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Necrospace #3
Trade War
Business is war, and business is booming.
Economic competition has escalated into a full scale galactic conflict, and the salvage marines are pulling hard duty at the center of the catastrophe. All around them vast armies of conscripts, convicts, and contractors are fighting their way across hostile alien worlds and through the cold void of space at the will of their corporate masters.
Whether the marines are boldly piloting their scrap wagons through the debris fields of defeated battle fleets one step ahead of deadly slave traders, speeding in makeshift boats across a backwater planet towards a bloody conflict with the creatures that lurk just beneath the surface, or storming the trenches of a tomb world defended by pitiless mercenaries, everything is a race against other violent factions looking to cash in.
Samuel Hyst is surviving the war one day at a time, though while he is away at war his family must contend with new enemies and dangers of their own, and to reach them he will join a revolution.
Economic competition has escalated into a full scale galactic conflict, and the salvage marines are pulling hard duty at the center of the catastrophe. All around them vast armies of conscripts, convicts, and contractors are fighting their way across hostile alien worlds and through the cold void of space at the will of their corporate masters.
Whether the marines are boldly piloting their scrap wagons through the debris fields of defeated battle fleets one step ahead of deadly slave traders, speeding in makeshift boats across a backwater planet towards a bloody conflict with the creatures that lurk just beneath the surface, or storming the trenches of a tomb world defended by pitiless mercenaries, everything is a race against other violent factions looking to cash in.
Samuel Hyst is surviving the war one day at a time, though while he is away at war his family must contend with new enemies and dangers of their own, and to reach them he will join a revolution.
- GenresScience Fiction
176 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 28, 2016
53 people are currently reading
35 people want to read
About the author
Sean-Michael Argo
65 books43 followersSean-Michael Argo is an author and independent film producer from the backwood swamps of Arkansas. He writes the kinds of books he likes to read and makes the kinds of movies he likes to watch, so his expanding body of work is a testament to his love of gritty urban fantasy, epic tales of swords & sorcery, horror movies, and the post-apocalyptic wasteland. His films are available on Amazon and presented by Dark Roast Releasing. He spends his time traveling the country for work, making art, and raising his son.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 5, 2025
This is a very depressing book if you think about what’s going on in this future civilization. The corporations have taken over everything, even your life! You’re born to parents who have probably been working for one corporation or another all their lives. They are in debt to that corporation for everything single thing they do. Even you, when you reach school age will begin accumulating a life debt just for your education. And it keeps piling on. The apparent you and your parents live in is charged to your debt, the clothing you wear, supplied by the corporation, and the food you eat is all charged to your debt by the corporation! Oh, you get paid, but never enough to even put a dent on your life-debt to the corporation.
Then you decided to try something different and that is to become a Salvage Marine working for the corporation but getting bonuses for some of the work you do. You get paid a little better than the average citizen, but you do notice that you don’t get the best equipment to do your job. And salvage is your job. Sometimes you have to fight off other corporations for the salvage your corporation wants. Samuel Hyst has been a Salvage Marine for a long time now. Long enough to see those who were ahead of him all die in one salvage operation or another. You go into a salvage operation knowing that it will be contested by another corporation, so you’ll have to fight with the equipment you have. Fortunately, you’ll be up against other corporate salvage marines who are fighting with the same restrictions you are, until you’re not!
Boss Samuel Hyst, yeah he’s the equivalent of squad leader now, knows that each mission he’s been on lately is getting to be more Marine fighting than salvage. They are working beyond the Ellisian Line which is also known as necrospace or headspace. There are planets never before seen by anyone but they are rich with resources and the corporations of normal space are desperate enough to cross the Ellisian Line. There are self defenses built into some of the abandon cities they are finding on some of these dead planets. Their first forays on to these planets resulted in a lot of deaths but fortunately, most of the dead were penal colony prisoners. Now that option has become too costly for the corporations so they’re going to just use the Salvage Marines.
Yet, some Salvage Marines are becoming resentful of being sent into situations where they were not trained for, did not have the right or adequate equipment and they should have been the corporations last resort because they are there for salvage, not for the fighting. So, there’s this strange idea of unionizing floating around the salvage marine battalions. This idea is kind of foreign to citizens of the corporations. It’s long been taboo to even talk about unions or any organization of corporate employees. Yet, the idea seems to be growing, but Samuel Hyst hasn’t bought into this idea, yet.
