An Uneasy Alliance

Sentenced to War #4

by J.N. Chaney, Jonathan P. Brazee, Jeffrey Kafer (Narrator)

* 9 hours, 54 minutes *

The war is over. Peace has at last descended over the humanity...or so it would appear.

The Centaurs may no longer pose a threat, but a new war is on the horizon, though it hides in the shadows of two empires.
Rumors of alien tech have set governments against each other, and with attention focused on defeating the Centaurs, criminal elements have gotten their tentacles firmly entrenched in the very fabric of civilization.

Staff Sergeant Rev Pelletier of the Perseus Union Marine Corps has now been assigned to the Home Guard, the elite unit made up of members from each military force in human space.

A new age is upon us. An age of exploration, treaties, and new enemies. But with tensions rising, can the Home Guard function as a viable, unified force to combat the growing lawlessness throughout the galaxy?


©2021 Variant Publications (P)2021 Variant Publications

Genres: Science Fiction, Military Fiction, Audiobook, Fiction, Space

10 pages, Audible Audio

First published July 18, 2021

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Reviews

[Beach Bum · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as good

I've read all 4 back to back and whilst giving a star rating, didn't leave written reviews. Unfortunately I feel a need to do so with this one
The first 3 are good, I rated the 3,3,4*, however this one just does not measure up. There is far too much waffle/filler compared to the previous books. The other books had far for action, this one very little
I can only hope book 5 picks up, back to the level of the others, if not I doubt I'll bother with book 6

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

We've got a long ways with Staff Sergeant Reverent Pelletier. From his initial shanghaied court appearance on a bogus traffic charge with got him sentenced to the Marines and now he's an NCO with several years of combat experience behind him. But, the Centaur War is over so now what?

Well, things are changing and will change for SSgt Pelletier or Rev for short. He's being reassigned to the Home Guard under the Congress of Humanity (CoH). This is an effort by all the nations and planets to provide for a common defense of all humanity. They are supposed to be sending their best and brightest to these units who will no longer be affiliated with their parent branches as before. Oh, Rev will still be a Marine, just not a Perseus Union Marine from Safe Harbor. Now he's just a member of the Home Guard and his allegiance is to the CoH, not to the Marines nor the Union or Safe Harber. He has to give a sworn oath for that to set in and at first he's not very comfortable with it. There are very definitely some portions of humanity that don't really believe in all this togetherness stuff!

Still he does report in and goes about his business. Most of his time is spent training with his new unit. They might be called now to do some police type actions against pirates who have actually had a pretty free hand while the military has been busy with the Centaurs. With the CoH now obligated to protect all of humanity and now that it has it's own military, it will enforce the laws. Rev actually does go out on a surprise mission and does experience some anti-pirate action first hand. This book is far different than the first book in that the actual fighting the Rev or any of the Marines experience are very limited. Only towards the end of the book is there another mission that involves combat. Still, this combat is against humans unlike fighting Centaurs. Killing humans, even bad ones is not something that comes easily.

Then there's his love life! Rev isn't very bright where this is concerned. He's tied to Malaika or so it seems although she is definitely out of the Marines. Rev doesn't know if this relationship is going to work, but he doesn't have much time for it anyway. It still gets on his mind when it shouldn't. Then there's his IBHU arm or weapons he calls Patshu. It's one of the reasons he was chosen for the Home Guard so he and about five other IBHU Marines usually have to put on some kind of firepower demonstration with the VIPs. That's not hard to do, but his IBHU was made for wide-open spaces for fighting Centaurs not close confines of a starship.

So, there wasn't much fighting at all in this book. It was more about getting to know more about his situation in life and the feelings he now has while being a Marine. I think it was OK to show how belonging to something larger than you are is a good way to feel. While he's young he needs to take advantage of this and keep himself sharp. I don't really think the peace is going to last long, but that will have to wait until book five which is "A Broken Alliance" and won't be available until 26 September 2021.

[Tiff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmm, where to begin with this one. Don’t get me wrong, Chaney wrote another solid series book. It was just… different. Maybe too different. Almost boring, mostly uneventful. I suppose during times of peace, the uneventful should be embraced and even enjoyed but hell, I want WAR!

Rev no longer fighting aliens made things slow and with all the changes in Home Guard, it took a lot of the action and thrill away. To have him literally do everything different than how he was trained on New Hope? Wow. It took me far longer to read this one than I wanted it to. Mostly because of the lack of excitement but also because it was like learning a new world all over again like a book 1 of a series. Weird.

