Misfortune's Favorite

Orion Spur #1

by John Spearman

A new action-packed military science fiction series from award-winning author John J. Spearman.

War has broken out. It'll take the Navy's finest to turn the tide.

Bad luck seems to follow navy officer Archer Devereaux like toilet paper stuck to his shoe. Even when he tries to do the right thing, he ends up in hot water—or behind bars.

Hemmed in by circumstances beyond his control, his reputation, particularly among graduates of the Phlegraean Naval Academy, has become a mess.

Fortunately, one of his superior officers knows that Devereaux is more than his mishaps. She sees that he's a clever young officer. Cool under fire.

He also demonstrates remarkable resilience, looking for—and finding—ways to overcome adversity. It’s a good thing too.

Interstellar war has come. It'll take the Navy's finest to turn the tide. It'll take Archer Devereaux.

Don't miss this new military sci-fi thrill ride from #1 Amazon bestselling author John J. Spearman. It's perfect for fans of Rick Partlow, David Weber, and Jeffery H. Haskell!

Genres: Science Fiction

366 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 22, 2025

About the author

John Spearman is an award-winning author. In the past, he served a Latin teacher and coach at a prestigious New England boarding school. Before joining the world of academia, Spearman had been a sales and marketing executive for 25 years.

Reviews

[Liviu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun novel - a bit on the light picaresque side but with serious body count and set in a universe where five human multi system states and a bunch of independent systems have been sharing over 300 populated planets for more than a thousand years.

Archer Devereaux, a young very good looking officer from a merchant background in the Phalgrean Alliance, has just been promoted to lieutenant commander despite his being sidelined for a while as payback for unknowningly having an affair with his CO's wife who used a false name to seduce him (not that he needed much convincing) as part of getting back to her husband whom she was divorcing.

Luckily Admiral Hargreaves took a shine to Archer as she thought he had the right stuff for the uncertain times of our storyline when after a long period of peace, war clouds have been appearing on the horizon.

So the promotion and a first command in neutral space between the Alliance and the Federation whom everyone thought that was spoiling for a fight. Of course things go sideways soon when Archer receives a super secret, contact no one, supersedes all orders code to exfiltrate an intelligence asset on a Federation base...

And so it goes with Archer getting from misadventure to misadventure though he keeps his cool and judgement so eventually he is always cleared of his seemingly wrongdoing and gets to have another misadventure - even a relatively simple task like playing a gigolo officer brought for the entertainment of a powerful and rich aristocratic woman on a diplomatic mission goes sideways fast and not only Archer is imprisoned for murder - when he tried to prevent it - but later has to kill in cold blood the people who framed him to escape their plan of dumping him in space.

When it turns out that not the Federation but the Union was behind the plots and war starts, Archer finds himself in the thick of the action but each time starting from an inferior position brought by the bad luck of having on his ship a mad officer or a traitor or ...

And of course when things seem to have cooled down and the Admiral brings him to a conference of the greatest importance, he sort of jokes that after all the stuff that seem to happen around him, does she really want to have him there....

Really fun and ending at a good tbc point and hoping that the next series book will keep the energy of this one and the balance between Archer's actions and the disasters he always seems to be involved in however unwittingly...

[William B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Captivating!

I am usually not a fan of stories that involves frame jobs. This was dome right and is only a small portion of the book. This is a tale of a Lt: Commander who is apparently, misfortune’s favorite unlucky person who manages to preserver and keep doing the right things in spite of the odds.
Overall; it is well written and enjoyable. I will be reading the sequel!

[Per Gunnar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Books 1 to 4:

This series almost made it onto the okay round-up instead the bad one. But not quite which is a shame. The overall story is good. I like the main protagonist. The military action is not bad.

However, the books are really dragged down by the constant soap opera crap. Incompetent officers, politicians and ridiculous twists and so on and so forth just ruins the books for me.

Books 1 to 3 got a three star rating but on the fourth one I could not stand the crap any more and gave it a 2 star one.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story

Now let me school you in writing mil space stories and physics. No ship can come to a complete stop, that is for wet navy ships where the water will drag them to stop. In space everything is moving and doing so very very fast. You can stop acelerating, but stop? In relation to what? One kilometer is rubbing skin in space. In battles take distance and multiply it by 1000 . read a space physics book or any book by weber, it is the same thing.

[Tony Hisgett · Rating 1 out of 5]

The story started OK, but I found I began to lose faith in the plot, starting with the very contrived scheme to get Archer Court-martialled. This continued with the Mary Black character, at some point Archer says to her;
”This situation feels forced and awkward.”
Thats what the whole book felt like.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very good SF military fiction

If it is that good why only a 3 Star review?

Typos. And since when does a ships Skipper directly pilot a starship when they have a healthy bridge crew?

The World building is robust. The characters are well drawn and formed. The plot is convoluted and fast moving.

Enjoy.

[nicky rennie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Political plot more than science fiction

I found the book rather long-winded. It was more political and tactical discourse with a miniscule amount of action sprinkled in-between. I personally enjoy science fiction with more ground breaking science theories, more fast paced action and some aliens thrown in for good measure. Will not complete the series

[Al Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I liked the overall theme of the book. I am hoping that this is just setting up a lot more action. The few battle scenes that were in it were really good. But there was way too much jail personnel and court time for my taste. But it is interesting enough that I will read the next book

[Arnason · Rating 1 out of 5]

An empty husk

This is a husk, wobbling on the coattails of the likes of the Harrington series.
No heart, no brain, no substance, the story progresses by implausable, often childish, means. The sheer banality is the only thing that had me finish it.
Thankfully, it is now over.

[Gary Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

And of course I bought the next book. Gotta see how they win the war. What I like most is that it's not filled with blood and guts, death and destruction. Just great story telling. 🙂

[John J. Howe, Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun Run

Fun book, kept me glued front to back. Old fashioned adventure space opera. Needed a change of pace and this provided a good one. Totally enjoyed the characters and the change of pace.

[Chris Bohl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent so far

The characters are strong and portrayed in an interesting fashion. The plot has been good so far with a few shortcomings. All in all a good start to the evolving saga.

[jo allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent military story

Very good coordination of character development. 5 stars because the fast pace,humor, and the likable characters.
I recommend this to any military sci-fi followers.The main character is who he should be.

[IMHO · Rating 4 out of 5]

RECOMMENDED

[Derek L Belcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

A light fun read

Looking forward to the next in the series. There were some interesting twists and it ended on.l cliffhanger. A bit predictable but not in a bad way.

[SE · Rating 4 out of 5]

Predictable. Did not finish.

[colin weller · Rating 5 out of 5]

first rate si if

What a pleasure to read this book. It’s Horneblower in the future. Brilliant!! Go ahead and treat yourselves, you won’t regret it.