User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
I wish I could give two ratings here, one for the completely unnecessary and rather cringey first half of the book and then a completely different one for the exhilarating second half. It’s almost as if Kloos, tired from this being book 7 in the series kept treading through a muddy quagmire of “what the hell am I even doing” and then suddenly, in a flash, something rekindled his passion about half way through, he woke up, and went at it with new gusto.
I mean, we know, we’ve read about it over and over and over and over again through the last few books, Andrew just can’t believe he is still alive, he is surprised and slightly uncomfortable that all these people defer to him, after all, he never wanted to be an officer, oh my, he is now the “old man”, he is still having nightmares, and nobody who hasn’t been through it all can have any reference point to what he is talking about or feeling, ad nauseam, ad infinitum.
Then,
the mission finally begins and tally-ho! It’s all there, all the reasons why I
burned through the first 5 books, there is alien space war excitement, drama, action, mystery, paper-thin characters wrapped in thousands of tons of mechanized mayhem and destruction… and then it all abruptly ends mid-action in a sort of… cliffhanger? I am glad for the beginning of a new adventure, but I could have used less filler up front, and perhaps more about what happens next to produce a truly satisfying new instalment.
Rating: really liked it
Yet another book in the series. This particular entry has all the highpoints and fewer of the faults found in the rest. See my review of
Points of Impact (Frontlines, #6). Unfortunately, it’s a greater, cliffhanger than the author typically leaves his readers hung out-to-dry with for another year (or two) as in the past.
In this story Grayson volunteers for a combat mission outside the solar system aboard one of the alien stomping, space, Dreadnoughts.
For this mission, he leaves the wife behind. There may be a short story or novella with her featuring in the works? They’re both such good soldiers? I continue to find their relationship to be eye-rollingly saccharine, even for the YA reading demographic he’s targeting. Actually, I never find Kloos' female characters to be more than superficially female. Mostly they're just
warrior boys with breasts. Interestingly, in this book, Grayson met no less than three (3) eligible women. Like
Ward Cleaver , he feels not the slightest temptation. He doesn’t even note their
secondary sexual characteristics. This was unlike any soldier, Marine or sailor, I’ve ever encountered. And, I’ve known several. I also note that all the author’s characters are
always heterosexuals? That the great majority are
Anglo-Saxon, even the PRC rats, has ceased to bother me.
This book had better editing and proofreading than previous books. Poor proofreading and editing has always been a major shortcoming of the series. There were still a few (jump) points that could have been scrubbed. Grayson's fascination with the vastness of the pristine hanger deck, was interesting only once, thrice it was boring. I also noted that in previous books, Alcubierre jump points were all bi-directional. Ships could exit and enter a single point to reach a particular location. The excretable end of the story hinges on the space dreadnought and the first ever, one-way, the wrong way, jump point; an egregious
retcon.
As in every book of the series, Grayson was tireless and likely invulnerable. He takes both physical and emotional punishment that would leave a mere mortal a broken, gibbering wreck, and then volunteers for another mission. One concession Kloos makes was that Grayson found a gray hair, and considers, “I'm getting old”.
As in most of Kloos’ books, his time lines continue to be suspect. He packs enough combat action in 4-8 book hours as traditionally occurs in several days. I used to wonder when Greyson, ever found time to: eat, sleep and use
the can between missions? Interestingly in this book, he takes several shipboard showers and even a
bio break. The space travel time/distance are also suspect. (Space travel is boring.)
As I wrote, the ground combat in the story was good. Kloos must sleep with a copy of
Blackhawk Down beneath his pillow? He even appears to have spent some time with
KSP . The
spacey vocabulary was better and the maneuvering was more authentic within the confines of the
Standard Space Fleet trope he earlier straitjacketed himself with. A constant complaint remains. Kloos still has no appreciation of how vast space really is. In his space battles, the space dreadnoughts maneuver
butt-to-nut and avoid ship-to-ship collisions with distances of less than an RCH (a military unit of measure). His space battles always remind me of
Carmageddon . Space is the
Empty Battlefield. Space warships are
eggshells armed with hammers. Those hammers have
very long handles. Ships should never be visible to each other, outside of
Space Dock(tm).
