Review: Solid story bad tech.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 09 3, 2013
I'm a sucker for the regular guy enters the military, goes through boot and becomes a decent soldier, type stories and this did not fail to deliver.Pros:-Good Story that had good editing, very few type-0's or misspellings, always a positive in an independent book.-Decent character development, I found the change, in the main character, from spoiled civilian, to a valued member of his platoon, plausible and interesting.-No silly tropes, ie., the super Rambo, the hot chick who kicks the butt of men who outweigh her by 150 lbs., etc., just realistic soldiers adjusting to battlefield conditions, very limited dues ex machina, which is a HUGE positive.-Very realistic and well written forces, I could see the point of both sides, there were some real "bad" guys, but they never distracted from the overall factors in the conflict and added to the storyline.-No over description of arms and armor, great dialogue among the soldiers and proper use of military hierarchy and custom, it does become irksome when I read some military sci-fi from authors with no clue on this, I've seen some that have said, "First Sgt. Jones, A company comander, yelled for his LT., to get the squad ready." ummmm.... NO, the author didn't make this mistake.Cons:-The lack of tech. I know the over-description of it can be boring page filler and the author didn't do that, thankfully, but the use of M-16's, 400 yrs in the future??? The M-4, an M-16 varient, is the current standard issue battle rifle, I get the feeling that they were using the old Vietnam era issue. The explanation of this was b/c it was cheap to produce and use in colonial postings. The problem with that is that it is 400 yrs in the future!!  Think about it, in 1613 the blunderbuss was the pre-eminent weapon, you don't think we would have something better 400 yrs from now? Even if the U.S. had an expendable force, one that was nothing more than cannon fodder, would we issue them a blunderbuss? I mean a bolt action rifle, or heaven forbid and M-1 Garand would at least put them close to the same century and make them much more effective at their job. The use of helicopters, really? We have the ability to control gravity artificially, you don't think that just maybe they would have something better than Black-Hawk varients 400 yrs in the future? These kind of things were a major pet-peeve and kept me from giving it a full 5 stars.-Lack of background. I would have liked more background on the USFL, why foreigners were so gung-ho to get into the Legion, why their country of origin so bad? Was the U.S. of the future still a shining beacon etc., A little more back-story would have gone a long way, though it did not destroy the premise.Overall a good book and would def., purchase any follow-up's and would give this author another try if he writes something else.