3 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
A solar system wide war between the Confederates and the Assembly is the basis of the book To Arms: The New Colonial War by Joe Ferrebee. This is a sci-fi war novel written about the exploits of one man, in particular, Griffin Lancer.
Our solar system is split into two factions. The Assembly is one side; they are made up of the people that live on Earth and the moon. And the Confederates are the other side; they are made up of the people that live elsewhere in the solar system. What started as a small dispute of trade routes, quickly escalated into a full-blown war.
Griffin Lancer is a major in the Confederate army. He has over the year’s undergone extensive training to make him the best soldier he can possibly be. Unlike most officers, he leads his men personally into combat. The story follows Major Lancer as he goes from one campaign to another, always victorious, though not without casualties. This continues as the Confederates press ever forward, retaking the ground they had lost to the Assembly earlier in the war.
Then on one fateful mission, someone gets lucky and hits Major Lancer in the chest with a large caliber bullet. The medics work on him, trying to keep him alive until they can get to the hospital. The surgeons then take over and almost lose him on the operating table. He manages to survive, but while he is convalescing, an elite squad of Assembly troops raid the hospital and take him hostage. Can the Confederate army rescue him, and go on to win the war?
This is a fast-paced, action-packed novel going from one combat situation to another with very little pause in-between them. As you would expect, there are a lot of people, on both sides of the war, which die in this story, but the death scenes are not overly graphic. There are also a few romantic scenes, but there are no big sex scenes that can ruin a story, all in all, it is very tastefully done.
There are several characters that progress through the story, and some that die and are replaced. All of these people have distinct, very believable personalities and they mesh together well furthering the storyline. There is a much-unexpected plot twist at the end that I loved, mostly because I didn’t see it coming.
The main thing that I didn’t like about the story is the lack of futuristic weapons. It is set in our future, where space travel is commonplace, but the weapons all seem to be what we have available today. Another problem was all the smoking! Partly because I had expected to use of cigarettes to have died out by then, but mostly because the author couldn’t seem to keep track of who had what to smoke. For example, in one scene the Major puts out his butt and then takes a long drag from it. In another scene, the Major finds a full pack on a dead guy, and then he can’t smoke because he has run out. I found this confusing and it distracted me from the main action.
While reading this book I found many mistakes in the grammar which makes me think that this story wasn’t professionally proofread. This, plus as I have already mentioned, the confusion about the smoking means that I can only rate this story as 3 out of 4 stars. I really enjoyed all the action sequences, and I think this book would appeal to people who love war stories. It might not appeal to the majority of sci-fi lovers because apart from the travel around the solar system it is more based on modern technology. I also recommend that children not read this book.
******
To Arms: The New Colonial War
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Like Emie Cuevas's review? Post a comment saying so!
It does almost seem like this one isn't futuristic enough for a story set in the future. Still, sounds interesting. Thanks!
