The Bookwyrm's Review of Galaxy's Edge: Legionnaire by Jason Anspach and Nick Cole

Authors: Jason Anspach & Nick Cole

Length: 291 Pages

Publisher: Galaxy's Edge Press

Release Date: June 12, 2017

Rating: 9/10 Stars

Amazon Link

"The Galaxy is a Dumpster Fire.

A hot, stinking, dumpster fire. And most days I don’t know if the legionnaires are putting out the flames, or fanning them into an inferno."

PLOT SYNOPSIS

A hostile force ambushes Victory Company during a reconnaissance-in-force deep inside enemy territory. Stranded behind enemy lines, a sergeant must lead a band of survivors against merciless insurgents on a deadly alien world somewhere along the galaxy’s edge. With no room for error, the Republic’s elite fighting force must struggle to survive under siege while waiting on a rescue that might never come.

Join Victory Company as they fight for their lives. When you think you’ve surrounded the Legion... you’ve just made your last mistake.

Review

As I mentioned in my last review, I am lifelong sci-fi fan. I have been drawn especially to space opera and military sci-fi, where we see a band of soldiers/adventurers facing desperate odds to accomplish some task that has repercussions far beyond their little part of the conflict. This is where series like Galaxy's Edge come in. Starting in Legionnaire, we are introduced to a Galaxy wide empire, run by the Senate and the House of Reason. They use the various military branches such as the Legion, a force of high-tech elite troops, and the army, a more conventional force, to keep the peace on their various colonies and "allied " worlds. They use a combination of carrot and stick to keep these worlds in line, but there is a growing rebellion trying to supplant the corrupt, incompetent political class. 

This is the universe where the story takes place, on the planet Kublar, which is an "allied" world bribed into keeping the peace, but is simmering to a boil under the surface. This is the situation where we meet the characters in the book, the legionnaires of Victory Company, who, with some regular army troops, are supporting a diplomatic mission to appease the local warlord and keep the planet from rebelling. Characters such as Pappy, the commander of the legion force and Lt. Wraith and LT Chhun, the platoon leaders. We also get to meet the various enlisted soldiers, and get a view from the ground floor of what they think of the mission and their commanders. They are very realistically portrayed, and I suspect would have been a perfect fit from any army from Caesar's legions in Gaul to todays forces in Afghanistan. The commander and the LT's are very much soldier's soldiers, always keeping their minds on how to accomplish the mission while keeping their troops alive. Then there is Captain Devers, a political appointee who represents everything wrong in the Legion, and the government in general. He is also realistically portrayed, as I knew button polishing ladder climbers like him when I was in the army. These characters and their reactions are informed by the authors' real life experience in the military, so they resonate. It doesn't hurt that they get interesting character arcs that round out their characters, and help flesh out the universe they inhabit. It really helps immerse the reader in the story, in a universe on the brink of all out war yet again.

This is the kind of a story I can see appealing to a wide variety of sci-fi fans. Those who like space opera and military sci-fi are an obvious market, but I think fans of thrillers and military fiction can find something to love. Considering the troopers unofficial motto is KTF, or Kill Them First, you can guarantee this series will never lack for action. I highly recommend this series.