The Legion Awakes

The Sleeping Legion, Book 1

By: J. R. Handley

Narrated by: Jeffrey Kafer

Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

A century ago, all but two members of Lance Scipio's unit were executed for bringing dishonor to his regiment.

Now, he is woken into a strange new time, and tasked with whipping into shape the worst squad of misfits in the entire Human Marine Corps.

The price of failure: Death!

AD 2565. Tranquility-4 near the frontier of the White Knight Empire. Guided by mysterious orders, the authorities at the Human Marine Corps base of Beta City thaw Lance Scipio. In 2441, an entire Marine company was executed with the exception of Captain Grimgerde and Sergeant Lance Scipio, the usual punishment for running in the face of the enemy. But these two were preserved...as if they would be required in the future.

Scipio is not expected to escape execution for long, but he has been given a slim chance. For a Marine, a chance can be all that's needed to change the fate of worlds.

The Sleeping Legion is an action-filled sequence of military science fiction novels set in the worlds of the hit series The Human Legion by Tim C. Taylor.

©2016 J. R. Handley (P)2017 Podium Publishing

Solid Military Sci-Fi

This is a very fun and tactically accurate military science fiction book with active and colorful prose. J.R. uses his first personal knowledge of infantry tactics to weave a believable and action-packed tale. I loved the dialog and banter between the characters. If you're a veteran, you will recognize it immediately.

Scipio is a solid protagonist, his arc of an infantry NCO pushed to assume greater responsibility is engaging. But I think my favorite character is Basil. His arc is deeply satisfying.

The world of The Sleeping Legion is fascinating and very well thought out. Without giving too much away... It's interesting to see a sci-fi world where humans are subservient to alien races and are not the master of the universe...yet. I jumped into this series not knowing it was set in a universe written by another author. (Tim C. Taylor's The Human Legion series) So, of course, I'll have to check out that series now, once I finish this one.

Jeffery Kafer is an outstanding voice actor. His skill clearly adds to the written word.

Interesting story

Pretty good but there's a lot of perspective changes that can make it a little confusing to follow along as the context keeps changing.

Action, for action sake

The Sleeping Legion is a full speed ahead battle. From the first book in the series to the last there is no let up in the action. Players come and go, targets change - get added and then subtracted after bloody conflict.

This was interesting

I enjoyed this book however I was having some difficulty tracking all the races and history that was being built. It didn't take away from how it feels to be a veteran having to deal with people that are supposed to be what you are but are not. You could really feel the tension between all the competing factions. This was a pretty entertaining book, I just wish they spent more time building up the world.

Interesting

The story is improving with each book and there is enough mystery/suspense to keep me interested in the next section. The writing style is similar to past science fiction, but can present itself as frustrating/confusing if one is unfamiliar with the style.

Well written, very detailed, mil-sci fi

Interesting story and cool universe. You can tell the author has military experience from the way it’s written. Very military oriented book. I’m not a military guy but I still enjoyed this a lot.

A very entertaining listen.

I truly enjoyed listening to this, and I'm looking forward to the next book.
first time I've heard this narrator, and I really enjoyed his work.

Better than 1st, BUT...

Better than 1st of series, but still not great. Maybe OK. Narrator does not do a good job IMO & this makes it that much harder to assess.

There's lots of simplistic concepts, premises & characters. People aren't fully fleshed out. Dialogue, including self thoughts seems stilted.

The stories take place with gaps of 35 years plus in between because of cryostorage & this book includes a "flash freezing" system where people where ever they are (walking, sitting, etc.) within the confines of a room or section of rooms in a bldg are "instantly" frozen & then automatically unfrozen 35 years later as a default setting. Seems a tad unrealistic IMO & hard to swallow.

It's things like that which cause me to say this book is sub par. It's also really hard to follow because every voice is the same. With no delineation between characters I can't tell who's talking or when new chapters start or scenes & people change.

Because of the monotonous droning narrative, it's easy to drift off & really hard to go back & figure out where I stopped paying attention. I really have to concentrate to follow the story. When I can manage that, then the story gets a little interesting.

I'll probably listen to the next book because it's free (incl. w/membership) & Im a glutton for punishment - or maybe optimist - always hoping beyond hope that the story improves & the characters escape their cookie cutters & become more multidimensional.

And that the story will eventually make sense. Right now it seems like a lot of threads are woven only to just poof - disappear & never get moved forward or resolved, so much so, I'm really not even sure what the heck is going on anymore.

Could be I missed some parts & didn't realize it, I suppose.... Or could be the plot line ia a tangled ball of shredded yarn that fell in the corner & is collecting dust?

And, I don't know, maybe it's just a pet peeve or mine &/or naivety, but why do so many authors write about alien races that enslave mankind & use them as servants &/or cannon fodder fighters, devolving their lives to a serfdom not unlike the middle ages in structure & mindset?

Culling the ranks of cadets by 1st demoting them to a sub-servant class that can be abused by alien masters & other humans w/o regards to life or limb? Then further culling of the cadets at graduation by executing the lowest ranking platoons?

Really? That's how other space faring races treat each other? Seems if a race has evolved enough to travel the stars, they would be more enlightened? Just saying.....

So, bottom line, IMO, don't buy this book, certainly don't waste a credit on it, but if it's free, your bored & don't have time to search out a better series, you might just want to check it out & decide for yourself.

(I think I might've read in a few reviews there's people who think this narrator is great. I don't know what planet they're from, but opinions are opinions & everyone's got a right to them!)

Frozen fighters

One of the best military sci-fi novels I’ve read recently. It gets right to the action. I liked the twist of how soldiers are frozen until they’re needed again. This makes for good character development as the main character has to catch up with what the changes are without giving away he doesn’t know what’s going on around him. As a retired army ranger, the action and tactics were pretty real.

Just don't like cheering for the bad guys

But given I was a part of someones BAD GUYS most of my life....I will embrace the suk