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Dewey Decimal Number: 813 EAN: 9780441008346 ISBN: 0441008348 Label: Ace Manufacturer: Ace Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 304 Publication Date: August 01, 2001 Publisher: Ace Release Date: August 01, 2001 Studio: Ace Average Rating:
 Rating:  - A Mixed Bag of GruntsHolding the Line (2001) is the first novel in the Spec Ops Squad series. During the war with the Ilion Federation, Bart Drak is the squad leader of a special ops squad in the Ranger Battalion of the 1st Combined Regiment, a unit including every species in the Alliance of Light. In this novel, Bart has just returned from Dintsen, where his ranger battalion has been mauled by the surprise attack that started the war with the Ilion. Since the unit was on Dintsen only for joint training ... Read More Rating:  - Good, but can you include some more plausible technology?I don't read SF, but have been looking for near-future/future military/space novels, and I was browsing the SF shelves at one of my local bookstores and picked up SOS: Holding the Line. Looked good, interesting concept, so i picked it up, saying to myself that if this [was weak], i wouldn't follow the series or the author. I was pleasantly surprised to find myself enjoying the action, and the interaction between the humans and the various alien species of the Alliance of Light. What I was disappointed ... Read More Rating: - Surprisingly beleivableUnlike the usual smart alec mil-sf heroes, Drak and his squad of assorted aliens go where brass sends them, shoot enemy, get shot at, do not know big picture until much later and do NOT save the universe by daring action. The general feeling is not one of adventure, but of hard, unpleasant, dangerous work that has to be done. This basic honesty and unwillingness to entertain is strangely charming, reminding me of WW2 memoirs. Buy this book if you like careful, unhurried world-building for the sake ... Read More Rating:  - DisappointedRick Shelley is a talented author but he needs to find something new for his books. There is really no difference between Spec Ops and his last several novels. The story line, tactics, hardware, and such are just blurring together. I do wish he would branch to something different, not just more of the same stories in the same basic setting. Rating: - Rate it "B" for Boring...The only reason that I finished the book was a desire to see if the author could salvage it somehow in the last ten pages. The problems: 1) Special Ops? No, this is only light infantry running around in the woods without heavy artillery or tanks. Sorry, but it reads like a "paint ball" tournament. If you want to read about "Special Ops" try out "The Last Legion" by Chris Bunch. If you can find it "Sten" by Bunch and Cole is better! Sherman and Cragg's "Starfist:First to Fight" is also good. Read More |
