Marines (Crimson Worlds Book 1)

**EDIT**: After reading a bit of Book 2 in the series, I can say that some of my reservations about the book and some of the problems may have been intentional. One reviewer commented that it seemed like the book was a mission report to his superior. I can say that it appears to be more accurate than I thought. More likely the first novel is meant as a history lesson given to his students over the course of a semester. The book is personal and given the brevity of the main character, it seems reasonable that he would focus primarily on the battles shifting between interludes that explain some of his thoughts and giving meaning to the exposition of the battles.The focus of this book is really to give an introduction to the mechanics of the battle suits (mecha), the setting, etc. I think a more descriptive, 'complete' book might have drawn away from the point the author wanted to get across. I also think that if the author was more established, he probably would have done a much better job at adding more to the various bare parts of the story. At the very least, the book opens you to the world and the second book is, so far well worth it. However, given that you don't need to have read the first book to completely understand the second. I would suggest that if you get caught up with the artistic style of the first book that you skip to the second. It is third person throughout and more descriptive. Less epic battles of course, but I guess that it the price you pay to prevent the book from being 1000 pages.If you liked the Lost Fleet series, then you may like this series. It would be the marine combat side of the battles as opposed to the space navy battles. These series aren't related, but the focus of the story telling are similar.The book is written in an narrative, first person journal style. Which is to say that if you're expecting a descriptive modern story telling, then you'll be disappointed. If you are annoyed with the telling as opposed to describing what is happening then you will also be disappointed. There is some passive voice when describing the battles, but most of the story consists of what amounts to very brief interludes in between the 'good stuff'.Where the book shines and why I enjoy the story so much, are the mecha(!!!) battles. Not as descriptive as I would like, but hardcore enough to be excellent and enrapturing. The way the author writes is slightly annoying, for a pedantic, but it is similar to the Jim Butcher of keeping to the action and always moving the story forward.The author clearly has a vision for where the story is going and I have a sense that from the uniqueness of the battles in this book, that he spent a lot of time studying tactics and developing the story. I don't know if the author holds on to that in his later books. It is difficult to create new strategies, it would seem from the later staleness of other series, but I do look forward to reading the other books.The characters are one dimensional, but somehow that doesn't seem to matter much. It tends to as series progress. However, I think the goal of this story is to tell an engaging story and not to make you think. Nothing wrong with that, it is fun.There are a few things that I do find amusing.1. At some points in the story, I have a sense that the story enforces the Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas dynamics. Having read that story, I can hear the characters shout as they die, "Oh no! I joined the narrative." Sadly, it isn't giving much away, since the story basically spells out that the character survives the book in the first chapter. However, to raise the main character up, the odds of the other teams are stacked against them. So you have a greater chance of survival if you are in Cain's group, unless the author wants to throw in some drama, then he'll kill off some minor character that has a name. Let me clarify, you care nothing about these characters that died. Well, you might, I didn't.2. I don't know if the author has read The Five Stages of Leadership, but the author codifies the stages very well in this book. Holm is the embodiment of the fifth stage. The political class are all level 1 at best. Most marines it seems are level 2 or higher. The character basically goes through the stages of leadership starting at the lowest level and working his way up.3. Oh, the author is also pretty hardcore. None of this sissy stuff found in other series. I don't want to spoil the second chapter, but it would be funny if it wasn't so sad and just plain horrible. While not completely 'real' as reality gets, it pushes the boundaries with the histories of the characters. You can imagine that the stuff that some of them did or had done to them were 1st century bad. I think it would have been better if the author went into more detail, but he leaves a lot of it to the reader's imagination, which might be a good thing if you've ever read Battle Royale. That is to say, it isn't as bad or graphic as Battle Royale, but it is slightly shocking if you haven't been exposed to that sort of content in a story before.Overall, a fun book that was immensely enjoyable. Hopefully the other books are as good and I suspect they will be.If you enjoyed the Starship Troopers book, you'll most likely enjoy this simplified version.Mechas!

