Boy! Am I ever becoming a fan of Jason Anspach and Nick Cole’s books! At first, I was impressed by their Galaxy’s Edge series when I read the first book “Legionnaire”. Then I was kind of puzzled by the second book, “Galactic Outlaws”. I didn’t want to read a book about a bunch of criminals or that’s what I thought the book was about. It wasn’t, so I’m back on the series, except this book has nothing to do with that series!
This book blew me away as if you couldn’t tell that by my review. I thought the writing was about the most exciting I have read in a long while. Now, I’m not some fearless warrior and no where close to being an Army Ranger although I was in the Army. I did see some combat, but nothing close to what’s in this book. And, yes, I wouldn’t want anything to do with what happened in this book or I’d probably have been dead very quickly. And I know that’s a fact!
I think what I liked most about this book was the interactions between the various characters that were well developed in the story. Even the PFC “Talker” who was supposed to be writing this adventure down, was pretty true to what I think someone in his shoes might be like. I have known several enlisted men and women who were as much or more educated than myself. While we might think that a young PFC, one step out of Basic Training, might not have much on the ball, these highly educated PFCs do learn quicker and can be counted on and they will gain the experience they lack, at some point. At least in this story, PFC “Talker” did talk to his Sergeant Major which is something I’ve seen few PFCs do unless specifically ordered to do so! A Sergeant Major (SGM) is a walking military encyclopedia, or as nowdays known as a wikipedia!
I had my own Sergeant Major when I was a Field Artillery Battalion Commander and I still can to this day remember his and my interactions on almost every thing that went on in the Battalion. He definitely got things done and a lot of times those things were not things I had focused on which made the Battalion that much better. That’s what a SGM does for his unit, he makes it better!
Just being part of a good unit is something most former military types miss the most. You do miss the interaction, the strong purpose of what your are doing and eventually, the satisfaction of accomplishing a specific mission. That comes across in this book. This is a well trained and competent unit. While even the best can get killed, those that don’t know what they are doing, usually don’t last very long and while this didn’t say that in the book, you kind of got that impression. How these guys would have really reacted to the physiological loss of fellow soldiers, I don’t know. I suppose they could have just kept trucking on, but it takes a special kind of soldier to do that, so I guess that’s what Rangers really are, special kinds of soldiers. If so, they should be proud of who they are and our country should always be proud of them. This was a very good book!