, any place else.
Sam has a technical partner that goes by the name of Shep. She’s usually tied to him by earbud comms when he’s doing a job. She is the computer expert that can break into just about any system and shut-down alarms and especially security cameras. Sam has convinced one of the Constance mob bosses that he can break-in the Security Corps HQ and steal a codex. That codex contains all the code required to allow a person or persons to travel freely throughout the Empire. There are not very many of them on Mars so having one is worth a whole bunch of money. But, breaking into the Security Corps HQ is just sort of insane, but Sam believes he can do it.
Then we start following a small squad of military out on a colony planet that has been hit by the Gorlans. These are very angry aliens that consider every planet theirs and don’t want humans on any of them. Oh, they don’t actually want the planets themselves, they just want the humans to be gone. Their usual attack is one of total destruction. They bomb the planet to rubble and then land their troops to kill every last living human, and then they leave. Sergeant Jeff Culver (Cully) has only a few troops left at his outpost on Calliope. The Gorlans have already decimated the major colony city and now they are systematically stomping out all the military bases and post. Sgt. Cully has to get his remaining troops to an evacuation point if they are going to live. He has to fight some idiot civilians who believe this is a perfect time to raid an army outpost even though they are going to die since they aren’t part of the last evacuation airlift. You will meet up with Sgt. Cully and his troops on another mission later in the book.
Lastly, Caden Raines is the Justiciar who gets assigned to find out who broke into Security Corps. HQ. Will this lead him to Sam Levine and how does the names of Rodrigo Knowles and Aldo Cassidy fit into this story. Well, it’s going to be a surprise for sure. Very scientific and a lot is going to change for a number of people especially Sam and Aldo.
This story doesn’t end here although it could. I’m not sure if we follow everyone into the next book, but I think Aldo has a big part. Book 2, “Losing Ground”, is avialbe on Amazon right now.
April 11, 2025
Great story buried by bad writing
Alternate universe, future history, aliens, interstellar tech, politics
The book starts scattered; it takes almost a hundred pages before the story and players begin to coalesce. The writer has other, off-putting issues. Poor grasp of grammar. Typos. And frequently shifts between first and third person perspective. Sometimes changing several times in the same paragraph. I'm interested in the story, but it took two hundred pages to get there! A reader isn't supposed to work to get the story! I am not interested in having to work so hard by trying read the next book.
I'm willing, if the story is good enough, to forgive a lot writing mistakes. Spending the first hundred pages to jump around to introduce a huge cast was daring. But the bad grammar, typos, and especially switching perspectives were jarring. Some readers apparently aren't bothered by that. I am. More, I found this experience infuriating because I bought the rest of the series before starting the first book, and not only do I not intend to read the rest of the books, I feel like I have rewarded bad behavior. I don't know what the author did before, but he seriously needs to master some basics. This book needs serious rewriting, and then at least some editing, because it's obvious the author isn't up to the task.
And that's a shame because buried under the dross is a decent story. Though Sam is a POS, and even his new identity won't change that. And the human society is grim, authoritarian, and ultimately cold, fractured, caste bound, and incompetent. There's a name for such a corporatocracy, and Amazon won't let me use the word, but certain European nations in the 1940s practiced that form of government, and just as ruthlessly suppressed dissent, knowledge, and discouraged decent human values.
I hope the author applies his drive to improving his writing skills. There, underneath it all, is some talent.
Without a great deal of work and revision, not recommended.
Alternate universe, future history, aliens, interstellar tech, politics
The book starts scattered; it takes almost a hundred pages before the story and players begin to coalesce. The writer has other, off-putting issues. Poor grasp of grammar. Typos. And frequently shifts between first and third person perspective. Sometimes changing several times in the same paragraph. I'm interested in the story, but it took two hundred pages to get there! A reader isn't supposed to work to get the story! I am not interested in having to work so hard by trying read the next book.
I'm willing, if the story is good enough, to forgive a lot writing mistakes. Spending the first hundred pages to jump around to introduce a huge cast was daring. But the bad grammar, typos, and especially switching perspectives were jarring. Some readers apparently aren't bothered by that. I am. More, I found this experience infuriating because I bought the rest of the series before starting the first book, and not only do I not intend to read the rest of the books, I feel like I have rewarded bad behavior. I don't know what the author did before, but he seriously needs to master some basics. This book needs serious rewriting, and then at least some editing, because it's obvious the author isn't up to the task.
