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Empire's Corps #10
Never Surrender
The war isn’t going well.
Wolfbane’s forces are pressing the Commonwealth on multiple fronts, the Commonwealth’s fragile political balance is on the verge of shattering and there’s a high-placed spy somewhere within the Commonwealth elite. For Colonel Edward Stalker and his men, the stakes have never been so high. Defeat will mean the end of everything they have fought and died for since their exile from Earth.
Held in a POW camp on Meridian, a world on the edge of settled space, Jasmine Yamane and her men seem trapped. But one thing she was never taught was how to give up. She’s coming home, even if she has to burn her way through enemy space to do it ...
Wolfbane’s forces are pressing the Commonwealth on multiple fronts, the Commonwealth’s fragile political balance is on the verge of shattering and there’s a high-placed spy somewhere within the Commonwealth elite. For Colonel Edward Stalker and his men, the stakes have never been so high. Defeat will mean the end of everything they have fought and died for since their exile from Earth.
Held in a POW camp on Meridian, a world on the edge of settled space, Jasmine Yamane and her men seem trapped. But one thing she was never taught was how to give up. She’s coming home, even if she has to burn her way through enemy space to do it ...
396 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 7, 2015
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189 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
February 15, 2016
This is book ten in the Empire Corps Series. The war is not going well for the Commonwealth. Wolfhane’s forces are pressing on all fronts. The Commonwealth realizes they have a high placed spy in their midst. Brigadier General Jasmine Yamane, who is my favorite character in the series, is being held prisoner in a POW camp on the plant Meridian.
This book picks right up where the prior book “Retreat Hell” stopped. Stalker is pursuing the spy, with the help of Kitty, the head of Intelligence. I am becoming fascinated with Kitty and her sneaky methods. Jasmine and the men captured with her are attempting to escape the POW camp and return to the Commonwealth. Jasmine rescues about a 1000 people from the POW camp and manages to arrange their transportation to Avalon.
The book is well written, the pace is fast and the suspense builds throughout the story. Nuttall continues to develop the characters. Nuttall is improving as a writer with each book he completes. I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. Jeffrey Kafer does an excellent job narrating the story.
This book picks right up where the prior book “Retreat Hell” stopped. Stalker is pursuing the spy, with the help of Kitty, the head of Intelligence. I am becoming fascinated with Kitty and her sneaky methods. Jasmine and the men captured with her are attempting to escape the POW camp and return to the Commonwealth. Jasmine rescues about a 1000 people from the POW camp and manages to arrange their transportation to Avalon.
The book is well written, the pace is fast and the suspense builds throughout the story. Nuttall continues to develop the characters. Nuttall is improving as a writer with each book he completes. I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. Jeffrey Kafer does an excellent job narrating the story.
June 7, 2019
Gary's and Kailee's characters are inconsistent to the people we met in one of the other books in the series.
The reader is force fed time after time the fact that they are useless wimps contrary to what we previously knew.
Yes they started out as bully victims but they had evolved to something more by the end of that book. It was implied that their "mental barriers" were breached for good.
Nuttall bullied them back to submission. I didn't get the point that was supposed to make.
People that were once conditioned not to stand up for themselves will never do so, no matter what happens to them? Is that it?
Seems the author has reached that conclusion and has to force it on the reader time after time after time...
The rest of the book was inferior to the previous ones in the same series. I rate to 2.5 stars.
The reader is force fed time after time the fact that they are useless wimps contrary to what we previously knew.
Yes they started out as bully victims but they had evolved to something more by the end of that book. It was implied that their "mental barriers" were breached for good.
Nuttall bullied them back to submission. I didn't get the point that was supposed to make.
People that were once conditioned not to stand up for themselves will never do so, no matter what happens to them? Is that it?
Seems the author has reached that conclusion and has to force it on the reader time after time after time...
The rest of the book was inferior to the previous ones in the same series. I rate to 2.5 stars.
March 20, 2020
We are supposed to believe that it is possible for 3 people in spacesuits to ride the exterior of a shuttle from ground to an orbital station. And the author does not describe the ride just says they did it. What air speed does the shuttle reach and how much wind resistance does a person in a spacesuit have? Of course they wouldn't bang against the hull at 2000+ mph. ROFL
September 21, 2017
Love this series. Return to one badass lady.
