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Scouts Out: Books One and Two
When Corporal Ian "Irish" Shannon is assigned to the Confederation's Long Range Scouts (LRS), he joins in the struggle against forces from the Alliance Hegemony. He and his team battle to drive the enemy from star systems under protection of the Confederation. His courage and fighting abilities are tested to their utmost, as he rises through the ranks of the LRS and beyond. Small unit skirmishes build to full-scale combat on planet surfaces, and serve as a counterpoint to violent conflict in space.
496 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 5, 2016
67 people are currently reading
28 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
May 6, 2016
If you like ground-pounder space marine action, this book is for you. There are a couple of space-space ship battles mixed in; however, the majority of the action centers around a long ranger recon unit.
May 19, 2016
Really good!
This is one book that I'll label as a "Must Read". Very realistic military action on the ground and space side!!! I especially enjoyed the depth of character development...
This is one book that I'll label as a "Must Read". Very realistic military action on the ground and space side!!! I especially enjoyed the depth of character development...
April 2, 2016
Would like to see this series continue! Good Read!
April 4, 2016
An excellent military Sci-Fi story. An interesting story with great characters.
June 20, 2017
Enjoyable special forces romp in space as us humans fight each other in a slightly different setting to normal. Scope is left to continue on subsequent books without it being a drag to keep reading but there isn't a book 3 yet as far as I can see.
February 20, 2018
I enjoyed this enough to finish the story. Characters were fine as were the action sequences. Not sure where it goes from here
May 28, 2016
Decent military sf
Main problems
1. an overly Weberian plot that hews too closely to the early Honor Harrington books (two star polities are fighting one another, the aggressor is named the Alliance. They were annexing neighbouring star systems in order to correct their unsustainable economic picture, but that didn't work for long, so now they've decided to start a war with the Confederation/its allies in order to shore up the Alliance's faltering economy.) This whole plot has been done before, most extensively by David Weber, but there have been other authors who used it as well. It's old and tired, so Loomis isn't doing himself any favors by using it again here.
2. Cardboard villains. Not only is the main villain an evil torturing rapist, he even has a mouth full of metal teeth. Really? These societies can regen people who are almost dead and missing many parts, but they can't replace teeth? Or are his metal teeth supposed to be a great big neon sign saying "Psycho killer here!" Either way, it's quite crass.
3. The way Loomis sets up the within-chain-of-command attraction between female Sgt. troop leader and male corporal. The woman doesn't handle it well, as she lets the guy know she's attracted and overtly responds to his signals. Not generally the way it would go, as she'd have the sense and experience to completely mask her response to him, knowing it would be a major distraction for them both and so endanger the squad. Yeah, I can believe she'd go after him once they were out of the same command, but not before as she does here (though they do decide to hold off acting on it until after he's moved to another troop).
4. I didn't feel Loomis did enough with the Edoan culture, especially vs. a vs. Staff Sgt. Shannon. If you're going to pull the whole Chosen One trope, you really need to do more with it. Seemed like Loomis is leaving that for the next book, which brings me to... SPOILER...
5. The ending had too big loose ends: yes, the immediate battle of Edo gets won, but there's another Alliance attack happening that's ignored completely, as well as a number of poison gas canisters threatening the Edo people that were still unlocated by the time the main action finished.
Pros-
Typical, but decent characters, and stories are decently written. The second story is the better one of the two because the world on which the battle is fought, Edo, has an interesting history and culture, along with an alien artifact and a being who can dream-walk. There are also more ethical and moral dilemmas in that story for the main characters to wrestle with. The main character Ian Shannon (Irish) is a good guy, and his extra ability is less a gift than a biological oddity, which makes for a nice change.
These were good enough that I'll read the next one.
Main problems
1. an overly Weberian plot that hews too closely to the early Honor Harrington books (two star polities are fighting one another, the aggressor is named the Alliance. They were annexing neighbouring star systems in order to correct their unsustainable economic picture, but that didn't work for long, so now they've decided to start a war with the Confederation/its allies in order to shore up the Alliance's faltering economy.) This whole plot has been done before, most extensively by David Weber, but there have been other authors who used it as well. It's old and tired, so Loomis isn't doing himself any favors by using it again here.
2. Cardboard villains. Not only is the main villain an evil torturing rapist, he even has a mouth full of metal teeth. Really? These societies can regen people who are almost dead and missing many parts, but they can't replace teeth? Or are his metal teeth supposed to be a great big neon sign saying "Psycho killer here!" Either way, it's quite crass.
3. The way Loomis sets up the within-chain-of-command attraction between female Sgt. troop leader and male corporal. The woman doesn't handle it well, as she lets the guy know she's attracted and overtly responds to his signals. Not generally the way it would go, as she'd have the sense and experience to completely mask her response to him, knowing it would be a major distraction for them both and so endanger the squad. Yeah, I can believe she'd go after him once they were out of the same command, but not before as she does here (though they do decide to hold off acting on it until after he's moved to another troop).
4. I didn't feel Loomis did enough with the Edoan culture, especially vs. a vs. Staff Sgt. Shannon. If you're going to pull the whole Chosen One trope, you really need to do more with it. Seemed like Loomis is leaving that for the next book, which brings me to... SPOILER...
5. The ending had too big loose ends: yes, the immediate battle of Edo gets won, but there's another Alliance attack happening that's ignored completely, as well as a number of poison gas canisters threatening the Edo people that were still unlocated by the time the main action finished.
Pros-
Typical, but decent characters, and stories are decently written. The second story is the better one of the two because the world on which the battle is fought, Edo, has an interesting history and culture, along with an alien artifact and a being who can dream-walk. There are also more ethical and moral dilemmas in that story for the main characters to wrestle with. The main character Ian Shannon (Irish) is a good guy, and his extra ability is less a gift than a biological oddity, which makes for a nice change.
These were good enough that I'll read the next one.
Read
August 16, 2016Good
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.
May 2, 2016
Excellent space opera
Fun story....especially as you get into it. Looking forward to another installment soon....any anachronisms are made up with quality understanding of unit and other military tactics
Fun story....especially as you get into it. Looking forward to another installment soon....any anachronisms are made up with quality understanding of unit and other military tactics
July 9, 2016
Let prejudice rule
I don't know where the author's prejudice against the German people came from but it has absolutely no place in literature. Unless you're into bigotry avoid books.
I don't know where the author's prejudice against the German people came from but it has absolutely no place in literature. Unless you're into bigotry avoid books.
September 5, 2016
Scouts Out 1&2
Very good story. Almost as if you were there. The story line and the description of the weapons used are very believable. Will be looking for the other books by Danny Loomis.
Very good story. Almost as if you were there. The story line and the description of the weapons used are very believable. Will be looking for the other books by Danny Loomis.
March 7, 2016
Excellent military Space opera
Enjoyable military space opera, very easy read I can't recommend this any higher.
good guys bad guys, what more do you want.
Enjoyable military space opera, very easy read I can't recommend this any higher.
good guys bad guys, what more do you want.
November 7, 2016
Very entertaining
An excellent example of the space opera. Good character development, and packed with a action. You will enjoy these two books, read them in order though.
An excellent example of the space opera. Good character development, and packed with a action. You will enjoy these two books, read them in order though.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews