Rating:

5 Small Stars
Sergeant

This is the kind of story I like to read.  I like to follow young men as they enter the world of the military and have to change their entire way of life.  While this is set in the future, the emotions and actions are really, really similar to what any young person would experience in today’s military.

We followed Ryck Lysander as joined the United Federation Marine Corps and completed his basic and advanced military training.  He went through a rigorous ordeal but he made it.  There comes a time when every young person has to decide whether he can be what the Marines want him to be or go do something different.  Lysander found the courage to get through his entry training and is now well on his way to becoming an excellent Marine.

This books has Lysander learning what it means to take care of others.  He’s not a baby sitter by any means but he’s now a squad leader and has men assigned to him that his is responsible for.  By responsible for, I mean he has their lives in his hands.  If he doesn’t do his job by making sure they know what to do and when to do it, they could very well die.  I like this story because it shows some of the interactions between those around him.  A Marine’s life usually only involves his squad, his platoon to some degree, and his squad/platoon leaders.

Sergeant Lysander gets to find out what it really means to be responsible for the lives of his men.  The situation he finds himself in probably wouldn’t happen in a million years but it happened and he has to adapt. I like the action and the realistic descriptions of the weapons and some of their effects even though some of these weapons do not exist.  The author doesn’t go into a great deal of explanation where it’s not necessary but he does explain most everything pretty clearly.  If you’ve had no military background what so ever, you might find some of this hard to read, but the story is good so give it a shot anyway.

I really want this to continue.  Sergeant Lysander is a good character to build on and I hope the author continues to write this great military science fiction.

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