The Recruitment

Rise of the Free Fleet #1

by Michael Chatfield

"James Cook is rarely known by his real name. For the past four years he's been playing Mecha Assault One with his team-Mecha Tail-, being known around the world as Salchar, a gaming celebrity and master strategist.

At the second championships of Mecha Assault Two, a group called the Planetary Defense Force (PDF) dropped into Earth’s atmosphere dragging Earth's children and teenagers into the sky. They are to be trained as Mecha Troopers, no better than slaves or cannon fodder. James Cook must truly become Salchar to keep himself, his squad and the enslaved humans alive.

An AI, and a crazed engineer will show Salchar and the other slave races the true face of the PDF- a criminal syndicate created under the ruthless Lady Fairgate.

The battles have become real and Salchar must risk everything for the chance to gain humanity's, Kuruvian's and Sarenmenti's freedom."

Genres: Science Fiction, Space Opera, Military Science Fiction, Military Fiction

665 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 2015

About the author

Michael Chatfield is a Canadian Army veteran and international bestselling author who writes the kind of books he always wanted to read—character-driven, gritty, tactical, and grounded in reality.

He doesn’t write one-dimensional killers wrapped in plot armor, charging toward an objective without thought. His stories are built for readers who want earned progression, tight, understandable logic, and realistic strategy. Every stat system has structure. Every decision is deliberate (except when there is Jaeger involved).

And the pacing? It's locked at two hundred percent. From alleyway brawls to starship armadas clashing over galactic sovereignty, from tactical dungeon assaults to city-states warring over a continent’s fate—Chatfield commits to every battle like it’s his last.

With millions of books and audiobooks sold, and tens of thousands of reviews his work spans LitRPG, military sci-fi, fantasy, and post-apocalyptic survival. He writes for readers who value systems that make sense, loyalty that lasts, and power that’s earned, not handed out.

Whether you're listening on a long drive, grinding through a shift, or up past midnight planning the next in-game raid—this is where you’ll find sagas to binge. Where strength is earned, logic rules, and camaraderie is forged in fire.

You can connect with him on Patreon and don't forget to follow him on social media!

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/authormichael...
Website: http://michaelchatfield.com/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@authormichael...
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authormicha...
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authormichae...
Facebook Group: The Chatfield Connection - https://www.facebook.com/groups/37693...

Reviews

[David P. Duffy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Maybe Juvenile Anime Storyboard-Not Close To A Book

"The Recruitment Rise of the Free Fleet," Book 1 of the series, is at best, the storyboard for an anime production or an Xbox/PlayStation game.At its worse, it's a TOTAL TRAIN-WRECK(caps intentional). Reading the author's note twice to confirm, after the first few chapters, he is allegedly a grown man, who serves as a "...infanteer in the Canadian Military." How can an adult, who speaks the English language, put forth such an absolute mess of a book? It's as if he is illiterate and strung a bunch of broken text messages together. This book is beyond bad and deserves ZERO stars.

I apologize to the other reviewers who treated this book harshly-you all were so very right and I should have stayed away.

[Vedran · Rating 1 out of 5]

- typos
- wrong words
- grammatical errors
- lack of periods and commas where there should be and then added where they shouldn't be
- sentences that should have been split into two, three or even more separate sentences

Overall, painful to read. Did not finish.

[XR · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's chaotic and fast paced. These people are just kids... in adult bodies?? It's so crazy!

[Df · Rating 1 out of 5]

Horrible! Awkward. corny. It's like it was written by a 16 year old. Extremely cringy portrayal of a gamer who is such a natural leader that he becomes squad leader and everyone just stops crying and follows his brilliant (and obvious) orders. And besides the cringe and the "Mary Sue" lead character, its basically an attempt at making a new enders game, but it falls flat.

[Robert · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible

Absolutely terrible. Other reviews cover everything perfectly. Terrible writing and terrible editing. Just a money grab. Avoid at all costs.

[Clinton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lots of action, but leaves people in the dust.

This book is very good at keeping the reader satiated with new events, to the point that I think other authors could have made the events in this book span 2 or 3 books. In some cases that might have been better, for instance after the main character has his transformation and the book basically takes a page to describe his response to it, and then more action continues to happen. I wanted a bit of breathing room there.

