Overkill

Orphan's Legacy #1

by Robert Buettner

            At twenty-three, Jazen Parker has completed his Legion hitch a hero.  But in four months, he’ll have a price on his head.  Worse, he’s lost his past, and he can’t find his future.  Worst of all, he’s chosen to search for them on the deadliest planet known to mankind.

            When Jazen reluctantly hires on to a Trueborn Earthman tycoon's safari to bag a deadly trophy, the reluctant mercenary finds himself shipped out to Downgraded Earthlinke 476, the outpost at the end of the universe known to everyone except its tourism bureau as "Dead End."

            But the hunt goes terribly wrong, and Jazen must survive a tough, beautiful local guide who hates mercenaries, an eleven ton beast that can crush main battle tanks with one claw tied behind its back, and the return of a nightmare that has haunted Jazen since birth. Then Jazen learns that the stakes are not merely his own life, but the fate of an entire alien race.

“Buettner goes well beyond . . . military science fiction . . . he understands . . . living as a soldier—the boredom punctuated by terror, the constant anxiety and self-doubt, the random chaos that battle always is, and the emotional glue that holds together people who may have nothing in common except absolute responsibility for one another's lives.” —Joe Haldeman, Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author

“[O]nce in a while . . . a contemporary author penetrates to the heart of Heinlein's vision . . . to replicate the master's effects. . . . [O]ne such book [is] Robert Buettner's Orphanage.” —The Washington Post

“Entertaining. Buettner shows the Heinlein touch.” —Denver Post

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Military Science Fiction, Audiobook, Space Opera, Action, Thriller

309 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2011

About the author

Robert Buettner’s best-selling debut novel, Orphanage, 2004 Quill Award nominee for Best SF/Fantasy/Horror novel, was called the Post-9/11 generation’s Starship Troopers and “one of the great works of modern military science fiction.” Orphanage has been adapted for film by Olatunde Osunsanmi (The Fourth Kind) for Davis Entertainment (Predator, I Robot, Eragon). Orphanage and other books in Robert’s Jason Wander series have been translated into Chinese, Czech, French, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish. Robert was a 2005 Quill nominee for Best New Writer.

In April, 2014 Baen Books released his eighth novel, Balance Point. A long-time Heinlein Society member, Robert wrote the Afterword for Baen’s recent re-issue of Heinlein’s Green Hills of Earth/Menace From Earth short story collection. His own first original short story, Sticks and Stones, appears in the 2012 anthology, Armored, edited by John Joseph Adams. Robert served as the author judge for the 2011 National Space Society Jim Baen Memorial short story writing contest.

Robert is a former U.S. Army intelligence officer and National Science Foundation Fellow in Paleontology. As attorney of record in more than three thousand cases, he practiced in the U.S. federal courts, before courts and administrative tribunals in no fewer than thirteen states, and in five foreign countries. Six, if you count Louisiana.

He lives in Georgia with his family and more bicycles than a grownup needs.

Visit him on the web at www.RobertBuettner.com.

Reviews

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very fun read, lots of tongue and cheek humor, lots of good action scenes with a little dash of romance thrown in to make the story complete. The world building wasn't the greatest but it was good enough not to detract from the story. The characters are what drives this book. Throughout the book the main character has flash backs that does a good job of explaining his back story and why he makes the decisions he does later in the book. As well as, later on, switching between Jazen's POV and the Alien's perspective, which gives you a good feel of how things look through his eye's

This book starts out following Jazen Parker almost exclusively in a first person format, he has been discharged from the army under some what suspicious circumstances. Now he has been hired by a millionaire big-wig, who wants to hunt one of the most dangerous creatures in the universe, which can only be found on an obscure, out of the way planet.