The author did a fabulous job writing this first book in a first-person point of view. The background of Eric Caine was so complete and gripping that I couldn’t start the second book "The Cost of Victory Crimson Worlds book 2" fast enough. I just had to go for it. Now I have all 9 of the books in three book box sets.

"Marines" is a double-edged sword for me. On one hand, I appreciate the time and effort the author went into to create a complex and intriguing universe, and his backstories were just as detailed. Too many scifi authors gloss over their setting, just throwing us into a universe without giving us a feel for it.As a love song to the Marines, the story also worked. The Marines come across as "the Few" and certainly "the Proud."But there were some issues I had with the book that would keep it from vaulting into being a great book. The first is that the editing was poor. Neither the author nor the editor seemed to have a grasp of punctuation. It is the "Marine Corps," not the "marine corps." Ditto with other services and specific units. Some units were correctly capitalized, most were not. A few even had half of their components capitalized while leaving the others in lower case. Also, this book is told in the first person, by a Marine. While some reference manuals do not capitalize "Marines," (the "Chicago Manual of Style" being one), most do, and the Marine Corps does, so a Marine telling the story would, too.Various aspects about the Marine Corps were incorrect, too, from ranks in certain billets to calling each other "troopers" to docs being Marines instead of Navy. Now this is a story that takes place in the future, so things could change by then. However, the author really relies on the U.S. Marine Corps as a central part of the story in order to give the reader a baseline, and as such, in my opinion, if there are changes from the current Marines, then the author needs to address that. As traditionally oriented as the Corps is, I would doubt that they would ever shift to use the phrase "trooper," but if they did in the author's universe, he needs to explain just why.As far as the setting, I think the author did a good job in imagining his universe. However, the entire reason for limited ground troops didn't make sense. The author went on and on about it being too expensive to fight far-flung wars, but if the Navy had so many ships in each fight, if trade is so important in this future (the Western Alliance back on earth is an economic disaster and relies on goods and materials from the colonies), then transporting around more ground troops would be simple and easy. A few of the ships described could easily transport divisions.The battle scenes were detailed, if somewhat lacking in emotion. I do question a few things, though. Marines in armored suits in which they can travel at 40 kph take two minutes to cover 150 meters while under fire. That makes no tactical sense. I also had to wonder how "snipers" can take down armored personnel to easily when later it is mentioned that the only vulnerable spots in these suits are under the armpits. Also, the sheer lethality of the battles makes fighting unsustainable. Battle after battle with 20% of the fighters surviving just can't go on, especially given the small size of the boot camp training classes.While the author presented a very complex universe, the exposition far outweighed the action. There was minimal dialogue, and I think that contributed to some fairly flat characters. The main character became the Marines Corps itself, with the worker ants of the story's characters making up the hive. What dialogue there was was interchangeable. No one had their own individual voice.Overall, I love the effort and detail the author made in writing this novel. However, I think it is merely a great first draft. With a decent editor, I am positive that there is a really great book in there, one maybe 2/3 the length, but far more compelling. I realize that this book is doing quite well in sales, so it is by definition a success, but in my humble opinion, it could be so much better. This really could rank up there as one of the best scifi milfic out there.

While it discusses some troubling scenes, they are presented with a minimum of Grand Guinol.The Audible edition is — quirky.This would be an example of why you do not hire your chum to produce nor your cousin to narrate. The over-worked delivery is odd enough — but the dismal pronunciation could only result from never listening to broadcast news ( not a high bar ) and only a distant association with English Lit. or BBC productions ( not that I am a fan of Received Pronunciation ).This reader persists in putting the *emm-FAW-sis on the wrong syl-LAH-bull* or stumbling over long words in general.In this case the Audible edition is NOT a good example for young people.

