- Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
- Publisher: Ace (MM); First Edition edition (Jan 11 2002)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0441008348
- ISBN-13: 978-0441008346
- Product Dimensions: 17 x 10.4 x 2.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 363 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,346,615 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Mixed Bag of Grunts,
By
This review is from: Spec Ops Squad Holding The Line (Mass Market Paperback)
Holding the Line is the first novel in the Spec Ops Squad series. During the war with the Ilion Federation, Bart Drak is the squad leader of a special ops squad in the Ranger Battalion of the 1st Combined Regiment, a unit including every species in the Alliance of Light.In this novel, Bart has just returned from Dintsen, where his ranger battalion has been mauled by the surprise attack that started the war with the Ilion. Since the unit was on Dintsen only for joint training with a divotect battalion, the casualty rate in his unit was very high -- 75% dead -- and even worse among the divotect. Bart is training infantry recruits at Fort Campbell when he is pulled out of the field to meet Major Wellman, the battalion commander, to be informed that he has volunteered for the 1st Combined Regiment. As usual, he and Wellman get thoroughly irritated at each other. Bart's orders say that he is to report for transport to Dancer, a previously uninhabited world in the middle of nowhere. There he meets his squad: Lance Corporal Fred Wilkins, the only other human; Corporal Ying'vi Souvana and Lance Corporal Trau'vi Kiervauna, the porracci; Privates Iyi Col Hihi and Oyo Col Hihi, the biraunta; Private Jaibie, the abarand; Private Ooyonoa, the divotect; and Privates Fang and Claw, the ghuroh (whose real names are impossible to spell or to pronounce). Although Bart has been warned that porracci are aggressive and replace their superiors through trial by combat, he is not told that biraunta are terrified of porracci. Moreover, the ghuroh do not even arrive until the eleventh week of training. The regiment's first assignment is to take back Dintsen from the Ilion Federation. They will be reinforced with a porracci battalion and two additional mobile artillery batteries, but they will face an estimated six battalions of combat troops, mostly tonatin. They are already outnumbered six-to-five going in, not counting the defenders advantage in a spaceborne assault. This novel portrays future warfare from the point of view of the men who fight and die in the war zones. The author has at least a nodding acquaintance with military terminology and practices, but I can't find any mentions of military service in his (rather short) bio. In any case, he makes this story come alive; you feel like you are serving at Bart's side in garrison and in combat. Recommended for Shelley fans and anyone who enjoys small-unit combat SF stories.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good, but can you include some more plausible technology?,
By justin (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Spec Ops Squad Holding The Line (Mass Market Paperback)
I don't read SF, but have been looking for near-future/future military/space novels, and I was browsing the SF shelves at one of my local bookstores and picked up SOS: Holding the Line. Looked good, interesting concept, so i picked it up, saying to myself that if this [was weak], i wouldn't follow the series or the author. I was pleasantly surprised to find myself enjoying the action, and the interaction between the humans and the various alien species of the Alliance of Light. What I was disappointed about was the lack of believable weaponry, sensors and equipment that the 1st Combined Regiment used. I was also a bit miffed that there were some ground units, such as artillery, but no tanks or IFVs, and there wasn't any description of the aerospace fighters or its weaponry. Ok, i'm probably being a bit too picky, because it's essentially about the rangers,not the Grand Alliance's spacecraft, ground units, or other cool weaponry. For those two reasons i gave it four stars instead of five. It has however got me interested in military SF and i have added John Ringo, Ian Douglas and Rick Shelley to my bookshelves.Reading Deep Strike at the moment, enjoying it so far!
4.0 out of 5 stars
Surprisingly beleivable,
By Andrey Subbotin (Moscow, Russia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Spec Ops Squad Holding The Line (Mass Market Paperback)
Unlike the usual smart alec mil-sf heroes, Drak and his squad of assorted aliens go where brass sends them, shoot enemy, get shot at, do not know big picture until much later and do NOT save the universe by daring action. The general feeling is not one of adventure, but of hard, unpleasant, dangerous work that has to be done.This basic honesty and unwillingness to entertain is strangely charming, reminding me of WW2 memoirs. Buy this book if you like careful, unhurried world-building for the sake of itself. Do not buy it if you like adventure and galactic intrigue.
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