The Tejano Conflict

Cutter's Wars #3

by Steve Perry

At the end of the twenty-fourth century, war is fought in a civilized Each side hires mercenaries to engage in combat in specifically designated areas. To the victor go the spoils—whatever they may be…
 
After a couple of assignments involving more intrigue and skulduggery than the Cutter Force Initiative ever wanted, the unit is looking forward to being part of a straight-up, short-term industrial war on Earth.
 
Cutter agrees to a support role offered by an old Army comrade who’s now a general in a larger military force. The pay is good, the unit happy. All they have to do is basic ranger sneak and peek, shoot and scoot.
 
But what starts out as a corporate fight to occupy a valuable piece of contested territory quickly goes sideways, and once again Cutter and crew find themselves in the middle of situations in which things aren’t as they seem, and the unit must determine the truth—or lose more than just a battle.

Genres: Science Fiction, Audiobook, Military Science Fiction, Military Fiction

304 pages, Mass Market Paperback

Published December 30, 2014

About the author

Librarians note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Steven Carl Perry has written over fifty novels and numerous short stories, which have appeared in various magazines and anthologies. Perry is perhaps best known for the Matador series. He has written books in the Star Wars, Alien and Conan universes. He was a collaborator on all of the Tom Clancy's Net Force series, seven of which have appeared on the New York Times Bestseller list. Two of his novelizations, Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire and Men in Black have also been bestsellers. Other writing credits include articles, reviews, and essays, animated teleplays, and some unproduced movie scripts. One of his scripts for Batman: The Animated Series was an Emmy Award nominee for Outstanding Writing.

Perry is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, The Animation Guild, and the Writers Guild of America, West

Reviews

[Soo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Notes:

Currently on Audible Plus

Of the three, I liked this story the most. It took a while to establish the characters & world enough to truly enjoy the trouble the group runs/jumps into.

[Arnis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cutter’s Wars sērijas (par triloģiju varētu saukt vien skaita dēļ) darbība norit 24.gadsimta noslēdzošajā fāzē, laikā, kad cilvēce veiksmīgi spējusi kolonizēt neskaitāmas planētas, kā arī sastapusies un atšķirīgos līmeņos spējusi rast, ja ne sadarbību, tad neitralitāti ar dažnedažādām citplanētiešu rasēm. Kardarbība, kaut arī pastāv Galaktiskās Savienības armija, kā jau daudz kas cits, šķiet arī kļuvis vairāk privātas sfēras lauciņš vai vismaz dažādi sīkie uzdevumi, kur algotņu privātās armijas un grupējumi noder labāk nekā lielā mašinērija.

https://poseidons99.com/2024/08/02/st...

[Will Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is about equally as enjoyable as the last two in the series. I am kind of bummed that there are no other stories after this one because the ending sort of felt wrapped up too clean and neatly.

[Jacob Scupp · Rating 2 out of 5]

There was so much promise going into this third and final novel. Government-sanctioned, live-fire corporate warfare? That's really fun. Having stuck with the series this far I at least kinda sorta invested in the characters, or at least the ones that had decent character building, and I was excited to see how they would deal with it. I was hoping the stakes would suddenly rise because someone with actual character development dies and the team has to deal with that in a meaningful way, or something of that character. Something to give a good scenario a good treatment.

Worldbuilding: good. We get to see what Earth is like in this timeline and it's probably pretty accurate to how it will be. Concepts and tech that were introduced are built upon a bit more, nothing plot breaking is really introduced, etc. Character building: meh. Half the characters had kinda reached a resolution, or had their endgames set up, in the last novel, so it was really just watching those either finish up or seeing minor character arcs bloom and finish. A few ending twists and resolutions that didn't feel deserved. Plot: having read the first two novels you know there's a twist coming, and it does, and it's ok. The rest of the time the plot is more engaged with sub-stories and short character arcs and they're all kinda, well, boring, never really leading to anything. A character does die but it's barely important to the story.

Up till the end it's just a continuation of the beach novel sci-fi that this series is clearly gunning for, and the ending was shaping up in a way that was pretty expected. And then the ending twist. The "happily ever after" ending isn't a bad one, but the way it's executed in this trilogy is so mind-numbingly unexpected, undeserved, and frankly feels like it belongs up there with "everybody wins" endings to harem manga in its sheer audacity. A whole bunch of interpersonal things that were kinda built up as "things" are solved in paragraphs. Minor character arcs introduced and concluded in this book alone are apparently supposed to be seen as actual finales for said characters. The titular character in particular, and the minor character who facilitates this deus ex machina ending, are the worse offenders in that regard.

To be fair, the ending is sweet and I won't lie and say that I didn't have a small smile seeing how the characters ended up. But it was bad because it was facilitated by a character who, despite being a character I liked, could have been removed from the story with almost no repercussions and because the event/action itself was because of them alone. Opinion alert, but if your story follows a team of people and the ending affects all of them, it should be something that they all have at least some part in facilitating, not because a character makes and sells a sexual biological augment and shares the wealth because the team made them feel accepted. It was a nice ending, but it would have been nice if it wasn't just because of a random, almost totally unrelated development.

Had it not been for the ending it would be three stars. The rest of the book was basically like the first one; not bad, but not good either.

[Trike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Big finish to the trilogy. Life, death, the gray areas… Cutter’s space mercenaries come to Earth on one side of a local war over water rights that has interstellar implications, and an old enemy shows up. I do like it when a story wraps things up. This whole “wars have rules” and mercenary being a legit job is interesting. I haven’t seen it quite this developed before. On top of that, the characters are interesting, and for once (or in this trilogy’s case, for thrice) the snarky banter between the soldiers didn’t cause me to roll my eyes. It never feels forced.

I did the audiobook and R.C. Bray does another excellent job. I particularly like the voice he gave the alien Vas - it sure sounds like it hurts his throat but he goes into and out of it easily.

[Laz the Sailor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoy this author and this series. The entry is the weakest, and it concludes in a way that suggests that there will not be more books.

There were several delightful aspects to the tale, but the core conflict was a bit flat. The final twist was clever, but lacked energy. The core team is still fun to be around, and they develop a little along the way to support the resolve.

I recommend this series as a nice variant from the typical A-Team in Space story.

[Cat Sheely · Rating 3 out of 5]

The third in Cuttter's Wars trilogy and it was, as the previous ones, a fun read. More about the characters and the political sculduggery than actual warfare, although there is some of that.

The series is totally wrapped up in this volume and in a nice way.

Fun, not serious and delightful characters.

[Bill O'Driscoll · Rating 3 out of 5]

Combat SF. Better than Perry's usual.

[Daniel Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stars. Did not seem as exciting as the first two. Sure the characters were the same; there was character growth, some unexpected. The usual plot twists. Just was not as good as the first two in the series. But I do look forward to what Perry comes up with next.

[Chuck Rankin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the twist of how this story came back to earth...allowed some strange 7 day monitored war and then end dramatically with the characters being given easy ways to end their lives....as in end the series of books.

[Brian McCamey · Rating 4 out of 5]

As always, Steve Perry Has given me a good book... love this cast of characters, and hope this is not the end of their story!!! Fantastic, enjoyable read - from first to last page!!!

[Tony · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first foray into this type of military science fiction and I enjoyed it.