Another of the books faults is that the potrayal of side characters is rather flat. This ended up making it feel like the mc didn't care about them as people, but rather as pawns in his desire to get back to earth. The author apparently tries to alleviate this by having a few sections from other characters perspective, but it still falls flat and in the case of the mc's nemesis/wife actually worsened the narrative.

The mc's relationship with his nemesis/wife is quite possibly the worst part of this book. They are forced together by their captors, and then once they are no longer under control, they decide to stay together? There's no way that people who hate each other this much don't get the "marriage" annulled as soon as possible. There's no way that at least half of the humans forced into marriage don't even consider it to be valid. Some might enjoy the person they are paired with, but this isn't even addressed at all in the book. Apparently, everyone was fine with it with no thoughts of separation or the invalidity of this marriage at all. People actually think that because a human marriage ceremony was used that it would still count on Earth. So the mc and his nemesis basically say "oh noooo, we're married, there's nothing at all we could possibly do to fix this." They never try to address the reason they hate each other, and they never try to separate. Even the reason that Yasu gives for hating the mc is never explained. She thinks he is dishonorable, with no explanation ever given beyond him using tactics. Her code of honor is never explained, how the mc violated it is never explained, and why she continues to care is never explained, although she does come around a little bit at the end of the book. Which is stupid because nothing really happened to change her mind, and of course it's the woman who was wrong the whole time.

I will say that it appears many of the grammatical errors other reviewers have complained about has been fixed. It may not be perfect but it wasn't distracting.

I enjoyed many parts of this book, but if you're expecting anything other than a lot of space marine training, action and a shitty anti-romance, then turn back now.

[Jay Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars, I love this type of book and this may be the best one I have read by this author. I have read similar types of situations in other books like Columbus Day by Craig Alanson and Sector Eight by Michael Atamanov both great books. This book is very similar so I do like it but not sure if it was influenced by them or the other way round. Either way I am enjoying this book and will for sure continue with the series.

[Miles · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.49☆

[Roberto Flores · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not for me.

This reads so slowly, I tried to get through the front end repeatedly but just kept losing interest. There is no good hook to keep you going and the writing drags along to set the stage. Someone might enjoy it but not me.

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book might just be my favorite book of the year. In many ways very original and in some other things quite familiar of its genre. The story telling is brilliant, the characters intriguing, and the main character resilient and tough. The only think that really lets the book down is the many spelling errors and grammar mistakes. However, those are just surface issues, and I really hope the author can fix it really quickly because I know there are a lot of grammar Nazis.

[Samual D Upshaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good first book in the series!?!

I liked the book and was really able to get into the characters. Lots of spelling and grammar errors, but the story line was able to get me past these with very little problem. I believe that the author should make this into a series. Rise of the Free Fleet, left me wanting to read more.

[Df]

Horrible! Awkward. corny. It's like it was written by a 16 year old. Extremely cringy portrayal of a gamer who is such a natural leader that he becomes squad leader and everyone just stops crying and follows his brilliant (and obvious) orders. And besides the cringe and the "Mary Sue" lead character, its basically an attempt at making a new enders game, but it falls flat.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five Star.

This is a great book, with tremendously exciting potential for a series. I would love to read more of the Free Fleet. But please correct the grammatical and formatting errors. These don't spoil but do distract. Please write more.

[Tony Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slow to start but interesting story. Lots of action. Ready for the next book

[Francis J Mallalieu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Those knocked down will rise for retribution.

After being snatched from Earth and deposited on an unknown vessel thousands of young men and women in their late teens and early twenties as well as well as kids as young as ten are thrust into barbaric training to become soldiers for an alien pirate syndicate.
One man Salchar a champion gamer finds himself trapped with his nemesis Yasu. She was the leader of the top rated team and they despised each other. Forced by the aliens to fight other groups of captive humans, Salchar becomes the leader of his group and sets up rules of engagement to ensure that the two groups fighting didn't kill each other. Ultimately, the rules are adopted by all of the groups. Under Salchar's leadership the humans train to become elite warriors.
The Syndicate uses the humans as their fighting force to take over another ship. The Syndicate uses different captive races aboard their ship and the brutal alien race who trained and command the humans expect a mortality rate of 25% and are amazed that at the end of the engagement only one human is killed. Salchar and the humans are binding their time until they can overthrow their masters. Along with the alien race who were the engineers of the ship an the AI that has secretly been in control of the ship since before the Syndicate pirates took over the ship, the humans and their alien allies takeover the ship and ultimately the pirate's space station. Becoming the Free Fleet the liberated humans and aliens take their retribution out on the Syndicate.
This book is extremely well developed with involved plotlines. The multiple major and minor characters have detailed personalities and interact with each other with distinct objectives. The author has created a universe that is believable and compelling.
I am looking forward to the next book in what is sure to become a very popular series.

