Pledge Allegiance

The Finch, Book 1

By: Rider England

Narrated by: Greg Tremblay

Length: 3 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

Shaun Blake had once had it all. As captain of the ISS Oregon, he'd commanded his crew in the Horde War and helped to protect Earth. It was a dream come true for a farm boy from Idaho.

But the dream shattered a year ago when a Horde ship blew the Oregon out of space, leaving Blake and a single crew member as the only survivors.

Now, Blake is a gambler and a drunk living in the slums on Iton-3. His only interest is winning money at the WarZone tables and trying to forget who he was. He blames himself for every death that occurred under his command.

When a woman named Jane Baltimore approaches Blake in a bar and says she has a job for him, he isn't interested. Until she tells him the job is to captain a ship about to embark on a search and rescue mission.

There are more surviving crew members from the Oregon.

And they're stuck on a planet deep in Horde space.

©2016 Rider England (P)2016 Rider England

Pledge Allegiance

Really enjoyed this book. The characters are truely likable, and the story flows smoothy. I will be buying the next installment.

3.5

This was a fun, if simplistic (and familiar to any sci-fi fan) story. I liked Blake and his crew, but I never felt I got to know them well or that there was the opportunity for any significant character growth. I liked that two of the main characters, two of the best fighters were women. But it felt a little cliche that one was almost childlike in her joy and the other basically emotionless. (To be fair, the male soldiers were even flatter.)

This is a good set up for a further series, but on its own it's largely a protracted fight scene. And even in that it's pretty weak, as the characters seemed to triumph a bit too easily. But as a just-for-fun read, I call it a success.

Kudos to the narrator though, I don't know if Blake would have felt as charismatic if he hadn't had his distinct drawl.