What starts out as a big game hunt adventure quickly changes into a race to try and save an alien race, which are thought to be nothing more then sub-intelligent beasts, but are actually much smarter then the humans could ever imagine.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the oddest Science Fiction stories I've read in a long time. It begins with a woman illegally assisting with the birth of a child on an overcrowded planet where population is not permitted to grow. Then, it shifts to that child as a young man entering the legion (military service)-- knowing that when his service ends he will hold immunity for the "crime" of being born in such a manner for only one year following his separation from service. Unbelieveably, that crime puts a bounty on his head. Suddenly, we see the man immediately following his military service working as a tank driver for a (credibility stretch coming) an M1- Abrams tank. The tank is an antique and is being used to hunt the main predator on a planet-- a huge creature able to slice a tank open with its claws... The reader follows the man on the hunt, where he has flashbacks to his last military tour-- which plays a minor role in our story.

The credibility gets stretched a bit with the reference to the tank, which should have not only been an antique, but an ancient artifact to colonists who left Earth. Along the way, there are a few other references offered which would be unlikely as well.

However, if that was the full story-- hunting a monster-- a la Jurassic Park-- this book would have found its way onto my didn't finish list. Instead, the author treats us to a huge betrayal, imminent danger (much like Jurassic Park-- along with some Space Opera issues) a mystery, and a study in xenobiology. The author manages to create some interesting characters as well as some comical moments of trying to understand human idioms, and culture. Everything that could possibly go wrong does-- but also-- along the way-- the study of the way this huge behemoth behaves and actually thinks and communicates keeps it interesting. For in fact, much of this novel is written from the point of view of the creature who is attempting to understand humanity and relate it to his life in the wild.

The wrapup reveals a number of secrets-- an offer (leading to a sequel, it appears) and a resolution of the identity of the orphan's parents.

All in all, this one quickly becomes a page turning adventure that kept me riveting, despite the few outdated references that just did not fit the story.

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun book to read; I had read the third book, first, not realizing it was a part of a trilogy. I was happy to find out that, yes, this series was inspired by The War With The Rull by A.E. van Voght. I felt it started out slow, but once it got going, it kept up a pretty good pace. There was a moment or two where it did seem to slow down a bit, but it never lasted. The character development was decent one character introduced 'right away' dies relatively early on in the book, which saddened me, as I liked this character. Ah, well!; I liked the three main characters in the book and the minor characters had decent development, too. The story goes back-and-forth a bit for the male lead, giving flashbacks to help explain where he is 'today' in the story and why he is there. There are some humorous moments in the book, which I felt helped the story (more like, 'fish out of water' humor, I suppose). It was a fast read for me, and hit held my interest all the way until the end. I did enjoy the different P.O.V.'s in the book - I thought the author did a good job writing them, and it did help with the flow of the story (as it was not all in the same voice, so to speak).

The author states in the afterward that his favorite part (character(s)) in Vogt's book were the ezwal, a race he felt was underdeveloped in the book and he would have liked to have seen more development for the species a whole. So, he goes ahead and does that in this book - he 'recreates' the species, renames them, and gives them more depth, more character. This is done with a mother grezzen and her son; she is captured and then, eventually, killed. The son makes a deal with two humans to assist them in exchange for their assistance in his getting revenge for his mother's death. Over the course of the novel, he probably has the most character development as he 'grows the most' as a character and a main character. His interactions with various humans forces him to change his behavior and his mind; it forces him to 'grow/become/evolve' into a being that is greater than he was before he began his quest for vengeance; by the end of the book, he has given up his mission to avenge his mother's death as he realizes how much he has changed and he can no longer go back to what he had been before his 'inner transformation' and growth as a character. I enjoyed his character quite a bit, and was happy to see how he came to know Kit and Jazen via their story in this novel.

I thought it was a 'good/great' idea that some xeno-biologist/naturalist was studying the grezzen to determine how intelligent they really were and if they were able to communicate telepathically. His research causes an industrial tycoon to head to DE-476 to obtain a grezzen specimen in order to determine if the creatures truly are telepathic and if there is a specific distance after which they can no longer communicate. If this tycoon's scientists can replicate the grezzen's talent, he can make an even greater fortune by developing the technology to send messages instantaneously across space, which would ensure his 'rise to power' and becoming the richest, most powerful man in the universe. The xeno-biologist/naturalist is killed by the mother grezzen in order to keep the grezzen's secret safe, but she is unaware the the species' secret is 'already out' and others will continue to come to capture and test grezzen to obtain the secret to instantaneous communication. I thought/felt it was believable, in terms of the story.

