This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Book of Joe Series: Forgotten Ruin #5 Author: Jason Anspach & Nick Cole Rating: 1.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Military Fantasy Pages: 211 Words: 75K
This is a book ALL about Talker and how he survived and helped Joe.
What. The. Feth.
I am now done with this series. Don’t care how cool the story is, because it is always in the background and I hate Talker. I hate him for hogging the book. I hate him for whining about how he’s not good enough to be a “real” Rangeroo. I hate him for writing about coffee instead of what’s going on. I hate him for describing a ruin for 2 pages while a massive battle gets 3 paragraphs.
So I am done.
Nick Cole has a duology that I’m going to try out next. I need a cool down from Team Anspach/Cole.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Lay the Hate Series: Forgotten Ruin #4 Author: Jason Anspach & Nick Cole Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Genre: Military Fantasy Pages: 209 Words: 76K
The Ranger-Roos are off on a big bad mission to kill somebody. Only, they get side tracked and kill somebody else and the stupid narrator, Talker, who is like the most important person to the group for his linguistics skills, jumps into a dimensional vortex/rift thingy to save another ranger so he pretty much is dead.
Hurray!!!!!!!!!!!!! No more blathering idiot going on about coffee or blabbing about wanting to be a real Ranger-Roo. I actually did a fist pump when it was revealed that he was dead. It was very carthartic for me.
Of course, we’ll have to see if the next narrator is any better. I have a bad feeling Anspach and Cole (the authors) are just going to use some other nitwit to journal instead of, you know, actually writing an exciting adventure novel. Aaaaaand I just went on Amazon to see how many books were in this series and wouldn’t you know, one of the later books has Talker as the narrator again. Tarnation!
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Violence of Action Series: Forgotten Ruin #3 Author: Jason Anspach & Nick Cole Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Genre: Military Fantasy Pages: 249 Words: 85K
Hey, would you look at that? There’s an actual story in this book! AND. I only counted 2 instances of Anspach and Cole (the authors) rimming the rangers. Talk about a relief.
So the rangers have to take down Smog the evil green dragon who is in an alliance with other evil powers that menace the kingdom of men. They take him out and rescue a bunch of captive elves and find the King of the Elves, who Last of Autumn is betrothed to. So no more googly eyes for the narrator at his elven lady love. Awww, so sad. Honestly, I was expecting her to die a horrible death, so at least this way she stays alive. Hard core military types are married to the Service and a wife comes in a distant second. Very few relationships can survive that.
This was the kind of story I was waiting for since the very beginning. Special Forces setting themselves an objective and then killing everything that stands in the way of them accomplishing that objective. I am definitely going to keep reading the series now but I simply can’t recommend it to anyone else. The first 2 books just destroy any chance of that. I’ve never been in this situation before, where the first couple of books are absolutely terrible and then improve dramatically. Usually I’m done with a series before that point (or it never does improve, which is what usually ends up happening).
I also can’t recommend starting here because then you’d be lost. Why is the Ranger Captain a were-tiger? Who is Last of Autumn and why is it so shattering to the narrator that they rescue her betrothed? Who is this evil Vampire SEAL? All of the big points get covered, so in that regards you could start here, but all those little things like what I mention, well, good luck. I guess this is for super-hard-core Anspach & Cole fans OR super duper military types who like annoying narrators. I’m glad I stuck through to this point but it pretty much ate up all the goodwill A&C have built up with me. They don’t get any more chances from me.
After the main story is a small “prequel” story that starts to introduce why everything in the Ruin is so Dungeons and Dragons. Long and short, a crazy genius woman, whose only good memories were of a summer when she got to play some D&D with other normal kids, goes off the rails completely and uses nanotech to start changing the world. It was complete “scyenze” but it sounded cool and was good enough for me. And since this is pure fiction and not “A Message From They Who Know Better Than Poor Plebian Me” masquerading as a story, I have no problem with said scyenze being used.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Hit & Fade Series: Forgotten Ruin #2 Author: Jason Anspach & Nick Cole Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Military Fantasy Pages: 274 Words: 97K
The only reason this was better than the first book was because it was over 100 pages shorter and the final battle was awesome without the narrator going “Ranger X is gonna out-Ranger every other Ranger who is Rangering like a REAL Ranger would Ranger, which you would know if you were rangering like a real ranger too, scrub”.
I’m going to give the next book a chance. But if I hit the 50% mark and rangers are still out-rangering all the other rangers, blah, blah, blah, then I’ll dnf the book and the series. Us regular Mil-SF readers don’t got no time for butt licking. We want a good story.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission Title: Forgotten Ruin Series: Forgotten Ruin #1 Author: Jason Anspach & Nick Cole Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Military Fantasy Pages: 477 Words: 171K
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Angles of Attack Series: Galaxy’s Edge: Dark Operator #5 Author: Doc Spears Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Genre: Mil-SF Pages: 330 Words: 113K
Synopsis:
From Galaxysedge.fandom.com & Me
The galaxy follows a logical structure.
