Review: Confusing
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 09 7, 2012
Riley's Rogues follows a fresh Academy graduate as he becomes the new officer in charge of a spec-ops team.  Lt Riley personifies the new officer syndrome - a child with more power and less ability than he thinks.  In short order he meets his new team and begins training with the team followed by a deployment and subsequently engages in a combat drop.  When the mission goes wrong (due to his failure to follow clear orders), he redeploys with his team and strives to salvage the situation.Interesting premise; bad writing.  This junior lieutenant makes so many leadership mistakes...but worse:  nobody calls him on it.  First he complains about his new assignment, and doesn't get ripped by a senior officer for being a baby.  Then he mouths off to a different senior officer; again, no problem.  Then this boot nobody screws up his mission, throwing away the hard work of his team.  Result?  Go get 'em son!  To make it worse, he is given permission to expand his actions.  Other officers who likewise can't follow orders are also ignored.Then we get to character development.  Not that any of the cardboard cutouts actually change.  The author simply moves them around so it seems they might have grown.Some gun-porn and some fun ideas for a universe combined with a complete lack of depth to the writing all add up to a mildly amusing but ultimately time wasting book.  The offer to donate some of the proceeds to the Wounded Warrior Foundation may take the sting out of paying for this book, but there is still a very good reason why this is being published independently instead of by a publishing house.