Undaunted

by Jack Colrain

Space marines never say die. Commander Andrew Ritchie swore a vow to exterminate the insect-like aliens that devastated humanity. But when his latest battle turns into a rescue mission, Andrew’s medical background draws the attention of a high-ranking officer—who reassigns him to the Valkyrie Corps. This new medevac unit is a game changer, combining Andrew’s skills as a a medic and a combat marine. State-of-the-art Valkyrie power armor allows him to annihilate aliens while simultaneously saving human lives, giving earth’s forces a fighting chance against their ruthless enemy. But the alien roaches aren’t about to scurry away in defeat. When Andrew’s team plunges into a hot zone of death and destruction, the secret behind the enemy’s carnage is brutally exposed. Andrew and his squad must now serve up a dose of vengeance. Or else their next battle may be their last…

434 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 19, 2021

Reviews

[Space Cowgirl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Doctor Without Borders🚀

ADULT Military🐺💪👊🔪🔫 Sci-fi Adventure 🚀
Andrew Ritchie🐺💪👊🔪🔫 is An unreliable loose cannon with a talent for disobeying orders!

Nevertheless, he is promoted from space marine grunt🚀🐺💪👊🔪🔫 and medic to a full fledged, full time battlefield doctor in an armored Swiss army knife like powersuit equipped with everything he needs for treatment of injured soldiers.
The enemy is an insectoid like race of aliens who try to overwhelm the humans with sheer numbers and flocks of drones.

ARC Provided by Booksprout 🌱
I also got this ebook with KU.

I enjoyed this somewhat highly technical sci-fi novel, even though I didn't understand some of the terms used. The story was interesting because of The main character, Ritchie, being an anti-hero. He puts the care of his fellow soldiers above everything else, overriding auto surgeon robotics when needed to help soldiers keep limbs and eyes, so they can live to fight another day.
The book is long, but action packed all the way through!

[Mira Mio · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF 15%

Из хорошего: у автора есть разухабистый стиль с кринжовыми матами и космическим сленгом.

Из плохого: герой сьюха девяностого левела, где после починки медицинской камеры ему все готовы руки целовать, потому что один он на свете такой. А потом он получит следующий квест и спасет всех легким движением бровей.

Скукота.

[Online Eccentric Librarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

In all honesty, I did not enjoy this book and had a hard time pushing through after around 50% through. It's not a bad book but it kind of falls victim to a lot of the shortcomings of military sci fi genre: they read like a 1990s US/Western military but with sci fi trappings. That means all the sexism, machismo, and marty stu tropes are present and the sci fi is nebulous window dressing.

Story: Andrew Ritchie is a small colony doctor who decides to become a grunt in the war against insectoid aliens (and not use his medical background and instead open combat). But when he saves some VIP lives in a battle, he comes to the notice of the higher ups and gets assigned to the new Valkyrie Medevac Corps. Cue training montages. The war against the aliens heats up as Ritchie chews gum and pops bad guys.

Right off the bat, it was kind of eye rolling to see the very male sexist comments. With women serving equally in the future, you'd think the military wouldn't still objectify women. But yeah, with great analogies such as, ""Plasmafire," he explained with the type of smile you get when your girl sends you a picture wearing less material than a glove." or "He was covered with ticks like bills on a stripper's G-string" (that analogy doesn't even work!), or noticing that the bar girls were 'showing actual legs. And cleavage" as if only women work the bars and not e.g., shirtless men.

I don't want to drone on about the sexism so I'll just say that the female characters didn't fare any better. Our main character, for the first part of the book, comes in contact with two females. Both are 'ballbusters' to our main character - one is a superior and one is a squadmate. Neither are well rounded female characters. The squadmate is describe as "if she wasn't my squaddie and a genuinely heartless bitch, I might have taken a liking to her." And the superior is there to stand in his way of 'doing the right thing' and be a maternal-like pain in his butt for her stupidity. It was hard to slog through at that point.

But the usual Marty Stu cliches are there: macho guy who fights the authority because he knows he is right, he has superior skills to everyone, he can do/fight about anything, and just kind of swaggers through. That worked in the 1980s for movies like Top Gun but it just feels silly and unimaginative in this day and age.

