You would think that, with Christmas and all the goings on that surround the holiday, that there would be no time for reading. Wrong-a-rini.
Orders of Battle is the 7th book in Marko Kloos’ Frontlines series. I have bought and read each one (plus some other related works) as soon as they were available.
Set in a dystopian future where the world is made up of competing nation state blocks, where the gap between rich and poor is far worse than anything we would be willing to believe and Earth is under attack by aliens, Andrew Grayson has risen from poverty to a high position in the military. During his rise, he has acted heroically time after time in the thick of things and done his level best to get himself killed in the process. He has, rather miraculously, failed thus far.
Unlike most fictional heroes, he is, to some extent, weighed down by what he sees as his failures and losses. His successes are always tempered by his knowledge that good times don’t last during a war. I guess he has what we know as “survivors guilt”. However, when the pressure is on, he never fails to be ready to go, something that seems to weigh on him as well.
I read Orders of Battle in a single sitting, as I have the last several Frontlines books. The series is very entertaining and engaging. The books are not really stand alone, and if you’re interested in them I suggest that you start with the original, Frontlines.
For me, this series has been wickedly entertaining, and I look forward to each new book. I’m not looking for deeper meanings and I’m not interested in reading “great literature”. If I’m not reading to educate myself on something, I want to be entertained. Not mindlessly entertained, or else I’d watch the idiot box. I want something engaging that also makes me think, just not too much. These books fit that desire perfectly.
