An Uneasy Alliance

Sentenced to War, Book 4

By: J.N. Chaney, Jonathan P. Brazee

Narrated by: Jeffrey Kafer

Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

The war is over. Peace has at last descended over the humanity...or so it would appear.

The Centaurs may no longer pose a threat, but a new war is on the horizon, though it hides in the shadows of two empires.

Rumors of alien tech have set governments against each other, and with attention focused on defeating the Centaurs, criminal elements have gotten their tentacles firmly entrenched in the very fabric of civilization.

Staff Sergeant Rev Pelletier of the Perseus Union Marine Corps has now been assigned to the Home Guard, the elite unit made up of members from each military force in human space.

A new age is upon us. An age of exploration, treaties, and new enemies. But with tensions rising, can the Home Guard function as a viable, unified force to combat the growing lawlessness throughout the galaxy?

Rev, Tomoko, Bundy, Ting, and the rest return in this exciting fourth entry in the ongoing Sentenced to War series from USA Today best-selling authors J.N. Chaney and Jonathan Brazee. If you're a fan of gritty military sci-fi action and characters who refuse to quit, you'll love this series.

©2021 Variant Publications (P)2021 Variant Publications

Enjoying Each Book

I am really enjoying this series. I keep finishing them so fast, that I am constantly looking for the next.

fantastic story so far

Like the last three, this one delivers a great ride to the end. It's the start of a new arc, so there's less action and more build up. We have the state set for a rising conflict and new story, but it continues the adventure for our characters. Hoping the next book keeps the momentum and builds the world out more. The characters are great and feel like real people. Loving the relationships. Keep it up!

Great narrator great action great story!

I love this book series. As military sci-fi this is among my top 3 of all time and yes, I listed to a lot of audiobooks in this category.

more please

The story is good, the characters are great, and the conflict is intense. The fight scenes in the series are especially well done. Keep the action coming and bring on book 5!

Great Military Sci-fi

The first book took me a little bit to get into the story but this 3rd? no 4th book in the series I finished almost before I realized it was ending. Onto the next one! Not sure there is a better compliment than to just want more!

Memories

Being a Former US Marine, it reminds of some of things I went thru. I ain't going to lie the previous book, book 3, hit a little close to home. Overall I love the series and I'm invested in the MC. I will always recommend the series.

A wonderfully full story not just a bunch of action scenes.

There aren't more series available as box sets, I hate to pay for a book that's not at least 10 hours long.

Rev joins the Home Guard and goes Pirate Hunting!!

