In John Dalmas’s Soldiers, 14,000 alien warships appear from nowhere in the human Commonwealth and start attacking entire planets, exterminating all of the humans, and resettling and terraforming these worlds for themselves – kind of six limbed, powerful mini-dinosaurs with brains and guns. Typically all humans die. The Commonwealth doesn’t even find out about this until this has happened to several planets and warning is gotten away secretly.

The Commonwealth is unprepared for this, as it hasn’t had war in centuries, and it has virtually no fleet nor army to speak of. In order to get the time to build up both, more worlds will fall and more people will die.

A lot happens in this book as we follow one particular group of recruits from a religious-based (as in zealots) planet as they train, as well as following the build up of the fleet and the tactics used in an effort to gain intelligence and to “annoy” the enemy. Additionally, there are peaceniks at home who think this is all a hoax, "peaceniks" who want peace so badly, they are willing to kill to get it. It all makes for good drama and a pretty good book. The ultimate land and orbital battles are tactically gripping and are well written. You can draw certain conclusions from this book, philosophically, although I wouldn’t put it in the same category as Ender’s Game or its sequels. Still, if you want to think about things, you can. If you don’t want to, just enjoy the explosions. It’s typical Dalmas – a four star book and recommended. ( )

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