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Title: Dark Operator
Series:
Galaxy's Edge: Dark Operator #1
Author: Doc
Spears
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre:
Mil-SF
Pages: 355
Words: 130K
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Synopsis: |
From Galaxysedge.fandom.com & Me
Legion Dark Ops has always been a unit shrouded in secrecy.
Tasked with performing covert missions, its kill teams are filled with the best warriors from within the ranks of the Legion.
Kel Turner is one of the youngest legionnaires ever to be selected to its ranks. After many battles and trials, he is faced with the greatest challenge of his life - operating by himself on a remote planet at the galaxy's edge, a foot soldier for the policies of the duplicitous House of Reason, tasked with solving a crisis that would take ten kill teams to resolve.
Diplomats, spies, shadowy terrorist groups, and an enigmatic general work with and against Kel as he fights to save a society from itself. What can one operator do alone, separated from his kill team, fighting a war that has no name?
Once Kel has turned around the various police forces of the planet and done a lot of good work, he's asked to leave. Immediately. By the very man he thought was his friend on the planet, the titular head of security for the Families.
Once he reaches Republic Space, he finds out that that same man used the skills Kel gave him and his men to overthrow the Families and establish himself as Dictator. And all of this was known about and used by the politicians of the Republic.
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My Thoughts: |
This was MUCH better than the Order of the Centurion sub-series (which I dnf'd partway through). While still not engaging in a tone of space opera that the original series does, this managed to be a thoroughly enjoyable military SF romp. Part of my enjoyment, and focused me on what I didn't enjoy about Order, was that Kel is a pretty well rounded guy. I guess my problem with Order was that I was reading about guys who were breaking apart in some way or other, and the testing that Tyrus Rechs set up for even getting into the Legion should have weeded out fellows like that. Here, Kel is everything I expect to read about when reading about the Dark Operators, the top of the top of the Legion.
He's young, not stupid, but naive in terms of just how the galaxy works in certain ways. It takes him by surprise when the Security Chief takes over using a coup. He's really surprised when his best friend is killed by the Zhee and he finds out that the head of the Dark Operators helped train Zhee back in the day. He's a great mix of deadly, competent and naive.
The story was good too. Kell is on a world that is experiencing some civil unrest and is helping the security forces get a handle on things. As such there is a lot of military action but it is liberally leavened with social things like going out to eat or going to a party. For me, it was perfectly balanced between straight up Mil-SF and good old fashioned adventure.
I'm looking forward to the next one. And once I'm done with this 5book sub-series, I'll have to see what kind of back catalog Doc Spears has of his own original stuff.
★★★✬☆
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