Breakout (Fugitive Marines #1) ★★☆☆½

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Title: Breakout
Series: Fugitive Marines #1
Author: David Ryker & Douglas Scott
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 244
Words: 73.5K

Synopsis:

From Davidryker.com

When a meteor strike unleashes an alien intelligence bent on taking over the human race, only a ragtag band of ex-Marines can stop them.

The only problem is, they're in prison for a crime they didn't commit. For the next 98 years.

And their prison is two and a half billion kilometers from Earth on a good day.

And their fellow inmates want them dead.

Hey, nobody ever said saving the world would be easy.

My Thoughts:

While this wasn't “bad”, I did have much higher hopes that weren't met.

The entire tone of the book was of the flip, I'm so qualified that I'm not worried about you, light humor. After a while it began to grate. Here are 4 (or was it 5? I honestly couldn't tell you by the end of the book how many were in the group, more on that later) Marines in space jail for a crime they don't remember committing, suddenly fighting off an alien body snatcher invasion. And they quip and one liner for the entire time?

Of course, Mr Quinn, their leader, but not Captain because he's been stripped of that (we're reminded by him of this constantly), is Mr Muscles from Brussels (I wanted to write muskles from bruskles to imitate Popeye, but wasn't sure anyone would get the phrase if I mangled it that much) who is so conscientious and takes everything so seriously. But it fails, completely. He's an idea of a person, not an actual person.

That is probably my biggest issue with this book, everyone had their place and were the idea, not the person. And that is why I couldn't tell you if there were 4 or 5 guys in the force. There were first names, last names, possibly some nick names. They all had defining characteristics, but they weren't people. I don't know how to describe the lack, but it was evident. Then you had Miss Rich Love Interest Who Loves Everybody So Much that She Goes Outside Her Comfort Zone into Real Combat as a Medic. You know she and Captain Not Captain Muscles are going to fall in love, they have to. Their very character type demands it.

The background of the world was quite interesting. A world war that has seen the world divided into economic unions and space the new frontier. It had great underpinnings, just not the follow through. If you are looking for some quick Mil-SF to hoover through, you'll probably like this series. There are 4 books currently out, but I'm done. I simply don't care about the alien threat or how the Guys will solve their problems. They'll solve it and laugh and beat some heads and Miss RLIWLESMSGOHCZRCB and CnC Muscles will probably smooch. But the problem won't be fully solved, so you'll have to read the next book.

Waiter, I'd like my check please.

★★☆☆½