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Gateway to the Galaxy #1-3

Gateway to the Galaxy Boxed Set, #1

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War isn't coming,

It's already being waged.

While the universe was still young, vambraces were forged giving their users extraordinary abilities. A brutal war was won through the blood and sacrifice of patriots. Soon the vambraces faded to legend.

A secret task force. A wormhole portal discovered...

Now, Frank and Marine Space Corps-1 find themselves across the galaxy where an ancient evil is growing. From exploratory crew to the front lines, Frank will have to decide whether to play the part of a hero or to be the Marine needed to win the war.

Because the victor takes the universe.

The vambraces will be found. A new order of Knights will be chosen. And once again Light will do battle with Darkness.

Start reading today and find out why readers are calling the Gateway to the Galaxy series “extremely fun” and their "new obsession" with characters that “actually come to life on the pages.”

This box set includes; Into the Breach, Always Forward and Chaos Seiged.

599 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 7, 2018

433 people are currently reading
68 people want to read

About the author

Jonathan Yanez

218 books522 followers
International bestselling author, check.

USA Today bestselling author, check.

Writing wild tales since 2012, check, check.

I'm Jonathan, a husband, father, and writer. I write because that's what I was born to do and I love doing it. Because of the support from awesome people like you, I get to do it full-time.

Connecting with fellow lovers of the written word is important to me so please join the Pack via my website at www.jonathan-yanez.com where you can grab an exclusive story or hang out with us at www.facebook.com/groups/jonathansread...

Hope you decide to stay in touch,

Jonathan

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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
293 reviews
November 11, 2022
Sci-fi At It’s Best

These books take you into a sci-fi universe and beyond. Great strong characters and races of aliens fight together. Great read. Big D
Profile Image for Jim.
1,216 reviews51 followers
February 19, 2019
This is a very long review!

INTO THE BREACH

This is some good writing. It’s different than most stories because the author uses contemporary language and references just like a person from this century would do. I don’t know what century this book was supposed to have been written for, but it could easily be for right now or a little further in our future. It doesn’t really matter since all the action happens far, far from Earth.

Frank Wolfe is an ex-Marine, but since there isn’t such a thing as a ex-Marine, I guessed you have to call him an inactive Marine. He was in real life a weapons salesman representing his company called B.U.T.T.S. Yes, that’s the name of the company which stands for Ballistics United Tactical and Tech Systems. Sounds like something that was made up and it probably was. Anyway, Frank was a very good salesman for the company going out into the field and demonstrating the latest tech in weaponry and personal protection that his company developed and sold.

Then he got a call from his Boss to meet with a prospective buyer and do his thing for them once at their location. Transportation was arranged by the proposed buyer and Frank was whisked away by a not so bad looking Marine Major Lucy Lopez. Nothing was unusual about this pickup other than it was in a Humvee which he soon found was going into the deserted Nevada desert. Then the unusual happened when he was asked/told to put a black hood over his head since the final destination was going to be classified. Reluctantly, he followed along.

That’s when Frank should have known he was getting into something different. When arriving at the final destination, it appeared they were in some kind of cave system, a huge cave system and it appeared to be under a dam since water was seeping slowly through the overhead. He noticed this after the hood was removed and he also noticed there was a huge amount of B.U.T.T.S. equipment loaded on pallets where he was deposited.

He was then introduced to Colonel Solomon Breaker, a very grizzled and battle-weary Marine if there ever was one. Along with Col. Breaker, he met Dr. Raj Agarwal and Elly, some kind of super-scientist/genius, and a few other Marines. He then set about explaining and demonstrating some of the equipment his company had produced and was ready to answer any questions when his presentation was done. All the Colonel asked was if there was enough ammo for all the weapons. Frank guessed there was enough ammo to supply a small army, if that’s what the Colonel wanted.

