Review: Mil Sci Fi - Gladiator Style
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 18, 2012
NOTICE:  Product has changed since I bought this book.  I have "Star Crusades: Omnibus Edition"  which includes all 5 Star Crusades novels.  Current Product Page, as of February 18 2012, is "Star Crusades: The First Trilogy (Star Crusades, Books 1-3)".  Please note that my review is for the entire 5 book Omnibus edition.This is a real blood and guts military sci fi story.  For those looking for lots of fighting, some intrigue and some science justification for the sci fi then this is a pretty good story.  For those looking for a solid supporting plot and characters then you might find this lacking.  I liked it but would have preferred some improvements in the plot, setting and characterization.  I never anticipated reading a gladiator style military sci fi novel but this is probably as close as it can get.  This is the story of Spartan, a pit fighting gladiator, who joins the Confederation Marines under duress.  The Confederation is in the initial stages of a terrorist insurrection which the Marines must stop.  Inch by gory inch, Spartan fights his way to glory as the insurrection spins out of control.Accepting that edged weapons (lances, bayonets, knives ...) were an important part of the conflict's weaponry took some time to accept but it was necessary since it is an integral part of the story line.  The fighting focuses on close in fighting as being more important to Marines than distance fighting so edged weapons are key and gladiator skills relevant.  This leads to some very tough gruesome fighting.There was consideration given to science necessary to support this futuristic society.  Author does a good job creating a cohesive in system space travel technology.  Technological details hold up well to my layman's science education and seem plausible to accomplish in the near future with modest technological advances.  Travel between systems is not elaborated on for most of the novel but is assumed to be practical.  Biomedical advances do not have much supporting science.  Overall, I thought that the author did a good job of trying to support technological basis.Plot was mostly geared to having justification for one marine assault after another.  Overall plot dragged for most of novel then rushed to a conclusion. In general, I had trouble accepting some of the basic plot and setting building elements.  I will review more fully in spoilers section.There were regular, but not frequent, editing issues which were primarily spellcheck errors (real words but not the right word for the context).  Star Crusades Omnibus Edition (all 5 novels) is 23,526 Kindle locations long.  Standard length novels seem to run in the 4,500 to 7,000 plus Kindle location range.  Books in Jack Campbell's first Lost Fleet series were approximately 5,000 Kindle locations.* * * S P O I L E R S  * * *There were too many plot/setting elements and characterizations that were difficult to accept.  Armed Forces must have consisted of almost 50% infiltrators.  Why do you need a war when you control half of the military?  Plot was kept going too many times by the unexpected traitor turning up to offset Confederation gains.  Plot was kept going too many times by the Union having unexpected technology or assets to offset Confederation gains.  I could not accept that the Union forces, an underground enemy, is decades ahead in R&D; when they should have less resources than the Confederation.  This is credited to the Core in the story but it still just did not hold together for me.  Late in the book, I was convinced that it was not possible to have resolution for all plot elements and that basis was being set for another series to resolve second half of war (home system part of war); instead ending rushed to a final conclusion in the last few chapters.  Conclusion felt like:  Found the Core, Killed the Core, Game over.  After all of the plot contrivances, I expected more time on battling enemy once nature and identity of enemy was finally clear.  On the characterization side, Marcus is an important supporting character but has flimsy justification for turning on Spartan over xenophobia but then turning back to Spartan over Confederation loyalty.  Mikasi's characterization was overdone for my tastes.  Mikasi's role as the spurned lover who has no morals and will do anything to pay back any slight is a stretch but that no one notices this until too late is too much of a stretch.  Military discipline was implausible.  Open fraternization between officers and enlisted within the chain of command is not plausible.  Top Brass' token punishment of blatant insubordination rather than stronger punishment is not plausible even if appreciative of outcome.* * *  E N D  ..  S P O I L E R S  * * *