Ok, one thing I learned is to read the titles of the books very carefully. And don’t rely on the cover to let you know which book in the series you’re reading. I didn’t and I was about a third of the way through book 3, “Freedom’s Fray” before I realized I wasn’t reading book 2! So, I immediately stop reading book 3 and got book 2 read. Strangely, I didn’t feel like I was missing anything by initially skipping book 2. Turns out book 2 is really a background story to how things got to the point they are now. Lots of reminiscing in book 2.
I’m a little puzzled by the science in these books. It talks about space ships blasting off from Earth with the purpose of ramming other space ships that are armed to the teeth with rail guns. Now I know they have some fancy gravity rig on the nose cone of these small ramming ships, but there isn’t much in the way of computer support and not much radar support either on these space ships, so I don’t see how they can find anything in the vastness of space. Even around Earth, you pretty much have to know where something is to get close to it. You have to know it’s altitude, orbit and speed or it could just run right over you before you even see it. Things in space are moving at incredible speeds even in zero-g. They still haver mass and a collision with something in space is usually fatal, if it happens at all. So, I don’t know about this ramming tactic the humans are trying to use. And to suggest that some kind of gravity setting on the nose of one of these ramming ships is going to divert a rail gun fired slug(s) is just a little bit too optimistic. To me, the science in this book is a little weird or I could just not know what I’m talking about.
Anyway, in book 2, Major Kane and Sergeant Brice get to tell all about their childhoods and how they grew up in different circumstances. One was kind of privileged (Kane) while the other was a dirt farmer (Brice). But, Brice is also a very competent warrior or he wouldn’t be alive. He’s seen a lot of combat against the Grays and Trogs. Kane has learned how to fight and is learning to become a leader from simulations on Earth. He’s getting some on-the-job training in a very fast way. Now they are both on the Potato, an astroid floating near to Jupiter with about six thousand Trogs running all over the place. They thought it was supposed to be a “Free Army” base and that’s what the idiot Colonel Blair thinks it is but she has no idea how to rid it of those six thousand Trogs. She and Kane have just about 200 Free Army soldiers at their us and again, most of them have never fired a weapon except in a simulator. Most of them don’t even know how to control their space suits while in limited to zero gravity.
And to make matters worse, a Trog cruiser suddenly appears right over the top of the Potato causing all sorts of problems just by their closeness and then they start firing their rail guns at the ground. Needless to say, the little asteroid is beginning to turn to dust and no one can see anything. They have to get below and see if they can survive this bombardment and then find a way to destroy a huge Trog cruiser before it kills them all.
So, the “fun” never stops. Brice is getting kind of worried about being with Major Kane since he seems to be drawing all sorts of death-defying actions towards himself. Still, so far, he’s still a pretty competent leader far better than the idiot Colonel Blair who wants to follow strict military protocol in everything. She can’t even have a decent conversation with Kane and the less he talks with her the better he feels.
There’s some fighting in this book towards the end, but as I said before, there’s a large section where Kane and Brice talk about their past lives and while interesting it seems to just be filling up pages. I don’t mind a little character background, but this was a little too much. Still, these are good books and I’m certainly going to finish book 3 since I’m already a third of the way through it and I’ll finish the series. Pretty good reading.