Review: Hopefully Not The Last Last Praetorian
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 18, 2013
I downloaded The Last Praetorian about a week ago. I was looking for some military science fiction books to read and this novel was one of the listed novels.  Being it was, at the time, free, I downloaded it. I figured if I didn't like it, well..you know. Free. If I liked, all the better. Fortunately, I enjoyed the novel a lot.The Last Praetorian is a military science fiction novel set approximately 700 years in the future, in the 2700s. At this point, humans are no longer resigned to only Earth and traveling the galaxy has become as common and normal as flying around the world in a plane. Shortly after faster-than-light travel was invented, the human race began traveling the stars and colonizing other planets (this novel, by the way, takes the view that humans are the only intelligent--possibly only all--species in the galaxy).Over time, an empire is formed that last five hundred years until the death of the current emperor.Enter Jon Radec, the leader of the almost folk-like Praetorians, the group tasked with protecting the emperor and his family. After the death of the emperor while he and the Praetorians were tasked with escorting his daughter, most of the group are killed in a battle by a traitorous Imperial Navy officer responsible for the emperor's death.The story takes place in the roughly immediate aftermath of the emperor's death five years before and the present, where Jon is now the owner/boss of a shipping company. During the two points, Jon and Princess Sofia get to know each other and begin falling in love while in the present we find that the two have since parted ways in less than friendly terms that we have to truly find out why or what happened as even Sofia has no idea. All the while in the present, Jon is having to deal with a...less than honorable business called the Syndicate who are much more than a legal business they present as well as a captured assassin sent to kill Jon (who ends up becoming an ally instead).All in all, I really enjoyed The Last Praetorian. For someone who admittedly has never read much science fiction of this nature, it was easy to get into and read. I've read some futuristic novels that seems to almost forget its readers don't live in the time period it's set (I believe this is what some some have referred to as "techno-babble" in the past) and found myself getting a bit lost with the terminology and whatnot.This is one case where I almost certainly could see myself buying the other books in the trilogy when they come out. I've read some in the past where I'm glad I got the book for free as it helped balance things out, so to speak. I don't think I could see myself buying the rest of those series. Not the case here.All in all, a good read if you're into military science fiction with romance elements thrown in.