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Holy War #3
Revelation
Ryan Hendrix is dead...
...Or so his family, his girlfriend, and his fellow Marines think.
Terribly wounded during the battle for Hermes, Ryan Hendrix was repaired with cybernetics, transformed into a weapon by Fleet Intelligence…and covertly dropped onto the enemy-occupied colony at Aphrodite to sabotage the enemy and build up a civilian resistance.
While Ryan fights the real battle behind enemy lines, Travis Miller and Jessica Leer struggle with politics…and their new commands. The Earth government is too scared of losing more cruisers to try to take back the occupied colonies, so Travis and Jessica find themselves stuck raiding enemy outposts, trying to draw their attention away so Ryan and the rest of his commandos can do their job.
But Travis Miller didn’t get to be the head of the largest task force in human history by sitting back and doing what he’s told. And when one of those raids turns up key intelligence, Travis will do whatever he has to in order to get back in the real fight.
Book 3 in the explosive Holy War series from the #1 Amazon Bestselling author of Contact Front, Rick Partlow.
...Or so his family, his girlfriend, and his fellow Marines think.
Terribly wounded during the battle for Hermes, Ryan Hendrix was repaired with cybernetics, transformed into a weapon by Fleet Intelligence…and covertly dropped onto the enemy-occupied colony at Aphrodite to sabotage the enemy and build up a civilian resistance.
While Ryan fights the real battle behind enemy lines, Travis Miller and Jessica Leer struggle with politics…and their new commands. The Earth government is too scared of losing more cruisers to try to take back the occupied colonies, so Travis and Jessica find themselves stuck raiding enemy outposts, trying to draw their attention away so Ryan and the rest of his commandos can do their job.
But Travis Miller didn’t get to be the head of the largest task force in human history by sitting back and doing what he’s told. And when one of those raids turns up key intelligence, Travis will do whatever he has to in order to get back in the real fight.
Book 3 in the explosive Holy War series from the #1 Amazon Bestselling author of Contact Front, Rick Partlow.
344 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 24, 2021
176 people are currently reading
62 people want to read
About the author
Rick Partlow
213 books374 followersRick Partlow is that rarest of species, a native Floridian. Born in Tampa, he attended Florida Southern College and graduated with a degree in History and a commission in the US Army as an Infantry officer.
His lifelong love of science fiction began with Have Space Suit---Will Travel and the other Heinlein juveniles and traveled through Clifford Simak, Asimov, Clarke and on to William Gibson, Walter Jon Williams and Peter F Hamilton. And somewhere, submerged in the worlds of others, Rick began to create his own worlds.
He has written over 70 books in over a dozen different series, and his short stories have been included in many different anthologies.
He currently lives in norther Wyoming with his wife and their dog. Besides writing and reading science fiction and fantasy, he enjoys outdoor photography, hiking and camping.
His lifelong love of science fiction began with Have Space Suit---Will Travel and the other Heinlein juveniles and traveled through Clifford Simak, Asimov, Clarke and on to William Gibson, Walter Jon Williams and Peter F Hamilton. And somewhere, submerged in the worlds of others, Rick began to create his own worlds.
He has written over 70 books in over a dozen different series, and his short stories have been included in many different anthologies.
He currently lives in norther Wyoming with his wife and their dog. Besides writing and reading science fiction and fantasy, he enjoys outdoor photography, hiking and camping.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
February 20, 2022
After the previous book in the series, Judgment Day, I was expecting a lot more than I got from this book. Not that the story was bad or poorly written but compared to the second book, the third book was lacking that certain something. If you are expecting this series to be a trilogy then I regretfully inform you that it is not. I just hope that Rick Partlow has the drive to finish the series without it becoming one more endless series that we don’t want to read.
Some may think that 3 stars is a harsh rating but 3 stars is a good book 4 is a great book and 5 is exceptional, at least that is how I use the rating system. This book was good but not great. The voice acting was again superb, I really appreciate how James Patrick Cronin went about the story. I honestly believe that he added a dimension to the story and really brought the book to life. At least, that is my opinion.
There were still some tense battles that were well written and deserve praise. I just wanted more than the author was willing to give. At the end of the day I still want to listen to the next book in the series, once it is written.