He had been on leave from this previous missions that he survived. He and his wife Sura had made some plans now that it seemed they had put together a good sum of money to buy out their life-debts but still need to pay off the life-debt of their son Orion. Fortunately, it’s not a large debt since he was recently born, and they are contemplating about heading out to the frontier and setting up their own homestead. That’s a dream a lot of corporate citizens can have, but never see come to reality. Yet, Samuel and Sura are getting close to that point. Then the Grotto Corporation goes to war with the Helion Corporation and all leave is cancelled and no further separations from the salvage marines will be granted. So back to war goes Samuel. Still, Sura and Orion are going to space station 16 so at least they’ll be out from under the corporation pending Samuel’s return.
Once again, Samuel finds himself going to another salvage mission, but he also finds out that his unit is going to spearhead the mission against the Helion Corporation. They are sending in elite hired Merchants Militant or hired mercenaries. These mercenaries are very well armed and armored. This is their job and they are well prepared for it. The Salvage Marines are not! So, this fight isn’t going so well and things even get worse.
So does Boss Samuel Hyst even survive this latest mission? Will he ever see his wife and son and will he really achieve his dream of living on his own land out in the frontier. Well, the book does seem to end this series so you’ll need to read it in it’s entirety to see if that’s true.
==[Note: As of 12/03/2023, this will not be published on Amazon since I have been banned from posting reviews for some unknown reason. Once the ban is lifted, assuming it does get lifted, I’ll go back and post this to Amazon.]==
Then you decided to try something different and that is to become a Salvage Marine working for the corporation but getting bonuses for some of the work you do. You get paid a little better than the average citizen, but you do notice that you don’t get the best equipment to do your job. And salvage is your job. Sometimes you have to fight off other corporations for the salvage your corporation wants. Samuel Hyst has been a Salvage Marine for a long time now. Long enough to see those who were ahead of him all die in one salvage operation or another. You go into a salvage operation knowing that it will be contested by another corporation, so you’ll have to fight with the equipment you have. Fortunately, you’ll be up against other corporate salvage marines who are fighting with the same restrictions you are, until you’re not!
Boss Samuel Hyst, yeah he’s the equivalent of squad leader now, knows that each mission he’s been on lately is getting to be more Marine fighting than salvage. They are working beyond the Ellisian Line which is also known as necrospace or headspace. There are planets never before seen by anyone but they are rich with resources and the corporations of normal space are desperate enough to cross the Ellisian Line. There are self defenses built into some of the abandon cities they are finding on some of these dead planets. Their first forays on to these planets resulted in a lot of deaths but fortunately, most of the dead were penal colony prisoners. Now that option has become too costly for the corporations so they’re going to just use the Salvage Marines.
Yet, some Salvage Marines are becoming resentful of being sent into situations where they were not trained for, did not have the right or adequate equipment and they should have been the corporations last resort because they are there for salvage, not for the fighting. So, there’s this strange idea of unionizing floating around the salvage marine battalions. This idea is kind of foreign to citizens of the corporations. It’s long been taboo to even talk about unions or any organization of corporate employees. Yet, the idea seems to be growing, but Samuel Hyst hasn’t bought into this idea, yet.
He had been on leave from this previous missions that he survived. He and his wife Sura had made some plans now that it seemed they had put together a good sum of money to buy out their life-debts but still need to pay off the life-debt of their son Orion. Fortunately, it’s not a large debt since he was recently born, and they are contemplating about heading out to the frontier and setting up their own homestead. That’s a dream a lot of corporate citizens can have, but never see come to reality. Yet, Samuel and Sura are getting close to that point. Then the Grotto Corporation goes to war with the Helion Corporation and all leave is cancelled and no further separations from the salvage marines will be granted. So back to war goes Samuel. Still, Sura and Orion are going to space station 16 so at least they’ll be out from under the corporation pending Samuel’s return.
Once again, Samuel finds himself going to another salvage mission, but he also finds out that his unit is going to spearhead the mission against the Helion Corporation. They are sending in elite hired Merchants Militant or hired mercenaries. These mercenaries are very well armed and armored. This is their job and they are well prepared for it. The Salvage Marines are not! So, this fight isn’t going so well and things even get worse.
