Steel World

Undying Mercenaries, Book 1

By: B. V. Larson

Narrated by: Mark Boyett

Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

In the 20th century Earth sent probes, transmissions, and welcoming messages to the stars. Unfortunately, someone noticed. The Galactics arrived with their battle fleet in 2052. Rather than being exterminated under a barrage of hell-burners, Earth joined their vast Empire. Swearing allegiance to our distant alien overlords wasn't the only requirement for survival. We also had to have something of value to trade, something that neighboring planets would pay their hard-earned credits to buy. As most of the local worlds were too civilized to have a proper army, the only valuable service Earth could provide came in the form of soldiers…someone had to do their dirty work for them, their fighting and dying.

I, James McGill, was born in 2099 on the fringe of the galaxy. When Hegemony Financial denied my loan applications, I was kicked out of the university and I turned to the stars. My first campaign involved the invasion of a mineral-rich planet called Cancri-9, better known as Steel World. The attack didn't go well, and now Earth has entered a grim struggle for survival. Humanity's mercenary legions go to war in Steel World, best-selling author B. V. Larson's latest science fiction novel.

©2013 B. V. Larson (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Good book only one minor thing.

Definitely enjoyed this book and look forward to next I series. My only complaint is that the key tech in this story plays very loose with its logic. I know kind of a nitpick but it is such a key part of the story that this one thing is hard to ignore.


SPOILER (sort of) : When the soldiers have lost communication to everything. How come the data is still available for resurrection all the way up to the point of death? How come they can remember every detail of death when resurrected? I know tech is advanced but that kind of mental backup seems a bit unlikely. Just my opinion.

Enjoyable series

Reviewing the first 3 in the series. The lead hero is annoying and lucky. The story and action gets pretty repetitive. Overall I will continue with the series if I find them on sale for <~ $7 max. It's worth checking out.

One hell of a story!

Get this story! A truly great addition to any SciFi or Military loving enthusiast! I need to buy the whole collection and so do you. >~<

It's got teeth, lots of teeth!

Teeth, armor, lasers, star ships, guts, two four and eight leged beasties and more hoo ra.

Amazing

It was so descriptive I thought I was really there! And the voices were amazing as well. GG B.V. Larson and GG Mark Boyett! Can't wait to start listening to dust world in the next five minutes!!!

Bitchin!

Great military Sci-Fi. The Undying Mercenaries are a definite hit, and for good reason. A fun and engrossing book.

everything you need

this book has spaceships,laserguns and dinosaurs in it, what elsse could you possibly need? nothing, that's what.

I am now a fan of the series.

I was captivated with this story. Told from the perspective of the lowest rank was great.

Not Heinlein, but a passable substitute

Nothing much original here - it's another wannabe Starship Troopers. But it does a good job being what it is, even if B.V. Larson is no Heinlein.

The premise is simple: Earth was forcibly inducted into a Galactic Empire, in which every planet must have something of trade value or they get blown up. The only thing Earth had was its people — specifically, its soldiers. Yes, another interstellar civilization in which humans turn out to be the meanest fighters 'cause we're just so savage and violent. So young men and women (as is typical of modern military SF, this is another imagined future in which men and women fight side by side in undifferentiated roles) join Earth's Legions to go to distant, exotic planets, meet interesting aliens, and kill them.

The protagonist, a slacker named James McGill, is sitting around in his tiny shared apartment playing video games until his mother tells him the government dole has run out. This is his impetus to go join the Legions. He fails the test for the higher status, more glamorous Legions, because he's too much of an "independent thinker" (i.e., a wise guy with poor impulse control), but just when he's about to give up, he finds himself recruited into Legion Varus, which has a reputation for doing a lot of hard, dirty, "real" fighting. With almost no training, McGill finds himself given a gun and sent to a planet occupied by lizard men. The rest of the book consists of McGill repeatedly getting himself in trouble and navigating the petty politics of both the Legion and the Galactics, in between bloody battles in which half the time he and his buddies wind up dead.

Oh yes, they have "Revival Units," i.e. respawning. So when a soldier dies, his backed-up memories are dumped into a newly-grown body. For McGill, this is disturbing and disorienting and quite upsetting the first couple of times it happens, so the author tries to emphasize that infinite respawning does not come without a cost, but McGill also comes to understand that some of his superiors have been killed and regrown over and over and over, for years, which certainly gives them a different take on life.

Besides the respawning, it also turns out that the Galactics monitor all mercenary battles and score it according to arcane rules which, it turns out, are heavily biases against Earth. The real plot consists of McGill finding out how Legion Varus's battles on Steel World may determine the fate of the Legion, and of Earth itself.

So, very heavily reminiscent of a RTS game. Steel World has a lot of action and cleverly-deployed aliens and technology, and decent characterization. (I found McGill himself the most annoying - even after being killed a few times, he's still kind of a whiny, entitled punk.) Some pieces of the plot were a little implausible, and at times the characters' actions stretched credibility just to introduce some artificial tension, but overall it was a fun, pleasant read to fill a few hours when you are in the mood for yet another Johnny Rico clone.

1st is the best of an entertaining series

Best of the series. A believable main character stepping into unknown troubles both in the combat arena and political arena.