Legion Dark Operator Kel Turner believed that.
To know the order of battle and how an enemy unit was organized was to know its purpose and how to destroy it. That logic existed down to the smallest scale, down to what made up life itself. To know a molecule’s structure was to know its function—they were one and the same. It was no different for Kel. He was Dark Ops and Dark Ops was him. Down to his last cell and very soul.
But the covert action arm of the Legion is changing. And so is he. And if Dark Ops is no longer the same, how could Kel be Kel?
From fighting a gray war against a cunning adversary bent on genocide, to slogging through a jungle hell full of rabid dog-men, Kel won’t stop until the mission is complete. He was his mission. But if the day comes when there would no longer be a Dark Ops for Kel, what would his mission be then?
Who would he become?
Once Dark Ops becomes public knowledge amongst the Legion, Kel realizes his time is done. He leaves the Legion and goes back to his girlfriend and her family.
My Thoughts:
This is the final Dark Operator book. It was chockfull of military adventure stuff and things were speeding along at about a million miles an hour. Then it just ends. The reader doesn’t even get the ending from Kel’s perspective, like the whole series has been. He leaves, leaves a letter and we get told all of it from Kel’s superiors.
I seriously thought about giving this one star for that kind of ending. It was like a right hook out of no where and it was not a pleasant experience. It showed me that “Doc Spears” doesn’t know how to write an ending to save his life. As such I’ll probably avoid any more GE books by him (I don’t think he’s written anymore thankfully) and I definitely won’t be checking out any non-GE books by him.
With all of that bellyaching out of the way, I can say that up until the ending, I was enjoying the ever living daylights out of this. There was boatloads of military action and Kel was kicking butt and slitting throats left and right. It was one of the best Dark Operator stories so far. And I think that is why the ending hit me so hard. It was like running at full speed and hitting a brick wall. That hurts a lot. Now if you were just walking, it would still hurt, but not nearly as bad.
This brings me face to face with the decision of where to go next with Anspach and Cole. Galaxy’s Edge season two has 2 more books before it finishes up. The penultimate book doesn’t come out until sometimes in September, so who knows when the final book will be published. That leaves me with A&C’s other series, Forgotten Ruins. There are currently 6 books in that series and book 7 will be published in December. See, talk about being caught on the horns of a dilemma. I trust you will all commiserate with me in this most difficult of times.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
A legionnaire’s only failure is the failure to do what’s right.
Kel Turner is a victim of his own success. His exploits and victories as part of Kill Team Three bring the attention of forces seeking hegemony over the Republic.
These shadowy power brokers know that a man like Kel represents a threat to their plans… unless he can be persuaded to join them. And if the operator declines his hidden enemy will stop at nothing to destroy him.
At a deadly crossroads, Kel is told to choose between love and duty. But his foes are ignorant that he has a third choice.
Win.
The dark operator is the master of all the tools of lethal combat. Kel will need them all to succeed.
Experience the epic fourth installment of the Dark Operator series and join Kel on a desperate, daring mission against an evil that runs deep in the heart of the Republic. Become a Dark Operator and escape the expected.
Kel tells his buddies and superiors about the blackmail and they formulate a plan to root out the mastermind behind this corruption of the Dark Ops. They succeed and the Head of the Senate appears to be behind things. They disappear him and suddenly Kel has a real chance at living the life of a civvie with a spacefaring family. The book ends with him not sure which way he’ll go.
My Thoughts:
Yeah, THIS is what I expect from a Galaxy’s Edge book. This showed how Nether Ops, those dastardly evil spawn of hell, got their start. And it showed them getting their butts totally kicked by the good guys! Now THAT is how a story is supposed to be told.
Near the beginning I was afraid Kel was going to try do the Lone Wolf thing and go against the Legion, but I should have known better. The author isn’t an idiot and as such his characters aren’t idiots just to propel the plot. Thank goodness for good story telling (again).
There is only one more Dark Operator book left and I suspect it will end with Kel either leaving the Legion for a family, or they all die and he becomes a hardened warrior out to KTF. I hope he gets his happy ending, he deserves it after what he’s gone through in these 4 books so far!
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: No Fail Series: Galaxy’s Edge: Dark Operator #3 Author: Doc Spears Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Genre: Mil-SF Pages: 281 Words: 100.5K
Synopsis:
From the Publisher
Failure is a Hateful Word
For Dark Ops Sergeant Kel Turner, it’s unthinkable. Until now. Kill teams are accustomed to achieving the impossible, and Kill Team Three has done the impossible more than any other. Tasked with mission after mission, against a never-ending list of enemies, Kel and Three brace themselves to rise to the occasion yet again.
Kel lived under no doubts about his kill team’s ability to win against any odds, until an enemy thought long defeated reappears. From a dingy city locked in the center of a cold war to a nightmarish alien landscape, the one constant that defines their latest missions is that a kill team is always alone.
Living in the black world of covert operations, there are secrets, then there are secrets. The first might lead to his death. The second might lead to failure.