[Audiobooks_Rock · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked the book, it was a good read.

my reasons for not giving it 5 stars are because the amount of drama between the samurai chick and the main character got on my nerves so much that it broke my immersion and I had to simply drop the story for a bit. I totally get why it's there, though its in such a volume that I am tempted to class the book as a romantic drama instead.

I'm the kinda guy who totally loves the space marine type of genre but I'm somewhat weary of picking up the next installment of free fleet just because I'm not really looking forward to possibly another volume of arguing.

Then there is the amount of shit they give each other and acts designed to hurt each other. I get volatile, believe me I really do but the moment they broke free from their captors, such volatile relationships would have ended in any reality, even fictional ones. The fact that they just keep bitching and harping on at and about each other is truly doing a number on this otherwise great work.

I'm not the kind of person who gets off on romantic drama bullshit. If they don't like each other? Fine. First opportunity they bail. only in this case it doesn't happen because the characters are apparently unnaturally written in the fact that they stay in an initially forced relationship. It's clear from the way the writer goes about it that he intents to have them grow together over the course of the series, but honestly, I have begun to dislike the main character and the samurai chick too much already. It feels at times as if the book is about two masochists instead of this epic space marine story that it actually is...

From what I gather, most of the series is already written if not finished, my brother is ahead of me in reading it and he was the one to recommend it to me. I agree with him that it's a good book save for the volatile crap between the main character and that chick.

[Tony Hinde · Rating 3 out of 5]

I assume this series was written early in Chatfield's career since it is chock full of egregious grammar and vocabulary issues. I listened to the audiobook and marveled that the narrator, Dan Bittner, could keep from stumbling over all the nonsequiturs. Regardless, there's a good story at its heart.

If you are interested in the premise of aliens turning children into involuntary soldiers but can't tolerate sub-par english... I'd recommend Sara King's "Legend of Zero" series. Alternately, Weber explores the concept of abducted soldiers in the excellent "Excaliber Alternative."

At the core of the book is the story of one man, Salchar, passively (mostly) resisting a galaxy-spanning group of criminal aliens. His goal is to save the human race and eventually destroy the hated syndicate. While Chatfield is heavy-handed, particularly with relationship stuff, it's an easy read and draws the reader steadily forward.

The writing rule of "Show, don't tell" is most difficult when it comes to emotions. Instead of saying the protagonist is mad, you could describe him hitting or throwing something. Chatfield spends a lot of time telling us how people feel or, as a minor step up, hearing conversations where they express their feelings.

I know his writing, or choice of editor, improves later on. Thus I'm happy to continue with the series. Truth be told, I'm even eager to continue.

[Douglas · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have enjoyed greatly Mr. Chatfield's Ten Realms series (so far, and am eagerly awaiting the next book in the series). While Ten Realms is virtually written for me, I also really enjoyed Mr. Chatfield's Death Knight series (haven't gotten book 3 yet) and Emerilia series (completed). So, if you are like me, this is not the series to judge Mr Chatfield by. I found the characters and story predictable in the extreme. The MC is kidnapped with a bunch of other humans to serve in an alien army. Predictably there is a psycho and a love interest in the MC's group. Much of this story is about how the MC becomes the leader of all captive humans in spite of there being several more qualified individuals, a part of the story that was forced and unnecessary (the MC's story could still have been interesting even if he hadn't risen to leadership as a virtual "chosen one").

Basically I quit reading about 70% of the way through the book because it was clear where the story was going I didn't care about any of the characters. Note, however, that I am in my 50s and this book was probably aimed at YAs since the characters are mostly in their 20s or younger.

Bottom line: This author is good, this book less so.

