| Title | : | Direct Fire (Drop Trooper, #4) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 324 |
| Publication | : | First published July 8, 2020 |
From outcast to Marine officer.
The journey has been a long one, but now it’s reaching the end.
Cam Alvarez leads his platoon of Drop-Troopers into the Tahni Imperium, into the final days of the war and the bloodiest battles yet.
The Tahni will throw everything they have into the defense of their core worlds, and when that includes using their own civilians as shields, Lt. Cam Alvarez will have to decide whether to follow orders and fire on civilians or follow his conscience and risk his career…
Direct Fire (Drop Trooper, #4) Reviews
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A great read
Ok, if you don't like long reviews, this is brilliant, I could not put it down. You will not be dissapointed. Not giving anything away here about the book, but another brilliant chapter in Cam's life. This is one of those series of books that is going to leave me begging for more when it is all over. Read sci-fi for over 40 years and believe me, this is impressive. Rick Partlow knows all the ingredients needed to keep you hooked and invested, but more than that, he knows how to put it all together to perfection.
I was so hooked I now have to go back and rate the other 3 books, I really didn't want to stop to even write a few lines.
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Alrighty then
Without writing a terribly long review I’ll hit up some goods and bads. To start I gave the book 3 stars on the fact that I thought the book was decent and had a solid merit of a plot I felt at times I had an honest struggle to finish Cam’s war. Nevertheless here are some of my observations.
The Good:
Cautionary Advice: The new leadership roles Cam is faced through his progression from platoon leader to company commander is both realistic and sincere. In terms of the character understanding the pressure of responsibility. Cams thought processes during battle are chaotic ridden with tough decisions. At Cams young age and a streamlined career in the Marines shows and the reader gets a steadfast feeling of what many young leaders in the military face in past and modern times. I truly loved how the author put his main character into the light while also giving the reader a lesson in militaristic authority. Nothing goes as planned.
The Drama: Without giving the book away all I can say is the book has some very raw dialogue and relatable emotions. I really liked how the author was able to put the reader into the head of Cam while at the same time jump in and out of conversations with other characters. Not a lot of authors can do this while maintaining the broad subject of the issues the main character is facing. Point of example was for me the whole thing between Cam and Captain Conje was extremely hostile and I felt it in the pages. There are other dramatic points of friction for our youthful 1stlt but for me that relationship and conclusion was very insightful.
The Bad:
Meh Battles & Climaxes: While most reviews on this book in the series are very positive and love the fast paced conflict scenes, I on the other hand did not. First off I hate jumping straight into a battle when the a book starts. I need a buildup with clarity on what the mission is going to be. Book 4 is no different than any other of the books in the series in terms of battle progressions, all of which are cut throat action. I value the same action but with a steady flow of information with a crap ton of schematics of equipment, troop concentration, enemy logistics, and purpose of mission. You do get some of these category’s in this book and series but it will be pulling treats to get extra info. Point blank I hate the space battles. The author leaves a a lot of speculation on how the navy takes care of their business in the skies. The technology makes no sense and there was a lot of times I was lost in the sauce. Hopefully the next books go into a little more depth.
Hard to Follow: I think this one goes on me for not reading this series back to back. I jump around books and I pick back up their series in a month or less. In any case it is very hard for me to remember what happened in the last book due to the fact the author does little time in catching the audience up. Again a lot of it is speculation. There are some grammatical errors in the book as well for example there is time when the author calls a character a guy when he explained she was a female earlier. Stuff like that. I highly recommend to read the book in order because his books don’t go light on non consistent readers of the series.
Well there you have it. Still a decent read but I loved book 3 more so than book 4. I’m still sticking with the series and look forward to Homefront.
~Alex -
Really well done. Read my update. Rick writes excellent battle scenes. Good action, tension, and character interaction. Solid series.
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It's honest entertainment, with a few flaws, including increasingly painful monologues over the episodes.
The battles are sometimes a bit confusing.
But it's still fun to read. -
What a ride!
Starts fast and keeps on rolling. Great character development and world-building, tremendously believable battles and characters you’ll remember long after you regretfully close the book last chapter. I’ll be back for more of this series, you can bet on it! -
Good series
This series was really good. I sat and read it in about 2 weeks. Good to be on vacation. Now the wait until the next one. -
What a great author!
I’ve read the wide majority of his books now, and I’ll be sad when I complete them all. This man writes with a solid competence, combined with a level of maturity seldom found in today’s author’s. None of the ridiculous gratuitous sex, none of the whiny millennial dialogues, just good hard storytelling, while allowing the reader the courtesy of filling in the blanks for themselves. Plenty of detail, without bogging us down with too much fantasy-science. All his stories to date have encapsulated well hewn intriguing plot lines. This man is an epic “big picture” poet and a master of prose. Thank you Sir. -
I like this whole series. This one was very bitter sweet (no spoilers), but I did actually shed a tear in this one. Well done!
Looks like one more coming this fall? Can’t wait. -
This was a little disappointing since it felt like a step back from the previous book. I think I've finally pinned down what it is about this series that holds it back a little: the lack of supporting characters that feel like they actually contribute.
This book, in particular, felt like the antagonistic characters were borderline caricatures.
I enjoyed my experience, but I also feel no motivation to continue beyond this book. -
Another great book and another terrifying battle or two! Not much rest between these battle for young Cameron Alvarez and his Drop Troopers. While he accomplished the mission in the last book, it cost him and his unit quite a lot. Gone is his Platoon Sergeant Scotty Hayes. He bought the big one in the last battle. It will near impossible for Lt. Alvarez to replace him, but as it happens, his replacement has already been assigned. Gunnery Sgt. Bernie "Bang-Bang" Morrel is now in that slot and the platoon is getting work done like they should.
That's what happens in wars. You lose people and then you start to think about it too much. Some guys can't handle the constant lost of friends and buddies, so they start treating the new guys like they don't exist, except to be more targets for the enemy. It was bothering Lt. Alvarez so much so that he did seek out the Battalion shrink. It's surprising they had one. Whether she did him any good or not has yet to be seen. And anyway, Lt. Cameron Alvarez doesn't have time to think about a lot of stuff right now anyway.
He still has Vicky although she's assigned to another company as a new Platoon leader also. They can talk once in awhile, but both are really busy getting ready for the next op and then the next one after that. The big push is on to reach the Tahni homeworld and end this war! That's fine with Cameron, but it also means there's going to be a lot of fighting in his and everybody else's future.
This next operation involves clearing out a hardened bunker. It's got some fixed gun emplacements that are tearing holes in a lot of Drop Troopers. Cameron comes up with a plan on how to end it and surprisingly his plan works. But, there are a lot of Tahni civilians around a particular warehouse and they prepare a pretty devastating IED that catches one platoon from Captain Cronje's company by surprise!
That IED goes off and kills four Drop Troopers and the Lt. in charge kind of goes bonkers! He's reported the incident to his CO, Capt. Cronje, and the Capt. then orders the Lt. to "take care" of the civilians. Now you can't go around killing unarmed civilians; everyone knows that and so does this Lt. and his Captain. Yet, they start lobbing grenades into a crowd of Tahni civilians until Lt. Alvarez and one of his platoons steps in-between the civilians and the extremely upset friendlies.
So, Lt. Alvarez gets accused of protecting the enemy and failing to obey an order in that he was also ordered to open up on the Tahni civilians. Cameron knew that the order was an illegal one and he morally didn't have to follow it and neither did the other Lt. But, he did and now someone is going to have to pay for killing civilians, maybe?
This book is pretty long. We go from one battle to the next and each one seems like it's going to be the last for Cameron. Either the war is going to end or it's going to end him, that's for sure.
The book does come to a pretty good ending and there's still another one in this series ("Home Front") although I can't figure out what it's going to be about. You see, Cameron is now out of the Marines and no longer a Drop Trooper! -
Direct Fire - a review by Rosemary Kenny
Direct Fire is the suitably apt title of Rick Partlow's 4th all-action dystopian military sci-fi novel in his outstanding Drop Troopers series, that 'stars' Lieutenant Cam(eron) Alvarez, the rough, tough leader with a valorous mind-set, that considers his Vigilantes/Drop Trooper fighters before himself.
An off-Earth mission with the valiant leaders 'Top' and 'Skipper' (and another not-so-brave one) the Marines/Troopers, must deploy to take out an enemy's outpost, before moving on to their home planet.
This fantastic episode (in a story that could easily be adapted for TV or big screen), sees Cam, lover Vicky Sandoval and their platoons having to overcome unimaginable odds, while making sacrifices and bearing terrible losses, before they can return to Earth.
Sensational, imaginative writing, with extremely believable, relatable characters, non-stop action and a character-led plot narrated by Cam, Rick Partlow certainly knows how to satisfy a military sci-fi fan's greatest fantasy in Direct Fire.
Get a copy today and prepare for an out-of-this-world reading experience, that I can highly recommend! -
Old Breed Marines
As you can probably tell by the subject line, I thought this book and the ones before it remind of the World War II Marine Corps and their island hopping campaign in the Pacific. Being a Marine, the antagonists in this series reminds me of the Imperial Army of Japan during WW II. The fanaticism they show and beliefs are exact copies, I believe, of the Japanese during the war. The US Marines of the Old Breed, had to fight them the same way as the Commonwealth Marines of this book. To me it seems the substituted Drop Trooper for the amphibious landing. The same gut wrenching feeling both Marine Corps faced when invading a foreign shore, or planet. I know this because I've been there. This series is a must read for anyone who enjoys a real military sci-fi book. I really enjoyed this book and can't wait to read the rest of the series. If you're a Marine you can even overlook some of the little slips up like saluting indoors or calling a Jarhead a trooper, we are pretty anal that way. But like I said before it's a must read, and you'll really enjoy it.
SEMPER FI!!! -
I gobbled up the first four books in this series series in a week. I got so carried away I let my sleep schedule get messed up and I may have missed some words as I rushed to see what happened next in the action scenes.
Beware, you better be able to handle emotional military SF with a dirty mouth ("Port Harcourt was a hornet’s nest and we were about to stick our dicks in it."). As a bonus, there is a reference to a Doctor Who influenced alcoholic drink called a "sonic screwdriver" (recipes available on the web - look it up).
Another bonus, words of wisdom: "Life, he would say, is a grindstone. Whether it grinds you down or polishes you up depends on what you’re made of.” -
Drop in and stay
I am enjoying this series of books. It is the excitement of what will happen next. There are many Mil SciFi books out there with personal armor being a large part of the story. And it's also here in this book. What makes it different is the people you are reading about. Who are they? Where are they from? Where are they going? You will get hooked on the main character, and everyone he comes in contact with. You will hope that no one dies, but it is war so someone has to die.
Let's hope that there are 5 more books to read! -
Just as good as the previous three in the series. I did find myself wishing there was more denouement, something to wash down the suspense of the story with. Felt a little unsatisfied with the 2-3 page ending. There just wasn't enough closure. It kept me entertained with plenty of action that was only a little predictable and there were plenty of moments of introspection and well crafted prose. Cam's evolution morally and intellectually was subtly and satisfyingly done.
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Well, I think this is far as I'm going with series. Mostly because I read what the next book is about and I really can't stand when our hero starts drinking to cope. That's too much for me.
They finally battled their way to kill the Emperor and end the war with the Tahni. So, now it's just a question of what will be their next enemy.
No romance and the F bomb was used 393 times in ALL 4 books.
As for the narration: James Patrick Cronin did a great job on all 4 of the stories. -
This series doesn't seem to get old for me. Instead, I like it better and better with every book. I was seriously scared for the life of many characters and was definitely caring for most of them. I think this is one of the best military sci-fi books I read in a long time. And to be honest with my own rules, I have to give 5 stars to any book, when I immediately buy the next in the series and start it just after I finished the story. So, 5 stars.
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It's the perfect time to conclude this series. The author seems to be stretching it thin, and the subsequent installments feel somewhat forced. Perhaps the next four books could have been condensed into a single compelling side story. Nevertheless, I found this four-book journey quite engaging. Despite its ups and downs, the final installment wrapped things up nicely, making it a satisfying conclusion to the series.
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If you like military sci-fi, this book and series is for you. I enjoyed it just as much as the classics (Starship Troopers, The Forever War, Armor) and the newer greats of the genre. (Old Man’s War, Terms of Enlistment, Sentenced To War).
No bouncing around to multiple POVs and storylines, that can be tiring in some books. Simple and streamlined in the best way, and powerful.
I can’t say enough good things. -
I read the first 4 books in this series in one week. The characters are realistic as are the battle scenarios. The books have a great balance between training chapters and action chapters. I'm impressed with the character development of main character Cam Alvarez. The author does a great job at developing the inner thoughts of Cam as he progresses through the stories. In each book, his perspective and thought processes clearly mature.
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Kept me engrossed
I have only recently discovered this author, and I am very happy I have. I read one of his books and then bought all the others I could find. This is the last one I have read the characters are full bodied and believable. The story line has twists and turns that work, read you won’t be disappointed.