Some may think that 3 stars is a harsh rating but 3 stars is a good book 4 is a great book and 5 is exceptional, at least that is how I use the rating system. This book was good but not great. The voice acting was again superb, I really appreciate how James Patrick Cronin went about the story. I honestly believe that he added a dimension to the story and really brought the book to life. At least, that is my opinion.
There were still some tense battles that were well written and deserve praise. I just wanted more than the author was willing to give. At the end of the day I still want to listen to the next book in the series, once it is written.
September 24, 2021
This one has two threads that don't actually come together until probably the next book. That's not a spoiler, just what happens. Both threads have some very good writing and interesting things happening.
First off, we're on Aphrodite with Sgt. Ryan Hendrix. He's got a mission to organize the local civilian population into a capable militia. He's then to use these local civilians to disrupt, destroy and damage everything the Tahni touch on the planet. Ryan isn't an ordinary Marine, no he's been significantly enhanced since he almost got killed the last time he was in combat. He's recovered quite well and with his enhancements, he's more of a super-Marine now and he belongs to Fleet Intelligence. They are expecting the fleet at some point in the near future to attempt to regain Aphrodite and they want Ryan and nine other just like him to create cells of resistance fighters to prep the battlefield for that coming conflict.
Ryan has the skills, but he doesn't know if he's got the personnel to pull this mission off. The people he makes initial contact with are no more than famers and technical workers and those were the ones that were hiding outside the cities. When the Tahni landed, the immediately captured and shutdown every large settlement on the planet. Sarasvati was the settlement Sgt. Hendrix was to target with his fighters when they started doing whatever. But first he had to train them and that was going to be a job. Most had some hunting experience, but a hunting rifle wasn't anything like the weapons he was going to have to use. Those weapons for the most part were Tahni weapons which his militia would have to take from the dead Tahni. He wasn't supposed to lead this group, only train them, but they didn't want to act like soldiers since they definitely weren't so he had to find someone to act as the civilian leadership. He did that in Lloyd Chen, a software engineer. He also found Kathrine Adams also seemed to know a little of what she was doing so he used her as his second, kind of like a squad leader. She was good at fighting as were some others, but not many.
Still, the Tahni didn't begin to understand humans. No, the Tahni thought that once a species was conquered/captured then they would have to immediately obey any and all commands from their conquerors! That's not going to happen with humans. So, when Sgt. Hendrix started ambushing the first of many Tahni patrols out in the farm lands, they didn't know why or who was doing the attacks. These initial patrols were also lightly armed and manned by Tahni soldiers that were not front-line troops. They didn't wear the Tahni Shock Trooper armor so they were pretty much defenseless when it came to ambushes. Oh, they had weapons and knew how to use them, but they didn't understand small unit tactics so their Patrols were pretty easily wiped out. That is until they started taking these resistance fighters seriously. And when they captured a significant group, it was thought that all future efforts were going to end unless those captives were rescued. Not an easy mission.
The other thread to this book is back with Captain Travis Miller and the Prometheus . Yes, he's got a new ship and a new mission. While he wants to go to Aphrodite and liberate it from the Tahni, his Higher HQ can't give him those orders since the politicians back in the Solar System are afraid to send the fleet in harms way which might leave Earth venerable to Tahni attack. Captain Miller and his immediate boss, Admiral Worthington don't believe the Tahni are capable of doing that. They don't even think the Tahni know exactly where Earth is. But, if they ever captured an Earth starship and found navigation data, then that would clearly provide them with Earth's location and that's exactly what the politicians didn't want to happen. So, he was ordered to attack other smaller Tahni outpost and disrupt any kind of actions they might be taking. This did get the Tahni stirred up, but once again, Captain Miller and his task force were applying superior tactics and the Tahni were finding very little success in these engagements. Captain Miller was getting impatient with not taking the fight directly to the Tahni and liberating Aphrodite.
So you get to read about both activities and there's quite a lot of stuff going on. While Captain Miller seems to be causing the Tahni serious problems, he's not really causing them great concern. And, while Sgt. Hendricks is stirring up a lot of problems on Aphrodite, he's only one small group that's had any success. The other nine special operators aren't having near the success with their raids. Still, they know they can't go on indefinitely, so when is the fleet coming to remove the Tahni from the planet?