So does Boss Samuel Hyst even survive this latest mission? Will he ever see his wife and son and will he really achieve his dream of living on his own land out in the frontier. Well, the book does seem to end this series so you’ll need to read it in it’s entirety to see if that’s true.
==[Note: As of 12/03/2023, this will not be published on Amazon since I have been banned from posting reviews for some unknown reason. Once the ban is lifted, assuming it does get lifted, I’ll go back and post this to Amazon.]==
December 8, 2020
The third book in the Necrospace series and Boss Hyst is back in the marines, Grotto corporation are expanding into Necrospace and there is full on corporate war, as well as the slight problem of the machine race - but when there is profit to made, then the safety of a bunch of Salvage Marines, means very little to the bigwigs.
This book takes a bit of a turn as there is a fair amount of focus on Unionisation of the Marines and the fight for fair treatment in Grotto Space, but there is also a heck of a lot of battles and our favourite marines risking life and limb and sometimes losing both.
It ends a bit up in the air for my liking, but with three more books based in this universe, based on different characters, I'm still hopeful of a satisfactory conclusion, but it is a wonderfully screwed up universe our heroes inhabit.
This book takes a bit of a turn as there is a fair amount of focus on Unionisation of the Marines and the fight for fair treatment in Grotto Space, but there is also a heck of a lot of battles and our favourite marines risking life and limb and sometimes losing both.
It ends a bit up in the air for my liking, but with three more books based in this universe, based on different characters, I'm still hopeful of a satisfactory conclusion, but it is a wonderfully screwed up universe our heroes inhabit.
July 2, 2017
This was the final book of three novellas, and was pretty good. I liked how the Hyst family matured, admitted their past mistakes and moved on. The ending was a little surprising, but was not out of line with the main character's character.
This author has said that he will write more set in the Reaper universe but with other characters. I hope to read more about the Hyst, Kade and Ben's family - especially now that Gretchen in pregnant.
This author has said that he will write more set in the Reaper universe but with other characters. I hope to read more about the Hyst, Kade and Ben's family - especially now that Gretchen in pregnant.
October 18, 2018
Unexpected turn in the series. I find it interesting that they navigated it away from the techno opera possibilities and dug in on focusing on the capitalist element. Didn't see the formation of the union coming at all. Ran a little dry at times. Great series though, still. 3 for 3.
June 7, 2017
Good book, interesting take on the Galaxy being run by corporate entities. Lots of action, well written. Entertaining story line, I really enjoyed reading.
April 14, 2016
Just wanted to share a few thoughts because I enjoyed this series and confused why the series isn't getting a lot of attention. Or seemingly so to me. Also, wanted to see if review posts because the other time it did not and found that to be curious. I'm Amazon n goes to both but Amazon has copy but never posted to either there or here. Nothing to censor... ?
Overall, I enjoyed the series. It just felt right all the way around -- MC, story, plot, dialogue, interaction, combat. The social commentary of the corporation isn't the major sell for me, it's about Prybar and his comrades. Their motivation for joining was money and opportunity to get out of debt. The all 'volunteer' American military wouldn't work without the same inducements, the difference between US military and story's 'Grotto' reapers/marines is marginal. Yes, some do join for God, Country but any significant combat will fix that.
The first 2 books were great but I thought author kinda pushed this one through. Last third was disappointing. Trying to be spoiler free, can't imagine how the events of getting better rights occurring so quickly and the timing. The combat marines of MC, Prybar, and other characters developed through out series would not have pursued at the time author portrayed. Beat bad guy first and thoroughly. The 'what cha gonna do, send me to Vietnam' as you are sitting there mentality didn't work in Vietnam. With more concerns, more motivation and the self respect of finishing, don't see 'strike' happening despite the catalytic event, which they've seen before too many times.
Combat, especially close quarters, is an equalizer when it comes to class, race, sex and number of social issues. Author portrays the marines as bottom rung, not trained, not equipped to deal with 'war, major combat' and them deferring to the nobles and mercenaries. Ill equipped, yes, but they danced a lot and don't believe combat vets would have an inferiority complex with anyone. Inconsistency that nagged at me. USMC combat vet isn't going to feel inferior to a Seal.
Last chapter is start of another book, don't believe it belonged there.
Those were my nags but Still a good series read that's credible, real and you feel. If Mil is your thing, this will work. If you like the tech side, not so much. And if you are into the social agenda of anti corporations, I guess it'll work. Too many things, ideas and people to get upset about to go nuts about 'Corporations'.
