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Summary: A combination of other plots
Review: After reading the books, I felt I had read the same story by Gordon Dickinson and Jerry Pournelle. It looks like Shelley stole ideas from Dickinson's Dorsai and Pournelle's Falkenberg's Legion. I wish the author would actually read the current literature on military technology. If it is 2800 why are the soldiers still fighting with the tactics of the Vietnam Ar.
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Summary: i really liked it,was a page turner for me,
Review: As an up and coming authur Rick Shelly is already good in my book.my first book i read of him was jump pay.i im hooked on him .I plan on buying all his books. i rate him with David Drake and David Weber.
Rating: 
Summary: Give it a miss
Review: I appreciated "Hammer's Slammers" much more after reading this one, which is a shame as some of his others are not bad at all. I agree, go find an S.M.Sterling or David Drake book.
Rating: 
Summary: Great start, for a great serie of books!
Review: I bought this book, just to see how the author was. But it turned out that It was a great buy, since then I have bought more of Rick's books. The author is great on introducing people seperate from oneother, but they almost always join up. Also nice to see that armor is not always what you want to use, in these books atleast. Nice overal development of the characters.
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Summary: The Life of a Soldier
Review: I found this entire series to be very enjoyable. Some have complained that the series lacks a "big-picture" or and real plot. While it is true that the seires lacks these elements that we expect from any good book I think in this case it was intentional on the part of Shelly. This series lets us see what its like for the soldier at all the various levels of command. You can fell his fear and danger in the first few books as he is in the trenches. Later as he becomes a higher ranking commander we fell him struggle over command decisions. I think this series does a wonderful job of showing us war from the average soldiers point of view. The plot his his life, and as the series progresses the story and plot become more and more a part of the books.
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Summary: difenity a must read
Review: I have read all his books and I must admit it is not the best book he wrote but I would still recommend it to all my friends and I hope you will to.
Rating:
Summary: This book was another great one by Rick Shelley!
Review: I have read four of Rick Shelley's books, and I loved them all. I never liked Science-fiction before, but now I love it!
Rating:
Summary: Interesting twist on the military and mercenaries.
Review: I liked this book and the second in the series "Lieutenant." As a military retiree I can see the place for military units other than those of a government. Further, I see that with a fair standard of ethical and moral conduct that troops employed as a free lance military can have a beneficial effect on the governments that employ them. Rick Shelley is a good author, I also recommend his trilogy of the 13th Spaceborne ("Until Relieved," "Side Show," and "Jump Pay").
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Summary: Good tactical fun, not much tech
Review: I purchased this because it was one of those "others who bought this book also bought" links so I thought I'd give it a try. Its got goods and bads but overall a easy-to-read enjoyable book.The people are decently done and the hero, Lon is not a cardboard cutout invincible no-fear type...he worries about things, gets sick, etc. The scenario is pretty small, essentially a couple of armies running around in a section of forest, skirmishing and encountering each other. No big complex story here. The battle descriptions are well done, and I felt like I was really in the thick of it. There wasn't an inordinate amount of acronyms or tech talk. The biggest dissapointment I had was the technology. Perhaps it was because of coming from another series with more advanced technology, but I was surprised at the tactics and tech involved. It read pretty much like something from the Vietnam war, Although they were never described I got the impression they were shooting M-16's. The smell of gunpowder and fixing of bayonets seemed out of place 800 years from now. The most sophisticated weapon was a grenade launcher..there was mention of "beamers" but no description and only some of group had them for an unknown reason. In fact they were nearly overwhelmed by rebels with bolt-action hunting rifles! Perhaps because they were mercenaries rather than an army, but the background tactics seemed poor, there was little arial recon, no landing zone, they were constantly running out of ammo because they couldn't land the shuttles, they had no machine guns, no tanks, no powered armor, no armored vehicles except some shuttles that could deliver a bombardment but couldn't handle a handheld rebel rocket. An awfully primitive-sounding elite merc army of the future. On the plus side, the lack of tech meant that you are right there as they creep through the forest waiting for a sniper to put a shot through someone...and this part of the story is where it really shines, following along as the squad creeps toward a suspected enemy position, our hero wondering if he will wilt under fire, etc. All in all a good read, just don't go in expecting cool high tech weapons or a big complex story.
Rating:
Summary: Not Millitary Scifi at its Best
Review: I write this review rougly five minutes after growing disgusted with Officer-Cadet and flipping it across my room into a dusty corner. Some day I'll take it to a used bookstore so someone else can suffer this litterary landmine for less than the cover price.
I am a huge fan of run and gun scifi. My preferences run from David Drake (my favorite), to the StarWars novels, to Honor and her ilk and beyond. A cover depicting a space marine and a plot about mercs is usually enough to snag my attention and make that last payment on my credit card a few dollars more and a few days further away. Officer-Cadet had the picture and described the plot...but there was nothing between page 1 and 279 to even keep me awake. There isn't much plot to speak of and what plot there is, is propped up by every niggling cliche in the book (forgive the pun).
I only hope Rick Shelley's other books are better, though I seriously doubt I'll spend the time or money to find out.
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