November 10, 2020
Great story continued
The story goes on! And a great one it is!! This is becoming very hard to put down and that is a treat
The story goes on! And a great one it is!! This is becoming very hard to put down and that is a treat
February 28, 2024
Now that some of the threads are finally coming together, the story here is getting better. Good special forces action and entertaining characters, if a bit unreasonably lucky.
August 8, 2015
Last time we read the series, Brigadier Jasmine Yamane and part of her Commonwealth Expeditionary Force (CEF) had been captured by a sudden and unexpected attack by the Wolfbane Navy orbiting the planet Thule. She and her men have been taken to a POW camp on the planet Meridian. This world is a class one colony world which just means there’s nothing there but a few hardy colonist and they are barely surviving.
This book is entirely about Jasmine and her men’s struggle to escape the POW camp and then escape the planet itself. It is a very interesting story. There are a few other prisoners that Jasmine meets and she develops a helping relationship with a few. Once person is outside the camp working at the spaceport while his girlfriend is being held prisoner. This is the way Wolfbane keeps people under control. The kidnap members of a family and then force the others to work for them. There are a lot political prisoners in the camp with one in particular a former General in the Wolfbane military. He’s actually not very good, but his aide turns out to be more helpful in the beginning.
Jasmine comes up with some pretty wild plans on how to get them out of the prison camp, then ride on a shuttle to the orbital station and capture it without anyone getting killed. Obviously, the Wolfbane soldiers are the dregs of their military. They are so far removed from the real fighting that they have grown real complacent. The book has a lot of action and a lot of killing. It’s not gruesome, but the author pains a pretty good description of what’s happening.
There are a couple of strange things about this book. For one, Jasmine seems to be the only female Marine in her entire Force. She also seems to be the only officer of any rank that was captured. Jasmine is also preoccupied with the idea that she’s going to be canned/fired/court-martialed when she returns to Avalon. I don’t know why she things that. She should know that the trap on Thule was not her doing and she did as much as possible to save as many of her troops as she could. Her worrying about this is unreasonable.
I like this series but I don’t think I like the idea of going into the past of each main character and re-living their entire lives. I think that what’s in store for the next book. I’ll probably skip it. I’m more interested in how the Commonwealth will fight the war against Wolfbane and what happens when they find out who is the new leader of Wolfbane. It’s someone they are very familiar with.
Good story and very good writing. Keep it up!
This book is entirely about Jasmine and her men’s struggle to escape the POW camp and then escape the planet itself. It is a very interesting story. There are a few other prisoners that Jasmine meets and she develops a helping relationship with a few. Once person is outside the camp working at the spaceport while his girlfriend is being held prisoner. This is the way Wolfbane keeps people under control. The kidnap members of a family and then force the others to work for them. There are a lot political prisoners in the camp with one in particular a former General in the Wolfbane military. He’s actually not very good, but his aide turns out to be more helpful in the beginning.
Jasmine comes up with some pretty wild plans on how to get them out of the prison camp, then ride on a shuttle to the orbital station and capture it without anyone getting killed. Obviously, the Wolfbane soldiers are the dregs of their military. They are so far removed from the real fighting that they have grown real complacent. The book has a lot of action and a lot of killing. It’s not gruesome, but the author pains a pretty good description of what’s happening.
There are a couple of strange things about this book. For one, Jasmine seems to be the only female Marine in her entire Force. She also seems to be the only officer of any rank that was captured. Jasmine is also preoccupied with the idea that she’s going to be canned/fired/court-martialed when she returns to Avalon. I don’t know why she things that. She should know that the trap on Thule was not her doing and she did as much as possible to save as many of her troops as she could. Her worrying about this is unreasonable.
I like this series but I don’t think I like the idea of going into the past of each main character and re-living their entire lives. I think that what’s in store for the next book. I’ll probably skip it. I’m more interested in how the Commonwealth will fight the war against Wolfbane and what happens when they find out who is the new leader of Wolfbane. It’s someone they are very familiar with.
Good story and very good writing. Keep it up!