My largest complaint about his book, is that it takes the series one step forward, and leaves the reader with a cliffhanger. This is a
cheap trick first found in Kloos’ newer
Palladium Wars series. It now appears to have been exported to
Frontlines? I really dislike this
pulp fiction technique for authors to ensure their revenue stream. It may work for magazines with a monthly publishing schedule, but it was two years between
Points of Impact (2018) and
Orders of Battle (2020). How much is the reader expected to remember, after another two years of the story drifting in space? Also, at the rate he’s going,
Frontlines will be 15-books long, pay for his children’s college tuition and payoff the mortgage at its end. I may be too enfeebled by old age to see its finish?
So, the ground combat was good. The space combat was mostly good, but still needs work. The boy/girl stuff was still juvenile. In general, there was better proofreading and editing in this story than previous books in the series. The story would have been a good one of the
Road to Victory type. However, it stopped, mid-way and unresolved leaving the reader with a FUBAR ending. I might have given Kloos three (3) stars for this improved,
Frontlines effort—if not for that ending.
Rating: really liked it
Good series of you like sci fi!Looking forward to next book in the series. Kind of a cliff hanger. I have different scenarios going on in my head.
Rating: really liked it
I did not know why, but I swear I thought this one would be the final book of the series. Imagine my surprise at the end of the book.
I actually don't mind if we have more, I mean, Marko Kloos's writing is like wearing an old, over-sized t-shirt - it's relaxing for me. Yet, I now wonder where he's going to take us next.
Andrew Grayson, our tired kickass hero, is now a major and he's leading a special tactics team in a recon mission, this time behind the enemy line. The first half of the book was most introspective accounts of his current life, job, and new acquaintances. One new character, a female scientist, was too tropey for me to ignore and the way she was utilized - to spout out some sciency facts/arguments - was too minimal. And then we have another female character, the XO, who started out cold towards Grayson but then his competence, bravery and whatnots made them into boxing partners. That easy? Anyway, at least it portrays a sort of platonic friendship and I could use some more of that in my mil SF.
The ending was the thing that irked me the most. Way too abrupt and bland at the same time. I wish it had been a cliffhanger so I'd get more excited to read the next one. But, knowing myself, I'd still read it when it comes out. Yet I find myself wanting to move on to the Palladium Wars instead, which I very much enjoyed so far.
Rating: really liked it
4 1/2 StarsFrustrated by cliffhanger but it is always a pleasure to delve into this great Space Opera series. Always great character development and plot twists.
Already jonesing for book eight!
Rating: really liked it
Here we are, 7 books in and we still don't know much about the alien antagonists. The worldbuilding is still not as fleshed out as you would expect after thousands and thousands of pages. Dialogue has come a long way since the first book where everyone literally sounds like the same person, but its still lackluster.
At this point, the endless, mindless, action scenes are just boring filler. The strength of this series has always been its fight scenes (which are wearing really really thin), interesting premise, as well as whatever little bits of plot and worldbuilding the author has drip fed us over 7 books. Kloos needs to waste fewer words on pointless fights and inane filler, and instead actually give us some meat on the bones of the plot and worldbuilding.
Rating: really liked it
Just when you think it's over...I'm always amazed at how Kloos figures out how to up the odds in this series. After ten years of war for Grayson, the reader is always wondering how much more he can take. This book, even Grayson is asking those questions, and the answer is amazing. It's good to see the humans on the advance for once, as well as see Grayson struggle with the difficulties of command. If you love this series, then I don't have to tell you to read this book!
