Glory Boy

By: Rick Partlow

Narrated by: Kyle McCarley

Length: 14 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

Caleb Mitchell gave up everything to protect his home. Shunned by friends and family for abandoning the pacifist beliefs of their religion, abandoned by the love of his life, he left his home world of Canaan to go to the Commonwealth Military Academy on Earth and train to fight in the looming war against the implacable alien threat of the Tahni Imperium. When a training mission with a crew of cadets winds up caught in the middle of one of the worst battles of the war, Cal and his fellow students are officially declared dead.

That's when their war really begins. Recruited for a top-secret special operations unit, Cal and his friends undergo experimental and dangerous physical augmentation that turns them into supersoldiers, designed to take the fight behind enemy lines and put the fear of God into an alien society who thinks their Emperor is God personified.

Now Caleb is asked to sacrifice his very humanity to protect his people. But when Canaan itself is threatened by the Tahni, will he throw away his career and risk everything to save the people who turned their backs on him?

©2016 Rick Partlow (P)2017 Tantor

Anti climax fan boy Sci-fi, and puerile.

What would have made Glory Boy better?

Changing the whole story. Pretty much this book borders more on fantasy than actual Sci-Fi.

General impressions:

No sense of serious conflict in the story, ie alot people are dying. Both factions in the story are evenly matched, (how odd). The antagonist has no voice, and is generally faceless. The main character remains quite static regardless of his experiences or surroundings.

The characters:
Imagine the classic socially awkward under appreciated geek leaves home as a young adult, and six years later he comes back to save his planet as a super augmented commando. Along with the main cast of characters, the primary character is also ostensibly shallow. Although a battle hardened soldier, he still manages to fall back in love with some plain Jane high school sweetheart. The same one that brutally rejected him.

Tech Mombo Jumbo:
It would seem that the writer borrowed popular Sci-Fi power words and combined them to make things that sounded cool. For example in describing the armor the character used the listener is inundated with a litany of phrases like "Super conducting, chameleon, nano enhanced, poly laminate carbide." And the listener is presented with this information almost out of context at the beginning. The question enters your head, "Why does he need all this shit for again?" Its also insinuated that his augmentations are worth the price of a warship.

The aliens:
Oh they're human like, and are governed by some religious theocracy. That's it.................... Oh and they are competing for planets with the humans.............................................................!

What do you think your next listen will be?

Not sure. But a much better book than this, and fans of War Sci-Fi would be "Armor" by John Steakely. The characters are much better and the story is not puerile like this one.

What didn’t you like about Kyle McCarley’s performance?

Nothing, although he was a little monotone.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Well one thing that this story didn't have that made it less puerile, was the lack of cheerleaders. With books like this you often notice this harem of female characters clustering around the main character. This book lacked that so I give it props.

Miltary Sci Fi with Full Story in One Book

This book has a deceptively corny and cliched beginning that almost made me want to stop listening. I am glad that I held on because in the end it turned out to be well written and well narrated fast moving military sci fi. In what seems to be a moderately rare event these days, the book is completely self contained and provides satisfying closure at the end. The story contains a couple of logic glitches but they are easy to ignore and in all but a couple of spots the story and the world it is built in hang together very well. Of course I can not say enough good things about the way Kyle McCarley brings anything he reads to life. The voices are well done and convey emotional content in way way that makes you feel each characters presence as if you were there.

This is erotica, not sci-fi.

12 chapters in and there has been 12 descriptions of sex. The author goes overly much in detail about sex scenes. I don't need to know about how her hand moves back and forth down there to get it up. The plot has no direction as far as I can tell but maybe I am just caught up on one thing.

Can't tell you to not read but can't recommend it.

This is a Sci-fi tale of a young man from a colony of Religious Pacifists. Who after hearing of a massacre and the start of war, Questions all he was taught and takes leave of his home in the hope of protecting it. After surprise attack he finds himself in a Black ops unit, and the frontline of the war.

The pros are this is a coming of age story, so you get to watch him grow up and become a man. Also this is a single novel so you don't have to chase the story over multiple books only to find you don't like it, or forget it waiting for the next one to come out.

The con's are that Cal, the main character is emo. He is the type to feel bad about every life he takes, and mope about it. Also the author is lazy with his characters, For example Cal, is in a ten man squad with people he went to Military College for two years, the served with for more years, by the end of it you and he know nothing about these people where they are from and their sexual preference.

So in total this is an OK, but not Good Sci-fi. While the Narrator is goods rarely does he have much to work with. By the end I was satisfied but would not reread it. I don't hate anything in it enough to tell anyone to not read.


On other reviews, this is not "Heinlein's Starship Troopers" if you don't know what that is read it instead. Also this is not "erotica" while the main character has sex it is never described in any detail.

Reminiscent of Heinlein's Starship Troopers.

If you are a Heinlein fan, then read this book. I highly doubt that you will be disappointed.

Outstanding storyline and narration!

One of the best combinations of military science fiction and a moving humanitarian storyline that I have encountered in a long time I highly recommend you give it a listen hope to see more from this author !

Reminded me of R. Heinlein stories. More

Reminded me of R. Heinlein stories. More of an adult PG Rating But a decent story
Great Narration.

Good premise, Bad Follow Through

I may read a hard copy version but I think my gut is right on this one. On a side note when I do come across a book I do not like I generally stop reading, or in this case listening, to it around chapter 3 or 4. I did complete this one so I guess it says something.
There were two issues that really stood out as being cringe worthy.
1. The nasally voice and lack of depth given to the various characters by this narrator. It was almost a show stopper but I was very interested in the story. The God Awful job in the narration almost made me stop by chapter three. The story premise kept me in check and I soldiered on.
2. "Like" Everything was "like" something. Now in story telling stating that a particular thing is like something helps the reader to see what the writer wants them to see. However Mr Partlow takes this tool to the extreme and I found myself cringing every single time like was uttered. And let me tell you it was way too often.

There were other issues I could not get past like Mr Partlows way to in-depth description of the violence, Where two words would aptly describe the scene this writer used twenty. He must have ,missed that session in writing class. Then there was the sex. I get it, these are teenagers and they like to fool around. Seriously though, these characters made me look chaste. Oh I fixed a tractor, lets have sex, Oh, were in a new place, lets have sex. Oh we just had our first military engagement, lets have sex. Oh we just had another engagement, lets have sex. Oh the wind is blowing to the left, lets have sex. This is not 50 shades of grey, and no I have never read that book or plan to.
All that being said the concept was very good and I found myself really looking forward to how it played out. The story line kind of lagged and seemed to jump to and fro without needed detail and as I said above some detail that was not needed was gone into ad-nauseam. It had such great potential and ended up loosing steam. If not for the horrible narrator I might have enjoyed this a bit more. Read at your own risk.

Just OK.

If you want a great story about a young kid who wants to join the SciFy military of the future, skip this one and read "Starship Troopers".

If you want a great story about the morality of war and the young men and women who are its heroes/victims, skip this one and ready "Ender's Game".

If you want a great story about humans using alien technology to travel the universe, skip this one and read "Gateway".

This is not a bad book; it's just been done better by other authors.

Ouch

I did not finish this book. The foul language was horrible, but I still tried to struggle through. When it got to a sex scene that was dragging on for a bit, I stopped. Too bad. Maybe that is why it was on sale. The performer was doing an ok job.

Great read

If your into sci fi military, really enjoyed this book, good story, nice easy listen