This is not 4 star, but only 1 to me. I struggled with this book, and I guess you will too. I held off the review until I read book two, and as I suspected it’s amazing. This one is not. It is a book which should have been a synopsis. If you pay singly for books (I’m a kindle subscriber so I don’t) just give it a miss, go straight to book two, if you are, like me, read the 1st paragraph of each chapter and get through it as quickly as possible. This could have been a catch-up chapter at the start of book 2. 4 stars just so people read the next, but Jay, poor form making someone pay £5 for it

I'm not normally into sci-fi books but this was 99p on BookBub so I thought give it a go and I'm so glad I did. This isn't just about Erik the hero of the book, a poor kid given a choice of sign up or else. The depth of imagination that's gone into this story leaves you wanting more...Much more. This is my first Jay Allen book and it will not be last and you will be the same especially if you live a good war story and put your sci-fi prejudice to one side and just immerse yourself in a great story. I honestly wish Amazon would increase the number of stars they allow for their products because not just this book but others I've read deserve 10/10 a few books and certainly some products can be given ⭐⭐ just for arriving on time and in good condition where as a single ⭐out of 10 lets you know how rubbish the products really are. Sorry for going off topic but this book and many products are far superior to others and it annoys me so much. Please buy and enjoy this book for what it is and that's a great fictional war story.

Another book purchased for my Kindle at a bargain-price.I'm ex-infantry myself and somewhat critical of 'first-person shooter' novels, no matter when they might be set. They never seem to get it quite right...However, I was pleasantly surprised by this book - despite being sci-fi, it has a ring of authenticity about it, which to me makes it seem more like some of the autobiographical works to come out of WW2 and Korea, or the conflicts in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan than a work of fiction.The battle sequences are deftly handled, the action moves along at a good pace and the author has a very good grasp of what it feel like to be under fire and taking casualties.We were always taught that 'no plan survives first contact with the enemy' or put another way: if it can go wrong, it will - and it's something this author has taken to heart when setting out his set-piece battles. If you've read Heinlein's 'Starship Troopers', the concept of armoured-infantry is nothing new, but the author manages to make it seem a little more believable and takes it up a notch or two.Aside from a few typos and grammar-glitches which seem to pop up in almost every Kindle book I've ever bought (no matter whether they were purchased free or full-price), I have no qualms about recommending this series to fans of the genre or even to those who just like a good action-yarn.In fact on finishing this book, I immediately bought the remaining books in the series.

In a preface (to the Crimson Worlds Collection I) the author pays tribute to R.A. Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" and J Haldeman's "The Forever War" as influences. The imprint of the former is certainly evident - the first person narrative of a hero who joins an elite infantry corps that fights on distant planets in powered armour. Even the story layout is the same - kicking off with a sample battle, then backtracking to the hero's early life, enlistment and homicidally-tough training before going onto his involvement in other battles and promotion to officer rank. In "Marines", however, there are more battles, including starship engagements, described in much more tactical detail, and much less space devoted to boot camp and moral philosophy. Also whereas in Heinlein's work a united mankind fights bug-like aliens under an ideal (to the author) government endorsed by his hero, in Allan's future the enemy is human: eight tyrannical Earth superpowers contend for extra-solar colonies, and the hero despises the corrupt Western Alliance regime which he and the Marine Corps serve - this becomes important in the following books of the series. If there is a drawback it is that the first person viewpoint militates against seeing the other side of the hill, although this is somewhat offset by an appendix describing the various powers. Also Allan loses no opportunity to describe the guilt felt by the hero and fellow officers over troops killed under their command until it grates on the reader, while ignoring such issues as PTSD. Overall though a gritty, believable account of future warfare, with plenty of tactical meat for the military SF fan.

A cracking piece of military space opera with great characters, back story and action. Pure escapism that sucks you in and carries you along for an enthralling ride. There are also a number equally good sequels and currently three prequel short novels to keep you occupied but when you have finished them it is a real letdown that there are currently no more to read. The standard remains high throughout the series, unlike some others I have read. My only complaints are that the proof reading was very poor and the mistakes can get on your nerves a bit and some phrases, descriptions etc are a bit repetively used. Highly recommended if you like this sort of thing and worth taking a risk on at this very reasonable price.