April 12, 2015
This is the tenth chapter in the Empires Corp’s series. This series have been jumping a bit back and forth between telling the story of The Empire’s Corps that was stranded on Avalon following the fall of the corrupt, bureaucratic and essentially dysfunctional human empire. This book is back to events that directly impact Avalon and the Commonwealth. In general that is the books in this series that I have preferred. Having said that, I have to confess that I did not like Retreat Hell that much due to the political manipulations, deceit, backstabbing and so on in that book.
This book takes off more or less where Retreat Hell left off. There are two main threads in the book. One, which I would say is the bulk of the book, is Jasmine working her way back to the Commonwealth and another one is Stalker & Co starting to unravel the spy organization that Wolfbane have put in place on Avalon. Now, you would not be a true marine if you just quietly sneak out of prison so, of course, Jasmine throws a few pieces of rock in the Wolfbane machinery on her way back to the commonwealth.
As usual the book is very well written, especially the characters. There are not really an enormous amount of action in this book though. It is more of a slower paced escape from prison as well as detective work kind of book. At times I have to say that I found it a wee bit slow. In particular the long talks including Gary and Kailee and their mental issues. I would also say that the book do not exactly take any giant strides in advancing the main story. It is more of a mop up of loose ends from Retreat Hell and a preparation for some more serious action between Wolfbane and the Commonwealth. At least I hope that Mr. Nuttall is building up for some nice clobbertime. Preferably with the Commonwealth doing the clobbering. Having said that there are some developments due to Jasmine’s rock throwing that are going to have quite some repercussions in the future.
Anyway, this is a good book. Mr. Nuttall do not disappoint when it comes to the quality of the writing and despite the fact that not all parts of the book was 100% my cup of tea I never really lost interest. I have read a good 20 books by Mr. Nuttall by now (and have about 10 more on my reading list) and none of them have been bad. On the contrary, most of them have merited very good to excellent ratings. This one falls in the very good range for me.
This book takes off more or less where Retreat Hell left off. There are two main threads in the book. One, which I would say is the bulk of the book, is Jasmine working her way back to the Commonwealth and another one is Stalker & Co starting to unravel the spy organization that Wolfbane have put in place on Avalon. Now, you would not be a true marine if you just quietly sneak out of prison so, of course, Jasmine throws a few pieces of rock in the Wolfbane machinery on her way back to the commonwealth.
As usual the book is very well written, especially the characters. There are not really an enormous amount of action in this book though. It is more of a slower paced escape from prison as well as detective work kind of book. At times I have to say that I found it a wee bit slow. In particular the long talks including Gary and Kailee and their mental issues. I would also say that the book do not exactly take any giant strides in advancing the main story. It is more of a mop up of loose ends from Retreat Hell and a preparation for some more serious action between Wolfbane and the Commonwealth. At least I hope that Mr. Nuttall is building up for some nice clobbertime. Preferably with the Commonwealth doing the clobbering. Having said that there are some developments due to Jasmine’s rock throwing that are going to have quite some repercussions in the future.
Anyway, this is a good book. Mr. Nuttall do not disappoint when it comes to the quality of the writing and despite the fact that not all parts of the book was 100% my cup of tea I never really lost interest. I have read a good 20 books by Mr. Nuttall by now (and have about 10 more on my reading list) and none of them have been bad. On the contrary, most of them have merited very good to excellent ratings. This one falls in the very good range for me.
May 10, 2015
Satisfying. That's what this was. Yes, "Never Surrender" is just an episode in Christopher Nuttall's series of the Empire's Corps. But it's a good one. I read three in a row with this being the final, and I was quite pleased with the pacing, plot and feeling that the good guys had a chance. Jasmine Yamane is back. She's been turned into a prisoner of war in a camp on a remote planet called Meridian. The story brought back memories of Steve McQueen in "The Great Escape," but Yamane's no McQueen. And I mean that in a good way. She doesn't die. And that's no spoiler. Anybody who's gotten this far in the Nuttall universe is already a convert. He's crafting an entire way of thinking here. Free market freedoms with independent-thinking leaders who nonetheless need some representation and taxation. Yamane enlists the aid of two former earthers who want nothing more than to leave backward Meridian. The third earth kid loves it there and stays. The other two are scared of their shadows, and Yamane gives them a tune up marine style. She makes up for her former screw up as commader of the Commonwealth forces by launching a suicide mission against Wolfbane, which wants to stick it to the Commonwealth. The pacing is excellent, and the detail of the complexity of conflict never gets too out of control. This is a big project Nuttall's taken on, but he feeds the reader bite-sized pieces that are interesting and understandable.