So, Frank began asking for his leave, telling the Colonel that he would like to head back to where they picked him up. Unfortunately, the Colonel had other plans. He told Frank in pretty blunt terms that he was going to go with this Marine team to wherever they were going just to make sure they had someone around to fix any of the stuff if it got broke. From the sounds of that, Frank surmised that they were going into harm's way and he had had plenty of that while a Marine on active duty. Now as a civilian, he didn’t have to put up with it or so he thought. Frank refused the “invite” and then got another call. This was from his Boss. She firmly told Frank that he was to accompany the Colonel and as compensation, she was willing to pay him four times his normal fee! Very reluctantly, Frank agreed since he didn’t think he’d be allowed to not go no matter what.

So, the Marine team loaded up in their battle armor, weaponed up and marched off through a number of small corridors until they came to a large cavern. Inside this cavern sat a huge ball. Well, it didn’t sit, it was floating and on one wall of the cavern it projected what looked like a triangular doorway. The Colonel told Frank that this was in fact a gateway to another planet where they didn’t know for sure, but they were going to find out. So, through the gateway they all went. Sounds like an old episode of Stargate, doesn’t it?

ALWAYS FORWARD

Nothing really happened immediately after going through the gateway, but during the night the team got a rather abrupt introduction to the new planet they had arrived at. Someone or somethings were attacking them and just about going to wipe them out until some other warriors riding huge winged eagles arrived to turn the tide of the battle. These Neeve were from the House of Thunder and their Princess Vega took a liking to Frank when she helped him recover from his wounds. The Marine team were now on a planet on the opposite side of the universe far, far from home with not a clue of how to return.

Soon after Frank recovered from his wounds, he me an old Neeve who had a very curious mind as did Frank. The old man wanted to know all about who had attacked Frank and his Marines the night they arrived on his planet. Frank told him while the old man, who was named Heron, took him through an old room lined with stacks and stacks of books. It also held display cases with different artifacts from very strange places. None of it looked familiar to Frank.

It turns out that while Frank was staring at all the strange things in their cases, one case that contained a pair of vambraces (which I had to look up to find out what they were), started to glow a dark ultraviolet. Heron opened the case and said that this was impossible as the vambraces began to float towards Frank. They stopped just short of him at about chest high. Heron was also shouting that these vambraces only react this wan in the presence of an Arilion Knight. I have no idea how to pronounce Arilion, but that’s the name of someone who wears these vambraces. Which Frank suddenly find wrapped around his forearms! Only an Arilion Knight can wear these vambraces and they choose who they want to wear them. The Arilion Knights are the defenders of the universe and have done so for eons.

Of course Frank says there must be a mistake and that he’s no Arilion Knight, but the Princess sees them on him and she is also awed by the fact that an Arilion Knight has come to their world. It seems that these vambraces channels the will of the wearer into a powerful force that can take any physical shape the wearer desires. Frank soon learns that he can project an image of a weapon he is familiar with and it appears in his hands ready for battle. It never breaks nor does his chosen weapon run out of ammo. He can project anything from a sword to a gauss rifle GS2000.

Heron tells Frank that he has arrived just in time to help his planet battle the Lord of Chaos and his dark army. He says that without the help of the Arilion Knights, the universe is doomed to fall to the Lord of Chaos with chaos running rampant through the galaxy. Of course, Frank hasn’t a clue as to what he’s talking about and just now wants to go back home.

CHAOS SIEGED

Ok, we pick up here for the final confrontation with the Lord of Chaos. Frank Wolfe, a.k.a. Arilion Knight, has been in some pretty concentrated training. Another Arilion Knight from Draconia known as Sava came to Earth to collect Frank and begin his training. Now this was Knight was a lizard looking, green scaled alien, but she also have glowing vambraces. Her planet of Draconia has been fighting the Lord of Chaos for quite awhile and it is pretty devastated. Still, she has a training arena for Frank and must put him through his paces so he will come to know just what it means to be a Arilion Knight.
Now, Frank is used to tough training since he is a Marine. But, he didn’t expect the severity of the training program set out by Sava. She knew that his skills were almost non-existant with regards to the power of the Will, but she also knew that Frank possessed a very strong and powerful Will. The only problem with this training program is that they don’t have the time to run Frank through it thoroughly. He’ll have to fight as he fights now pretty much using his Marine skills.