I also thought it was interesting how the author focused, at times, on the 'collective guilt' of humanity in terms of exterminating various species. Apparently, in the Orphan/Orphanage series, humanity encounters an alien race and exterminates it. So, the 'collective guilt' from trying to protect themselves from this alien species has been lumped in with the 'collective guilt' of humanity on Terra, I guess. It seemed a bit far-fetched to me, to be honest, but it was still an interesting concept in how it applied to the story. If the grezzen could be shown to be intelligent, then they would be protected and not exterminated by humans.

I thought it was nuts that life on Yavet was so cheap that babies born "illegally" could be killed without recourse or mercy on the planet (or, anywhere in the known human "empire" if they managed to make it off Yavet and make a life for themselves elsewhere. Yavet is a crazy, over-crowded world in which life is cheap and it is a 'worse' crime to be born 'illegally' than it is to commit any other crime. Crimes of murder and violence are considered 'acceptable' crimes because they help depopulate the planet whereas giving birth "without permission" is illegal and punishable by death because it is "populating" an already over-populated planet. I, personally, had a hard time fathoming what life would have been like on this planet, where the majority of crimes committed are ignored or applauded.

I liked that One-Eyed Jack got what was coming to him, in the end. The guy did not suffer enough before he died.

I also liked how Jazen Parker's character developed over the course of the novel. Kit Born was a decent character, too, but she was a more a 'woman of mystery' with many 'hidden talents' which lets the reader know she is probably more important than she initially appears (especially when she takes Cutler's "tablet/reader" from Jazen and starts to read it and study the information herself). Jazen has had a hard life, but that does not stop him from showing sympathy to his enemies and trying to help/save those who cannot help (or protect) themselves. Despite all of his talk, he turned out to be more honorable than I would have thought he would have been.

I did like both of their characters; it was amusing how much Jazen had to rely upon Kit for his own survival. She came to rely upon him, as well, after a fashion, but she seemed more in her element than he was throughout most of the story. It did kind of remind me of some of Heinlein's stories involving women he created to be smart, strong, and beautiful, but I felt that Buettner did a better job with developing Kit's character than Heinlein did developing most of his female characters. I also thought it was 'funny' how it took them several days before they realized they had a 'guardian angel' protecting them on their trek back to Eden and human civilization after their boss abandoned them in the wilds of DE-476 after a second grezzen attack. The son of the female that was captured by Cuttler's 'hunting party' decided to 'use' Kit and Jazen to help him get through the human's defenses and into the human city in order to find and free his mother a well as seeking revenge upon Cutler for taking his mother like he did.

I also liked how an M1A2 Abrams tank was used on this planet to 'hunt down' and capture the momma grezzen. I thought the author did a nice job with that part of the story, describing how the tank was able to interact in this alien environment and was still a function machine capable of defending itself against most indigenous threats on the planet (if not all, providing it had enough advance warning of an attack). It plays a key part in the first part of the story, and it also plays a key part towards the end of the story. In any case, I enjoyed reading about it and how it was used by the hunting party to get their prey.

I also liked the 'throw-out' to David Drake's Hammer's Slammers series with the 'advanced tanks' used by the Legion. The way they were described reminded me strongly of the tanks designed by Drake in his Slammers series of books - what with the tank having a skirt like a hovercraft, the advanced turret and electronics onboard, and how they were described as functioning. I thought it was a pretty cool homage to a 'classic military sci-fi series,' myself; and, if I am wrong and the one had nothing to do with the other, that is okay. It still reminded me of Drake's work.