The sexism and Marty Stu are annoying and I could slog through the rest of the story if the writing wasn't so jumpy. It felt like a book written from a bullet point list; too few segues, not enough exposition to really explore the environment or get a feel for the characters, and a very disenfranchising story. The plot just jumped from action point to action point as if afraid the audience had a short span of attention and couldn't handle exploratory or emotive moments. I don't expect a CJ Cherryh experience here but I also at times felt like I was reading a novelization of a Michael Bay movie.

As I noted earlier, it's not terrible and there is an audience for this kind of macho gung ho militaristic sci fi. I just found it unsatisfying and my eyes hurt from rolling them all the time. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

[Emily Pennington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Initial Reaction: I Love It !! . . .

Darwin announced to Commander Andrew Ritchie (“Doc”) that Ticks were heading toward them. Ticks were opteran drones, dull, dark gray hardened plastic discs the size of Saint Bernards, with torches, claws, and weapons hanging off the front. They were similar to ticks, hence the name, and just as annoying. But they were still just gear that no one cared about. Hiding in the debris of Galactic Space Ship Salvation, they wait for a bigger target. Before they got to that, an emergency call came in from the Mayflower Six cargo transit that the ticks were attacking them.

When Doc’s latest maneuver turned into a rescue mission, his medical expertise is noticed by a high-ranking officer who reassigns him to the Valkyrie Corps, a new medevac unit. New state-of-the-art Valkyrie power armor has far more versatility. But it still needs to be proven in the field and the alien roaches will not be backing down.

I really enjoyed the way the story line played out with a gentle mixture of jargon to make it sound real and descriptions to let us know what the author is talking about! It got the job done, leaving me comfortable in imagining the world-building outside the ship as the action was ready to happen. It made the entire thing more exciting and brought the reader into the middle of the action as a participant and not an outside observer. Very clever!

[Wanda Jewell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book I have read by this author. If it is representative of the books he writes, then I believe I have found a new author that I am going to love. I really thought the world/space/alien building was great! I loved the characters. They evolved over time. The story was easy to read and entertaining. I especially loved that the characters were both military fighters and medics as well. I loved it and would recommend it to those who like military science fiction books with a leading character who evolves..

[Heather Fausnacht · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great beginning in the book. It puts you right in the cockpit at the beginning of the adventure. You get to know the characters and the dynamic of the crew. The book keeps you entertained from the beginning. If you want a great space escape this is a great book for you.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Douglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a retired medic and military veteran I enjoyed the combination of the two, and I see great promise in this moving into more books

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Ron Baumer · Rating 5 out of 5]

An outstanding start of a new series! This book has it all - action, good storyline, and sufficiently evil bad guys! I could not put this one down. An excellent Sci-Fi novel.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

[Francesca DeStefano · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was recommended to me so I gave it a try, even though it isn't my usual go-to genre. I am so glad I did! The characters are so beautifully developed. I fell in love with the character interactions, and got completely caught up in the plot. Anxiously awaiting book 2.

[fred jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

A super military sci-fi novel, combat and action from cover to cover. Space medics in armoured battle suits exterminating alien bugs and saving lives, what's not to love! A Typical rule bending lead character and his team of misfits. The writing is great the author has a good eye for action and character. I loved every second of it.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Sidney · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about a group of military medics who also become deeply involved in the actual combat. They are provided special suits of armor and are to be trained in it's use. They are also set up to fail, but with their own efforts they are successful.

The book was enjoyable since I happen to be a military veteran.

The military hierarchy is over the top and the group must prove themselves over and over.

The narrator was very good with multiple voices for the characters.

This book was provided free of charge with the expectation of an honest review.

[Kristjan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story follows an elite combat medical unit/squad in the fight against the alien "roaches" where they are embedded into front line troops to "fix and return them to action" when they would otherwise need to be evac'd behind the lines. As expected, the characters are scrapy "black sheep/bad boys" with limited social skills. Of course, the bugs don't take this laying down ... evolving new threats to which the new valkyrie corp needs to adapt to. It was a fairly typical romp through the standard tropes for a miltitary sci-fi with the narration/performance earning this another star.

