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“The Red Leopards of Zaxon B”

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The Red Leopards of Zaxon B

This book continues the intense and bloody action we witnessed in the first book of the series, “The Last Marine in the Galaxy”. Actually knowing that this book is the second one in the series “Galaxies Collide” is pretty difficult. No where does it show that this or the first book were, in fact, part of a series, but they are and I believe there is a third book titled “Planet Genocide I’ which kind of confuses the whole series name. But, enough with that.

We’re back with the improbable story of a bunch of Heathrow employees who were caught at the wrong place and at the wrong time. As you’ll recall, a Trevakian space ship showed up around Earth, inserted itself in the Heathrow Airport landing queue, and landed as if it was a normal thing to do. It turns out this ship was commanded by a Trevakian Admiral who was on Earth to ask for help in their century old war with the evil Morgans. Both the Trevakians and the Morgans are pretty advanced. Their method of warfare is a lot more dangerous and brutal than even what Earth has been through. Again, they have been at war for over 100 years with neither side achieving a distinct advantage. The Trevakians hope that Earth can come to their aid and tip the balance of power and help end this terrible war. That right there is real strange. The Trevakians should have know that Earth wasn’t even capable of defending itself much less rendering aid to an alien civilization. And that was proved when a single Morgan starship showed up and nearly destroyed all of Earths air defenses single-handly.

So, as a start in becoming allies, the Trevakian Admiral asks for immediate volunteers. As dumb as it may sound, the Heathrow Security Personnel all volunteered to join the Trevakian Marines and fight along side of them. They were given fancy new advanced technology uniforms and armor, new automated weapons and looked like they could defeat anything. They were transported through a slipstream gate onto a Trevakian starship orbiting the planet Zazon B. Here they were then transported down to the surface to become part of the Trevakian force attempting save said planet.

Now, you have to understand, if you’re reading these books, that these Heathrow Security Personnel are not military. Yeah, some served in the Reserves during peacetime, but none have any real military experience and have never faced combat. Now, right in the middle of a huge war, the are seeing the kinds of things that don’t show up in movies or on TV. Dead bodies of both sides, body parts lying all over the battlefield and screaming wounded that cannot be aided. It’s a wonder any of the people stayed alive or sane during their first 24 hours. But, some have, not all, but some. I can’t keep track of where all forty Heathrow people went, but they are down to about eighteen if my reading the book is right.

The author is or was an actual employee of Heathrow Airport. I imagine he thought it was great to write a science fiction book using his co-workers as characters although their names are different than in real life. Still, it’s a pretty stupid concept to expect these nonmilitary people to do what he’s indicating they are doing. They all should have gone insane in the first few hours of combat or they all should have died. Their fancy armor isn’t any better than other armor because the enemy has high tech weapons to counter any kind of armor just like in a real war. In fact, this enemy, the Morgans, are so vicious that hey will eat their enemy saving the skulls as souvenirs.

So we have more fighting, very intense battle scenes and a bunch of Heathrow employees running around trying to get back to Earth. The writer does write well except for the fact that he seems to repeat a lot of paragraphs one after the other. It’s not an exact word for work repetition, but he paraphrases what he just wrote in two or more connective paragraphs. It does fill up a page, but you keep telling yourself that you just read that paragraph over and over. It gets kind of annoying.

I don’t know if I’ll read the third book. While the fighting is going on and on, it’s getting kind of tiring to keep reading the same thing page after page. There’s hardly any time to stop and catch a breath. I guess I will read it if not to find out what happens to these unlucky co-workers.

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