Save Your Money and, Most Importantly, Your Time. Do Not Read This BookI’m breaking my typically impersonal tone because this is the first 1 star I have given (since I started reviewing) and, in this instance, I feel it’s important to express myself in a somewhat colloquial nature.I came to this story through ‘Stars & Empire: 10 Galactic Tales’ and I am so glad that it wasn’t an ARC—I stopped reading several pages in. I tried to continue, trust me I did, but I was glad I didn’t ‘have’ to finish it, therefore, saving myself time and energy doing so. I hope this review will help save yours. My reasons for stopping are as follows: the writing was incredibly unsophisticated and unpolished; the jumping between tenses was often painfully incorrect; the name choices of character, places and objects didn’t seem very original (sometimes confusing too—it took me till just now, when returning to my notes and reread, that the Guadalcanal was actually a ship!). At first I thought Jay Allan may have had military experience himself and a lot of these references were paying personal homages but my online scouring suggests this probably isn't the case. Either way this was another unnecessarily jarring issue; there was a distinct lack of editing—typos, punctuation problems and repetition; whilst I did enjoy reading about the fighting suits, unfortunately their descriptions those of certain other areas just seemed lazy and expository.All in all I would advise: DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK and, EVEN IF YOU GET IT FOR FREE, DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME READING IT!In better news, I was surprised to see how prolific this writer is and the amount of books he’s published in just a few years. This ‘practice’ has shown some positive results for both Jay and the reader, since his latest story, a bonus in S & E that followed ‘Marines’, was actually an improvement—albeit by a star. It was much more tolerable then the first and I therefore finished it! You can find a separate write up for that either under my reviews or on the book itself—‘The Gates of Hell: Crimson Worlds Prequel #3’Jay Allan does say that it’s world building he enjoys most. So, whilst he is honing his craft, maybe that’s what he should stick to; he could find a cowriter to write the copy. I have fond memories of one of the first sci-fi books I ever read, that really opened my eyes to how cool it could be to imagine things that haven't been, but could be: it was "Armor" by John Steakley. That whet my appetite for military sci-fi, which still interests me more than any other niche sub-genre. This book reads like a cross between that and "With the Old Breed", which I recently read and is a straightforward, honest recollection of a soldier's experiences fighting in WWII in the Pacific theater. However, this book is really not as good as either of those. From a simple book angle, the first-person narrative seems flat and dry. Too much dry explanation, and not much emotion or pathos, even when he's describing things he *says* he's emotional about. It just doesn't come through. From a hard sci-fi perspective, the details are interesting to me, and the main reason that I give it a 3-star instead of lower. I've always thought armored infantry is fascinating (remember, "Armor" by John Steakley...), and this gives a great description of how it would work.From a world-building standpoint, the universe he sets up is interesting, but I always get annoyed at the "ooo-rah Marines" books that show a U.S. Marine Corps that a) still exists from Old Earth (how rare is it for military organizations to last 400 years with so few changes?), and b) can do no wrong, the only screw-ups are by the stupid civilian leadership. Both are extremely present in this, and in Ian Douglas' books, which are very similar. In this book, in fact, there is no such thing as a bad Marine commanding officer: everyone mentioned is well-respected, gets along with everyone, and is brilliant. I couldn't suspend my disbelief anymore.
What do You think about Marines (2012)?
El inicio de la historia muy bueno, luego se vuelve pesada y aburrida con tanta guerras y batallas.
—cici
I read it. I have read better, I have read worse.
—emily
