Into the Black: Odyssey One by Evan Currie

Genre: Science Fiction, Military Science Fiction

Setting: In space, in the future.

First sentence:  As his fighter broke clear of the atmosphere, Eric Weston reached forward and flipped a series of switches to disengage the Scramjet intake and engage the pressurized oxygen flow to the twin engines.

This novel is the first in Currie's Odyssey One series.  The series currently has four novels.

I must say that I was a little confused when I started reading this novel.  There was a lot of exposition covering events which happened prior to the beginning of this novel.  I felt like I had missed  an entire novel of this series.  I did a little research, and came up empty.  Hopefully, Currie will get around to writing the story of the Archangels and their experiences in World War III.

None of that takes away from this novel.  This is an action packed military sci-fi novel.  There are grand space battles featuring large star ships and small space fighters.  And, there is an unfeeling, ruthless, insect like enemy.

The Odyssey is Earth's first interstellar space craft.  On its first foray into the galaxy, the Odyssey discovers a civilization of "alien humans" genetically identical to humans on Earth.  The Colonials are more advanced than Earth in some technological areas, and behind Earth in others.  They are peaceful, and have not experienced was for thousands of years.

The enemy, the Drasin, have reemerged after thousands of years.  Their goal seems to be capturing and devouring entire planets.

The appearance of the Odyssey and its crew upsets the plans of the Drasin.  The crew of the Odyssey cannot stand idly by and watch the Colonials' home world be destroyed.

The ensuing battle is a thrilling match of technology and strategy.  The author envisions a great space battle in which the speed of light is a critical factor.

In the end we are left to wonder, what is the ultimate goal of the Drasin?

I enjoyed this book.  If you like military sci-fi, you will probably enjoy this book too,  There's lots of military jargon and acronyms.  There's descriptions of technological hardware.  And plenty of futuristic weaponry.

                                                                 

With the Old Breed by E. B. Sledge

Genre: Nonfiction, History, Military History

Setting:  In battle on the islands of Peleliu and Okinawa during World War II.

First Sentence:  I enlisted in the Marine Corps on 3 December 1942 at Marion, Alabama.

This memoir served as source material for the HBO miniseries The Pacific.

This book is unique among war memoirs.  E. B. Sledge gives us an unvarnished description of life and death for the front line marines.  The battles for Peleliu and Okinawa are remembered as two of the most savage battles during the Pacific campaign.  The fact that the Japanese soldiers preferred death to surrender made these battles especially gruesome and barbaric.

Sledge describes for us the horrors of the battle field.  The Marines endured extremely harsh conditions.  From the heat and coral dust of Peleliu to the rain and muck of Okinawa, the marines faced death from the climate as well as the Japanese soldiers.

The Marines were ordered to attack against a well fortified enemy.  They were driven to exhaustion carrying ammo and supplies to places mechanized vehicles could not go.  And they lived for weeks amongst rotting corpses, squirming maggots, and human excrement.

The experience of war for the front line soldier is very different than our sanitized movie version.  "Sledgehammer" shows us what battle is really like.  In the end, for Sledge, there was no glorious victory. There was only the knowledge that he was one of the lucky ones.

I liked this book.  If you are a military history buff, I believe you would like it too.  The descriptions of the battle field were gruesome, but not graphic.