Review: Who is the enemy?
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 11, 2014
This review was originally published on Kurt's Frontier.Synopsis:This is the third book of the Union Series. It follows the tale of Lance Corporal Andy Moralee in the Union Army’s Dropship Infantry. He has survived basic training and two deployments on the hostile world of New Earth. He has emerged as a leader in the army’s eyes. However, the horrors of war have left him scared. He is now trained for reconnaissance and has been deployed to the planet Eden.Eden was a beautiful planet that where humanity had hoped to create a paradise where they could live in peace. Paradise never came. The air of the planet could be deadly if breathed too long. Colonial rivalries left people loyal to no faction, doing what the needed to survive. One rogue province has invaded the other, and the Union has to step in before the conflict draw’s in its rivals and the situation spirals out of control.Andy Moralee takes his section in and is soon sucked into the conflict, where humanity has sunk to a new low. Loyalist forces are exterminating civilians in the forest. The Presidential Guard of Edo is prepared to kill the survivors, accusing them of treason for not resisting. Lancejack Moralee now has two enemies to keep an eye on, and he doesn’t know which side is worse. The Union has sided with Edo and neither trusts the other.Andy Moralee finds himself walking a tightrope between following orders that could keep the war from spreading and separating himself from the evil he witnesses.Review:Phillip Richard draws from his experience as a soldier in the British Army to weave a tale relevant to the world of today. There are no strange, alien creatures to battle humanity. The enemy is very familiar. Earth is still split into warring factions that act out their rivalries on colony worlds. The soldiers have a large number of weapons to draw on, both high tech and brutally basic.