Blood & Steel

War's Edge, Book 2

De: Ryan W. Aslesen

Narrado por: Roger Wayne

Galactic war.

On its heels after the disastrous Battle of Verdant, the United Systems Alliance is taken completely by surprise when the Galactic Union launches an all-out surprise offensive that captures planet after planet. Fear and panic spread like an oxygen fire as the Union invasion fleet makes a dash for the Alliance core worlds.

Sergeant Mark Rizer and the Marines and sailors of Sixth Fleet are lightyears from the front, still licking their wounds after the bitter defeat on Verdant. But there is no time to rest, for General Hella is planning a daring - perhaps suicidal - operation to finally halt the Union juggernaut.

As the Alliance launches its first offensive of the war, Rizer and his Marines find themselves in the midst of a brutal campaign to retake the Union-occupied planet Stavanger. Fighting house-to-house and hand-to-hand in a frozen hell, Murder Company wages a desperate battle against a seemingly unstoppable enemy. Outgunned and outmanned, Rizer realizes his platoon is more than just a cog in the vast Marine Corps war machine: They're the glue holding the entire operation together. Failure isn't an option if the Alliance is to survive.

This book contains graphic violence, profanity, and sexual content. It is intended for a mature audience.

©2021 Ryan W. Aslesen (P)2021 Podium Audio

solid read

started slow but turned into a good listen. Developed nicely into wanting the next book

Absolutely entertaining

I recommend this book to anyone that enjoys Sci-fi military novels!!!! Well done Sir! Well done!!!

another excellent chapter but where is book 3

in excellent excellent book I cannot State enough how much I've enjoyed this series I hope many books follow I'm on to warhor now and it should be just as good as the rest and to any veteran that reads this thank you

Narration

The first book’s narrator was better and had more inflection with the various voices. Nonetheless the story was enjoyable.

skips the insides for more action

while some people might enjoy the fact that there is a lot less in between for the action parts. I feel like thats where the first book did some of its best story telling and character development. the way this books just skips months ahead and with just a few chapters before the battles kick off kind of sets a jarring pace of very front loaded combat as to where it felt more of a coming of story for ryzer(? I dont know how his last name is spelled.) We do get a few snippets of character development but no where near the last installment. So overall it's a little disappointing after the first books stellar start to finish. id rate it about a 3.8 out of 5

side note: new narrator does just fine. just takes a little getting used to.

New narrator but still great

Enjoyed the continuation of this story and following along with the characters from book 1. I love sci-fi mili books and this one is a great series thus far.

I really like this series so far.

If you haven’t read the first book then do yourself a favor- it does a ton of character development and is also one heck of a good book.
Now off to the third book. Let’s hope it’s as good as the first two!
Oh. Narration. Good but after the first book it threw me off a bit. Not as good as Bray or Kater, but gets the job done nonetheless.

Great book

its a great military science fiction book it took me some time to get used to the narrator from the first book but i grew to like him

Good ground combat, weak space combat and narrator

Aslesen does ground combat descriptions very well: evocative, detailed, and grim. There is a good storyline, believable tactics, and an appropriate amount of damage to the soldiers, civilians pulled into the battle, and the terrain.

His space combat work could be better, in that it comes across as just wet-navy combat with "space" pasted on. If you're going to worry about a ship listing in space, you need to explain why it's important that the ship _not_ list. 'Oh no! The ship is tilting to port!' 'Who cares; this is zero g?'

Similarly, his space fighters seem to be flying in atmosphere at all times rather than riding thrusters.

Be aware that the narrator doesn't seem to care much about pronunciation. There is a planet in the book named "Stavanger", presumably after the city in Norway. It should not be pronounced "Sta'-vanjer". And the first syllable of "Pyrrhic" is not "pyre". That said, he does have a good voice for this subject; I just wish he had taken a bit more care in the reading.

I'll probably continue with the series, because the combat scenes are evocative and the flow of the narrative is good, but this isn't one of the best military SF books I've read.