Jonathan P. Brazee

Space marine sci fi junk food that at times punches above its weight (no doubt due to the author’s actual Marine service) , despite some missed opportunities and confusing world building choices. 2.75 stars, but I’m going to read the next two books in this series (Women of the United Federation Marines) to see if the author finds his stride.

This smart, action-packed space opera follows a savvy Filipina named Beth who transitions from private piloting in space to the Navy. She's the first to meet--and survive--an encounter with aliens, and the Navy knows a good asset when they see one.

I found this to be a highly enjoyable, fast read. It follows some of the tropes of the genre, but I genuinely enjoyed the cozy feel and the inventive twists that Brazee brought to his characters and worldbuilding. On a selfish note, I love getting show more to read about a main character who shares my name--that doesn't happen often! show less

Looking at the cover of this book, you'd think that this is milSF trash (even with the Nebula nomination), and you know what, you'd be right. Fire Ant is solidly middle of the road in every way.

Beth is a scout pilot for an interstellar corporation, spending long days in the coffin-cockpit of her solo starship scanning systems for heavy metal asteroids and the jackpot of habitable planets. She's very short, because small people need less life support which means a cheaper scout, and she's show more also a Filipina contract worker, because in the future capitalism somehow sucks even worse.

Beth's latest mission brings her into contact with an unknown bogey which launches near-lightspeed torpedos at her. She escapes with a daring gravity assist, is dropped into corporate purgatory, and then rescued by the Navy. As the only person who's made contact with what the Navy believes are aliens and survived, Beth is a vital addition to a secret first contact unit. Which is a US Navy carrier fighter squadron.

Yeah, with the same personnel structure, a VF number, same pilot problems, flying FA-18X Super Space Hornets with Maverick and Iceman. Okay, in fairness in the book the fighters are Wasps, and other pilots are Red Devil and Bull, but tomato tomahto. I checked and the author was Marine infantry, not aviation, so while the military culture is spot on (write what you know), the space fighters are more tropey than grounded. Beth meets the squadron, goes through training, gets sent out to investigate an anomaly with the squadron and there's a dogfight around a binary star. The Navy gets the crap kicked out it by similar but slightly superior alien technology, but Beth goes in hard and comes home a hero.

On the plus side, this book is competent and quickly paced. On the minus side... if you read military scifi, you've read this book already, and there's not much new here. Beth's background could make for some interesting conflict, but it doesn't really come up. For the price of free, I'm not disappointed, but I'm not sure it's worth more than that. show less

Interesting plot variation with a predictable but strong ending. Characters and dialogue were mostly stereotypic.