I also thoroughly enjoyed the various discussions about the ecosystem on DE-476. It was pretty clear that Kit had to be something more than how she was presenting herself, considering all of the knowledge she had available to her, all of the 'stuff' that she knew. At one point, she was talking about how the 'herbivores' cannot really eat and digest the vegetation, that what they do is eat the vegetation in order to eat the 'animal life' (i.e. - insects and other smaller creatures) that live inside of the vegetation and co-exist with the vegetation. They have to essentially forage for food "24-7) in order to survive. I thought it was a pretty cool ecosystem that the author 'dreamed up/designed' for the grezzen's homeworld.

It was a fun read; I would rate it 3.4 - 3.6 stars, rounded down to three stars. I liked it and enjoyed it, but not enough to mark it as four stars. I could see myself rereading it, again, at some time in the future, but not anytime soon. In any case, I did enjoy reading it, especially as it was a fast read.

[Randy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jazen Parker is an Illegal. That is, he was born on his homeworld without a permit, the greatest crime there is. Police will ignore drug-dealing, thievery, but you get pregnant without a permit, you're subject to be killed on sight. As is the new born.

Jazen had been snaked away at the last moment by the woman who'd served as midwife at his birth, the mother having extracted a promise from her to look after him. She'd raised him, but there was still a price on his head that any bounty hunter could collect.

The Legion had saved him, but the war was over and he was a civilian again. Because of his Legion service, he had a year's grace period before he could legally be killed and he had a plan.

He'd taken a job leading a rich man's hunting expedition on the planet Dead End, the popular name for a very dangerous planet. A planet full of predators, the first expedition had been wiped out, the last transmission so horrible that it was not allowed to be played. The second expedition, though better prepared had suffered the same fate. The third was even better prepared and maintained a tenuous habitation with one city and a space port connected by a single highway. The local joke was that humans didn't make roadkill, they WERE roadkill.

Cutler, the rich man, wanted to capture a Grezzen live, a monster eleven tons in weight. Jazen and his partner had spent six months reconditioning an old Abrams battle tank for use. At the last moment, they received word that the guide contracted had been killed and a woman, Kit, would take his place.

Thing go wrong on the hunt, Cutler gets his live Grezzen, a female, and Jazen and Kit are left afoot, the partner dead. Many miles to safety and not a chance in hell of them getting there.

Not to mention they were being shadowed by something that had been said could crush a battle tank with one claw tied behind it's back.

A fine novel that Buettner says in the afterword was inspired by A. E. Van Vogt's War Against The Rill. This is the first book in a new series, the sixth book overall in the Orphan's series. The first five consisted of the adventures of Jason Wander in the war against the Slugs and the discovery of the Outworlds.

[Tiara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I originally bought the book as an impulse buy from Audible because they kept taunting me with a deal on certain books. This was one of those books whose description was written in a way to capture the reader's attention while still managing to be vaguely suspicious. I wasn't sure if I liked the cover (recovering cover snob that I am), but I decided to give this a try, even if my brain did try to tell me that this was probably going to be Space Rambo. However, since this was my science fiction month and I wanted to round out my selection and adding to the fact that the reviews were mostly favorable, I decided to give it a chance. Surprisingly, it was an interesting listen.

Twenty three year old Jazen Parker agrees to go to a planet known colloquially as "Dead End" with a rich tycoon to hunt one of the deadliest animals in the universe. The payout from this job will help Parker to get a new identity and start his life anew without the threat of the former mercenary group he worked for since he was a teen or the bounty hunters who want to take him back to his home planet to answer for his "crime." He was born illegally on his home planet, and even though that wasn't his fault, he can still be punished for his parents' crime.

It's really hard to talk about this book without spoiling most of it. You think you're going into the book just getting a straightforward sci-fi military story with lots of action, and you do get that. However, you also get a well crafted sci-fi story that won't allow itself to be shoehorned into just another shoot-em-up story. This story explores human nature and the similarities and differences that could exist between two intelligent races by giving us chapters from the alien's point of view. He finds much of human behavior complex and needless. His own race is at an apex where they are absolutely on top of the food chain on their home planet and don't need many of the behaviors that humans possess. The longer he travels with his human companions the more he learns about things such as empathy and sacrifice, notions he doesn't have in his own culture because individuals in his race live solitary lives. They're firm believers in allowing an individual to meet his destiny alone.