And that's a shame because buried under the dross is a decent story. Though Sam is a POS, and even his new identity won't change that. And the human society is grim, authoritarian, and ultimately cold, fractured, caste bound, and incompetent. There's a name for such a corporatocracy, and Amazon won't let me use the word, but certain European nations in the 1940s practiced that form of government, and just as ruthlessly suppressed dissent, knowledge, and discouraged decent human values.
I hope the author applies his drive to improving his writing skills. There, underneath it all, is some talent.
Without a great deal of work and revision, not recommended.
Read
October 9, 2025DNF at about 30%
This book needed a developmental editor badly. The prologue is unnecessary because everything in it is restated at length just after. The first 7 chapters alternate between the heist and the fleeing soldiers, each with two POVs, then two completely different situations are introduced with more POVs. That's already too much but it wouldn't have been that bad if the chapters were snappy. A lot of information is redundant. The author does a lot of showing, which is great, but he also does exposition through inner thoughts and dialogue of the exact same things. As a result of this redundancy and the proliferation of POVs and characters the reader feels bogged down and confused. I just lost patience. I might come back and amend this review if I finish the book but I doubt I can muster enough interest.
This book needed a developmental editor badly. The prologue is unnecessary because everything in it is restated at length just after. The first 7 chapters alternate between the heist and the fleeing soldiers, each with two POVs, then two completely different situations are introduced with more POVs. That's already too much but it wouldn't have been that bad if the chapters were snappy. A lot of information is redundant. The author does a lot of showing, which is great, but he also does exposition through inner thoughts and dialogue of the exact same things. As a result of this redundancy and the proliferation of POVs and characters the reader feels bogged down and confused. I just lost patience. I might come back and amend this review if I finish the book but I doubt I can muster enough interest.
April 3, 2024
Good book once it gets going
There is a lot of backstory to fill in for this book, and unfortunately the beginning of the book gets that backstory filled in with a bunch of different not yet connected perspectives and characters that made it hard to figure out what was going on. I am glad I kept at it and kept reading as once Sam became Aldo, the book was a lot more fun. It does still flip between the different backstories, but enough of it was finally filled in for it to mess and make more sense. So keep with this book past the start, it is worth it. I recommend this book.
There is a lot of backstory to fill in for this book, and unfortunately the beginning of the book gets that backstory filled in with a bunch of different not yet connected perspectives and characters that made it hard to figure out what was going on. I am glad I kept at it and kept reading as once Sam became Aldo, the book was a lot more fun. It does still flip between the different backstories, but enough of it was finally filled in for it to mess and make more sense. So keep with this book past the start, it is worth it. I recommend this book.
April 17, 2024
A well written story. Only 4* because there were actually 3 MC's sharing some common story line elements and this is not a style that appeals to me. The 3 were loosely connected by shared events early in the story line but then of course diverged. I can see several way's they can get back together for some common issue resolutions but this method of story telling just isn't my cup of tea.
August 17, 2024
All the characters are coupled. A man and woman. From beginning to end. What's up with that? I was intrigued the original Sam and Shep team. I thought they would be central characters. But it got confusing quickly as hell when the switch happened. I give it a guarded 2 review. I'll take a look at Book 2, to see if the story develops.
March 30, 2024
Intrigued
I have to admit that it took me about a quarter of the book to get invested in the story and the plots. Once he gets the plot lines firmed up and characters introduced it kept me going. Now get busy and get book 2 done.
I have to admit that it took me about a quarter of the book to get invested in the story and the plots. Once he gets the plot lines firmed up and characters introduced it kept me going. Now get busy and get book 2 done.
April 3, 2024
Nice
Started the story as a sort of mystery as it unfolded I got more involved.
As things progressed the different factions in the story got more involved.
At the end I was so involved I can't wait for the continuing books.
Started the story as a sort of mystery as it unfolded I got more involved.
As things progressed the different factions in the story got more involved.
At the end I was so involved I can't wait for the continuing books.
May 22, 2024
what’s next
Intrigue, double cross then triple cross. Rich boy doesn’t want to go to war, small town swindler crosses the wrong gangsters and girlfriend! Switch bodies and identity, experimental but what choice do they have?
Intrigue, double cross then triple cross. Rich boy doesn’t want to go to war, small town swindler crosses the wrong gangsters and girlfriend! Switch bodies and identity, experimental but what choice do they have?
May 23, 2024
Started slow
Started slow , has too many characters and a convoluted plot. However about a third if the way through the book a couple of group's activities become interesting and worth reading about. I'll give the second book a try, Walker is usually a pretty good Author!
Started slow , has too many characters and a convoluted plot. However about a third if the way through the book a couple of group's activities become interesting and worth reading about. I'll give the second book a try, Walker is usually a pretty good Author!