Honestly, not a lot was going on, and I kept stopping for breaks. I didn’t want to give it up though, hoping something good would happen, something exciting, anything exciting. About the only things were Rev’s deployment, what happened on the Nightingale’s Song (and that part happened early in the book), the Punch issue and what happened at the very end. It’s hard for a fan reader to come from the first 3 books with massive action and lots of war… to almost nothing. I am glad about what happened between Rev and Mala though.

I gotta say — there’s NO way Randigold was 9 years old when she got conscripted to the service. The dates mentioned are born August 3815 and joined the Marines in January 3825… so that would’ve been before her 10th birthday. Ummm what?! A bit of a typo there! I’m guessing either 3805 or 3835, either would make her 19 and makes way more sense.

I can’t be the only person wondering wtf is going on with Punch! Some expected but annoying developments on that front towards the end of the book. Trust is apparently not in large supply with the IBHU Marines. Considering they first invented and then offered IBHU as an option to some Marines… wtf? I guess change is difficult to grasp, and trust it’ll work out ok, for some. It’ll be interesting to see how humongous of an issue this turns into for Rev 😉… you’ll understand when you read it.

A whole book with no Miko sucked!!! However, at least Rev has a couple friends in the HG now. What happened at the end had me grinning. That’s all I’m gonna say.

Last but not least, I’m still waiting to learn / have explained wtf all the medical terms are that the doctors use during Rev’s checkups. Using Rev as a guinea pig yet again, and it sure would be easier to swallow if explained more. After 4 books, I don’t think I’m gonna get those answers. The medical terms aren’t even in the included glossary which would be so easy to do. Overall, 3/5 stars. I really wanted to enjoy this book more than I did but it fell a bit flat for me. Just like a pisser coming in short of the LZ. I hope book 5 is better!

[Quartknee · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is weighed down by too much of the mundane aspects of military life and hints or teases of politics and second-hand political intrigue. Much of it felt extraneous and I skipped forward through most of the ceremonial pomp and circumstance stuff. Formal dinners are boring to read about without conversational or emotional conflict as a subtext. I get that much of the IRL military experience is filled with fancy dinners and trooping the colors and all that but none of it felt germane to the story.

There was no exploration of inner conflict nor was there any type of personal reflection to contrast the action going on around Rev. In this book, he's more of a Mary Sue trope than ever before. He didn't even have a flicker of 'what if' type of thoughts about what his life might've been had he not been conscripted. There was zero acknowledgment of his journey from resentful criminal unfairly conscripted to the now patriotic career warrior.

By the time Tomiko reappears it seemed like Rev had forgotten all about her. She obviously hadn't made peace with the way they parted but he did - until he kinda didn't but then he quickly patched things up with her by miraculously saying the right words he knew she needed to hear. It was all cope and we never got to see him wrestle with the implications or emotions of their shifting relationship dynamics.

[Jon Svenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four books in now and I'm still enjoying the story. Now that the Centaur war is over, Rev signs up for the Home Guard in the Earth system (but not on Earth), leaving Tomiko, Malaika and the rest behind.

For Rev it feels like he is starting over. Instead of being a legend among men, now he's just like all the others from the various nations.

In terms of action, book 4 has the least by far. Yes, there is some and what is there is decent, but we dive a lot more into Rev's interpersonal relationships. It's not bad, but it's also not the reason I started in on this series.

There is also another run in with D4, as they and others have other reasons for Rev to be there instead of just serving his country. They want him to spy on the foreigners in his battalion, which he does even when he doesn't want to.

Overall, I'm still enjoying the series. Rev is a well developed character, and he's always going to go above and beyond for his team. He's also the kind of guy who doesn't get the awards he deserves.

4/5*

[Jas · Rating 4 out of 5]