[Cmoore · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this book because I loved Michael Chatfield, I adored his series The Tenth Realm. I hadn't ever heard Dan Bittner, but I gotta say he was absolutely AwesomeSauce. Well what can I say about this action-packed story. Other than Michael Chatfield really knows how to write a dynamite beginning to what appears to be his next awesome series. So much happens between the pages in this book. Starting with alien abduction, but not just anyone was abducted. They kidnapped gamers, and these, ummmm mostly kids weren't about to let them get away with that. So yeah if you like nonstop action and space opera you're gonna hafta grab this book to see if the underdogs can be the topdogs they hafta be so they can go back home. To earth.

Here's one of the quotes, that made me laugh:

Weird stuff goes through your mind when you’re fighting your rival. On a spaceship. To marry them. It was a weird day.

[Kian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know how he does it but HE did it, another great start to a new series and this time I won't have to wait for months for the next book and in the meantime forget most of what happened in the past book.

I like the story, the characters and the bond they share, I didn't lose interest in any section of the book, I felt the pace was great filled with twists and turn to keep readers interested and engaged. James and his companions are a good leader, embodying the qualities of honor, courage, self-sacrifice, and they don't favor one nation or species but work to free all life and build a connection. I don't wanna hype it up too much and jinx it but I will read all 6 books in this series within a week, I think.

[Bert Babb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exciting military sci-fi

The MC and other children to young adults find themselves Shanghaied by aliens to be brutally trained as mech soldiers. Turns out that the aliens are actually a cartel of galaxy wide criminals subjugating planets. The MC decides to find a way to turn the tables on them.

As with the author's series that I have read so far, this book is long on tactics and strategy, with complex plots and unexpected twists and turns. The relationship between the MC and his nemesis-wife is so painful to me due to their refusal to communicate. They are much more willing to suffer silently, assuming the worst about each other, yet wanting more. Sad!
I look forward to reading the rest of the series.

[Beach Bum · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starts slow, stick with it

It really is a slow burner. I almost gave up on it. The first third of the book is about the humans being trained and it took too long, it's interesting at times, but could have been in half the words. However, don't skip it, read it, as it forms the basis of so much of the rest of the book and I assume the series
The last two thirds of the book are good, absolutely enthralling and well worth hanging in there. The characters are interesting and whilst the main character takes up most of the story, there is sufficient engagement with the other characters to get to know them well

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good Read

Mr Chatfield has a talent for action, and adventure flows from that action. I've decided I no longer want to give away pieces of the book in a review, so. It was an enjoyable read. You still have to read it to make your own decision.

I downloaded this book after the second book (not realizing it was the second in the series - at least not initially. Now, I can move on as I already have the second book ;-)

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chatfield, Michael. The Recruitment: Rise of the Free Fleet. E-book ed., BookTango, 2015. Free Fleet 1.
Earth has been conquered by aliens that impress human children from 7 to 18 into a piratical military. James Cook, a.k.a. Mecha Assault One gaming star Salchar, uses his gaming skills and natural leadership abilities to organize a rebellion among the captive soldiers. Somehow famous boy makes good doesn’t have the same appeal as poor boy makes good. Three stars.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

What annoyed me is that every human leader he comes across has some NOBLE reason behind doing what they do. Seriously, one of the leaders ran a crew of effective cutthroats and when he challenges the MC *WHILE HE IS WOUNDED* it turns out that he was just concerned about the type of commander he was surrendering his force to. I mean, come the FK on, that's handwavia BS

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book it good at what it does, but why is most interesting thing (Yasus and Jameses relationship) in the book so god damned frustrating? Someone needs to lock those two up in a room until they deal with their stuff. Great characters, but they talk to each other mostly in agitated state and its damn irritating.

[J.G. Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun read

Overall, I liked this story and its premise. The characters were interesting, though I preferred James and Yasu when they weren't interacting. As someone who lives in Japan, I did find Yasu a bit overly stereotypical, but I understand how the character fit the story.

A fun read, and I'm looking forward to reading the next book.

[Niels Baumgartner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow

Well done sir. I think you managed to crack into scifi in a way only books like The Lost Fleet have done previously.

Grit. Pain. Tenacity. Risk. Honor. Loyalty. Death. Confusion. And marriage problems that ring completely true... you managed it all. Well done good sir.

[John #Audible · Rating 3 out of 5]

I gave up on the book, way to much YA in the book and real lack of chain of command knowledge, especially when you board a new ship ( as a new recruit ) for the very first time.

Normally like Michael Chatfield books, but this ground my gears.

[David Harbour · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fast paced and entertaining. A fun read that was easy to immerse myself into.