Tuesday, March 2, 2021

Orders of Battle (Frontlines #7) by Marko Kloos


The next part in a military science fiction series where humanity battles against giant, almost unstoppable monsters. Humanity has created new weapons, now ships, and has driven the invaders away from the solar system (well, mostly: the aliens still have a stronghold on Mars, even after years of killing every other creature that could be found on the planet). 

The main character, Andrew Grayson, goes on a secret mission. They later find out they're going to the same colony the aliens first invaded. When they arrive, everything seems fairly quiet - there are only two alien seed ships orbiting, and they are (fairly) easily destroyed with the new weapons. The planet seems to be covered by strange alien plants. They decide to land on the planet to retrieve old archives. An exobiologist wants to come with them, she wishes to examine the biology of the planet if there is a chance. Grudgingly, she is allowed to tag along. The priorities here are strange, surely more information about the biology of the aliens and the biosphere is vastly more important than any kind of old files. Once again, the scientific research (other than weapon research) is downplayed in the series - apparently, little is understood of the creatures even after years, and apparently, the military has little interest in sending spy drones to the lairs of the creatures, to take samples, to try and figure out their life cycle, to try to find biological agents against them, and so on. My fan theory is that the monsters they have been fighting are just biological drones and the real invader is something else - the ships themselves? Or the strange creature they encountered on the invaded planet?

The book ends on a cliffhanger, so the story is to be continued. This part of the series felt a lot better than the former part, which felt a bit tired. The writing was smooth and easy to read.  

269 pp. 


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