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“Gates of Hell”

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Gates of Hell

This is by far turning into one of the best military sci-fi series I have read. It is definitely exciting and action non-stop. The characters are well developed and the story-line is well developed and very, very interesting. We’re back with Gunner Sergeant Wolf Mathison, USMC, and his very small group of Marines that survived a pro-longed cryostasis sleep. They are now in the year 2400 and their world had changed dramatically. Yet, they seemed to have adjusted pretty well. It didn’t seem that things were going to be going their way when they first woke up aboard a SOG (Social Organizational Governance) starship. That in any other name is a communist organization and they rule their space and people with an iron fist.

Fortunately for GySgt Mathison and his Marines, they were subsequently rescued by a veteran team of Vapaus Republic special operators lead by Lojtnant Skadi. Yeah, this is a mixture of Swedish and Finnish culture and you’ll continue to have to get used to them using mostly un-understandable and un-pronounceable words. Lt. Skadi has a team of four operators and due to her greater life expectancy in this era, she and her team have been doing this job for at least fifty-years! The Vapaus Republic is comprised of two different cultures, the Aesir, who seemed to be the ground forces, and the Vanir who were mostly starship Captains and crews of those starships. These are supposedly the good guys and so far are helping the Marines adapt to their new situation.

Sadi takes the Marines to the Homestar which is a huge space station built inside an asteroid. It is one of the few “resting” places for the Vapaus Republic soldiers and citizens who are always on the move so as not to fall into the hands of the SOG. The Vapaus Republic has a large fleet, but not to the size of the SOG. While GySgt Mathison welcomes the assistance of Skadi and her team, he’s also wary of everything going on around him. He’s also developed a relationship with Sif, a physically looking 12 year old, who happens to be a member of the Nakija, a ninja-like organization, but she has other “special” abilities that she will have to employ very soon during their next mission together.

That mission involves going to planet Green Hope and finding out what happened to another special operation team. That team was supposed to investigate the planet for evidence of the possible outbreak of madness like is happening in other parts of space. Only all contact was lost with them. Now it’s up to Skadi’s team, including the Marines, to find out what happened. The mission wasn’t one that they were unfamiliar with, but they all were dreading what they might encounter. So, they geared up and prepared to go when things began changing within the Vapaus Republic.

This change is going to cause GySgt Mathison and his Marines a lot of trouble. They find they no longer can trust anyone no matter who they say they are. Still, Sif and even Skadi swear they are their allies, but it’s going to take some effort to prove that to the Marines. In the meantime, they are caught on a planet which seems to be infected with zombies and giant trolls who used to be humans. An interesting twist to this story will be when they have to team up with a crack team of SOG soldiers in order to save everyone’s lives.

I found this book to be rather lengthy, but it was hard to put it down. lt seemed every chapter was exciting and had really well written content. Even getting past the use of Swedish, Norwegian, or Finnish words isn’t that much of a chore since the story is so interesting. I have no clue as to where this will end, but I do hope it doesn’t end anytime soon.

The next book, “Revolution Calling”, is available on Amazon now and I already have it on my reading list. I just might move it up quite a bit higher!



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