We also learn more about this other race in the process. We learn about their loose society structure and how they've managed to thwart genocide by humans by pretending to be dumb creatures. As stated in the book: "Overall the human species tolerated dangers in nature. What they did not tolerate were rivals." Even though they know they are more intelligent and capable than humans. Humans possess knowledge and skills that make them very dangerous, especially to a territorial, solitary species like his where teamwork is downright disrespectful because it means encroaching on each other’s boundaries. However solitary they are, there is a thread of unity between them, a way they exchange knowledge, history, and ideas among themselves. They're stubborn about their worldview being the only view and humans are obviously delusional in their opinion until circumstances causes one of them to embark on a pivotal journey.

Humans in this book have conquered most of the known galaxy, becoming so numerous on some planets that it's a crime to reproduce without consent. (And I don't really understand why Parkers parent traveled to a planet where it's a criminal offense to have Parker, but maybe they had no other choice.) It's even mentioned that they have destroyed other intelligent species after being given resources they needed and have turned back to warring against each other, but with more dire consequences (such as slavery, even though it's supposedly humane, is a fate for the conquered). Humans are detached from earth, most having never seen earth and know little of its history.

Humans not knowing about their history, even if they've never laid eyes on earth, pains me. Parker will sometimes gripe about how trueborns think earth is the cultural apex of the universe and how names like George Washington mean nothing to him. While I can understand the sentiment, there are no other cultures present since it seems that humans have wiped out any other intelligent species, and the culture Parker complains about is the same culture who opened up the universe to humans. Just as Parker’s home world should be just as important to trueborns because it the collective history of humanity. Why wouldn't the history of earth and humans be some kind of required reading? I'm over thinking this thing.

I didn't know if I was going to enjoy the narrator at first, but he did very well and I think his characterization of Parker is what really stood out to me. He really made him feel distinct and alive for me. He managed to capture the youth and battle weary aspects of Parker's personality. Parker is young and naive about many things outside of battle like women, but he's seen so much war and death as a legionnaire. And MacCleod Andrews did a great job of capturing that.

This was an excellent story. There were a few parts that seemed kind of mystifying (Parker's parents' decision on where to have him) and parts that seemed to be quickly cobbled to the story as it neared its end. However, Buettner is knowledgeable about military and made it work in a way that isn't overwhelming for readers. He also knows how to make characters engaging, and I thought more than once he'd probably be a great writer for the Mass Effect series. I'll be moving on to book two in this series soon, hopeful that some mysteries remaining are solved.

[Dantegideon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn’t really get along with this one. Nothing wrong with it exactly, I just didn’t care about the characters.

[Dunsany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this one. I thoroughly enjoyed Buettner's Orphanage series and this book takes place in the same universe.

Side note - I read Buettner's Orpanage and Scalzi's Old Man's War back to back. Both are homages to Heinlein's classic Starship Troopers. I enjoyed Orphanage much much more. More compelling characters, more believable concepts and much tighter plot.

Overkill is more of the same. First chapter drops you into a completely confusing and terrifying situation. But at the chapter close, you get what's going on and who you've just met. Very well done.

The story is told from the first person POV and Buettner has learned a few tricks since Orphanage to realistically give us other character's POV and show action occurring in other areas of the story. It's a nice trick (no, I won't give it away) but it works most of the time. A few clunkers with the other POV character using some strangely formed metaphors (which makes some sense considering the source, but still...)

It's a basic space adventure story. You know, a boy, a girl and a universe out to get them. A couple of times I thought I was reading an old Keith Laumer or Gordon Dickson book... books I loved. This was pure joy blazing through this story.

