Fleet Commander: A Military Science Fiction Space Opera Action Adventure Novel

by Theo Mann

The rebellion that tore the United Space Force can only lead to one inevitable conclusion. Sailor English becomes Captain of the USS Lightning Rod and leads the loyalist force to retake Earth and put down the rebellion once and for all. He’ll need every ally he has, but the rebels aren’t above using dirty tricks to get what they want. They kidnap English’s daughter and hold her as a hostage to try to strong-arm both English and his son Andy into ending the loyalist effort and surrendering to the rebellion.

English retaliates with extreme prejudice by rallying the whole loyalist force to conquer Earth and decimate the rebels down to the last ship. No one is prepared for the outcome that will ultimately end the rebellion and bring Earth to its knees. Can the Lightning Rod crew and its sister ships overcome insurmountable odds and save the human race from certain annihilation?

287 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 2, 2026

Reviews

[Graeme · Rating 1 out of 5]

The author uses the same names for one of the main characters and a related character. This results in confusion and some very clumsy incoherent sentences. The author then introduces a second set of characters with the same names as well. About 60-70 percent of the book is dedicated to finding the traitor in the group, only when they find the traitor no reason is given why they turned on their allies. The traitor simply makes a statement which leads to military action. They are warned not to take the military action but do anyway.

I only started reading book 3(free download on Amazon - thank goodness I didn't waste money on this) so maybe it's explained in the first books. But I have no idea why the earth army are the rebels and the Mars based army are loyalists? At no point in the book is it even mentioned or why they are fighting. Maybe the tech is better explained as well.

80% into the book and a third set of characters with the same names are introduced...Thankfully they hardly feature...but three times in one book?!?

There are many editing errors in the book and the science doesn't work (making a trip from a Jupiter moon to Mars in a few minutes while the rest of the squadron are still on the moon doing practice runs?)
Being able to view with THE NAKED EYE ships leaving Earth while on the Jupiter moon are just some of many examples.

And then the big conclusion to the book - all this high tech featured in the book doesn't see it coming. Absolutely unbelievable.

I should have given up on this book a lot earlier but it had promise. Unfortunately it's a hot ball of mess and confusion and I wouldn't be surprised if AI was used to write it.