Fields of Fire

Frontlines, Book 5

By: Marko Kloos

Narrated by: Luke Daniels

Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's Summary

The time has come to take the fight to the Lankies.

Mars has been under Lanky control for more than a year. Since then, the depleted forces of Earth's alliances have rebuilt their fleets, staffing old warships with freshly trained troops. Torn between the need to beat the Lankies to the punch and taking enough time to put together an effective fighting force, command has decided to strike now.

Once again, seasoned veterans Andrew and Halley find themselves in charge of green troops and at the sharp tip of the spear as the combined military might of Earth goes up against the Lankies. But if there's one constant in war, it's that no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy...and the Lankies want to hold on to Mars as badly as humanity wants to reclaim it.

©2017 Marko Kloos (P)2016 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved

The time to fight back is finally here.

The fifth of book of the Frontlines series brings the story to a turning point for mankind. The first four books have seen humanity dominated by the alien Lankies, losing battle after battle, and abandoning every human planet except for Earth. Even then, the relentless attacks coming from the Lankie inhabited planet of Mars have caused humanity to barely maintain a hold on Earth. With our existence on the brink, the only option left is to go "all in" and launch an offensive to reclaim our solar system. Gathering up the scraps of the space fleet to attack Mars is a desperate play, but there are no other alternatives left.

Marko Kloos offers up some more of his straight forward military sci-fi writing as this series continues to gain momentum with each new book. Both the series and the characters have grown on me over time and I must admit that I was excited to see this become available.  Following the career of Andrew Grayson wasn't that interesting at first, but now I am invested in him as a character, and his personality makes the overall story arc that much better. Experiencing the massive fight for survival against the Lankies from the perspective of one soldier is turning out to be more entertaining than I initially thought it would be. This was another solid entry in the series and left me eager for the next book.

With Luke Daniels narrating the entire series it is real win-win to listen to this. As soon as I hear Luke's voice it transports me back into the fight against the Lankies and makes me ready to do my part to help save mankind. If you have enjoyed the series so far, then don't hesitate to pick this one up.

Great continuation of the series!

One of my favorite science fiction/space opera series.A well written first person prospective that is refreshingly different to most of the military sci-fi books out there. Also Luke Daniels is on my list of favorite narrators. If anyone else read this series I would be disappointed. Overall, I am left wanting more and wished the next book was already out!

both better and worse than what I was expecting

Gave the series a long rest after the fourth book. Just couldn't hack our main character always being at the center of things, no matter how implausible. Though that continues, it's not as outlandish to me in as in book four. That said, the book is pretty dull. Lots of big battles, but I was not engaged. Seems like the series can safely end at this point. That would be the best thing.

Mind Candy

It's okay, but it's not what I would call good or classic SciFi. it is Definitely not Neal Stephenson, Daniel Suarez, Robert Heinlein, Larry Niven, etc. etc.
Mr. Kloos needs a competent technical advisor\editor who can correct mixed units (pick SI units!), and help with spatial relationships when describing travel\battles through space.
MK does good work with vernacular in comms dialogue. But the general tone of the narrative is cliche' and repetitive. This series completely misses grand opportunities to expand on in depth understanding of the dominant (and only) aliens in the story. BTW, this review covers my opinion of the entire series. The overall presentation of the aliens and the human response is simply unbelievable. We don't seem to develop any understanding beyond superficial appearances of the aliens. They are capable of interstellar flight, sophisticated stealth, devastating responses in space warfare. But on the ground, they just roar and smash, using only their size and weight to overwhelm. It's just not convincing unless you're the Hulk!
And please, MK, talk to someone who actually knows something about nuclear weapons and their affects. You got it right regarding the lack of a shock wave due to vacuum. But photons DO exert force. Objective evidence can be found by researching the second stage of a thermonuclear device. AND, there are thermal effects..... quite a lot. If there were no thermal effects in vacuum, why is the Earth warm due to the thermonuclear system that is one AU away.
Overall, I give MK points for effort, but I hope this series is an example of some of his first works. I cannot muster any enthusiasm to consider investing in anymore of his works. The latest in this series is Points of Impact.... and I just don't care about the characters nor the tale's outcome.

The adventure continues!

Any additional comments?

First off I love this series. It has been surprising and delighting me right from the start. And while I still love the series and think this was a highly enjoyable book, it just fell a bit short of the greatness of the previous ones...and I'm not quite sure why that is. What's crazy is this is the type of story I've been anticipating since the very first book. Finally a book where the focal point in on the war with the aliens. I've expected this out of every book, and yet each time Marko weaves a tale that while touching on the war with the aliens also centers on much more broader issues, human interactions, human foes, where yes the aliens are a danger, but so much more is going on. In Fields of Fire we have a pretty much straight up action/war book. It's well told, exciting and fast paced, and yet it as much as I enjoyed it and wanted it to go on, I also thought it lacked just a hint of what elevated the previous volumes. Don't get me wrong, I still think it's better than most of the other stuff out there and I can't wait for the next volume. Seriously, this complaint is like saying I'm mad because my usual hot fudge sundae only had 2 cherries on top instead of three. It's still a heck of a ride, and one I will no doubt enjoy again during the long wait for book 6.