Overall, I enjoyed the series. It just felt right all the way around -- MC, story, plot, dialogue, interaction, combat. The social commentary of the corporation isn't the major sell for me, it's about Prybar and his comrades. Their motivation for joining was money and opportunity to get out of debt. The all 'volunteer' American military wouldn't work without the same inducements, the difference between US military and story's 'Grotto' reapers/marines is marginal. Yes, some do join for God, Country but any significant combat will fix that.
The first 2 books were great but I thought author kinda pushed this one through. Last third was disappointing. Trying to be spoiler free, can't imagine how the events of getting better rights occurring so quickly and the timing. The combat marines of MC, Prybar, and other characters developed through out series would not have pursued at the time author portrayed. Beat bad guy first and thoroughly. The 'what cha gonna do, send me to Vietnam' as you are sitting there mentality didn't work in Vietnam. With more concerns, more motivation and the self respect of finishing, don't see 'strike' happening despite the catalytic event, which they've seen before too many times.
Combat, especially close quarters, is an equalizer when it comes to class, race, sex and number of social issues. Author portrays the marines as bottom rung, not trained, not equipped to deal with 'war, major combat' and them deferring to the nobles and mercenaries. Ill equipped, yes, but they danced a lot and don't believe combat vets would have an inferiority complex with anyone. Inconsistency that nagged at me. USMC combat vet isn't going to feel inferior to a Seal.
Last chapter is start of another book, don't believe it belonged there.
Those were my nags but Still a good series read that's credible, real and you feel. If Mil is your thing, this will work. If you like the tech side, not so much. And if you are into the social agenda of anti corporations, I guess it'll work. Too many things, ideas and people to get upset about to go nuts about 'Corporations'.
July 2, 2016
Tiresome and Diappointing
Book 3 of the "Necrospace" series, "Trade War," is a tiresome and disappointing conclusion(?) of the trilogy. The writing has continued to descend into needless repetition and has fully succumbed to faulty, banal, political pontificating by the author. Additionally, the editing is incompetent-nearly exact phrasing repeated a few paragraphs further, characters entering and exiting locations in sequence, as if caught in a revolving door, and many, many wrong words and names. There are abundant examples of continual conflicting and contradictory themes that are ignored.
The failure of execution by the author is indicative of laziness, hubris, and eCommerce greed-put out a shoddy product for the sake of profit and the readers will buy it. The "Space SeaBees," of his salvage marines, the "Reapers," were entertaining light SciFi, but now they're just an annoyance.
This book is NOT recommended. Both previous books, 1 and 2 are.
Book 3 of the "Necrospace" series, "Trade War," is a tiresome and disappointing conclusion(?) of the trilogy. The writing has continued to descend into needless repetition and has fully succumbed to faulty, banal, political pontificating by the author. Additionally, the editing is incompetent-nearly exact phrasing repeated a few paragraphs further, characters entering and exiting locations in sequence, as if caught in a revolving door, and many, many wrong words and names. There are abundant examples of continual conflicting and contradictory themes that are ignored.
The failure of execution by the author is indicative of laziness, hubris, and eCommerce greed-put out a shoddy product for the sake of profit and the readers will buy it. The "Space SeaBees," of his salvage marines, the "Reapers," were entertaining light SciFi, but now they're just an annoyance.
This book is NOT recommended. Both previous books, 1 and 2 are.
August 4, 2016
Enjoyed the storu. A different view of space opera.
April 27, 2017
Trade War takes up a few years after the events of Dead Worlds. The Reapers of Tango Squad are about to see their mettle tested beyond everything they have faced before. Prolonged war erupts between corporations and the armies and salvage ops crews are thrown right into it. There is much to detail here, but to simplify things I just have to say, WOW! This one was as good and maybe a little better than the first two books in this series. Many times one sees a series staying consistent, but different as the books are written. Mr. Argo has a true gem here with this series and for hardcore military sci-fi dudes like me, this is absolutely some of the best I've ever read. You care about Tango Squad and the other squads, not in the fore of the book. Losses are felt and situations are hard to read and elate you as well as let the air out of you.
Read..These...Books! lol You Gotta!
Danny
Read..These...Books! lol You Gotta!
Danny
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews