First book of this series and it is very, very good. You’re a young kid with nothing much to do and nowhere you really want to do it. Most of the jobs around your town/city don’t sound very appealing. So, you figure you just might give the Legion a try. That’s the new armies of Earth now that we’re aware of a greater galaxy of civilization. We found that the specific galactic empire we’re part of expects each solar system and planet to provide some kind of service or unique product. If not, your planet and most all the people on it, get wiped out.
But, Earth has found a niche for itself by providing mercenaries to fight proxy wars for other civilizations that don’t or won’t get their hands dirty. And Earth’s mercenaries are cream of the crop, hired out on a per contract basis for missions where ever they are required. Earth Mercs don’t have to flight spaceships or anything like that, we’re capable of space combat but usually we’re the ground forces sent in to clean up a mess or create a worse mess depending on our contract.
And of course, that kind of adventure is something that’s got your interest. Of course you have to qualify for the Legion. Through a series of test, they determine your “fitness” for Legion duty and then determine what kind of job you should have. Unfortunately, you have a problem. You’re not one to follow orders very easily and that or something shows up on all your tests. You are rejected by the top tier Legions so you go down a floor to the second tier. One look at your charts and they simply say, “No!”. So that’s it. It doesn’t appear that you desire to get into the Legion is going to happen. Still you know you’re smart, physically fit and can’t understand what the Legion is looking for if not for you.
Then you meet a Veteran Legionnaire named Veteran Harris. He’s from Legion Varus which happens to recruit from the basement! Veteran Harris looks through your data and says, “Your in!”. Well, that was a fatal day in your life. Fighting in the Legion is not like fighting in the armies of the 20th Century. Your going to find out just how much worse it can get.
As a little hint, I do not know how any soldier could be killed and then “re-grown” in an alien machine which pukes you out at the end so you can go right back to the fight that just killed you! Uh, no, no way, that’s going to happen, but it does!
Read the book and then prepare to read the series. It gets better a along the way.