This is a good series and I like the writing. It continues with the fourth book in the series, "Armageddon" which will be out on Amazon on 23 November 2021.
First off, we're on Aphrodite with Sgt. Ryan Hendrix. He's got a mission to organize the local civilian population into a capable militia. He's then to use these local civilians to disrupt, destroy and damage everything the Tahni touch on the planet. Ryan isn't an ordinary Marine, no he's been significantly enhanced since he almost got killed the last time he was in combat. He's recovered quite well and with his enhancements, he's more of a super-Marine now and he belongs to Fleet Intelligence. They are expecting the fleet at some point in the near future to attempt to regain Aphrodite and they want Ryan and nine other just like him to create cells of resistance fighters to prep the battlefield for that coming conflict.
Ryan has the skills, but he doesn't know if he's got the personnel to pull this mission off. The people he makes initial contact with are no more than famers and technical workers and those were the ones that were hiding outside the cities. When the Tahni landed, the immediately captured and shutdown every large settlement on the planet. Sarasvati was the settlement Sgt. Hendrix was to target with his fighters when they started doing whatever. But first he had to train them and that was going to be a job. Most had some hunting experience, but a hunting rifle wasn't anything like the weapons he was going to have to use. Those weapons for the most part were Tahni weapons which his militia would have to take from the dead Tahni. He wasn't supposed to lead this group, only train them, but they didn't want to act like soldiers since they definitely weren't so he had to find someone to act as the civilian leadership. He did that in Lloyd Chen, a software engineer. He also found Kathrine Adams also seemed to know a little of what she was doing so he used her as his second, kind of like a squad leader. She was good at fighting as were some others, but not many.
Still, the Tahni didn't begin to understand humans. No, the Tahni thought that once a species was conquered/captured then they would have to immediately obey any and all commands from their conquerors! That's not going to happen with humans. So, when Sgt. Hendrix started ambushing the first of many Tahni patrols out in the farm lands, they didn't know why or who was doing the attacks. These initial patrols were also lightly armed and manned by Tahni soldiers that were not front-line troops. They didn't wear the Tahni Shock Trooper armor so they were pretty much defenseless when it came to ambushes. Oh, they had weapons and knew how to use them, but they didn't understand small unit tactics so their Patrols were pretty easily wiped out. That is until they started taking these resistance fighters seriously. And when they captured a significant group, it was thought that all future efforts were going to end unless those captives were rescued. Not an easy mission.
The other thread to this book is back with Captain Travis Miller and the Prometheus . Yes, he's got a new ship and a new mission. While he wants to go to Aphrodite and liberate it from the Tahni, his Higher HQ can't give him those orders since the politicians back in the Solar System are afraid to send the fleet in harms way which might leave Earth venerable to Tahni attack. Captain Miller and his immediate boss, Admiral Worthington don't believe the Tahni are capable of doing that. They don't even think the Tahni know exactly where Earth is. But, if they ever captured an Earth starship and found navigation data, then that would clearly provide them with Earth's location and that's exactly what the politicians didn't want to happen. So, he was ordered to attack other smaller Tahni outpost and disrupt any kind of actions they might be taking. This did get the Tahni stirred up, but once again, Captain Miller and his task force were applying superior tactics and the Tahni were finding very little success in these engagements. Captain Miller was getting impatient with not taking the fight directly to the Tahni and liberating Aphrodite.
So you get to read about both activities and there's quite a lot of stuff going on. While Captain Miller seems to be causing the Tahni serious problems, he's not really causing them great concern. And, while Sgt. Hendricks is stirring up a lot of problems on Aphrodite, he's only one small group that's had any success. The other nine special operators aren't having near the success with their raids. Still, they know they can't go on indefinitely, so when is the fleet coming to remove the Tahni from the planet?
This is a good series and I like the writing. It continues with the fourth book in the series, "Armageddon" which will be out on Amazon on 23 November 2021.
December 12, 2022
There is obviously more to come, given the conclusion of this book. But since this was published just this year, I'm guessing we'll have to wait quite some time for the next installment.
