The Weight of Command

by Michael Mammay, Cassandra Campbell (Narrator)

Lieutenant Kiera Markov is a scout platoon leader for a peacekeeping force on the remote planet of Tanara, where little has happened for decades, and the only mission is to keep the lithium flowing up the space elevator to feed the galaxy’s incessant demand. But when an unprecedented attack kills the entirety of the brigade’s leadership, the untested lieutenant suddenly finds herself in command.

Isolated and alone, Markov must contend with rival politicians on both sides of the border, all of whom have suspect motives and reason to take advantage of an untested leader, while an unseen enemy seeks to drive the two sides toward a war that Markov has a mission to prevent. It’s enough to test even a seasoned leader.

Markov isn’t that.

With challenges from all sides, and even from her own troops, Markov will have to learn quickly and establish her authority. Because what hangs in the balance is not only the future of the peacekeeping force, but of the planet itself.

Genres: Science Fiction, Audiobook, Fiction, Military Fiction, Military Science Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy

Audible Audio

First published July 14, 2022

About the author

Michael Mammay is a retired army officer and a graduate of the United States Military Academy. He has a masters degree in military history, and he is a veteran of more wars than he cares to remember. His first novel, PLANETSIDE, was a Library Journal 'Best books of 2018' pick and the sequels, SPACESIDE and COLONYSIDE, received starred reviews. GENERATION SHIP is his first foray out of the military SF sub-genre and comes out in October of 2023. He lives with his family in Georgia.

Reviews

[Niki Hawkes - The Obsessive Bookseller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Check out my Booktube channel at: The Obsessive Bookseller

What?! A second book out from a favorite author within the same year?! Sign me up!!!

Mammay’s Scifi books are my ultimate feel-good reads. I can always expect adept characters, witty dialogue, and a compelling mystery. With his books I just sit back and enjoy – trusting it’s going to be an enjoyable ride.

This audible-exclusive title was a fun, light read – perfect for those who prefer Scifi as their ultimate beach-reads. I loved the idea for the premise going into it – a young lieutenant forced into leading an army long before she’s ready. It was a fun change of pace from the usual, more experienced main characters and I appreciated seeing her blunder as much as she succeeded. I’ve been reading about a lot of overly savvy characters lately, so one who felt a little more fallible and human was a breath of fresh air.

Recommendations: Planetside is one of my all-time favorite books, so if you’re new to Mammay’s work, start with that one. Venture into this for witty characters, fast-paced plots, and great momentum!

Thank you to my Patrons: Filipe, Dave, Frank, Sonja, Staci, Kat, and Katrin! <3

Other books you might like:


Via The Obsessive Bookseller at www.NikiHawkes.com

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyable sci-fi romp with Lieutenant Kiera Markov suddenly placed into the command of a peace keeping mission on a far-away planet after a terrorist incident. The young (incidentally queer) Lieutenant has to face enemies on all sides whilst trying to uncover the truth, save the world and maybe (just maybe) get a date with a rather nice young lady she met in a coffee shop one day.

While the ending is… kind of abrupt, overall I loved the hell out of this one.

[Scott Drakeford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mammay weaves the characters, politics, and plot elements together perfectly to create a masterpiece. I was so enthralled, I finished this in two days! Major Markov, the main character, is very authentic and relatable. The intense situation and events that unfold are very believable and well paced - you won't be able to stop listening either!

The narrator does a fantastic job as well, though a few times the voices were not differentiated enough to be able to easily distinguish different characters when two females were conversing. Luckily, the writing is remarkably clear and it was never an issue.

Easy 5/5 stars.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This isn't really a "military sci-fi" novel. It is a "drama with a military sci-fi setting." The story features a fairly vanilla military culture, executed blandly. So although the story "nods" occassionally to military realism from time to time, it is a thin veneer which never lasts long. This is a place where a commander can turn to an enlisted subordinate and casually ask, "Would it be ok with you if we held the meeting in my office?" There are times when the MC converts into something resembling a professional soldier, and I found my interest increasing during these moments, but they were inconsistent, and the result is an MC that whipsaws between badass and whiny teenager. Although the premise of a young lieutenant being suddenly promoted to command held tremendous promise, I think this one would have worked better following a "thriller" format as opposed to the just-ok, not-military, sci-fi drama that emerged. Verdict: "Meh," with a side scolding for the misleading genre labeling and contrived action sequences. Congratulations are also due to Cassandra Campbell for her narration. The performance was rock-solid, with character voices and intonation flowing one to another so smoothly as to render the narrator invisible. Bravo!

[Thom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read by a friend, I noted that this author has written series. Wanted to find a solo story to try out, and this was a pretty good one.

This story starts very in media res, with a sole Lieutenant now in command. In addition to an unknown enemy, she also has to deal with two separate factions - military and diplomacy. Of course she also has to deal with base personnel and a potential rival.

The characters feel very real, and the protagonist learns a fair amount over the course of the story. The way she deals with the rival is particularly satisfying. I don't know if this tale fits into a larger universe or connects with the other stories, but either way it was fun to read. The ending is a little abrupt - whether intentional (for a sequel) or not is unknown.

Looking forward to reading more from this author.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining military science fiction. Lots of action and I really liked the heroine. My only small complaint is it seemed to end a little abruptly and I would have liked a lengthier look at the aftermath of the events in the story and the fates of several of the characters. But perhaps the author is saving that for a sequel. If so, I’m sure I’ll read that one too.

[Tiemen Zwaan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun read. Looking forward to hopefully more in a series.

[Sifa Poulton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really engaging read - I listened to it over about two days (the heat definitely helped as I didn't want to do anything but starfish on the floor!)

As you'd expect from Michael Mammay, this is another tense military thriller - the pacing is superb. There is the mystery of who was behind the attack - and why - which has to be dealt with at the same time that the nation is gearing towards war, and neither side are particularly helpful. There's a lot of different situations happening, which really helps the book to keep moving because there's always something to have to disaster-manage (and usually multiple competing things.)

You are absolutely rooting for Markov from the get go, getting behind her as a character within a few minutes. She's thrust into the sort of situation everyone dreads. "A disaster's happened, it's going to have consequences, and you're now in charge! Yup, you have no experience of such authority, but you're the one who gets to deal with this all the same." Not only is it a great premise but it gets you on her team immediately.

The narrator, Cassamndra Campbell, was engaging too. I've only really started listening to audiobooks in the last 18 months, so I don't think I'm at the point where I think I can pinpoint what makes a good narrator (for me) yet, but I certainly know when a narrator irritates me, and she didn't!

Having now read four books by the author, it feels like he has a "characteristic ending type," and there's one in here too. It's very abrupt, often ending on an unknown about the future, that sort of jerks you upright to a stop. It works within the thriller nature of the book and the fact that the character has spent the book dealing with so much uncertainty. You get the mystery wrapped up, the immediate situation to a stable place, but the future? There's still uncertainty at how it will pan out, what the higher ups will decide to do in view of the MC's actions.

It's fun to be able to pick out "authorial signatures" like this (OK, maybe that's only me!) I'm interested to see if THE MISFIT SOLDIER, which isn't a military thriller in the same way his other books so far have been.

[Marlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

“War is hell,” or so said Union General William Tecumseh Sherman, who was most certainly in a position to know. But that is far from the only thing he had to say about the topic. So, while that famous phrase is certainly relevant to this story, one of his lesser-known quotes is even more so, that “one class of men makes war and leaves another to fight it out.”

Or, to put it another way, equally applicable to the story in hand, quoting a somewhat more down-to-earth source, one who frequently proclaimed, “Let’s you and him fight.”

But that’s not where The Weight of Command begins. Instead, the story begins as that all-too-literal weight of command falls with the force of a bomb dropping onto the shoulders of 23-year-old Lieutenant Keira Markov, just a few months into a peacekeeping mission on the planet Tanara.

Because she’s the only officer left in the command after a nuclear detonation took out all the other officers in the entire mission along with officials from at least one of the two sniping factions on the planet – the two groups the mission has been keeping the peace between for the past 50 years.

It’s not just Markov’s command structure that has been wiped out. An EMP pulse has knocked out all off planet communications. Not just hers. Everyone’s.

While it’s barely possible that one of the two local groups might have gotten their hands on a small nuke, the EMP pulse that silenced ALL the satellites surrounding the planet AND knocked out power on the station at the TOP of the space elevator that handles all incoming intergalactic transit is beyond either side’s technology.

But of course they descend into blaming each other – because they’ve been doing that for centuries and the grooves in the local psyches are well-worn and eager to fight – even if neither of them can win.

Whoever or whatever – not to mention whyever – someone wanted to isolate the planet as well as figuring out what it will take to end that isolation has just become the responsibility of a young Lieutenant who has never led a group larger than a platoon. Suddenly she’s been promoted to Major by the ranking noncom and has 4,000 people she has to keep alive until help can arrive.

While both local factions are ready – if not downright eager – to start a shooting war. And someone – or more likely a whole lot of someones – is pulling a whole lot of very sophisticated strings to keep everyone on planet busy while whatever schemes they’re scheming have a chance to hatch out in the wider, unsuspecting galaxy.

Major Markov has to figure out who the real enemy is, keep the two factions from doing someone else’s dirty work, and get word out to someone who can, will, and should relieve her from the weight of a command that she knows she’s not ready for – but has to rise to regardless.

She knows that history will judge her, and probably harshly, even if anyone of her sudden command lives to tell the tale. And especially if they don’t.

Escape Rating A: This is not exactly the first time this scenario has been done. (There are at least SIX different variations of it in the TV Tropes Wiki that each have their own separate lists of examples.) The two that initially came to my mind were Executive Orders by Tom Clancy and the 2003 Battlestar Galactica miniseries that kicked off that series. But there are clearly legions of stories including several by Robert A. Heinlein and more than a few occasions in David Weber’s Honor Harrington series.

What makes the application of this often-used trope so compelling in The Weight of Command is that we are not observing events from a dispassionate third-person perspective. This story is told from inside Markov’s head, so we’re with her through every moment of fear, self-doubt, desperation, indecision and anguish. She has the universe’s worst case of Impostor Syndrome but it’s not a syndrome. She isn’t qualified. She isn’t ready. She’s not deluding herself. But she’s all they’ve got.

Even better, we’re with her as she stumbles, falls and picks herself back up again. We’re in her head as she learns lessons that were supposed to take years to be trained into her. All she has is minutes – if she’s lucky. We see her screw up and we see her learn from her mistakes.

We see every problem that occurs with her crash-course of on the job training in a situation where that training time can get people killed – and does.

But it’s not all blood and guts. After all, the spraying of those is exactly what Markov is trying to prevent. She also has a mystery to solve and politics to navigate – which are tied together in a Gordian knot she should take the time to unravel but is much more likely to just slice into two with the biggest sword she can lay her hands on – metaphorical or otherwise.

The politics, at least, are part of her learning curve. She wants to be a blunt instrument, even though she knows that’s not going to serve her mission. Except when it does. Figuring out which is which goes right back to that learning curve. But it’s also the fun part when she knows she shouldn’t and does it anyway and it works in her favor – if not nearly often enough.

I picked up The Weight of Command because I adored the author’s previous work, especially his Planetside series and its universe-weary protagonist Carl Butler. Markov is a bit less of a blunt instrument than Butler – not because she’s not so inclined and certainly not because she has a higher opinion of politics or politicians or even humanity in general no matter how much she cares for individuals in particular – but she could certainly be said to be a chip off that old block. She just hasn’t had nearly the amount of time and experience needed to be as crusty or as jaded. (I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing EITHER character again!)

Still, the resemblance is definitely there, which made this reader feel right at home in this story. Now that I’ve finished it, I’m looking forward to the author’s next SFnal adventure in Generation Ship, coming in October.

Originally published at Reading Reality

[Jkane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a bit of a departure from Mammay's past works. The plot is essentially that a young lieutenant is thrust into the command after all of her superiors are taken out on page 1. A treaty was agreed to by two warring factions on a planet. One faction is more militarily and technologically advanced than the other one, who has a more traditional, sort-of religious culture. As part of the treaty between the two societies, they agreed to install a third party military on the planet to act as peace keepers between the two warring factions. All three parties understand the money at stake on the planet due to the lithium mining so it is in everyone's interest to allow the peacekeepers to keep-the-peace. But when the peacekeepers are attacked, a young lieutenant has to walk through a minefield of cultural differences, all the while investigating who attacked her commanders. The novel is about the efforts of a young military lieutenant who doesn't have the background to navigate the politics of dealing with the leaders of the two warring factions, and their military, as tensions rise. It was an interesting novel that accomplished what it sought out to convey.

Part of the novel was a little frustrating as the twenty-something lieutenant does not act in a way that seems fairly obvious, but I think the author did that to show her inexperience. I thought the novel was a bit sexist (and I'm a man) in that it continually focused on Kiera's attraction to one particular character. I certainly allow for the fact that twenty-somethings allow their hormones to act in a way that an older generation would not, but I continually questioned whether the author would have made a male lieutenant allow his attraction to an opponent to continually get in the way of good judgment. It was brought up so many times that I not only found it distracting and a bit unlikely, but it also made Kiera, the protagonist, seem even weaker. Maybe that was the point, though. That was an extremely minor part of the story, and thought it was a bit annoying, I still thought the novel was better than expected.

[J.C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great ride with an entirely different main character. If you've read the *side books by Michael Mammay, you already probably love Butler, a man who basically seems to have a handle on life, and no matter how many ways you hand him a shit sandwich, he's going to at least recognize that it's probably a shit sandwich.

Now we got Markov, barely an officer, sick with food poisoning and with more tracks in her underwear than stripes on her sleeve, thrown into a situation where she's in charge and in trouble. What should have been a boring assignment on a backwater planet turns sideways in the blink--and flash--of a nuke. And you know damn well if the book's 350 pages, it's not 350 pages of Markov filing weather reports and failing to beat Candy Crush.

Inexperienced does *not* mean stupid, and the joy of this novel is watching Markov develop her shit-sandwich avoidance skills.

Typical Mammay-isms will apply - double crosses, dirty rotten scoundrels, war that's just plain awful even if you "win" and the idea that we're pretty much all screwed when the powers that be decide the lives of a few thousand soldiers are worth less than the prizes at stake.

Markov ain't Butler, but you can't help rooting for her (and by extension) most of the other soldiers in her crew to survive, figure it out, and above all, avoid eating street tacos from a corner vendor where fly eggs are a primary ingredient.

Good book. Also, if you haven't read the *side books, go. Do it. It's like listening to Mr. Rogers narrate his way through a war zone, if Mr. Rogers was a bitter borderline alcoholic with a failing marriage and too many combat tours and a career that's gone sideways on a planet where a simple missing person expedition turns into hell that makes Sunday Night Bridge Club look downright appealing because while they might bore you to death, the Bridge Club won't put a bullet through your skull.

[Andi · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Weight of Command was more a military sci-fi-light thriller. Even though I’ve never served in the military, I became immediately engaged in the writing, characters, and plot. Mammary has a way of creating crisp, taut stories with engaging characters. I liked Kiera, but also really liked the supporting characters.

Lieutenant Kiera Markov is a platoon scout leader on a remote planet, part of an Army peacekeeping force of the Federation Government that oversees the planet’s lithium extraction. When all of the officers are killed by a nuclear attack at an offsite dinner, Keira is unexpectedly placed in charge of the entire planetside post. Kiera was supposed to have been in attendance at the dinner, but food poisoning prevented her from going. When the camp also loses communications with the Federation Government, the newly minted Major Kiera is faced with learning to command the brigade, solving the mystery of the attack, and dealing with the political machinations of the two contentious factions on the planet.

Initially, Kiera fumbles a bit with the weight of her new command. She may have been caught off guard with her new role, but Kiera is astute and a quick learner. She soon learns on how to lead with the support of her team, earning their loyalty and respect in the process.

I rarely “read” audiobooks, but I actually prefer listening to Mammay’s stories on audio. The narrator was excellent. I liked The Weight of Command slightly more than The Misfit Soldier, mostly due to the more engaging plot. The pacing was excellent!

I cannot wait to see what Mammay has planned for us next!

[Gilbert Stack · Rating 5 out of 5]

In his latest novel, Michael Mammay has given us a book every bit as good as his amazing Planetside. A terrorist incident involving a nuclear weapon kills the entire senior command structure of a peacekeeping force on a planet that contains vital lithium mines. This leaves one lowly lieutenant suddenly in charge of a brigade and, thanks to the communication satellites and the space elevator also being taken out of commission, she has no way to even tell her superiors that there is trouble on the planet. And there is big trouble. I think the reader will figure out the larger picture faster than the lieutenant does, but that’s forgivable because she is smack in the middle of the maelstrom trying to keep her soldiers alive and the fragile peace from breaking.

This is a great book. There’s a lot of tension—some caused by action and some by the horrible political situation in which two nations both suspect the other having been responsible for the terrorist incident. One of the things I like about science fiction is the clash of cultures and the lieutenant has to learn fast what makes the other peoples on this planet tick in order to keep from accidentally igniting the powder keg herself.

There’s also the problem of who can actually run missions when there are no officers. Mammay clearly gave the overall situation a great deal of thought. His heroine makes a lot of mistakes that further complicate matters, but what lieutenant wouldn’t when thrown into such a mess? This is a good one.

[Gr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Outstanding near-future military SCIFI. Enjoyable off-world drama occurs when a young inexperienced Lieutenant, Kiera Markov finds herself in charge of a remote and isolated peacekeeping unit deployed between two rival nations on a distant planet after a terrorist attack. I purchased this book on Audible and the narration by Cassandra Campbell was excellent.

If you have knowledge of actual military operations, and you have not read other works by this author, you are in for a treat. One cannot help but appreciate the skill and realism that Michael Mammay brings to his military SCIFI writing. I thought Mammay did an outstanding job in the worldbuilding and creation of realistic differences and cultural challenges a military commander must navigate while deployed.

Lieutenant/Major Markov is a competent officer who navigates numerous challenges and overcomes her inexperience to perform well above her pay grade. This is a fast-moving book with mystery and action. My few criticisms of the story revolve around Markov's continual fascination with another character and her rivalry with the other surviving officer from her unit. While I guess the attraction can be explained by age, and I get the future will be different, I found it difficult to consider a logistics officer as a line officer in any future and felt that rivalry to be a bit contrived. Overall, this is a 4-star excellent read that you should consider if you like military SCIFI.

[Trey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably closer to 3.5 stars. Decent enough little military sci-fi book. Been on a bit of a Mammay kick while taking a break from some other series. Good listen for a hike or long drive.

Not the biggest fan of the narrator on this one. The voice used was one in which everything either sounds like the MC is on the verge of tears or she's bemused in a kind of bored way.

Story was alright if a bit contrived. Not a ton in the way of battles and a lot of the action is heavily dependant on a few key events happening in just the right ways.

One of the problems with these shorter books is sometimes certain plot lines get left behind or are just not adequately addressed. Certain plots needed to either be addressed earlier on, discarded or additional time needed to be spent on them in order for them to be satisfying.

Kind of disappointed in not getting much in the way of a wrap up at the end. I get that the book was pretty light on lore and world building but some information about how the events of this book were felt in the wider universe would have been nice.

My only really nit picking complaint about this book is that it felt like a pretty near future world in terms of technology but it takes place at least (and likely much more than) 700 years in the future. Other than a quantum communicator nothing really stood out technologically as something we might be able to do in a generation or two

[Zac Topping · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Weight of Command is another great military sci-fi installment by Michael Mammay that follows the story of a young military officer forced to assume a leadership role far above anything she's ever handled before. After an unexpected incident, Lieutenant Kiera Markov is suddenly tasked with saving what's left of her unit, as well as navigating the rocky political landscape of the military's relationship with the planet's local inhabitants. There's plenty of military action and the story really shines when it explores the complexities of commanding a military unit in a conflict zone while balancing the contentious interactions between various parties as they strive to build a peaceful society. It's pretty clear here that Mammay knows his stuff and has done this for real. The book seems a clear allegory for the political troubles the US military faced in the Middle East as it dealt with the different tribal factions who were all fighting against one another. No easy task, that, and we see it here. And although the set pieces are big, this is a character driven story, where we see just how human Markov is, and how difficult decisions have far-reaching impact. There's wit and humor and tension and one hell of a climactic finish. I'm curious if we'll see more of Kiera Markov in the future, which I certainly hope we do.

[Terry · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well, that was irritating. I expected some gritty space opera, as in the 'side novels by Mr. Mammay, which had a compelling, flawed yet decisive hero fighting evil corporations and species in the distant future. I thought a female lead would be right up my alley. I was wrong.

Our heroine has an active inner life, dealing as she is with misogyny (really?), her youth and an unfortunate tendency to tearfulness after a post-attack promotion as last officer standing. She agonizes over decisions, asking her subordinates to tell her what to do. She is distracted by a long-distance attraction to a lovely bureaucrat on one of the enemy sides. It goes nowhere. Neither do most of her other efforts. The conflict that brings her to leadership doesn't have a clear resolution, other than to blame, as in Mr. Mammay's other novels, the foul stench of heartless evil corporations. After her significant success, she spirals into a deep depression due to survivor guilt, coddled by her staff.

This is not the leader I was hoping to admire. I would have court-martialed her early in the story, when an enticing, promising plot thread of rescuing stranded spacers just. . . fizzles away, never to be mentioned again. I listened to the end of the Audible edition, and can say the reader did her best with the story.

[Erin Penn · Rating 4 out of 5]

What happens when a lowly lieutenant finds herself the highest ranking officer on planet? And unlike some "any-man" armies, in this science-fiction world, officers come wired for bear. They are the only ones who are completely wired to connect to the command network. A master sergeant can't step up to the plate without several surgeries and nearly a year of specialized training.

After the chain of command is snipped to its last link, the lieutenant has to figure out how to operate a division instead of a platoon, deal with escalating tensions between two powers on the planet while obeying the peace-keeping directive, and connect back to her command-structure after all space-communication goes down. She is fortunate to have amazing non-coms at her side.

The constant escalation of tension, changing of stakes, and juggling of external political & internal military command balls brings the full Weight of Command to Kiera's shoulders in this pulse-pounding can't-put-it-down book.

(Originally created as an audio-book exclusive - now available in kindle and print formats.)

[Ryan Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was Mammay's best work yet.

The mastery with which he compounds Markov's problems with her mindset was tremendous. I've not served in the military, but seeing the burden that Markov takes on really highlighted to me the tremendous pressure that such decision-making puts on a person. For it to be a person that is (quite fairly) unprepared for it and also at odds with cultural implications of her leadership was really fascinating to follow, and you could tell that Mammay thought very critically about every barrier he presented Markov and how they specifically interacted with her as a person. Just masterful writing on that end.

Beyond that, the pacing and plot were both what you'd expect from Mammay at this point, and the ending hit just as hard (if not harder) than the others. If you haven't read Mammay, it's a treat to reach the end of his books, and the Weight of Command is an especially sweet one.

[Morris D · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title is truly what this book is about

This is not a ‘blast the aliens and rogue humans’ book, which is refreshing. Michael Mammay is usually refreshing in his books.

The book (though not a Marine Corps story) is about improvise, adapt, overcome after a shocking shift in responsibility.

To catapult into high command via the death of others is a profound test of character. The story feels honest. Honest about the rapidly shifting struggles of someone suddenly the last officer standing and now responsible for thousands of lives and two nations immediate futures plus possibly all of their longterm futures. Responsible, but not ready.

If there is ever a time when standing up, knowing that improvising, adapting, and overcoming is the most costly learning curve? The loss of higher leadership and being the last leader standing is it. Knowing and standing up is hard. Incredibly hard. This book does service to navigating such a reality.

Well worth reading.

[Troy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not going to lie, I was a bit disappointed in this one. I've loved all of Mammay's other books. Long live Colonel Butler!

This one just didn't really work for me. I kept feeling the entire novel like it was a rough draft for a much better book. There wasn't anything glaringly wrong or bad about this one, it just didn't have that "it" factor. It also ended rather abruptly.

I also think part of the reason why this one didn't work as well for me was the narrator. She just didn't have the right voice for this story. Unfortunately that happens sometimes.

This shouldn't dissuade anyone from checking out Mammay's other works. He's a really great author. Just don't start with this one.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michael Mammay has this talent for showing how leadership grows in times of necessity, and in the process, gave us a protagonist worth rooting for in Kiera Markov. From being over her head to making command decisions on the fly, I loved seeing Kiera both fail and succeed.

The ending was satisfying, but it also left some things open for another novel (or series I hope).


Spoilers to follow....










From what the LCOL told Markov when he arrived, it leaves it open for a corporate push into multiple worlds, and it could devolve into a conflict between the military against corporate pmcs, for example.
I would read the hell out of that.
Let's see if Mammay follows this novel up, and regardless if he takes a different direction, I will enjoy whatever comes next for Markov.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was not as taken in by this book as I have been by the Carl Butler series, but that's not any mark against the quality of this title. It is written far more on the "military" side of "military sci-fi," and I have no experience of being in the military in any capacity. For somebody who has been a non-com, an officer or even an enlisted soldier, I imagine the narrative will carry quite a bit more weight and meaning, as is quite clearly implied in the title of the book! So, although for me personally it was more like a three-star, I want to give it a 4 because the writing and character building was up to Mammay's usual standards and those standards are high.

[Nedam · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent military sci-fi that's got everything that I expect from the genre, and gets it just right, no more no less. An intriguing mystery, characters I care about, amazing protagonist, a bit of politics, a bit of military action, a bit of heartache, and a lot of fun.

Also, I loved to see a female protagonist without it being all in your face about it. Military sci-fi is one of my favorite genres, but as a woman I am tired of the macho overload crap that ruins so many potentially good books, and then some books take it to the other extreme. Major Markov is a Major. A well-written character. Who happens to be a woman. 50% chance, you know?

Reading time: 9h 29m

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is very much a military procedural point of view very reminiscent of Michael Mammay Planetside series. I thought the main character development was very good and the pacing worked. The ending was a little anti-climatic in my opinion but there were some good well written action and suspenseful sequences.

[Ernie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can’t recommend this book enough. It’s fast-paced, has political intrigue, multi-dimensional characters, and the storyline is deftly plotted from beginning to end. Another superb book from Michael Mammay.

[Max · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Just enjoyed the heck out of this. Hoping there's more from this new character tho' really it was the situation that made the story. Curious as to the fidelity vis a vis military command aspects for someone with experience.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story about leadership. What would a leutenant do who inherits command of a brigade when all the other officers are killed in a nuclear attack. Addressing two seperate cultures involved and the support that her staff NCOs could provide.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked how the main character slowly grows into the command position as her experience grows with the scenario she finds herself in. I also enjoyed the ending when an experienced command finally arrives to take over. A good read and I’d enjoy another one if it’s in the works.

[Clyde · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I have come to expect from Michael Mammay, The Weight of Command is quite a good read.
What happens when an unexpected and violent attack leaves a junior officer in charge of a critical mission? Read and find out! 🧐