The author, Marko Kloos, said this book was difficult to write in 2020 due to Covid 19 and frequent US political disruptions. I think it came out well, however. Kloos told the story from the perspective of four principal characters, each of whom was developed in the first book of the Palladium Wars series. Citadel is book three in that series.

After losing his former ship in the last book, Commander Dunstan Park is assigned to a new top-secret Rhodian navy experimental cruiser equipped with a powerful AI that can quickly hack into, and take over the computer systems of, any ship; he uses the cruiser to go after Rhodia pirates who blew up one of Rhodia’s cities thus killing hundreds of thousands of civilians. Park partially accomplishes that mission.

Living under his false identity, Aden and the crew of a merchant ship he’s employed on are attacked by an assassin in retribution for the merchant ship’s crew turning over a nuclear device they found in a shipment they were delivering to Rhodian authorities. One of his crew members, Tristan, was killed in that attack. Grieving the loss of their shipmate and friend, the crew set out to entrap the Gretian nationalists’ members who had anonymously hired them ship the stolen nuclear device. After discovering the nature of that shipment and turning it over to authorities, the Gretian’s took out a contract on their lives. Aden and the rest of the crew agree to act as bait to draw the nationalists into a trap that, hopefully, would lead to their arrest by the Rhodesian Navy. The Navy was able to capture three of the avenging nationalists’ ships with the fourth getting away.

Meanwhile, Idina Chaudhary is on Gretia as part of an occupying force assigned with the protection of alliance dignitaries. The Gretian nationalists attack an armored vehicle that she’s traveling in and then attack and destroy the capital city’s police headquarters, almost killing Solveig Ragnar, Aden’s sister. At the end of the book, a task force of highly trained soldiers is established to root out and destroy the planet’s nationalist fighters.

Solveig returns from a successful diplomatic mission for Ragnar Industries and gets a greater amount of freedom from her father’s control. She can now openly go out with the handsome Gretian police detective introduced in the last book. Visiting him at the police headquarters canteen for a lunch date, the building is attacked and she is almost killed. As she recuperates, she learns that her father may have had some part in that attack. While that disclosure is hinted at, its story will not come out until the next book in this series.

The story in book three, Citadel, is alternately told from the perspective of each of these main characters. Kloos does a good job of keeping the storyline separate but the story increasingly coalesces around the guerilla war being waged by the Gretian nationalists. I hope Kloos can wrap up the series in the next book as I don’t welcome book series, like Kloos’ Frontlines series, that go on indefinitely.

I’ve read several books by Markos Kloos and think that he is a military Sci-Fi writer who adds multi-dimension to his characters. Although they progress slowly, his stories keep me reading. Kloos tends to use cliffhangers to ensure that readers purchase the next book in a series. The primary cliffhanger at the end of Citadel is finding out what role the chief industrialist of Gretia has with the Gretian’s nationalist insurgency. ( )

Oh yes. Good fun books at the start which tended to get more philosophical (not in a bad way I might add) as they went on. And yes, these are the ones where planets specialise in international exports of trained people. Some are scientists, others probably toilet cleaners but the Dorsai specialise in war (in a mystic sort of way following the arrival of the Exotic influenced Cletus Grahame), as do, to a lesser extent, the religious fanatics of the Friendly societies.

There are also some warhammer books that are reasonable military SF. I'd simply note once again that Banks can simply wish away hard military decisions with the vast resources the Culture has which the far more balanced Warhammer political-military condition cannot (and I am speaking as a big Culture fan - vide my reviews elsewhere). For example in “Consider Phlebas” the Culture can destroy a neutral, unarmed, civilian, installation creating millions of refugees and its sort-of OK because only people that refuse to leave their homes (the old, insane and - as is made clear - those that are murdered in the resulting turmoil) are slaughtered. It may be pacifist, but its still arguably a long way from moral. And that's without touching the horror of the “Use of Weapons”, “Stabarinde”, and “The Chairmaker”.

Before starting “The Palladium Wars” I was actually struggling to think of MilSF that does not portray war as the dirty and dehumanising activity that it is. Actually in 99% of MilSF it’s probably normal to show that characters that think/declare that war is glorious are either a) nuts b) ignorant or c) being exceptionally sarcastic. ( )

I have been anticipating the release of this book for a year. The author, Marko Kloos, said that the book was difficult to write in 2020 due to Covid 19 and frequent US political disruptions. It came out well, however. Kloos told the story from the perspective of four principal characters developed in the first book of the Palladium Wars series. Citadel is book three in that series.

After losing his former ship in the last book, Commander Dunstan Park is assigned to a new top-secret Rhodian navy experimental cruiser equipped with a powerful AI that can quickly hack into, and take over the computer systems of, any ship. He uses it to go after the unknown Rhodia attackers who blew up one of Rhodia’s cities killing hundreds of thousands of civilians. He partially accomplishes that.

Living under his false identity, Aden and the crew of a merchant ship he’s working on are attacked by an assassin in retribution for the crew turning over a nuclear device they found in their shipment to the authorities. One of his crew members, Tristan, was killed in the attack. Grieving the loss of their shipmate and friend, the crew set out to entrap the Gretian nationalists’ members who had anonymously hired them and then taken out a contract on their lives. They agreed to act as bait to draw the nationalists into a trap that would lead to their arrest by the Rhodesian Navy. The Navy was able to capture three nationalists’ ships with the fourth getting away.

Meanwhile, Idina Chaudhary is on Gretia, protecting the alliances’ occupying force. The Gretian nationalists attack an armored vehicle that she’s traveling in to protect an alliance dignitary. That same nationalist group then attacks and destroys the capital city’s police headquarters, almost killing Solveig Ragnar, Aden’s sister. At the end of this book, a task force of highly trained soldiers is established to root out and destroy the planet’s nationalists’ fighters.

Solveig returns from a successful diplomatic mission for Ragnar Industries and gets a greater amount of freedom from her father’s control. She can now openly go out with the handsome Gretian police detective introduced in the last book. Visiting him at the police headquarters canteen for a lunch date, the building is attacked and she is almost killed. As she recuperates, she learns that her father may have had some part in that attack. While that disclosure is hinted at, its story will not come out until the next book in this series.

The story in book three, Citadel, is alternately told from the perspective of each of these main characters. Kloos does a good job of keeping the storyline separate but the story increasingly coalesces around the guerilla war being waged by the Gretian nationalists. I hope that Kloos can wrap up the series in the next book as I don’t welcome book series that go on indefinitely, like Kloos’ Frontlines series for example.

Markos Kloos is a good military Sci-Fi writer who adds multi-dimension to his characters. Although they progressing slowly, his stories hold my interest and keep me reading. Kloos tends to use cliffhangers to assure that readers purchase the next book in a series. The primary cliffhanger at the end of Citadel is finding out what role the chief industrialist of Gretia has with the Gretian’s nationalist insurgency. ( )