Dnf - multiple attempts but did not grab me at all. No rating as I never went beyond 10%

I received this copy from the publisher through Netgalley.com and that in no way has influenced my opinion in regards to this review. This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions.
Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.leafmarks.com by express permission of this reviewer. Title: Unbreakable Series: The Chronicles of Promise Pain Author: W.C. Bauer Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars Genre: SFF Pages: 399 Synopsis: Promise Paen joins the Republic's Space Marines to escape the bad memories from her home planet Montana. Now's she headed back to protect a place she'd rather forget about while her dead mother seems to be alive and well, in Promise's mind. My Thoughts: This was an ARC [Advanced Reading Copy], so the misspellings and such [fourty anyone?] will hopefully be fixed in the actual release. First. Bauer appears to have read and been greatly influenced by Mike Shepherd and his Kris Longknife series. Smart metal. By that name. A heroine who worries about not being a curvaceous sex kitten (though to be honest, this only happens once or twice, unlike every other chapter in Kris Longknife). The whole Brave Girl taking on Incredible Odds and Overcoming, Even if not Winning thing. Thankfully, Paen is a local girl who makes good, not an interstellar debutante with a drinking problem. Second, I'd REALLY like to find out more about the history of this universe. The little hints we're given tantalized me while giving me just enough for this story. But I want more. Thirdly, I removed and then added a star right at the introduction. I removed a star because he thanks Ronie Kendig [I have nothing personally against Mrs Kendig, I simply had a very bad experience with one of her books where expectations were taken out an airlock and hung, shot, drawn and quartered and then vaporized] and then added another because he appeared to be a Christian. It was a rollercoaster beginning. Finally, I did enjoy this. There is a lot of action, a lot of "we're outmanned, outgunned but we're going to make them choke on us" kind of attitude. A hint of shallow romance [which I'm FINE with. Save that stuff for the likes of Austen, who can write a GOOD romance] and 2 big space empires just waiting to go at it. As long as this series doesn't turn into the Series That Never Ends [ala Taylor Anderson or David Weber], I'll be looking forward to more by Mr. Bauer. " ( )

This review was originally posted at www.areadingmachine.com

Unbreakable has a strong female protagonist, gritty fast paced action sequences and a killer setting for the whole shabang. It has echoes of Aliens with its intense female lead, sharp dialogue and hoo-ah marines that added the element of a fun and familiar friendly atmosphere. Plot wise Promise Paen is stuck between two empires on the brink of war and sent back to her home world as part of PR exercise to win the hearts and minds of her former people whilst also dealing with space pirates and an angry militia. It’s a personal story. Her crew and her charges and how she relates to them are given a nice weight and we see the bonds develop and change, especially as she moves up in rank. We see how their deaths affect Promise and how their failures and successes are hers as much as theirs. One of my favourite scenes involved her taking a group of militia through the basic instructions for the standard issue pulse rifles because of the attention to detail and innovations in the weaponry but also because of the reactions of the crowd and her people.

The action is visceral, the deaths, carnage and repercussions of battle are palpable and blood almost leaks through the pages, such is the atmosphere Bauer’s often achieves. The Mech suit combat is ridiculously well written and highly entertaining and shit it makes me want to tag into a giant armoured beast and let rip with some full auto. You cant just have action though.

The politics are quite complex and I did find myself re reading one or two sections but Bauers has created a detailed and realistic battlefield on land and in space, which means a few things. The battles in space, ship to ship, are bloody great. They have an old time Navy sort of feel but with more high tech weaponry which is a nice mix but does result in some short battles what with mega lasers being used to cut through entire ships in seconds. We get into the heads of the opposing captains and feel their struggles without getting caught up in the science but we also meet lots of people with military titles and full foreign names and we hear an absolute ton of acronyms which when overused can turns an otherwise cohesive paragraph into military babble. Not being overly familiar with military structure and rank, at times it was hard to know how much attention to give to these side characters as they are numerous, often appearing only for a scene or two and always in jeopardy of a quick death. With Tramper Pilot Rhaymond Garcias, Ensign X’atti Quartz, Staff Sergeant Moya Hhatan and many more all flying about it can get frenetic keeping track of who is who. I just tried to roll with the punches and not get too attached or involved with anyone who was not our Protagonist.

One thing I feel I should mention is that I think the prologue was a bit unnecessary. It does not add anything to what we already know from the back cover and seems as though it is there to draw us into the action in case we don’t have the patience to let the backstory unfold at it’s own pace. From it I got the impression her dead mother would be speaking to her constantly throughout the book which did not appeal to me, as it is she makes well times appearances and works nicely. For me the evidence is in the fact that I picked up this book and put it down three or four times because of the prologue and it was only when I was at the airport and had nothing else to do for an hour and got past the prologue that I was able to get really sucked in. So readers if you are not engaged in the prologue, skip to the first chapter. Don’t abandon the whole book as you will be doing yourself an injustice.

Anyone who likes a good mix of Science Fiction and Military will like this and if, unlike me, you have knowledge of rank and structure, I think you will really get a kick out of it. Great debut and a promising first book and a huge nod to the cover artist, as it’s definitely the sort of book I would pick up off the shelf.

( )

A very good first book in the Starship Troopers tradition. It has the feeling of early Honor Harrington with a similar hyper-capable but emotionally stunted female protagonist. Except the focus here is boots on the ground instead of soaring through the stars.

Fans of David Webber, Elizabeth Moon, and early John Ringo will find a lot to like here. ( )

ABR's full Unbreakable: A Novel audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

Promise Paen, the main character, grows up on one of the outer colonized worlds called Montana. The earth has split into two factions who fight over the resources of the outer colonies. More or less equal in strength, they seem to struggle back and forth gaining and losing worlds. Montana (the planet) has recently joined one of the factions to protect them from pirates. It is in fact a pirate raid that killed Promise’s non-violent father in front of her as a child. She joins the military as soon as she comes of age.

That’s the basic plot, unfortunately, it is mostly hard to believe. The two political factions are woefully undermanned and plot ill-conceived plans that fail constantly. For example, the alliance which protects Montana (the planet) sends 16 marines to protect the planet. Hmm, kinda slim, Slim. The other side, nicknamed the Lucies send some fake pirates to destroy the space port and some of the capital city. Uh, aren’t you going to need that when you take over the planet? And on it goes.

Promise spends some time conversing with a hallucination of her dead heroic mother. We are supposed to believe she is this super soldier, but with psychotic episodes. Though to be honest, this is the most interesting part of the character.

There is lots of action, soldiers in mech suits and laser weapons, spaceship explosions, etc. But somehow, the action seems flat, phoned in, almost boring. The rest of the story is minute details of Montana life and the ridiculous political machinations of its cowboy president and her ex-boyfriend. Not awful, but tedious at times. You ever look at your phone or ipod to see how much longer the book is, this is one of those.

Andi Arndt is the narrator and does a competent job. Nothing about her performance stands out as especially good or bad.

This is a space military novel with some action scenes in space and on the ground with a strong female protagonist. If you generally like this genre of SciFi, you will find something to like about this novel. Also if you like strong female military characters you might also enjoy this one. There is a lot of political and sociological minutia which many listeners may find tedious.

Audiobook provided for review by the publisher. ( )