Unlike Weber's series on Honor Harrington, Partlow focuses as much on the 'ground war' aspects of interstellar warfare. At times, I find I must suspend judgement as he weaves dialog that could have occurred during any recent war here on earth but I just realize there's no good reason why Marines of some time in the very distant future wouldn't sound and act like the Marines I've known in my life.
Unlike Weber's series on Honor Harrington, Partlow focuses as much on the 'ground war' aspects of interstellar warfare. At times, I find I must suspend judgement as he weaves dialog that could have occurred during any recent war here on earth but I just realize there's no good reason why Marines of some time in the very distant future wouldn't sound and act like the Marines I've known in my life.
December 30, 2021
Riveting
Think of the planning it took just for D-day in WW2 to happen. The intelligence gathering, coordinating with the resistance, the buildup of the supply line, the rush training, the sacrifices made, to name a few. You get the feel of that detail as you read this series of a futuristic war pitting mankind against an alien race bent on our extermination. Well done!
Think of the planning it took just for D-day in WW2 to happen. The intelligence gathering, coordinating with the resistance, the buildup of the supply line, the rush training, the sacrifices made, to name a few. You get the feel of that detail as you read this series of a futuristic war pitting mankind against an alien race bent on our extermination. Well done!
September 20, 2021
Sci-fi series at its best
Sci-fi series at its best and worst twists and turns into a familiar world as the characters grow and develop fun read so far next book in the series is down loading as I type this
Sci-fi series at its best and worst twists and turns into a familiar world as the characters grow and develop fun read so far next book in the series is down loading as I type this
September 25, 2021
Guerilla warfare proceeds
Ryan has new abilities and also a new mission. He doesn't just have to keep up his own morale, but the morale of other people. But he knows how to adapt, improvise and overcome. Semper Fi!
Ryan has new abilities and also a new mission. He doesn't just have to keep up his own morale, but the morale of other people. But he knows how to adapt, improvise and overcome. Semper Fi!
December 3, 2021
Awesome Adventure
Once again the author has given a fast-paced, action filled book in this great sci-fi series. The characters continue to grow and mature, becoming more real as they go.I really like this book and I highly recommend it.
Once again the author has given a fast-paced, action filled book in this great sci-fi series. The characters continue to grow and mature, becoming more real as they go.I really like this book and I highly recommend it.
December 13, 2021
What a surprise
What a surprise this is. If you enjoyed Ryan's story then you will love his next adventure or no that's giving the story away. Just read and discover for yourself lol
What a surprise this is. If you enjoyed Ryan's story then you will love his next adventure or no that's giving the story away. Just read and discover for yourself lol
January 4, 2022
Space Opera done well
The space battles were great but the action on the planet took away from the space battles. Also near the end, Rick use the tunnels from a previous book and used it here also. Oh well
The space battles were great but the action on the planet took away from the space battles. Also near the end, Rick use the tunnels from a previous book and used it here also. Oh well
April 8, 2022
Excellent Book
This series appears to be loosely based on Naval and marine action in the Pacific. It is action based with plenty of drama. If you follow Rick Partlow, you will enjoy this book and find it difficult to put down.
This series appears to be loosely based on Naval and marine action in the Pacific. It is action based with plenty of drama. If you follow Rick Partlow, you will enjoy this book and find it difficult to put down.
September 3, 2021
Another great story
Well that's another great storyline from Rick with plenty of action and blood and guts. Totally looking forward to the next episode
Well that's another great storyline from Rick with plenty of action and blood and guts. Totally looking forward to the next episode
September 8, 2021
Great series
Love this whole series.
Enjoyable new characters.
Good plot threads.
Nice explanations of the advanced technology.
Battles are good in space and on the ground
Love this whole series.
Enjoyable new characters.
Good plot threads.
Nice explanations of the advanced technology.
Battles are good in space and on the ground
December 1, 2021
Another excellent book by Rick Partlow. And I love how the guys get the girls. Nice touch.
December 15, 2022
Again Partlow continues to entertain.
February 26, 2025
For fans
October 6, 2025
Loved this book. Too bad there is only one more in the series!!
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews