The Cost of Victory: Crimson Worlds

Good quick read, with only one major spelling mistake. Please built not build. Okay, the military part was not bad and flowed fairly evenly. I think the nuclear attack sections on planet as a bit 'undercooked' and the nuclear missile proximity strikes way 'overvalued'. Okay rocks and trenches are NOT much protection during a strike. Contamination seems to be ignored totally and no attempt at de-contamination. Dirty stays dirty until cleaned. Secondly, powered suits are the same as human hands when trying to move rock, sand and debris; not fast, not pretty and watch it fall away in your hands. Powered suits are not excavators, though the story uses it so. Another bad use; powered infantry hiding in tunnels. First tunnels are very seismic intolerant and secondly they are not constructed for billeting powered suits. Tunnels also are NOT easily modified, talk months at least. Secondly, who forgot the infrastructure needs like recharge and air purification, not to mention a shower. Stand off for a couple of months and these guys would have been squealing in their cages. Note the artifact dig concealment, also met NO livability standards and would have been impossible. Space missile, near miss strikes are just humbug. Shockwaves in space caused by nuclear spitballs? The radiation effect would have spread at speed of light in every direction; nothing to confine the effect means little to NO effect. Sorry, NO seegar. Remember nuclear bombs, no matter the size are NOT even a stellar sneeze. Big writer mistake. Intelligence is NOT intelligent. Logistics telegraph movement and involve thousands of non-secure transmissions (millions/billions when talking interstellar). So NO secret confab between major alliances, too many insecure points. NO stellar or national power is going to volunteer it's major military resources on nothing less than rock-hard facts. Always, let the other guys beat themselves silly and then strike hard. If I want it and he wants it then we are in conflict even after we take it from the possessor. Intelligence agencies make very poor king makers and fare even worse through time. NO real political base, unless you are a total Hooverian FBI believer. Note, I understand the society is Nazi or red Socialist but still, it is incredibly fragile at stellar scale. This book has the greatest RED Orchestra ever imagined. As a major player Intelligence agencies are only good in books, not reality. So 5 for the military passages, just for really good story spiel. 3 for unreasonable parameters. Thanks, Harry!

I've just read 'Marines' and I loved it. Have just purchased next book in the series, 'The Cost of Victory,' and am looking forward to reading it asap.

One thing I would like to sincerely congratulate Amazon, the Publisher, and the author - whomever is responsible - on is the inclusion of an extremely well thought out and detailed listing of the author's books and their reading order. So simple, yet so appreciated!!!! Please Amazon, each and every author who has written a series ought to have such a clearly defined addition to the promotional/descriptive blurb of each of their works. It saves so much confusion and faffing about!!

The first one was ok to good. I could not get into this one. Jay Allen cranks these out pretty fast and I think it shows. I believe this is more evident if you have been reading SF for a long time. I started reading SF in the late 50s-last century..

Another good read in military sci-fi. Less character development than in "Marines" but more fighting in a smaller time-frame.
Also introduced are what appears to be a "secret government" running the Alliance and, at least, some of its enemies, the remains of an alien presence on an Alliance world and familial complications for Sarah.
It's a good "beach read" but there are too many grammatical, punctuation and usage errors--could have used a good editor and galley proofing.

Excellent reading!

great

Second volume/chapter as good as the first. Hope to see more from Mr. Allan. Can't wait for more. Ho, ho, ho.