My complaints all come down to realism. Character realism. Plot realism. "Science" realism.

Before I hit what I consider the worst example let's do some that are just really unlikely:

The author makes sure to indicate that the powers-that-be (government and corporations) consider people born on Mars to be the the lowest of the low. Any that are against Earth rule are very bad people. So the main character, serving said powers as an officer, spends pages telling said powers how Martian he is, how exploited Mars is, etc. etc.

The book makes it pretty clear that this is normal behavior for this person... This makes being pro communist in the 1950's US Army look like a good career move. Unlikely he would be a lieutenant, and if he was he would be in charge of pit latrine inspection.

Just to shorten my rant, I will just mention that:

Sweating dynamite on Mars in 2218 is mind-bogglingly unlikely.

Having the same enlisted person you had sex with (while a cadet) assigned your subordinate (by coincidence!!) is mind-bogglingly unlikely in any military larger than Fiji's.

And now to the one I consider the big one. It shows up in the prologue, and is pivotal several times in the book: Being chased by a monster while you are wearing a magic (super science!) suit that lets you adjust "your" gravity from almost nothing to bunches. Why, knowing the monster will kill you, do you not set your suit to .01g and jump? The book talks about "tumbling away with the first step" forever from Phobos in its normal (.001) gravity, which is not true, you would "fall" back in an hour or so. But even if that was the case, set the suit for medium-light and get away from the monster! The hero figures this one out eventually, but I really do think anyone you would let wear a spacesuit would figure out: "Me can fly!"

Oh, and just to finish off the subject, if you can control gravity (space / time curve), you have power so vast that all the concerns the characters in this book worry about shrink to nothing. Not that the way it was described in the book (shudder) bears any connection with our universe.

This page has a review covering even more of this books problems:
http://www.christian-sauve.com/reviews/2006/reviews-2006-09september.html ( )

Facing a choice between two books, a Sports Fiction book by an author I’ve read before, but didn’t particularly like (I’ve seen good reviews for the option book and thought I’d give the author another chance, only read 1 by him so far), and a Science Fiction, Military Fiction book by an author that I’ve never read before and have the impression that he hasn’t written any more books, I decided to catch up on my magazine reading. Later, after spending some time catching up with the piles of magazines, I finally got around to reading another book. Picked the sports book up first, glanced at the first two lines, didn’t like the way they went and started the Science Fiction book.

The books own "description" of itself: a Martian officer in the Earth space service facing some discrimination, and placed in a position near/on Mars while it threatens to hold a revolution.

And, according to the book itself, this is Drago’s First Novel. According to later acquired knowledge, this is actually Drago's second novel. Never heard of the author previously, and never seen the book anywhere except at my library.

Plot: Lt. Mike Brogue is the first Martian military officer in Peacecorps (Terran military; The planet Mars has been colonized by Earth beings, but certain failures has hindered widespread open (as in under open skies) living, and the "Martian's" desire greater control over own lives and future; if saw the movie "Total Recall" - just picture something similar - Corporations run Mars, corporations owned by outsiders, locals want more independence, and both even have something about search for aliens). Mars desires independence and Lt. Brogue finds himself in the middle.

Finding alien life will apparently result in a similar "freedom" like in Total Recall (there is something in some charter that mentions that the alien life would need to be preserved or studied or something that would give the native humans more control - in the book).

Then: something (something alien or some rogue human terrorists?) starts killing people on Phobos, moon of Mars. Lt. Brogue is sent to investigate.

Phobos - completed, rated 5 stars. Great book. Too bad it appears that he wrote at most 1 more book, and neither were apparently well-received (at least in terms of buyers). Very well written.

1.7 pages per minute.

(above is quickly slammed together from blog entries in my defunct reading journal; re-edited to remove things like "began reading today, only read prologue" etc) ( )