April 8, 2015
Another installment of the main storyline of the series. We pick up with Jasmine and her soldiers after they've been arrested in book #8. Interestingly, they're being held in a POW camp on Meridian, which is the planet featured in book #7. Because of this, we have characters from different parts of the series starting to intersect, which has been an interesting addition to the series as a whole.
For the most part, the story is about escaping the prisoner camp, and working to free Meridian. But along the way we see that the bad guys may not have quite the advantage that they originally seemed to, and that our good guys are right on the verge of some exciting new developments... if they can just hold on a little longer during the war.
I am very interested in seeing where this is going to go in the next books... though of course I'll have to wait until book #12 to see "what happens next", I suppose...
For the most part, the story is about escaping the prisoner camp, and working to free Meridian. But along the way we see that the bad guys may not have quite the advantage that they originally seemed to, and that our good guys are right on the verge of some exciting new developments... if they can just hold on a little longer during the war.
I am very interested in seeing where this is going to go in the next books... though of course I'll have to wait until book #12 to see "what happens next", I suppose...
March 10, 2015
This book fills the gap between the Battle of Thule and whatever comes next... It has a nice flow from beginning through its middle up to the end (although the end did feel a bit rushed.) There are not many 'huge' developments, it almost feels like a travelogue of getting from there to here.
On the character side, we do see more development of Jasmine (even more than in "Retreat Hell") and some interesting looks at Kitty from Intelligence. Kitty has been nothing more than a minor character before this point, and this added a nice perspective.
Not much new, but it does a good job of keeping the larger story moving.
On the character side, we do see more development of Jasmine (even more than in "Retreat Hell") and some interesting looks at Kitty from Intelligence. Kitty has been nothing more than a minor character before this point, and this added a nice perspective.
Not much new, but it does a good job of keeping the larger story moving.
April 4, 2021
Kinda annoying how the author keeps backtracking characters into earlier state of minds in order to create issues.
The last time we saw the Meridian outcasts the nerd was standing up for himself and and the female main character had decided to choose a career and started work on it. The only character that got to keep any of his character growth was the male jock and that was likely only because he had chosen a more martial profession.
I get that the civilians in this book exist mainly so that the paragons of virtue (Terran Marines and other Commonwealth military personnel) have somebody to lecture at but at times it can get pretty ridiculous.
The last time we saw the Meridian outcasts the nerd was standing up for himself and and the female main character had decided to choose a career and started work on it. The only character that got to keep any of his character growth was the male jock and that was likely only because he had chosen a more martial profession.
I get that the civilians in this book exist mainly so that the paragons of virtue (Terran Marines and other Commonwealth military personnel) have somebody to lecture at but at times it can get pretty ridiculous.
January 29, 2018
Great book like the series full of action with full characters
February 14, 2015
Great Read!
Christopher Nuttall understands how soldiers feel inside. This book is a continuation of his excellent series, providing a SyFy venue for trying to understand the nature of conflicts. Great story line and fantastic psychological prospective concerning soldiers choices made and the guilt that is often felt.
Christopher Nuttall understands how soldiers feel inside. This book is a continuation of his excellent series, providing a SyFy venue for trying to understand the nature of conflicts. Great story line and fantastic psychological prospective concerning soldiers choices made and the guilt that is often felt.
February 19, 2015
Another excellent book in the series. I find myself pulling for the main characters and cringing when the enemy succeeds at something. Hoping future volumes will return to follow those who escaped the fall of Earth. Perhaps that story line will merge as others have. Can't wait to see the next book.
May 11, 2015
Another great corps book!
This book is back to the Avalon plot which I really enjoy. Always fun reading about Jasmine kicking butt across the universe!
This book is back to the Avalon plot which I really enjoy. Always fun reading about Jasmine kicking butt across the universe!
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March 18, 2016As expected. Great continuation of the series.
June 30, 2016
Great series, enjoyable characters.
April 16, 2017
A very good 👍
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews