A new alien threat arises. A Galactic War unlike any before it.
A powerful enemy threatens not only humanity, but humankind’s former enemy, the Centaurs. A warrior race, the Naxli, consider themselves the rightful rulers of the galaxy, and all other life should be either enslaved or destroyed. Still, the Naxli are honor bound, only willing to face those who present a worthy challenge. They recognize strength and nothing else, so it is with strength that humanity must fight back.
Faced with an implacable enemy, distrust within his own government, and a deep-seated fear within the populace of augmented soldiers, Rev and his fellow hyper-augments must carefully balance a tightrope if they are going to save humanity against this enemy.
Now is not the time for second guesses, political hyperbole, or weakness. Humanity must stand and fight together or risk losing all that they've gained.
Now that the humans seem to have come together against a common enemy, they are attempting to assist each other in their encounters with the Naxli. That is what SSG Reverent (Rev) Pelletier, Perseus Union Marine Corps, is attempting to do with the Manifest Destiny Sphere (MDS) on the MDS planet Alicia's Bounty. Since Rev had found out about the Naxli gnist and their strange desired to fight only limited engagements, it was thought that the Third Platoon to which SSG Pelletier was assigned could help guide the MDS in this type of fighting. Still, it didn't seem like the MDS wanted any kind of "advice", especially on how to wage war.
Yet, an MDS Under-Colonel went out to meet the sole representative of the Naxli to start the conversation leading to gnist. They had agreed to limit this engagement to one thousand one hundred seventeen warriors. In as much as that number didn't include SSG Pelletier or his platoon as they were there strictly as observers, Rev thought the initial meeting between the MDS and the Naxli when as well as could be expected.
Now the battle was on and the MDS were losing! The Naxli were very capable at the unit level and tactically sound at all levels. Their armor and weapons were just as good as what the MDS had or in some cases better. The Naxli always started these engagements with a communications blackout so it was difficult for the MDS to talk to their various units unless they used an old fashion land-line. All that seemed to be doing was informing their HQ that they were being overran. Unfortunately, that was something that could always happen in these engagements. Who ever lost the battle would usually have to vacate the planet.
So, Rev thought this battle would be over soon. That is until the MDS did what they should have never done and that is broke the gnist agreement. That was a grievous error! It meant that the Naxli were also going to bring in their entire array of forces including their space Navy. Now was the time for Third Platoon to hastily depart the planet if they didn't want to die with everyone else. Getting off Alicia's Bounty wasn't easy and it was a very close call. But they did make it and now the waited to hear the fate of the planet and the Naxli's reaction to the MDS very ill advised tactics.
It appears the Naxli were pissed! Very, very pissed. And they started taking it out on the MDS by attacking Gorton Grove, a planet occupied by about 6-billion people or it was. The Naxli wided out the entire planet. The Naxli had now apparently classified the humans as hreetz, which translated into something without honor and not worth gnist fighting. But, the attacks had stopped for quite a while now and the Congress of Humanity wanted to find out if gnist could still exist between humans other than MDS.
So that was Rev and his platoon's next mission. It was on a planet called Syron II a watery-swamp type planet that had just about 600 Naxli doing who knows what on a proscribe (protected) human planet. A combined force of First Heavy Infantry, a Union Marine battalion, a Paxus cohort, a Mezame Concordat battalion of Naval Infantry, and a Centaur flight. It didn't take long to find out that this whole mission was a bust. The Naxli didn't offer gnist and started blasting every thing both in space and on the planet. Rev's platoon had to fall back and begin survival tactics since their space transportation had to leave the system and they had no way for resupply or rescue. It didn't take long for Rev to find himself with only five individuals in his small group trying to survive on a planet where they couldn't eat anything for food and no hope of rescue anytime soon. What did eventually happen is they ran out of power for their armor, then out of food and then ammo. It didn't look to promising for Rev or Tomiko's future and yes, they were at least together.
But, the story continues as it always does in this book. Now back on their home base of Safehold, Rev gets some good news. He's been promoted to Gunnery Sergeant! He's also been told that he's going to a new unit, one made up of mostly all the augmented humans with some non-augments included. Still, this new unit will include every planets military forces similar to what he experienced working with the Congress of Humanity forces. HIs only concern is that Tomiko isn't an IBHU or enhanced Marine so she might not make the list of assigned Union Marines. And to make matters worse, Tomiko is a resurrectee, and that's another strike against her even though she's one of the most capable Marines Rev has ever known.
While all this is going on, there's another subtle story-line that seems to have just started. Rev has been informed that someone has threatened his life. He has been restricted to base for quite some time, but just recently got permission to go off-base to be with his family, but first he has to host his "wetting" down or promotion party. As he and Tomiko depart the club after closing it down very late at night, he's approached by no less than seven thugs. Now, what's behind all this and why? More to come in future books, I hope.
Yes, book 9, "Gods of War" should be out o/a 24 July 2022 according to Amazon. It's already on my list.
I enjoy the story very much. The authors make the characters come alive and what happens to them affects you emotionally and mentally. The story is great, but I have one caveat. The MC cannot be that moronic that he does not believe that what happened to him at the end of the book wasn’t part of a plot. I don’t know why some authors don’t want to give Marines the proper kudos they deserve not all of them are knuckle draggers quite a lot of them are quite intelligent. That is my only gripe with this story I know it’s the middle of the series and I stopped reading it for a while, but I’m back to it now. even though in this series, you don’t know who’s gonna live or die but I do believe the MC needs a surrounding supporting cast. I love Tamiko and the MC’s other supporting characters. Please don’t kill them off. Will go on to read the next book because this one was very enjoyable. If you haven’t started the series, pick it up and start it, just imagine how many books you’ll have right there to read.
Rev goes with the MDS to coach them through Gnista with the enemy, but the MDS decide to break the terms of the agreement (that only a certain number would fight with only a certain type of weapons). Unfortunately this has the knock on effect if all fights now being hreetz - meaning no agreements and all out war! When Rev is sent to a watery marsh planet, he finds out that this is the case as they play cat and mouse with each other until the humans will run out of power and food... In addition Rev and his AI Punch set a trap to try and see if someone is eavesdropping on them and yes they are!!!!! The things that soldiers have to go through to survive are highlighted in this book, along with some promotions, battles, alien plant life and some twists and turns....
I think not every book you write always hits right. I'm sure some people have walked away from my series and thought some books could use some work. And some of the ratings reflect that from what I've seen. Anyway, this book was alright, and the ending showed that it's a bigger issue than just killing the enemy when the enemy is trying to take you out of the game. The MC is getting known by the enemy, and the last chapter sealed the deal on the threat against him. It's pretty realistic, and the pacing remains consistent throughout this book. It doesn't dissuade me from reading the series; just not all books hit as well as the others. On to Book 9...
It's a decent continuation of the series, but not a lot of progress in the storyline. OK the humans have all banded back together again to fight aliens, but we have been here before and we now it turned out The last few pages open up a new thread to the adventure, but its only a brief look and it will interesting to see if it is taken further and in detail
Another great volume that builds on previous events nicely. I enjoy seeing all of the different biomes Rev and crew visit, it's just how I like to imagine our vast universe.
A real page turner that will keep you on the edge of you're seat. Great characters with realistic and and lots of action. I look forward to the next one.
This whole series is amazing. Great characters that are superbly developed. Military life, personal life, and malicious alien empires. Highly recommend the series.
Extraordinarily one dimensional. Practically the entire book was either war or battle, and the accompanying strategy and thoughts associated with either. The only blip to break the repetitiveness was at the very end where a plot to murder Rev manifests and the enemy is implied.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This is a fun story with good character arcs. It's not heavy sci fi by any means but what it is is a light reading that keeps a decent pace and plausible story lines.
Chaney has produced another solid grammatically sound book but it mainly repeats everthing from the previous books over and over again! the book is boring and predictable but not in an excting way. If you are having trouble falling asleep: this is the book for you.
The story is changing now. People where they should not be? And all that spy stuff!!! We can be happy for our heroes!!! Made it through another book alive. What more can happen?
Really enjoying this arc. The epilogue is tremendous. I enjoy the non combat struggles and the developing plot lines, even if I wish some of them would hurry up a bit
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.
Good military SF series. The protagonist was conscripted into the Marines and has enhanced weapons replacing a lost arm. You want to start with book #1.
Now I have to do the hard work which is finding this wonderful series in hard copy. I would prefer hard Backs ,but I might have to get paper backs oh well..🤔
This is a great series and the authors continue produce high intensity story lines and wonderful sub plots. This series should receive some great awards.