Anyway, the story has characters that you are absolutely rooting for in desperate situations with almost no chance of escape. My only complaint was that the ending came a little too soon and a little bit too wrapped up in a bow. But of course, it opened up lots of room for sequels.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a solid book for fans of military scifi. It is a little lighter on the battle scenes than some books in the genre but the descriptions of the equipment are excellent and the world building is pretty good. In the afterword the author explains that this is set in the same universe as his successful Orphanage series (which I have not read but may now that I have read this).

There were things I liked about this book and things I didn't. I liked the pace of the story and the idea of a world so crowded that illegal births are punished by a bounty on offspring. It made me think of the Stat Trek episode with the planet so crowded the people were shoulder-to-shoulder and they wanted Kirk t provide a disease to thin the population. I liked the two main characters - one of which is an illegal birth - but most of all I liked the alien creature called a grezzen. It was the most interesting creature in a story I have read in a while.

The things I didn't like was the back and forth way the story was structured as well as the long sections of italic text which I find difficult to read. I also found several characters un-developed that could have been interesting if got to know them better.

Overall I enjoyed it and will likely read the next book in the series as well as go back and read the Orphanage.

[Scott Singleton · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was great to dive back into the Orphanage universe and find myself enjoying a story that was substantially different than the previous series. The tie-ins are obvious, but not overly stated. The viewpoint is fresh as we're given a second first person view to the universe. Included in the viewpoint are also flashbacks -- another new element to the Orphanage series.

As I finish the book and start the second (Undercurrents) I realize Buettner does again what I've always disliked about the style: There's too much unanswered from the previous book. Will the next book settle the score? Probably not. While I'm sure the Kit/Jazen Arc will be prominent I have always felt this empty gap, or hollow feeling, between Buettner's books (Original Orphanage Series). I realize that the author is not super-prolific but I think he's hamstringed by relying on First Person and such a limited viewpoint of the world. To much goes by in the universe while Protagonist A or B has to spend a year recuperating.

[aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

buettner's first novel in his new orphan's legacy series is a perfect first addition. this is his sixth novel overall and first not to feature jason wander as the lead. this series focuses on jazen parker who is left by his parents on a foreign planet when he is born. he is left due to a law by that planet even though is parents don't want to give him up. for those who have read the five book in the jason wander series will probably know who the parents are, but for those who don't, it's not necessary for enjoyment...just helps with back story. jazen meets kit on an unnamed planet where a tycoon wants to hunt a huge and powerful predator. many different twists and turns later you have a wonderful scifi read! this differs a little because buettner seems to really focus more on the development of a relationship between human and an alien lifeform. a great read and highly recommended...but even better if you read the wander series first.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the entire Orphan’s series, it was extremely entertaining. This book starts a new story in the same universe. It does not involve the Slugs, but fans of the series will be familiar with many of the technologies and settings.

The book surpassed my expectations, it sets up a great story involving Jazen Parker, the main character in the story. He has a very interesting backstory, and is a likable character.

Much of the story is set on a primitive world with dangerous creatures, not a very safe place for humans. The book turns out to be a great sci-fi action-adventure story, with the characters working to survive their ordeal on the harsh planet. The most dangerous of the inhabitants possess surprising abilities, which sets up a very interesting setting.

Like all of Buettner’s books, this one features amazing action sequences, and great character humor. I enjoyed the familiar universe, but which sets up a great new story that does not need lean on previous books.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up to read while driving to my Grandma's this weekend. I ended up reading half of the book the day before leaving. It's a quick, fun read about a guy with little past and even less future unless he can change his identity soon. Buettner writes the battle scenes convincingly and his characters are realistic for their setting (in the future on alien worlds). The only weakness to me was the seemingly rushed end of the book, but it's the first in a series, so it's to be expected. I've read Orphanage, which is the first book of Buettner's Orphanage series, which sets the stage for this new series, and you don't really need to have read that series to enjoy this book. Give this one a look if you want a good adventure sci fi read that's quick!