July 14, 2024
Good fighting
I loved the war scenes, did not care for all the different various pathways (too many) to get there. Would have been happy see more of "Aldo" in his new identity. Curious to see how that develops.
I loved the war scenes, did not care for all the different various pathways (too many) to get there. Would have been happy see more of "Aldo" in his new identity. Curious to see how that develops.
July 27, 2024
Excellent
But it's a scanner... I gave it 5 stars out of respect for the obvious time and effort the author put in to write it. And at least it wasn't all blood and guts, death and destruction like some of the others I've struggled through.🙂
But it's a scanner... I gave it 5 stars out of respect for the obvious time and effort the author put in to write it. And at least it wasn't all blood and guts, death and destruction like some of the others I've struggled through.🙂
August 30, 2024
Slow start but has Potential
Long startup with whole circus of characters involved. No clear main character for most of book. Everyone has separate tiny interleaved snippets of words. Late in the book before character tales even begin to converge and interact.
Long startup with whole circus of characters involved. No clear main character for most of book. Everyone has separate tiny interleaved snippets of words. Late in the book before character tales even begin to converge and interact.
September 8, 2024
Proof reading needed
And an editor! This has great ideas but it’s way too blocky and full of errors. So much so I’m not going to continue reading the series. It’s such a pity too and there’s some excellent ideas and interesting characters.
And an editor! This has great ideas but it’s way too blocky and full of errors. So much so I’m not going to continue reading the series. It’s such a pity too and there’s some excellent ideas and interesting characters.
September 10, 2024
characters and worlds
Excellent characters and world building, with a little complexity to the design. Nothing about this story is really formulaic, and i was really happy it went in different directions to where I thought.
Really looking forward to seeing where the story goes.
Excellent characters and world building, with a little complexity to the design. Nothing about this story is really formulaic, and i was really happy it went in different directions to where I thought.
Really looking forward to seeing where the story goes.
April 20, 2025
Good read
Good read. The story did not get interesting until I was halfway through the book.
But characters are getting developed and the story line is good. I would recommend this book to other readers,
Good read. The story did not get interesting until I was halfway through the book.
But characters are getting developed and the story line is good. I would recommend this book to other readers,
April 22, 2024
Good story
Good flow. Interesting twists.
Needs a better proofreader. Wrong words, double words that break up the flow of the reading.
Good flow. Interesting twists.
Needs a better proofreader. Wrong words, double words that break up the flow of the reading.
April 30, 2024
Good start
Wonder if this will be posted. Anyway the book is fun to read and consider which of the social leadership and empires deserve to be the most powerful and self serving.
Wonder if this will be posted. Anyway the book is fun to read and consider which of the social leadership and empires deserve to be the most powerful and self serving.
May 14, 2024
Very good read
I enjoyed reading this book very much and I recommend this book to anyone who likes space opera and action type of books.
I enjoyed reading this book very much and I recommend this book to anyone who likes space opera and action type of books.
July 7, 2024
Soap opera gun battles
Started ok but became a rehash of neverending gun battles and the plot just petered out .not worth it if you had to pay
Started ok but became a rehash of neverending gun battles and the plot just petered out .not worth it if you had to pay
July 27, 2024
A good read
A decent book. It took a little getting into as new characters were introduced but was a good read once I got into it.
A decent book. It took a little getting into as new characters were introduced but was a good read once I got into it.
February 3, 2025
Slow Builder
It took a while to get going. But once it did was great reading. Good plot twists and varying interconnections that set the stage for more.
It took a while to get going. But once it did was great reading. Good plot twists and varying interconnections that set the stage for more.
February 17, 2025
Good book one.
I liked reading this book.
I enjoy the characters.
Now I am going to read the rest of the books in the series.
I liked reading this book.
I enjoy the characters.
Now I am going to read the rest of the books in the series.
April 28, 2025
Interesting story...tons of typos
There are a ton of typos and word substitutions but not hard to decipher. Interesting story but not for me at these prices.
There are a ton of typos and word substitutions but not hard to decipher. Interesting story but not for me at these prices.
May 7, 2025
Dizzying
This story jumped characters a lot it felt like I was reading 4 different books. I admit they all got pretty exciting but it was still a pain to read
This story jumped characters a lot it felt like I was reading 4 different books. I admit they all got pretty exciting but it was still a pain to read
June 14, 2025
I am enjoying this series. There are many sub-plots. Overall, I find it entertaining and fun.
What I really wish is that I could figure out a way to contact the author. If anyone know how, please let me know?
What I really wish is that I could figure out a way to contact the author. If anyone know how, please let me know?
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews