Well, I read the short story that leads to this three book series and I was thrilled with that beginning. This is nothing like the short story! In this book, we get to read about Commander Prime Jefferson Grant writing about his war exploits while he awaits his execution by his own command. Not a great end for any military career.
What is a Commander Prime anyway? I suppose science fiction authors can make up just about anything since they aren’t dealing with the real world. So if it was the intent of the author to make up his own military, then fine, Commander Prime it is. But, if he was trying to stay within the bounds of what people currently know about the military, then he entirely missed the mark. This entire book is pretty ridiculous. Jefferson Grant is some guy who was working away in some technology company satisfied with his wife and young daughter and life, in general, was pretty good.
Then the Aquillians struck Earth! A sneak attack that was also a suicide attack hoping to shock and terrorize the citizens of Earth. They devastated several large Earth cities; completely obliterating everything and anything in a vast around that city. Unfortunately, Jefferson Grants family was at ground zero. Everything he knew and loved was gone in an instant.
So, like any young man who wants revenge, he enlist in the United Space Corps. Yeah, he enlists. He goes through the United Space Corps Academy and excels at everything they throw at him. He graduates in the top 1% of his class and becomes a Squad leader of tweet-four men. Now, in my day, squads were comprised of about 11 guys, including the squad leader. They were further broken down into two 5-man fire teams. Usually a Corporal command the Fire Teams and a Sargent commanded the squad. None of this is followed in the book. Why should it be since we got us a superhero-type soldier in our midst. And here’s where the story takes a bad turn.
Jefferson Grant goes from a lowly Squad Leader to telling Colonels what to do and when to do it. He’s promoted at least twice, once to Captain and then to Commander Prime. He doesn’t have any experience except the ability to live through his battles, but that seems to make him the expert at every thing. He can read books and retain almost everything he reads, even highly complicated weapons manuals to include space fighter manuals. He can do everything. And the one thing he really excels at is getting his people killed! I got to where I almost couldn’t stomach this guy. The situations he gets involved in and the outcomes are so ridiculous, that you wonder when he’s going to rip off his uniform and show his Superman suit underneath. The story is bad.
Now, if you like a military science fiction story that is non-stop action, kill the alien enemy by the thousands, don’t stop to rest or re-arm unless almost completely out of everything, then this is your kind of book. If you expect any kind of realism in this story, even a tiny bit, you won’t get it. There was only one part where it probably could of happened. That’s where the Colonel of a unit place subordinate to Captain Jefferson Grant, shot him in the chest and left. Should have been done a long time ago.
I don’t know if I want to read the next two books or not. If they are a continuation of this guys story, forget it. I might start the next one just to find out.