As always, Luke Daniels delivers a spectacular narration. He's definitely one of the best in the business and I always look forward to listening to him.

Best book yet in an already great series

Luke Daniels could make the phone book interesting. This was the best yet in the series.

1st half of book mostly rehash

The beginning of the book started fine what with a remnant of a previously thought destroyed Lanky settlement resurfacing in Greenland and Andrew taking part in destroying it and discovering an unknown aspect about the Lanky that will complicate further encounters. Then, for the rest of the first half of the story, both Andrew and Halley ended up visiting his Mom and the Chief and then Halley's parents which did nothing the move the story along. Then the rest of the time was spent with them rehashing previous encounters and ruminating on all sorts of stuff that, again, did absolutely nothing to move the story along.

It picked up in the 2nd half of the book where the fight to take back Mars from the Lankies took place and there were interesting encountered, if not predictable. The last part of the story was overly melodramatic and the ending was predictable.

Luke Daniels performance was good but was hindered with a sup-par story. It's unclear whether there will be another book to the series but I don't plan to follow the series if so.

Good but starting to get old

I've enjoyed Marko Kloos's Frontlines series, but this book, while okay as a military-SF romp with lots of stuff blowing up, felt a bit like the author is just milking the ongoing war with the Lankies to keep the series going.

The first few books had more stuff about Earth politics, with the protagonist, Andrew Grayson, rising from a hard-knocks existence in future-Earth's city-sized ghettos to a senior NCO in the North American Commonwealth's space forces, fighting off both aliens and Russian and Chinese rivals. Eventually the Commonwealth, the Russians, and the Chinese ally against the common threat - a race of kaiju-sized extra-solar invaders who have been landing on Earth's colonies and terraforming the human inhabitants to extinction.

The fifth book in the series picks up where book four ended, with the Lankies occupying Mars. Book five is all about the campaign to retake Mars.

Aside from a brief excursion to Grayson's wealthy in-laws' home on Earth, where we learn that rich people are still living in comfortable upper-middle-class bubbles protected from both poor people and aliens, oblivious to the existential threat to humanity, Fields of Fire is basically one long war story. Kloos tells this story well, and he continues to keep us invested in SSG Grayson's life, as well as the growing cast of secondary characters, like his gay Russian counterpart and his fighter jock wife. But book five, despite its climactic ending, basically ended with the war against the Lankies being stuck in stalemate. Presumably it will continue in the next book, but there were no big revelations, no radical changes in the status quo, nothing to indicate that the series won't continue to be "Earthlings go fight aliens, blow 'em up, some of them die, wash, rinse, repeat."

I don't want to sound too negative as I still enjoy this series, but a bit of staleness is beginning to creep in, as is often the case with a series that goes on for book after book without bringing the main story arc to conclusion. Step it up, end the war, and begin another series, Mr. Kloos!

love this series! please let there be another.

The narrator does an amazing job of capturing the MC's identity and personality. awesome story!

these books aren't coming out fast enough

I've been waiting for these books one after another. they're​ so well written and suspenseful. I can't wait for the next in the series.

exceptional as always.

Marko Kloos is by far my favourite Sci-fi writer. His words conjur up vivid scenes with exiting developments and characters.

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Amazing series

Love this book and the characters in it. Beautifully written and with a nice pace. Makes you want to get on with the next chapter so bring on the next book in the series.

ok getting rather repetitive - bad accents

terrible tho blissfully short-lived British accent & dodgy European/Russian ones
stories are quite repetitive now but still like the characters

Epic

The story is epic, and the performance is great! Accents are a bit off, but thebfact he tries helps with the immersion! The only issue is the time between books! Can't wait for the next one

Great story roll on next book

i loved these book but the time between books is far too long speed it up ....🕣

time for a counter attack.

another one of those stories when just you think the humans win, the aliens make a huge comeback and in the end it's a draw.

Smahing.

Great listening really enjoy it, thanks Amazon, will be buying next audiobook very soon still have other one to get through yet.

Awesome Military Sci-fi

Loved the witty performance and writing, emotional punches and developing story. Its the prefect military sci-fi book.

back on form gripping stuff

thought it absolutely great..very battle heavy but also the charactes are becoming more believable roll on the next installment