Toby Neighbors

Amazing

How badly someone can write military SF. This is a how-to book in bad writing.

Apparently, a fresh high school graduate with a mere two weeks of indoctrination can be assigned the rank of ensign and sent to officer's school, where in four weeks he will learn all the leadership he needs...as the only "legendary Recon Marine" (direct quote from the book while he and the other new ensigns - all of whom are going into other branches - are being briefed on the structure of the show more military).

Five hundred rounds per person per day for two weeks is excessive for rifle training. Especially if they start on the first day of boot camp with no weapons experience. And they will never use that weapon again in the fleet.

You load magazines, not clips. And a 50rd mag is unwieldy.

A shuttle to orbit that launches from a rail shouldn't need booster rockets...and certainly shouldn't dispose of them...and definitely shouldn't be using them to move one boot ensign to orbit who hasn't even learned the rank structure.

The most inefficiently run military training scheme ever.

Worse, I am 1/4 into the book and I still don't really know who the character is!! So far, he is just a POV who volunteered for glory. He's a complete non-entity. Barely any dialogue. Doesn't seem to have any agency.

I try not to get upset when people write about the military without knowing a lot about it. But when you attempt to describe an entire military force structure as part of the book...you really need to know how these things work. It's worse than Star Trek's rank muddle.

This is bad. The fact it's supposed to be a series makes it worse. show less

Space Fever is an entertaining space opera about four brothers trying to get into the asteroid mining business. One is a retired master sergeant, one is an over-the-hill pilot, one is a computer expert, and one is a high-stakes gambler. When the gambler is captured and taken off-planet by mobsters, his brothers set out to rescue him. The dialogue is lively if you don’t mind a lot of anachronistic pop culture references, and the action keeps you turning pages, with some pauses for detailed show more descriptions of firearms. A popcorn read. 3.5 stars. show less

Refreshing and engaging

Refreshing and engaging for a book in this genre (as was the first of these two). Well written. Only a few typos. Felt very much like early Heinlein books. I look forward to reading more from this author.

Wow! This is a really cool fantasy series! I was impressed how the author just pulls you into the story and plops you right down into the world of The Five Kingdoms. I became attached to the characters fairly quickly and I was whisked away into the wizard world of this story.

The story is about a young man that finds out that he has magic powers and he doesn't know how he came to have these powers. Things escalate real quick in the story as there are wizards that call themselves the Torr show more that find out about the young man as they can feel his powers and they are wanting to capture him.

So then it begins, the adventure of the young man with his father and his friends as they try to flee the wizards. The story picks up pace and keeps moving a lightning speed all the way to the end of the book. Can't wait to read the other books in this series to see what happens next. Five stars for this one. show less