I was given this free review copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
#Undaunted #TheSecretAudiobookClub

[Georgia Tumbleweed McNabb · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish the next book in this Series was available on Audible Now, because I would start listening immediately!! Great Story, Wounderful Characters, and they are characters. Narrator does a Great job with the characters voices and the entire storyline. Highly recommend this book.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hmmm...an action book about combat medics! Not sure I can go along with that. My idea of a combat medic is a person fully trained in the science of medicine and the practice of trama-care in emergency situations. They should not, in my opinion, but directly involved in combat unless that combat is self defense. Otherwise, it is up to the unit they are attached/assigned to to provide for their security. This book attempts to promote combat medics who fight while attempting to treat other wounded soldiers. It might be possible, but highly improbable. I would prefer that medically trained personnel stick with what they are trained to do. That way, the wounded men and women under me, become their priority in the fight not the enemy.

Yet this book appears to be the start of creating a corps of Combat Medics while the title of the series seems to only refer to the medical evacuation aspect. I don't think I would want an exclusive group of only medical personnel wondering around in my AOR. They would become a high value target by themselves and the enemy would be targeting them on a regular basis once their location were found. Yeah, well, medics aren't supposed to be targeted in war, but I can't guarantee anything the enemy will or won't do. I just know that if a combat medic squad as depicted in this book existed, they would probably be followed wherever they went and as soon as they began a triage of my wounded, they would come under serious attack! War is hell!

Squad Commander Andrew Ritchie is an interesting main character. He's apparently a highly trained medical doctor although it's never really stated that he has a medical degree. He was a doctor for a civilian mining operation and had some extensive training. But, he left that life and is now with the Coalition Marines as what he calls a "grunt" and that's what he wanted to be. But, his medical skills come to the forefront when keeps fixing up his troops so they can continue the fight or get back into it with little recovery time. That kind of skill doesn't go unnoticed and he's finally grabbed for this experimental new unit, the Valkyrie Medevac Corps although most of the time it's shortened to Valkyrie Corps. Now it gets kind of confusing. He's told that he's a "Special Ops First Lieutenant with paygrade equivalent general force Captain." That doesn't make sense at all. If they wanted to pay him more then, just promote him to Captain and be done with it. I think I would have objected to this, not that it would have done any good. Then in the next paragraph he's told, "...get treated as an officer, non-commissioned." Again, that makes no sense. If he's a First Lieutenant, then he's commissioned, not a NCO (Non-Commissioned Officer). I think the rank structure needs a little work.

Anyway, he's still a squad commander (should be Squad Leader) and he's assigned some other medical personnel plus a maintenance tech. These people will be learning to fight and operate in armor specially built to assist them in handling their medical jobs and treat casualties. So, now they are galavanting around this part of space along with the Marines. They are assigned missions which involves supporting direct combat troops which they do pretty well, except they tend to get into the action a little too much for my liking. It seems that one or the other of Lt Richie's people are always getting hurt and having to be treated as casualty in every mission. That means someone has to tend to them and that basically takes two medical personnel out of the action with a third person needed to protect these two! It seems that these fancy tactical/medical suits makes them bigger targets than necessary. I don't think it would work just they way the story says.

And then we had that antagonistic attitude of Captain Vilipend. I don't know what his problem was or is, but it's not probably going to be that way in real life. This guy is an Marine(?) Captain and apparently his only responsibility is the Valkyrie Squad, so why is he even needed? Lt. Ritchie trains all his troops. Captain Vilipend just gets in the way with his attitude and pretty much causes most of their problems. I didn't like this part of the story at all. Major Yashima, now his character fit the job. He didn't have to know what everyone did and didn't try to get in their way, but he certainly expected results. That's all a leader needs to do so Captain Vilipend was definitely not needed to the story. The other characters were all OK, and they seemed to be a good fit with the rest of the story.

Lastly, I didn't particularly care for this book in that I don't like to read about doctor stuff and all that comes with it. I'm not a doctor and can barely put on a band-aide, but I don't have problems with medical personnel attached or assigned to combat units. They are there for a specific purpose and that's to treat the units injured or wounded. I don't want them fighting unless it's in self defense. Arming them up in some kind of super armor only makes them big targets and they are too valuable assets to the entire unit to get wiped out because they stood out on the battlefield. I doubt that I'll be reading any more of these books. Fancy idea, but wrong people. Medics are medics and nothing else.

[Paul DeStefano · Rating 5 out of 5]

Starship Troopers + MASH.

An old school sci fi romp.

[Torfinn Ingolfsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it.