The Draconians join forces with the Neeve (the House of Thunder and the House of Leviathan) in hopes that two Arilion Knights and their combined forces can defeat the Lord of Chaos. He has a very large army and instead of waiting for him to come to Draconia as he as done time and again, they are going to take the battle to him. They have found where all the attacks have originated and located a dark and burned out moon with a single massive pyramid sitting on the surface. That’s where they will have to fight the final battle.

Prior to that, the Lord of Chaos has sent out his own fleet of three massive battleships which will have to be defeated if the troops of the Light can even think about challenging the Lord of Chaos. So, Frank and Sava have their work cutout for them. During this battle, Sava suffers a devastating injury that puts her in a coma. It doesn’t appear that she will be of much help to Frank during the final battle. You’ll have to read the book to find out the outcome and it’s very exciting.

Great writing in all three books. There’s just enough humor to make the books enjoyable without the characters coming off as goofballs. One thing you’ll notice, which I found odd, is that both the Neeve and the Draconians have committed their entire civilization to the fight while Earth sends 5 Marines. Doesn’t sound like Earth is taking this seriously. If they don’t defeat the Lord of Chaos here, he will eventually reach Earth, but that’s probably another story.
1,420 reviews1 follower
January 30, 2019
Ripoffs done poorly

I didn't finish the set. I bailed after trying to find something interesting in the first book. Instead of a mediocre adventure in space, this was a mashup of Stargate, magic in space and a (another reader pointed out the Green Lantern imitation) Zoroastrian cosmic struggle between light and dark.

The main and possibly only character in the book, is a weird little sociopath with limited ability to interact with others in any public setting. The writer doesn't think that a character who can't be bothered to remember his date's first name might be seriously damaged. He apparently thought that it made the MC, quirky.

He's a one tour (?) ex-marine making a lot of money as a sales rep for a weapons manufacturer and loved his parents. That's all he wrote folks, except that once a MARINE, always a marine. It's so stupid that it's almost sweet. He's actually more believable as the self-absorbed twit at the start than as the newly minted guardian of the galaxy that he becomes. As a note to hack writers, marines are not the only ground forces or even the predominate service in any military. Step away from the video game slowly.

The other characters were uninteresting, stereotypical and limited. The cast was the window dressing needed to emphasize the wonder of being in the same room as a U.S. marine. These we are told a number of times are the most elite "soldiers" (that should make a marine wince) on planet Earth. It's a shame that these guys suffer 80% casualties in just 3 days or so. Does the writer not review his plot after the fact for contradictions.

All the females, including aliens were given the mandatory hotness rating, which most hack writers typically use in place of a personality description. Even the mother of the main character's girlfriend gets rated on her hotness. That's so wrong and yet it's written as if it was a compliment. That's just so bad.

The storyline was so rushed that even without all the flaws, it would have been hard to take this seriously. It's not an unusual technique for american military science fiction or space opera but it is still bad writing. The character interactions are anime appropriate. To say that the dialogue or plot was YA would be generous.

I only was able to finish the first book because I couldn't believe how bad it was.
Profile Image for Alex Shrugged.
2,735 reviews30 followers
August 18, 2024
Good. Funny. Exciting.

This is 3 books in one.

The story: After finding a gateway to another planet, Frank is asked to accompany the Marines in finding out where it goes. In the process, Frank finds the vambraces (forearm guards) which were designed to choose a new hero to save the universe from a terrible evil that has awakened.

Any problems with the story? Well... if the author had tried to be serious, I would have downgraded this book by one star. Instead he went for laughs. While all the rest of the characters are playing it straight. Frank is a biggest smart-ass in the universe. That saved this story.

Any modesty issues? I think teens should have no problems with this book. The humor is juvenile after all. Apparently Frank takes a shower in from of his woman team member. She takes Frank's "full frontal nudity" in stride.

I enjoyed the ending... as unlikely as it was. I'd be glad to read this book again.
165 reviews1 follower
February 28, 2020
Absolutely fantastic story you can't put down!

Talk about a well written story! I loved the story, the characters and plot. It's hard to find one book so well done let alone three! Lots of sci-fi fighting with the right amount I'd romance. The main character is so like a normal person, human that is, with a funny but strange sense of humor that adds even more to the story! There are three additional books available continuing the same main characters and story plot. Get them, read them and enjoy! You will like it!
149 reviews2 followers
October 13, 2018
I’m on the fence

I’m kinda stuck between continuing this series and hopping off the fence completely. The story line is kind of interesting but as a hard at-fi reader, I’m not real sure about mixing science fiction and fantasy. The books seemed to be in the YA category. Son of a bee’s knees, indeed. Give me a break. I’ll probably read something else for awhile while considering continuing this series.
6 reviews
June 4, 2019
Fun read

Guardians meets star wars meet jarhead meets jumunji meets punisher meets the defenders (Netflix). Snarky even though cliché at times. I enjoyed the characters and their development as beings with emotions and pain.

Awaiting to see how possessive human control freaks (aka us government & armed forces try’s to take control over Frank as would be reality I think. Who knows

Most enjoyable book in a while.
Profile Image for Gail.
556 reviews1 follower
April 22, 2023
Action-packed, fast-paced and suspenseful!

What an exciting series! The characters are captivating and so awesome. Jonathan Yanez writes compellingly to keep your attention to see what will happen next. It was difficult to put down these books because I wanted to know what Frank was going to do. Looking forward to the next book. If you like sci-fi, you will love this book! Happy reading! 😊
Profile Image for Rhane.
501 reviews3 followers
January 25, 2019
Space opera to cherish

What is better than:
- ancient technology that opens a star gate
- a trip through space to an unknown destination
- US Marines in space
- than battle between light and darkness with a biblical flavor
- finding a alien soulmate?
I can’t wait to read the rest of the saga!
Profile Image for David King.
16 reviews
April 17, 2019
Super Hero read

I enjoyed these books and the characters. If you like the green lantern you will like the Arilion knights. I wish the breath of the characters imagination would expand a bit. An exploration of the universe needs a few less force weapons and a little more wild creativity.
124 reviews2 followers
February 26, 2019
Very entertaining

Well worth a look. Hopefully they will offer another box set for this series soon. Good combat scenes, neat characters, great dialogue, dastardly bad guys ... everything you want in a great space opera.
390 reviews7 followers
July 26, 2019
Interesting Story

The variety of characters makes this book very interesting. The plot is good and the descriptions are well-written. In addition to the "normal" characters, the aliens are somehow believable.
105 reviews
February 7, 2019
Star wars reborn!

It's a fun retelling of Star Wars, and the Green Lantern, wrapped in USMC Oohrah. A fantasy kick to read and I look forward to more!
4 reviews
March 1, 2019
Not bad.

Quite a decent read. Certainly not the worst book that I have read. A couple of "oh come on" moments but in general ok
Profile Image for DAVID.
583 reviews5 followers
May 20, 2019
Great Story

Well totally enjoying this story cannot buy the book down. Frank Wolffe would probably do well in a stage as a comedian lol. Looking forward to the rest of the series
Profile Image for Narciso J. Petty.
3 reviews
June 11, 2019
Pleasant read

Loved the homage to the Marine Corps, and the unflinching devotion to mission that lives in the heart of a Marine that was captured. Semper Fi!
Profile Image for Vaun Fiedler.
214 reviews3 followers
August 11, 2021
Hero Frank

Frank is a reluctant hero. Destined to travel the universe, fighting evil and protecting the innocent. Read to learn more.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews

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