Operation Breakout

Merkiaari Wars, Volume 4

By: Mark E. Cooper

Narrated by: Mikael Naramore

Length: 14 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's Summary

Kate Richmond, former army ranger and ISS operative, has seen a lot in her life. Sabotage, espionage, cyber theft, and assassination missions have all played their parts in her journey to becoming a viper. Nothing surprises her much any more, not even a full-scale incursion of an alien race by the Merkiaari!

When a battle in the Border Zone leaves a pirate ship crippled, boarded by Alliance Marines, and reveals information that links Kate's brother with a dead viper and a bunch of Merkiaari corpses, it's safe to say that she's surprised. It's time for the most important mission of her life.

It's time to find her brother.

©2013 Mark E. Cooper (P)2014 Mark E. Cooper

Waste of time

Only the last ten minutes actually progresses the series storyline, and not in a critical way. Five hours is focused entirely on a woman breaking her brother out of prison, and two and a half hours spent on something that would have worked better as a short story. Even the author seemed to get tired of the prison break story (for which the book is named) and cut it off rather abruptly. (I just wish he would have done so about four hours earlier.)
This book could be skipped entirely with little to no impact on the overall series progression. I feel like the author wasted my time with barely-related stories set in the same universe. This should have been a canon novel at best, or a novella + short story. I don't read military sci-if for a story about a prison break.

All of this frustrated me immensely and i'm debating whether it's worth continuing with this series at all.

Love this series

I love all these books and look forward to the next book can't wait for next

great book and series

listened over 2 days had to get to the end. can't wait to continue the story.

Book5?!?! Need Some "Book 5" Here!!!!

After Finishing Book 4, I'm sitting here waiting on some "BOOK FIVE!!!!" Hello????

I Jokingly told John Ringo once.. "WRITE FASTER" (Because I KNOW he HATES that), and his Wife almost took my head off! John rolled his eyes and told her "He's kidding, I know him, He knows I HATE hearing those words"...

.... But, ummm, Mark... WRITE FASTER!!!! (I REALLY hope you don't have a wife that will take my head off ;) You've had OVER A MONTH now since Publishing Book 4, and STILL No "Book Five"?!?!?! ;)

Why write scifi, if you don't write scifi...

There are amazing aliens, awesome space action possibility... and yet, the author continues to write about detective genre stuff. literally skipped at least a third of the book because it was droning on about trying to find one guy in a universe full of hostile and friendly aliens.

drawn out

much like the first three books which I got as a bundle this book also feels as though the writer loses track of his intended story I got this book in hopes that it would wrap up or follow some of the plot set up in the other three books and instead it goes off on another tangent following new additional plot without any result to the first three books the characters are great and the overall story is interesting but it just takes way too long and is not closing the gaps I don't know how many books he intends to tell the story over but this is the last one I'm going to purchase

Good book that mostly stays fast paced.

Most of the book was interesting and fast paced enough to hold ones interest. Typical space opera really but this book in the series included more space combat interspersed within. Characters are defined as before but with new information. All in all a solid addition to the series.

Not very connected to the rest of the series

It's almost like the author had an idea for a different story and just jammed it into the middle of this series instead of creating a standalone novel for it... doesn't flow at all from the earlier books and connects only as an afterthought pretty much on the very last page of the book. Author also falls into the constantly ubering enemy trap... hero's win last battle so enemy gets implausibly stronger... smarter, faster, more powerful. It's one way to keep tension up but now our protagonists appear to have been stagnant while the bad guys made huge leaps forward - makes the guys we're rooting for look like a bunch of idiots. Why can't authors just write a polished series of 3-4 books then maybe create a 'next series' instead of dragging one series out and forcing drama by having the antagonists pop out a whole generation of super-soldiers in the span of months - that's silly.

Excellent

This book is very well written and read. And I really like the characters portrayed in the story and you really get involved in what they’re doing both in military life and the civilian part of their existence. You get so wrapped up in the story that Time flies and the book is over before you realize it. The only thing is that I can find about it that I don’t like is it is way too short of a book I know it’s part of a set but that don’t help. Other than that I really don’t want to say anything about the content except it it’s full of blood guts romance betrayal and much more but if you get this book you really need to get the whole set and read from the beginning all the way to the end otherwise you will not know what is really going on I can assure you you will enjoy this book and you will never know that you have been listening to them for so long I hope there will be a continuation of this set.

The more you listen

I have come to love the twists and turns of this author, I already bought. The book is fantastic. The audiobook is even better.

This is the End!

I initially purchased the omnibus edition, 1-3, really got into it and enjoyed it immensely.

Having just finished Book 4, I was hoping to go straight onto Book 5 as Book 4 was every bit as good as the first three. However, Nothing! No Book 5!

This would not have been so bad if Book 4 did not end in a cliffhanger, but it did and now we will never know what happened, if anything!

Another excellent book!

I swear this series gets better and better with each book. I've loved every one. The story line is great as well as the narration. I'm definitely looking forward to book 5!

With some trepedation I jumped in, glad I did.

Some reviews say this is a filler book. Not so. It is full of great character development, sub plots, personal moments, space opera grand treatments, action, sensitivity, new ideas, I could go on. I particularly loved the exploration of the alien enemies culture and motivations. Some of the best parts of the book.

No spoilers, but this book does not take off quite where book 3 left me hanging. It does not go in the direction I expected and it does not explore the AI character introduced at the end of book 3. Although I was bitterly disappointed by that, the book does still stand as a valid continuation of the story, and it has treats, surprises and food for thought throughout.

I am really enjoying this series, but am about to read the last in the series so far, book V, so come on Mr Cooper, I hope the next one is on it's way soon.

Paul.

Bit of a filler

Not the best in the series.. concentrated on side stories a bit too much.
Not so much about the main story line or the main protagonists..