First Strike

Brothers in Arms, Book 1

By: Scott Moon

Narrated by: Peter Berkrot

Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

Joining the fight for the Galaxy isn't required. It's a choice.

The United Galactic Government is mired in a decade-long war for control of a key planet. Weakened by overextension and political intrigue, they could lose everything.

When a child of privilege gives up everything to enlist and fight for what is right, he learns what it means to become part of a team. He encounters refugees, aliens he never expected to empathize with, and the loss of comrades. In the end he must develop the courage to stand up, not only to aliens and governments, but his own family.

Packed with military science fiction on par with Galaxy’s Edge, Terms of Enlistment, and Starship Troopers, the Brothers in Arms trilogy will deliver listeners into the jaws of the toughest fight the galaxy has ever known.

©2020 Aethon Books (P)2020 Aethon Audio

A Gift for Military Sci-Fi Fans

First Strike has everything I like in a good military sci-fi novel. Battles on planets where we shouldn't even be, political/familial intrigue, and actual honest-to-goodness character development.

Peter Berkot is well suited for the narration chores. When the narration is off a book about war/battles can feel tedious. This was clearly not the case. Berkot's pacing and range moved the story along nicely.

If you like Robert Heinlein, Jack Campbell, John Ringo, and/or David Weber then chances are you will enjoy Scott Moon's First Strike. I even enjoyed this more than John Scalzi's recent Interdependency series (and I am a big Scalzi fan).

***Full Disclosure: I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

Great performance for a mediocre story

The reader was very good at defining the different characters and especially reading w emotion. The story itself just had me wondering about the goals. If you're looking for a story about battles on another planet against an enemy even the characters don't understand, this is the one for you. The character development is handled very well for the main character, yet lacking on many of the others. It's written in a way that should make you care about soldiers at war, but there isn't anything you can relate to. It's in the future on a made up planet that is fighting people we don't understand. They even mention that they don't know if they speak English or not. Come on. You've been at war for years but never caught one to interrogate?

Enjoyed the ride.

Took a couple chapters to get into the narrarator, but other than that I am looking forward to the second book.

I love the narrator.

The story is a good one and I want to follow up on this series to see where it goes. The narrator really brought this one to life.

what a ride!

way more action than I thought. there was definitely political involvements with his family and the military, but I thought they would play more into that. I'm happy the way it turned out. pretty much in your face action with military precision from start to finish. very well done. I'd also like to add the development of his team was more brother in arms. a closeness to the ones your in the slog with but I wish there could have been a bit of backstory to go along with more of the team. great book tho.

great

just wow loved the story line he really took the time to give most characters personal details in background.really put a lot of though behind this book can't wait for more. the narrator didn't care for he did try to put some feeling into it but feel he could have done better

Solid Military Sci-fi.

I really enjoyed this book despite not being a fan of military science fiction. At least, not in any significant way. The narration was pretty good overall, though I’m used to narrators to do a little bit more variety with character voices.

I really enjoyed the main characters internal struggle with his familial obligations versus his desire to not solely be identified by who his family was. That dynamic added a lot of great character depth to the story overall.

I also really appreciated Michael’s dedication to his friend, Vanderbilt. Their relationship felt real and authentic, and they had some great back-and-forth.

Overall, good book. If you’re a fan of military science fiction, this is definitely one to read/listen to.

Confused and then In Awe!

I wasn't sure what was going on when I first started listening to this installment of Moon's work. When I realized that the story was being told through 1st-person and experience I dropped right into the story and found myself in awe of the author's ability. Gritty and distinct -- can't wait to get into his next audiobook in my collection!

Excellent military fiction, not so great sci-fi

For me this book was a bit of a mixed bag. Scott Moon's writing certainly did an excellent job of capturing the grisly horrors of combat; the alternation of stretches of boredom and inactivity with periods of incredible excitement, stress, and sheer terror; the loss of comrades; and the disconnect between military leadership and front-line forces. In other words, as military fiction, it succeeds widly.

Another plus was the solid narration by Peter Berkrot. He performed it well, imparting a level of drama that never seemed excessive or took me out of the story.

On the other hand, from a science-fiction standpoint, this book is pretty much a failure. Much of this book centers around prolonged trench warfare and battles of massed infantry, which makes no sense in the context of an interstellar war between two belligerents which each span many star systems. On top of that, the big military technology that's going to change the whole outcome of the war is...an infantry fighting vehicle? This book would have worked much better as either historical fiction or an alternate history.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Action packed adventure!

This was an enjoyable non-stop story. Great pace, character development and solid narration. Recommended!