Prison Planet

Green Zone War, Book 3

By: Jake Elwood

Narrated by: Johnathan McClain

Camp One has one brutal rule: If you attempt to escape, you die - and three random prisoners die with you.

Tom Thrush has resigned himself to dying by degrees, doing forced labor while he slowly starves. When he learns that a distant mesa holds a slim chance at freedom, he does nothing. The price of escape is too high.

Then fever sweeps through the camp. Surrounded by armed guards and an unforgiving jungle, paralyzed by the threat of reprisals, Tom watches as the men he’s sworn to protect die one by one. If anyone is to survive, Tom will have to do the unthinkable.

Escape.

©2018 Jake Elwood (P)2018 Podium Publishing

It was a bit of a slog at times but enjoyable

I had to really dig in to get through this part three of the series. The vague (or not vague) First Nations metaphor continued throughout but was less evident. A reader hungry for space opera action will start to to zone out a little on the dirt based parts. The deus ex machina was HEAVY on this one too. Overall still enjoyable but it was a left turn that left me a little unsatisfied.

Jack Aubrey with a dash of BSG

This series has been a lot of fun so far. Reminds me a lot of Patrick O’Brian’s Jack Aubrey books — following a young officer through his commands and adventures. With some Battlestar Galactoca thrown in. Way exceeding my expectations.

holy shit this is actually a good series

okay I normally don't write reviews, but I had to on this one. The storyline is really good. It develops really well and I'm excited to get the next book. So don't be an idiot and continue with the audio series.

Prison drama in a space setting

(3.5 Stars)

This was very entertaining. The character development is getting better. The story was interesting and the narration was on point.

So nice

It’s great to hear a great book series that dose not repeat the whole series in every book.

Different but still good.

This isn't the same as the previous books in the series. There's no space battles until nearer the end, it takes place mainly on the ground.
I think it adds to the realism and doesn't seem as out of place as other reviewers do. JMO.

If you're into the series mostly for the military/ship action, then I could see you not caring for this book. BUT, even if that's the case & you skip this book, don't stop the series. I recommend you at least pick up with the book after this, Rouge Navy, which does go back to the locations & action you liked.

If you appreciate the more realistic portrayal of the characters & the realism of what happens when you lose a battle, your ship & get captured by the enemy, then you're going to want to read this book.

To me, it's a natural progression of the story. I like that the good guy doesn't always win. That no matter how good you are, sometimes it's not enough. That you can go through some pretty horrific things & survive.

One of the things I like best about this series is that the MC isn't perfect, doesn't have all the answers. He screws up & does things he's ashamed of, but for the whole of it, is a good person doing the best he can in less than ideal situations.

It wasn't too much of a downer even though it might be sometimes hard to listen through. It's not overly graphic in details, thank goodness, but you still get a strong feel for what goes on.

I can't explain it well, but somehow, there's this little bit of hope & humanity in everything that makes it not take you all the way down a dark depressive rabbit hole.
Plus, well, heck, you know the MC has to live, otherwise there couldn't be a next book!

Fortunately, there's also breaks from prison life following the threads of a few of the side characters, which definitely helps a lot!

I don't think it's a spoiler to say there's going to be a way they get out of prison. I won't divulge the details, but that method is a bit unbelievable, but it could've been done a lot worse.
Overall this book wasn't maybe as enjoyable as the other books in this series, & why I knocked a star off.

It got A LOT more serious than the others, but I'm still glad I read it & it wasn't as bad as some reviewers thought, IMO. I thought it was well done for the subject matter & it's part of our imperfect Hero's tale.

It's definitely not my cup of tea & if it had been the 1st book in the series I probably wouldn't have started the series, but as it is, falling where it does, it isn't as out of place if you're following the character's story.

SUMMARY:
If you're you're very sensitive, not in a good headspace, or have any PTSD or depression, it depends on how affected you are by heavy/dark material about what happens in POW labor camps. If you do choose, suggest stopping the minute it's too dark for you & skip thru to the final chapters.

If you're interested in only the space battles & Naval action, skip to the next book.

If you're invested in the characters themselves &/or the lives of the characters & the story line, then read it.

IMO. Oh, & the Narrator is easy to listen to. He does a great job.

Anticipation abounds

Just a great performance and story. The series has NOT disappointed in the least

fan of the series in the protagonist character dev

the series main protagonist how to slow character development in the first two books. so I definitely applaud the author for showing a little bit of Agosto in hardship in this one:-). Actually like the character whereas in the first two books all that insisted internal wine and got on my nerves:-). So I hope as I continued that this is a good trend because now I'm a bit invested. my only other complaint is that the narrator did a good job of doing British, Irish or Scottish voice. I'm a Southern Man from Texas so they all sound the same from time to time to me. I would like a little more diversity based on the description of characters. I'm sure the far-flung future English probably is a little bit more refined. but I'm sure so are the different demographics and the speech demographics in the frontier colonies. just a little quirk.

lack luster

the series has a lot of potential but it just seems like it's lacking something it starts off with a bang and then it is draws out I understand the main character's thrush in O'Reilly on this one and what he would do for a friend that was the most powerful part of the book really didn't like the fact that the battle for the plateau who was in explain or how they escaped the cruiser after landing on the planet some of that is crucial in some of that would make a very good story and it gets left out

Realistic characters

The plot is interesting and well paced. The characters have depth and their reactions to their situations are realistic.