Marko Kloos ’s military science fiction Frontlines series is cursorily becoming one of our deary , and his late , irons of Command shows that Kloos is well on his way to becoming one of the genre ’s best asset .
If Kloos ’s name is familiar , it might be because he was one of the writer who hadwithdrawn his novel from considerationfor the Best Novel Hugo award last year . We also reallyloved his first two novels , Terms of Enlistment and Lines of Departure(the latter of which was nominated for the Hugo ) . With the latest two novels , Angles of Attack and Chains of Command , he ’s telling a story that ’s growing in the telling , and getting better with each book .
Spoilers out front .
angle of Attack picks up shortedly after Lines of Departure . With the human / Lanky war going on for five twelvemonth , matter have begin to get do-or-die . Andrew Greyson and the rest of his building block have been cut off in a system light yr from home after the Lankies invaded our own solar system . The billet has grown horrendous , for Greyson ’s task force , and Earth .
Greyson and the residual of the labor force require to get home , but they ca n’t : the theodolite point is hard ward on the other end , and if they go through , they ’re sealed to get blown apart . Enter the Sino - Russian Alliance : Together , the North American Commonwealth Forces and the SRA cover a desperate plan : they ’ll deploy a stealth ship , Indianapolis , to scout out the system and bring everyone back . Greyson is exploit to help out with the mission , and heads out to Earth .
( Can I also just take a moment to say how dead fantastic these covers are ? )
Arriving home , they find that the position is even bad than they anticipate : Lankies have indeed hold over the system , but there ’s some strange thing survive on with the residue of the NAC fleet : they ’re escort home under heavy guard , and Greyson is taken into police hands for his role in the mutiny in the dependency organisation . While there , they determine that not only are the Lankies about to take , but Earth ’s only protectors might not stand up to the rape , leading to a do-or-die defense of their home satellite .
The record is a fine continuation to Lines of Departure . Even picking up the book a distich of years afterwards , it ’s easy to pick up on the energy and exuberance that Kloos lays down here . There ’s plenty of tech and details for the die - hard military SF reader , and a nicely durable creation that he ’s place up to run his action in . The ledger moves apace , from action to action at law , and there ’s seldom a slow point .
Moreover , Kloos ’s status as a former soldier himself comes through : accuracy drop from this book , from the care to detail around the mastery structure , social status and military protocol , right down to plainly how everything * feels * . It band truer than just about any other military novel that I ’ve read .
concatenation of Command picks up a year after the violation on Earth is pushed back . ground ’s soldiers have begun to reconstruct and hold off Lanky violation one by one . During the sexual climax of Angles of Attack , Earth ’s elect forces had abandoned their home planet , ingest with them top of the line equipment , personnel and ships . As Earth wait to prepare itself to force the Lankies off Mars , they hatch a desperate programme : go after the faithless factions that left Earth , and bring back some ships to help tip the scales .
Greyson Volunteer for a reconnoitering missionary post to facilitate envision out what the status is of the renegade cabal , and to bring the traitors home , or at least their equipment . As they go out further from home than any other military mathematical operation in NAC history , they might not regress home at all .
mountain range of Command play in some welcome changes to the serial publication . In Angles of Attack , Kloos set much of the military action on board the Independence , and the shift to a small crowd aboard a infinite ship worked really well for me – reminding me a number of the best parts of James S.A. Corey ’s Expanse serial . Chains of Command does much the same thing as Greyson is specify to a particular forces mission late in place .
Moreoever , Kloos has begun to research the wallop of war on Greyson , now 7 years into his avail for the NAC . He ’s tired , resorts to alcohol and birth control pill to get through the night , and generally copes with balancing his desire to serve up his home satellite and persist alive . It ’s a theme that ’s been covered closely in military SF , but Kloos ’s sentiency of legitimacy really shines through here .
It ’s apparent at this degree in the series that Kloos has amend importantly since the first two Word . Terms of Enlistment and Lines of Departure were each play outing , make it easy to ignore some of the shortcoming . Now , four book in , it ’s absolved that Kloos is really in his element , and the story that he ’s developed is really beginning to pay off .
slant of Attack and Chains of Command are now available from 47North .
al-Qur’an review
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