The next evolution of the Sentenced to War series sees Rev leaving the Union Marines and joining the Home Guard.
This is a really interesting change in the series, as it sees a fundamental shift in the dynamic from the focus being all about the Marines, and the war against the Centaur, to a much more human look at things. With the war now being over, Humanity has to now focus its efforts on trying to stabilise everything within its own area of control, and there are a lot of different ‘Factions’ that this entails.
The Congress of Humanity or Home Guard, is made up of a range of different forces, all from the different sectors of humans. Rev has been chosen due to his IBHU, so he can be at the forefront of the CoH forces in any conflict that happens, but he is joined by several other people that he had not expected, included Ting from the Frisian’s, and several Union Marines. There are also all of the IBHU marines as they have been included into the Home Guard to be at the forefront of any force.
This book starts off a little slower than the others have been, but it is more character driven, as we get to see a lot more of Rev going through the internal workings of the Home Guard as they want to test out the capabilities of his IBHU, as well as carry out significant training with the new squad arrangements that will be in place at the CoH.
Whilst this has the feel of a new ‘Boot Camp’, it isn’t, as all of the people involved are combat veterans, with years of service, and not just having served, but having actually seen combat so that they are true veterans and know what they are doing.
I don’t want to give away any spoilers – but as stated the start of the story covers this introduction to the Home Guard, and it is fascinating seeing the internal politics of how the Congress of Humanity works as opposed to the Union of Marines. It should be noted that the world building is truly exceptional, the level of detail and comprehensive, multi-faceted scale in which the Authors have created this story, all the different Factions, the characters and their backgrounds, it is so incredibly in-depth, and makes the story so much more realistic and genuine.
As the story progresses, we move away from the fact that Humanity no longer is at war with the Centaurs, and is now trying to rebuild what is left of its colonies and worlds, and to do that, it requires a strong shipping network. However, both during the war, and especially since the end of the war and the increased shipping, piracy has increased, making things difficult.
The story moves from the re-integration of Rev and the new people into the Home Guard, into a full on strike mission to take out a pirate ship and rescue passengers in the process after a convoy ship was taken.
Until very recently, the Home Guard did not have the ability to hit back at pirates, but with the end of the war, now they do, and this is one of the first missions, especially the first with IBHU marines, and the new ‘Coalition’ forces.
Again, I don’t want to give away spoilers, but the storyline that follows of the strike mission to retake the captured Convoy vessel is one that is brutal, gritty, and so incredibly well done. The descriptive work is extraordinary, so that you feel like you are ducking amongst the bulkheads with the Home Guard, trying to avoid getting shot, take out Pirates, and free the captives, as well as capture your objectives.
The story continues with more action as various factions take the opportunity with the wars end to open up old feuds, and the only thing stopping them is the Home Guard. I don’t want to give away any spoilers though.
The ferocity, speed and unrelenting nature of the combat is intense, and you find yourself so completely drawn into it, unable to put the book down in case you miss what happens next. One of the good things about this series, is that the Authors have not been afraid of taking out their main characters, so don’t get attached to anyone. The descriptive work of the combat scenes is something that is brilliant about these books, with detailed descriptions of actions, but without the need to go into over-the-top brutality just for the sake of it.
There are so many great things about this series, as mentioned, the world-building and character work, as well as what is an ever evolving storyline, so that the readers don’t get bored with book after book of the same war. There are some really fun things though, there is an underlying humour throughout this series, the horrendously bad jokes told by Punch, as well as some of the other humour to take the edge of all of the intensity that occurs in the story, which is very well done. There are also several long term storyline elements (no spoilers) that have been moving from book to book, to keep it interesting as well.
As with all the other books, the relationships between all the major characters (not just Rev), continue to develop and grow, giving this series a very personal element, and it makes this series standout a lot more than others in its genre due to intense personal connections that are made as the story evolves, as with the world-building, giving it a very genuine edge and creating a bond between the reader and several of the characters in the story. This really impacts you when one of them is killed in action.
This continues to be a powerful series, thrilling, action-packed, but as we have moved into book 4, there is also now elements of political intrigue and mystery, as the collection of human systems all start to try and put the pieces back together after the war with the Centaurs, and find that they don’t like the picture. Even worse are the pirates.
The real question is if humanity can prevent themselves from doing more damage than the Centaurs did.
This is one of those MUST READ series, as it is just too good to miss, if you haven’t started it, get on board now!
Jeffrey Kafer is one of the best narrators around when it comes to Mil Sci-Fi, he has such an outstanding voice for narrating this style of story. He can do a great set of voices, both male and female, and he does a great ‘range’ of voices to – so that you can distinguish who is talking during the narration (without having to be told), Kafer has this brilliant, almost clinical narrating style, that is perfect for a Military Sci-Fi story. I have always been amazed that he can create such exceptional voices, and provide the emotional background for these voices to, and at the same time, switch back to this detached style for the rest of the Narration – allowing you to know when someone is talking, and when the story is being told. His prologues and when he is filling you on background story is just exceptional.
Kafer is one of the best Narrators there is for Audio – and this is one of those that you just have to listen to as you will get so much more out of it rather than reading the book.

Different

This part in the series had nothing to do with the enemy, Centaurs, not bad but I was expecting a little more I guess.

another wonderful entry

Can't get enough! I hope this series continues for several more books! I love Rev and Tomiko!