Rating: really liked it
FrustratedYou don’t get to the 7th book in a series without loving the series and the author. But I was just so disappointed with this book. I like the characters. I love the world that’s been built, along with the challenges faced by that world.
So why am I frustrated?
Well, when I buy a book I hope it will entertain. But this book started to get going and then it ended. Most things, everything, was left hanging entirely.
Surely this book should have been the opening chapters of a much larger volume. I don’t mind shorter books, I just expect them to have something that might resemble a beginning, a development and finally some sort of resolution. If I’d have known about the absence of these things in this book, I would still be eager to read it, but I would have waited until the later volumes are released.
Rating: really liked it
This was more of a recap/filler book in the story . For me this was not a bad thing as it has been over a year sense I have read the last installment. Great writing but it did not add much to the overall story.
Rating: really liked it
This one was better than #6. We are off on new adventures and Andrew is contemplating what he really wants to do with his life, is he a war junky or not.
I am not usually a big fan of military....anything but I have enjoyed both of Kloos' series and hope he keeps writing them. This one ended with a major cliffhanger which is not ideal but Kloos is still alive and hopefully will spit out the next book shortly.
Rating: really liked it
This is by far the weakest entry to the series. The first 60% of the book is the main characters whining about his lot in life. He dislikes being away from his wife, and she him, but they both love the action their jobs afford them. He doesn't like being a staff officer, but he does the job well. Nothing of consequence happens until more than halfway through the book and even then action is limited and used to serve up the next twist in the overall story. It's a passable story but it's rather boring.
Rating: really liked it
Number 7 in the Frontlines series.
My review is intentionally brief, since this ended on quite the note. I've got to go and start the next! But I suppose that even this indicates that this was a darned good book.
And it just hit me that the next book is the last. That's a bit of a disappointment! This is the type of series that I will re-read, though, so all is not lost 🙂
Rating: really liked it
Usually, this author makes each installment a self-contained story. But this book felt way too short and like an introduction to a finale that will happen in later books.
Rating: really liked it
I received a pre-release copy of this book via NetGalley.
Marko Kloos returns for another round in the Frontlines series with "Orders of Battle". I will admit up front that I am a big fan of the series. There was a bit of a longer wait for this than the previous books because the author started another series in between this and the last Frontlines book, but who wouldn't want to switch gears after writing one series exclusively for a number of years.
In any event, this book was like falling back in with an old friend. I normally don't go for first-person books, but for some reason this series is written in such a way that I don't mind it in the least. The action picks up 4 years after the last book. The Lankies have been run out of the solar system, and humanity has basically been at peace. There have been continuous patrols on Mars to mop-up the Lankie presence there, but no new invasions. The military has used this time to beef-up its resources.
Andrew Grayson returns, of course, this time holding down a plum training position at a "swanky" military base, if such a term can ever be applied to a military base. It's not long before he is offered a spot on a top secret mission. I won't say any more to avoid spoilers, but there are spaceships and ground battles and all the things we've come to expect and love from this series. Grayson's wife, Halle, is not in the book for very long, but I can appreciate that Kloos doesn't invent ways for them to be stationed together at all times. Other characters admirably fill in the gap left by her.
It does set up a pretty big twist ending that I really didn't see coming, and I cannot wait to see where things go from here. It could almost be the "second era" of the Frontlines series and I eagerly await the next book.
Rating: really liked it
3.5 stars rounded up because I appreciated the rhythm of this part of the story.
Pity for the cliffhanger, I thought the series was finished when I started it and only realized it was not the case while reading this book. Anyway, I really enjoy this series and I hope to read more about Andrew, Halley and the Lankies.
I don’t know what has triggered the feeling of inner peace that has replaced that dread. Maybe it’s the acceptance of the fact that on the cosmic timescale, our existences are a blip in the collective consciousness of the universe anyway, and that I got to live my little life span with more agency and autonomy than most. I got to have a purpose and someone to fight for, and that’s more than most people get these days.