For this Dark Operator, in a galaxy filled with potentials, death is preferable to failure.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
For Sergeant Kel Turner and Kill Team Three, the wait is never long. Whether it’s on a core world snatching a delusional genius who knows too much, or on the edge forging allies among a complex alien culture, Dark Ops are the foot soldiers of the House of Reason’s galactic game for dominance.
Danger looms over Kel and his teammates like taxes over a Republic citizen. The promise is written in blood. Now they face a crisis that makes their worst firefight tame in comparison. Kel learns that sometimes there are no clear answers, manuals, or templates to follow. Isolated from Republic help, when the lives of thousands hang in the balance, a planet looks for a savior. Fortunately, when there’s a dark operator on hand, the odds favor the Legion.
KT3 kidnap a rich genius and disappear him. Then the entire book switches to them being on an alien planet that the Republic is woo’ing for the rare elements available. The Company has made a deal with the largest tribe, arming them with modern blasters and tanks, etc. Several Kill Teams are training this new army. The army rebels, the supposed leader declares herself the leader of the world and plans to wipe out every single human on the planet.
The Ambassador gets all the surviving humans (many were killed in outposts they were doing research at) into one city and begins evacuating them. But with a brand new army and guns and tanks, the rebel isn’t going to let that happen. So she begins to march on the city, which is pretty much defenseless. Kel figures out a way to send an asteroid onto the army and destroy it without cracking the planets surface.
The book ends with an extremely powerful Senator making note that Kel is too resourceful for a Legionnaire and needs to be cut off.
My Thoughts:
I enjoyed my time reading this but have realized that what I really like about the Galaxy’s Edge universe is the original authors writing. Jason Anspach and Nick Cole write what I want to read, military space opera. Everybody else who is playing in this sandbox seems to be writing just military science fiction. I enjoy mil-sf, but not as much as space opera.
The beginning of the book felt like a short story inserted to pad the page/word count. I kept waiting for what happened then to have ramifications when they were on the alien world, but it never did. The beginning chapter/s (I forget if it was longer than a chapter or not) simply had zero integration with the rest of the book. It was very jarring.
Decent read but not mind blowing or anything like that at all. I’m giving this 3 ½ stars but really, I think that half star is just for the name Galaxy’s Edge. If the next book is of the same quality and holds my interest the same, I’ll be knocking things down to a more realistic 3star. Mind you, this isn’t bad. It just isn’t what I got in the original series.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Dark Operator Series: Galaxy’s Edge: Dark Operator #1 Author: Doc Spears Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Mil-SF Pages: 355 Words: 130K
Synopsis:
From Galaxysedge.fandom.com & Me
Legion Dark Ops has always been a unit shrouded in secrecy.
Tasked with performing covert missions, its kill teams are filled with the best warriors from within the ranks of the Legion.
Kel Turner is one of the youngest legionnaires ever to be selected to its ranks. After many battles and trials, he is faced with the greatest challenge of his life – operating by himself on a remote planet at the galaxy’s edge, a foot soldier for the policies of the duplicitous House of Reason, tasked with solving a crisis that would take ten kill teams to resolve.
Diplomats, spies, shadowy terrorist groups, and an enigmatic general work with and against Kel as he fights to save a society from itself. What can one operator do alone, separated from his kill team, fighting a war that has no name?
Once Kel has turned around the various police forces of the planet and done a lot of good work, he’s asked to leave. Immediately. By the very man he thought was his friend on the planet, the titular head of security for the Families.
Once he reaches Republic Space, he finds out that that same man used the skills Kel gave him and his men to overthrow the Families and establish himself as Dictator. And all of this was known about and used by the politicians of the Republic.
My Thoughts:
This was MUCH better than the Order of the Centurion sub-series (which I dnf’d partway through). While still not engaging in a tone of space opera that the original series does, this managed to be a thoroughly enjoyable military SF romp. Part of my enjoyment, and focused me on what I didn’t enjoy about Order, was that Kel is a pretty well rounded guy. I guess my problem with Order was that I was reading about guys who were breaking apart in some way or other, and the testing that Tyrus Rechs set up for even getting into the Legion should have weeded out fellows like that. Here, Kel is everything I expect to read about when reading about the Dark Operators, the top of the top of the Legion.
He’s young, not stupid, but naive in terms of just how the galaxy works in certain ways. It takes him by surprise when the Security Chief takes over using a coup. He’s really surprised when his best friend is killed by the Zhee and he finds out that the head of the Dark Operators helped train Zhee back in the day. He’s a great mix of deadly, competent and naive.
The story was good too. Kell is on a world that is experiencing some civil unrest and is helping the security forces get a handle on things. As such there is a lot of military action but it is liberally leavened with social things like going out to eat or going to a party. For me, it was perfectly balanced between straight up Mil-SF and good old fashioned adventure.
I’m looking forward to the next one. And once I’m done with this 5book sub-series, I’ll have to see what kind of back catalog Doc Spears has of his own original stuff.
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