Review: OK but with many issues
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 11, 2014
I got this for free a weeks ago and just finished it.It has some good stuff and the author shows a lot of promise, but ultimately the book misses the mark on being a good or great book but does manage to be readable.It has issues of being in need of a good editor. Not so much the minor things like typos, although there are some of them but more story line issues. There is a lot of repetition that needs to be edited out.Maybe the confusing rank structure depicted is a British thing, but I found calling a team a section very confusing as was the concept of "senior" privates whose job seems to be to mercilessly beat privates. I found this a little hard to swallow.The book is military SF set on another world where Chinese troops have chased the Union (?EU) off a planet many light years from Earth. The book follows the adventures in combat of a new private in an elite unit.Some of the SF parts could use some rework. The weapons ranged from things believable to things that probably could never be made combat reliable like powered respirators each soldier has to wear because the atmosphere where they are fighting is poisonous.Lots of promise but also needs lots of work to get to be a good or great read. It was still fun.