The next evolution of the Sentenced to War series sees Rev leaving the Union Marines and joining the Home Guard.
This is a really interesting change in the series, as it sees a fundamental shift in the dynamic from the focus being all about the Marines, and the war against the Centaur, to a much more human look at things. With the war now being over, Humanity has to now focus its efforts on trying to stabilise everything within its own area of control, and there are a lot of different ‘Factions’ that this entails.
The Congress of Humanity or Home Guard, is made up of a range of different forces, all from the different sectors of humans. Rev has been chosen due to his IBHU, so he can be at the forefront of the CoH forces in any conflict that happens, but he is joined by several other people that he had not expected, included Ting from the Frisian’s, and several Union Marines. There are also all of the IBHU marines as they have been included into the Home Guard to be at the forefront of any force.
This book starts off a little slower than the others have been, but it is more character driven, as we get to see a lot more of Rev going through the internal workings of the Home Guard as they want to test out the capabilities of his IBHU, as well as carry out significant training with the new squad arrangements that will be in place at the CoH.
Whilst this has the feel of a new ‘Boot Camp’, it isn’t, as all of the people involved are combat veterans, with years of service, and not just having served, but having actually seen combat so that they are true veterans and know what they are doing.
I don’t want to give away any spoilers – but as stated the start of the story covers this introduction to the Home Guard, and it is fascinating seeing the internal politics of how the Congress of Humanity works as opposed to the Union of Marines. It should be noted that the world building is truly exceptional, the level of detail and comprehensive, multi-faceted scale in which the Authors have created this story, all the different Factions, the characters and their backgrounds, it is so incredibly in-depth, and makes the story so much more realistic and genuine.
As the story progresses, we move away from the fact that Humanity no longer is at war with the Centaurs, and is now trying to rebuild what is left of its colonies and worlds, and to do that, it requires a strong shipping network. However, both during the war, and especially since the end of the war and the increased shipping, piracy has increased, making things difficult.
The story moves from the re-integration of Rev and the new people into the Home Guard, into a full on strike mission to take out a pirate ship and rescue passengers in the process after a convoy ship was taken.
Until very recently, the Home Guard did not have the ability to hit back at pirates, but with the end of the war, now they do, and this is one of the first missions, especially the first with IBHU marines, and the new ‘Coalition’ forces.
Again, I don’t want to give away spoilers, but the storyline that follows of the strike mission to retake the captured Convoy vessel is one that is brutal, gritty, and so incredibly well done. The descriptive work is extraordinary, so that you feel like you are ducking amongst the bulkheads with the Home Guard, trying to avoid getting shot, take out Pirates, and free the captives, as well as capture your objectives.
The story continues with more action as various factions take the opportunity with the wars end to open up old feuds, and the only thing stopping them is the Home Guard. I don’t want to give away any spoilers though.
The ferocity, speed and unrelenting nature of the combat is intense, and you find yourself so completely drawn into it, unable to put the book down in case you miss what happens next. One of the good things about this series, is that the Authors have not been afraid of taking out their main characters, so don’t get attached to anyone. The descriptive work of the combat scenes is something that is brilliant about these books, with detailed descriptions of actions, but without the need to go into over-the-top brutality just for the sake of it.
There are so many great things about this series, as mentioned, the world-building and character work, as well as what is an ever evolving storyline, so that the readers don’t get bored with book after book of the same war. There are some really fun things though, there is an underlying humour throughout this series, the horrendously bad jokes told by Punch, as well as some of the other humour to take the edge of all of the intensity that occurs in the story, which is very well done. There are also several long term storyline elements (no spoilers) that have been moving from book to book, to keep it interesting as well.
As with all the other books, the relationships between all the major characters (not just Rev), continue to develop and grow, giving this series a very personal element, and it makes this series standout a lot more than others in its genre due to intense personal connections that are made as the story evolves, as with the world-building, giving it a very genuine edge and creating a bond between the reader and several of the characters in the story. This really impacts you when one of them is killed in action.
This continues to be a powerful series, thrilling, action-packed, but as we have moved into book 4, there is also now elements of political intrigue and mystery, as the collection of human systems all start to try and put the pieces back together after the war with the Centaurs, and find that they don’t like the picture. Even worse are the pirates.
The real question is if humanity can prevent themselves from doing more damage than the Centaurs did.
This is one of those MUST READ series, as it is just too good to miss, if you haven’t started it, get on board now!

[Paul Rezendes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chaney never fails. A must read.

I found this series because of several others by the author. His sense of character development and the way he is able to immerse you in the story is like no other. The development of Rev and his journey in the service is exiting through every minute. I served for over twenty years in the US Navy. I can tell just how hard the work was out into making sure words, places, and the culture was learned before he put words to paper. These small touches are what makes it easy to recommend all of his books to friends. If you haven't read the others in this series, go get them and get started now.

[Celandra Dawson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Where’s the beef? I mean ACTION???

I thought about not saying anything. But, nope its got to be done. Dear authors, what the …. happened to the action? This read like “Days of our Lives ..in the Marine Corp.” I flipped so many pages looking for a hint of action they became a blur. A scene where an MC cant lift some weights, is not an action sequence. The pirate sequence, slightly better but too short. The shootout in the ravines, meh. No ebb and flow of drama, no turning points of the plot. It was mayonnaise, bland mayonnaise. Please try to deploy the drama so readers are glued to the page, not wondering if there’s an action book they could be reading.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's that time in a series where you can tell the author is setting up for a "major" change in direction. That being said, in this book, book '4' - The author is doing just that. So far, the series has been enjoyable. I'm going to keep going. I'm also reading a '3' book series by Frederik Pohl. It's about a species far more advanced than us who sort of disappeared but left starships behind. Of course "mankind" found some of these ships & the story goes on. I finished Book II & am almost ready to begin Book III. Hope whoever reads this has a "wondrous" day & please know, there's someone out there who loves you. Later...

[Samantha Rense · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little slow

I love this series, but this volume was a little lacking. I enjoyed it, but it was light on action. There were a lot of interactions that were just everyday living: together at a bar, a parade, a dinner party, and so on. I kept reading and thinking, okay the betrayal or attack or surprise whatever is coming up here, but it never did, until something interesting happened at practically the end of the book. So, not as fun and exciting a read as usual, but still okay.

[Scott Voyles · Rating 2 out of 5]

Questioning the guns

So its interesting story but I'm really bothered by is the weapons being used. Still using missiles and rounds in existence today , yet they have the ability to enhance bodies physically and re-grow limbs. Spaceships that can transition vast distances in weeks yet they don't have plasma weapons or any type of beam weapons that a soldier can just pick up and use.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A strange non war

Rev is assigned to the Home Guard and finds it challenging because of the fact that they focus so much on politics than on actually being the defenders of the human home system. I did like the favor Rev gave Darryl in the first chapter.
So Rev learns more about the various military forces that are blended into the Home Guard. We also learn something new about Punch that may have an impact on future story lines.

[Tom Hauserman · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great new chapter!

The story line kept my attention cover to cover. When I reached the end I was so surprised as I was completely caught up with this story. Have pre-ordered the next book and will impatiently await the delivery to my Kindle is September! Great job JN &Jonathan!

[Flonkbob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this series!

Damn me, this guy is good. I know to credit his experience for dinner of it, but Chaney is just a good author, regardless. I love SG. I love military SF. But I don't often *care* about the characters as mich as I do with these. Not just the propagandist, but many of the characters.

Thanks for writing, J.N., and keep it up.

[Christie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The adventures continue

Follow Rev as he navigates life as a Marine in a post-Centaur universe. New places, new friends, and new experiences. Looking forward to the next installment.

[L. W. Lynch · Rating 5 out of 5]

An easy and entertaining read.

Great concept

Subject matter and characters are presented in an unassuming and believable way. Those with a military background will slip easily into the banter between the characters.

[James Arthur Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting by boring

An uneasy alliance wasn't filled with action : actually it was incredibly boring! The authors writing was professional and easy to read but the hero Rev was a whiny piece of work in this iteration of of the Sentenced to war series.

[Carol Goforth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the first three books, but this one was kind of meh. It mostly felt like a series of excuses to describe a fight, when nothing really big was happening. Sorry, because I loved the first three in the series.

[Sidney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good read

Another winner! Smooth storyline that has action, laughs, sorrow, and insights. These characters have human emotions and self doubts that make them feel real. Hop on and buckle up.

[Robert Steven · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unnecessary Lesbian main characters

This book violates my religious beliefs by supporting the LGBTQ+ narrative. I really enjoyed the book and series up until Mala and Ten became a couple. I won't be reading any more books in the series.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just keeps you interested

Plenty of military interaction. Plenty of quality characters. Good character building and plot twists. Excellent overall story. Main character isn't perfect Definitely recommended.

[Bill Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

good read, although draggy in spots

The overall story is very good even though in parts it gets a tad draggy with superfluous descriptions. Still good and looking forward to the sequel

[Michael Leiser · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good read

Goodread but action was slow politics was prevalent. Yes I know all these things these are just simply today's happenings moved a bit forward still in all well then.

[Timothy L Espinoza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really Fun!

This has been a really series so far. I need to add another half star. See if you can find at least three Heinlein references. As a former Jarhead, I get a kick out of all the Marine Corps fun.

[Denise Buechele · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a good series

Some things got real interesting in this book. Punch has a mind of his own. Mad dog alliance goes to hell. And shit hits the fan . Miko and Rev go home . That's where Rev gets his very own platoon. Can't wait to see how that goes.

[Richard Levy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great series. Great book

This book has more interpersonal conflicts than some of the others. As the title suggests it also gets into the stresses on an alliance. There is a great section on a British military parade (tatoo).

[TJ Grant · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a solid next installment. It was hard for the series to top the climatic third book. But I'm still interested in all the craziness that staff sergeant Reverent Pelletier gets into. Can't wait to read the next one.

[Daniel Fedko · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m really enjoying this series

I'm amazed that this author can write so many fantastic novels, I hope that he never stops writing. His books are some of the best Entertainment  I have read and worth the time to read them. Thank you for a very fun entertaining read.

[Gail Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really great!

Another really great book by Chaney. Somewhat slower in terms of action and battle then his previous books. But still spectacular!!

[Ray Ritchey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Realistic!

Enjoyable mix of realistic Garrison, Honor Guard, Politics, and Combat scenes. Its almost as if one of the writers is a Marine Veteran…