Extreme Prejudice

The One U.G.L.Y. Marine Series, Book 4

By: Michael Anderle

Narrated by: John Pirhalla

Subtlety is a game Joe is capable of, but he always preferred a more hands-on approach.

Unluckily for him, the Komran are no longer satisfied with a war of attrition, and there’s no choice but to play.

After intercepting the Komran battleplans on his last suicide mission, Joe gets the request to take on the most challenging mission to date: diplomacy.

The team are sent to the outer fringes of the Vale system, where the Komran have planted traitors among the populations of three planets. If their plans succeed, the planets’ defenses will be taken down and a Komran invasion force will get easy access to stage landing points for a much more expansive push into Vale territory.

There’s no room for failure. The team must prepare to divert a war that could be ended in a day, or risk the start of a new level of subjugation.

For once, Joe needs to rely on his wits and his version of “diplomacy” to accomplish the mission and save the galaxy.

Sometimes, he wonders if he would be better off back in the freezer.

©2022 LMBPN Publishing (P)2022 Blackstone Publishing

Still a Good series, but not without issues...

So, I decided to write this review at the halfway point in the series based on Anderle's comments in one of the author notes somewhere between books 1-3 stating that this would be a 9 book series. So, I figured either book 4 or 5 would be a good place to give a detailed review of the series overall.

Fair warning, some spoilers may be used as examples...

With that said, this is one of the few series in which I've found myself hitting the "buy" button at the end of each book/listen. It's not particularly full of depth. Each story is pretty straightforward with minimal, if not, predictable for some, twists. What you're told at the beginning regarding the plot is what you get considering each book involves a mission Joe and his team, which consists of Cammy, the archaeologist/researcher, and Aran, the markswoman sniper and pilot. In this sense, the story is very entertaining and unfortunately, while the overall plot is closed up by the end of each book. In other words, their missions are resolved, like most of Anderle's books or books meant to be in a series really, there's the obvious feeling at the end that the overall story isn't over and you need to get the next book.

Which can be bothersome to some considering the shortness of the book/listen. As you can see, aside from book 1, each book is under 7 hours, some not even getting close. This is perhaps my first criticism.

Over the course of the four books, Joe has started to bring up issues about this futuristic faux-utopic society and their conditioning by way of artificial intelligences embedded in their heads with control over their bodies. By way of various story arcs, Anderle has opened up discussion within the story about that as well by introducing various factions of "dissenters" or Excoms (as in Excommunicated). This book, the fourth in the series, introduces insider threats (spies) who are secretly working for the Komran to help them invade easier. You don't get direct reasons from all of the spies, but one you can surmise their reasoning despite the ridiculousness of it. Which, hints at the overarching problem of this faux-utopic society along with the other hints Anderle inserted in the story prior to this. Such as their conditioning and faux-politeness and faux-peace-loving-perfection being their weakness when faced with an aggressive foe. It's one of the problems of Absolute Pacifism, but Anderle doesn't bog the stories down with overly pontificating prose on the matter. It's pretty simple and to the point, but you get it.

But this is perhaps my other criticism. In this book, it's said, and I agree, that the spies needed adequate justification for doing what they did given the Komran's view of humanity. I predicted one of the spies' reasons when they were found. As I said, the other before that one, you can kind of figure out based on context regardless of the fact that spy didn't give their reasoning. But with this, as I said, it raises the question within the universe of the overall problems of the system. Yet, my beef here, is that Anderle writes Joe and by extension Johnson as very passive-aggressive men. Johnson I understand since he's been out of the freezer longer than Joe and has been going through the conditioning process and can't even say a colorful word without shutting down his A.I. for a few hours. Joe, however, he's the titular character who was thawed and has not filter forced on him through an A.I. Yet, he spends a lot of time dancing around the issue.

There was a moment in the story where they meet with an overbearing military commander who didn't like Cammy. The archaeologist had, as usual, brought her Nativity Detector with her on the mission. The military commander proceeds to demand that Cammy give it to her to put away so she won't be distracted. I felt like the woman was treating another grown woman like a child. Joe forces Cammy to give this overbearing boss chick the Detector while whispering to the commander a challenge to never speak to his teammates like that again. While sure, he got on the woman for being disrespectful, why did he do it in a whisper? Why not be boisterous about it and tell her off openly? Why even hand her the Detector in the first place? Why would it have been hard to say, "All due respect Commander, I understand that you're in charge of this planet, but I've been given a mission by those higher up than you. Second of all, this is my team. I'm in charge of it. You don't give orders to MY team. We're not in your chain of command."

It's but one example of Joe's occasional passiveness when dealing with certain issues. And I understand that the word "diplomacy' is thrown into the summary, but putting someone in check who is disrespecting your leadership and team is also diplomatic. But Joe responds his way a lot of times when it comes to the aforementioned topic of the faux-utopia and conditioning system set up. I get that Anderle might have something in his hat yet to be revealed before taking that rabbit out and showing it to the audience, but I feel like Joe could be a bit more aggressive when it comes to the issue giving where he came from and the things he's experienced. Especially in this book. If after this book he's still being passive aggressive on council issues, etc. I'm going to be a bit disappointed after defending him in my review in book one because he'd just woken up and didn't really have alternatives.

We see in this book there are alternatives. Sure, he'd become public enemy, but there are alternatives. I'm not saying Joe has to abandon ship and leave the Valers to their demise, but if Anderle is going to toy around with the social-political-ideological-philosophical commentary then try not to have the MC dance around the issue too much and be a little bit more direct. Don't have to outright say this or that is right or wrong, but it's evident what is and what isn't. I'm just saying. I'd expect by now for Joe to be a bit more verbal and actionable with his distaste for this future society than as passive-aggressive as he is.

As well as Johnson. Especially when the council are being a bunch of fools about an issue like wanting to upgrade the team (Joe and Aran's) conditioning to turn them into the same-old-same old soldiers running around when they literally woke them up because they needed soldiers who weren't programmed and could do the jobs that the team has been going. Johnson will think about telling them off but hold it in. I feel like Johnson and the General should be contending with the council's foolish beliefs more often. Especially the one council member, who despite Joe and the team's consistent success, has disdain for Joe simply because he's not conditioned.

With that said, the series as I allude to in the title is still good, but these are the criticisms I have with it. If you like straight forward plots with lots of action dispersed within, these are fun stories to read/listen to.

On to the next one

4 books in 3 days, on to the next one. Just pick up the series it’s legit