[Darth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my kind of sci-fi - well paced / without getting pulpy.
Advanced tech and aliens / without either taking over the story to the point where the character do no matter.
The characters go places and do things with interesting surroundings.
I am not sure of the practicality of a few finer points - a completely carnivorous planet for example - I do not know if that is a sustainable model.
But like Larry Niven's Grendel / Samlon heavy world, it's best just to go along for the ride.
There was no deus ex machina that wiped out all the buildup in the story, the characters had to go through the other side of their adventure.
WELL DONE!!

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good enough Beginning and middle, but the end flops badly. Maybe 3 stars is too much. There are some poorly placed and written flashbacks, the plot seems artificial at some points, and the characters are flat as pancakes. On the other hand the world Buettner has created is pretty awesome. The one of beast Jazen is hired to hunt takes on as a main character partly but then Buetner manages somehow to mix voice of the narrator with the beast's first-person viewpoint. Anyway 3 stars for the content and 1-2 stars for the delivery.

[James Ellis · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent work of exploration/military sf in the vein of Heinlein, van Vogt, and Pournelle.

Nitpick: the creatures at the core of the story are described as getting together with a member of the opposite gender *once* in their lifetime, to produce a *single* offspring. That isn't even remotely viable. You'd think someone in the pre-production process would have noticed that. It's a minor point, but one that bugged me throughout the book (particularly as it was reinforced by a second mention later).

[Nathan Balyeat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the original "Orphan" series by Buettner and so far so good with his new series. The main protagonist is likable, fallible, and the plot and action keep the pages turning. This book introduces some interesting alien intelligences that are dramatically different from the slugs of the previous series. The backdrop of human society is also expanded on and opens up possibilities for a long-term meta-plot that look to be able to keep my interest.

[Scott S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5-4 stars

I was pleasantly surprised by this one. I wasn't expecting much (note to self: stop reading reviews before reading book), just a good dumb sci-fi adventure, but this one has really held my attention.

I'm eager to listen to the next book.

I was so annoyed that Jazen went back after one eye Jack in the snow storm. Have I come across another sissy liberal author that can only create overly sympathetic heroes?

[Jacqueline J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super fun space opera. I loved the alien and how at first you just thought it was a beast and how gradually you realized it was sentient then he evolved beyond his basic nature to accept that the universe was a much bigger place than he had realized. The main human hero who told the other part of the story was very well done too. I liked the flashbacks to his military service that sort of explained where he was coming from mentally. On to the next one now.

[Jaq · Rating 4 out of 5]

This pleased me - and I won't giveaway the reason why, but it just did. The adventure is well told and at a pace that had me staying up late and reading on, to the wee hours of the morning.

What an enjoyable series this looks like becoming. Well told, and especially the what happens to young men who come out of the military.....

[Michael Elia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great mix of military action and off world adventure. A great mechanism to bring an Abrams main battle tank a hundred years into the future. Lots of fun. Buettner touched on another nomadic culture that I was dying to know more about, but about which he just teased a bit.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story from one of my favorite authors.

[Trent Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

My review here:

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun light hearted action sci fi! A fun easy read that is a joy as it effortlessly propels you to a harsh world and action!

[Rod · Rating 4 out of 5]

Started slow, somewhat predictable, but interesting to see the generation after Orphanage. Some of the same Heinlein/Pournelle Juveniles.

[Dale (Aus) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Nicely tucked into the Orphanage universe but with a total fresh perspective and a fresh story. I will be picking up Undercurrents next from Baens.

[Tristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slower book, but much like Journey, it presents a great opening for things to come into play.

[Nicholas Mastrodicasa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved just over half the book then it became mediocre. Still worth a read I'd say though.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's pretty good. The story is interesting and engaging. However, there are just a lot of stylistic quirks to the writer that leaves the book feeling like it could be far better than it was.

[Andrew Crump · Rating 5 out of 5]

Escapist adventure SciFi at its best. No deep thinking here, but a hell of a lot better than most scifi adventure movies.

[Gene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Call it 3.5 It was not what I was expecting, but it was pretty good. Ending seemed a little anticlimactic, but not bad.