Finished Star Crusader, not too bad. Very reminiscent of the Wing Commander novels. Five and a half tentacles.
Finished
"Decisively Engaged: Warp Marine Corp Book 1"
In the not too distant future... Earthlings have gone to the stars... after reconstructing from a devastating unprovoked strike by hostile aliens then saved by friendly aliens. The United Stars of America has an embassy on a more primitive world Jasper V, guarded by a single platoon of the dreaded warp marines and the small but deadly warp navy. Humans are the only known specie in the galaxy that is capable of withstanding warp travel (but not all humans can, only a small percentage can do so, repeatedly, without ill effects). This made them fearsome warriors, with the dreaded warp catapult... one-way warp teleporters capable of sending over an armed squad at a time. Normally nobody bothered the American delegation, but an agent from a distant hostile star polity is making trouble... secretly feeding the opposition with high tech weapons they're not supposed to have... and fomenting a mass attack intending full slaughter of the entire American population on Jasper V. With only a platoon of marines, some mercenaries, and a couple hundred civilians hurriedly pressed into service, the new CO has to defend the compound against both "alien" wave attacks as well as the high tech weapons smuggled to the planet, and he knows the compound does not have enough resources to withstand a siege. The only solution may be a suicide run, but the alternative is death of all aliens on Jasper V...
It painted an interesting future... If an "evil" alien race just came into orbit and for no particular reason, started nuking the population centers (actually they did something worse, they had a special forcefield warhead and enclosed the area, then started a fireball that burned everything within) just for the heck of it. 60% of the earth population died, but not immediately. All of the existing political machinery are gone, as most of East Coast is gone, as are the west. Mormon became the primary religion, as it was discovered later that religious prayer seems to help people cope with warp madness. It also painted humans as the primary innovators among the galactic polities... We may not be the best in tech, but we're the best innovators, introducing warp shields and warp catapults to space combat.
The book was mainly centered on basically a
"Fallujah" Benghazi siege type scenario, where a bunch of guards had to protect the compound from a crowd as well as better armed foes. While the humans may have more advanced weapons than the slug throwers the locals have, it's not foolproof. The end seems to be a bit rushed with a bit of too *deus ex machina* ending.
However, it's a fun tale. The weapons are consistent enough, and writing seem to be of sufficient quality that I detect no major plot holes (unlike one of the earlier books). Book 2 is also on sale for $1 so I already bought that. We shall see if the author can keep it up.
