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fickman wrote:The Man in the High Castle

I watched the series on Amazonedout... wondered about the book. Is it any good?

I'm a big fan of Tom Clancy and W.E.B. Griffith and military-techno fiction. And, I'm a big fan of science fiction, primarily space-opera/military/futurist/alien worlds rather than the wizards and fairae type of science fiction.

I've just discovered a guy that combines my interests quite nicely... Joshua Dalzelle (http://www.facebook.com/Joshua.Dalzelle) . I'm now reading the final novel (of 7) in the series: Omega Force. Here's a synopsis...

A former US Air Force pararescueman (the Air Force's contribution to Special Ops forces) is disillusioned after being deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan during the current fluff up, and takes his leave, retreating into the Rocky Mountains where he lives an self-isolated life. One night, an flying craft crashes nearby, and our hero grabs his AR-15 and his rucksack filled with medical supplies to go see if he can render any aid. Upon reaching the craft, it doesn't look like anything he's familiar with, but there's a ramp so he climbs in, only to be stuck inside with the craft decides to close up and take off.

He manages to get up tot he command level, and having been startled by an intelligent robot (OK, a man-made sentient lifeform), lets loose with a 5.56mm round into the avionics, causing some amount of trouble, and the alien stuns him into unconsciousness. Awaking later in the medical bay of the ship, he finds that he's on an incredible man-o-war being flown by Deetz, the automaton with a surly sense of humor. Co-opted into going along for the ride, the PJ, Jason Burke, becomes embroiled into space hijinks of the dangerous kind. Deetz turns out to be more than he looks like, and Jason Burke winds up taking over the spacecraft that he renames Phoenix, finds several new friends, and runs around the known galaxies as a future day good guy in search of bad guys to teach a lesson to.

There is adult language involved, some of which seems to be present just because the author can get away with it. Otherwise, sometimes it seems like it's a 13-year old boy talking. Nevertheless, the interpersonal (can you say that when you're talking about two non-Earthlings???) relationships that develop, the antics the crew of the Phoenix get in to, and the outside presence of rich, do-gooders helping out the crew of the Phoenix, help Omega Force (that's the name of this mercenary group) run around the galaxy keeping busy with ne'er do wells.

Like I said - I've finished the first six books... all in about a week. So, you can see that I've been well-entertained by the series, and can recommend it to anyone that wants a bit of swashbuckling intergalactic action that doesn't require much introspection or thought.

Available on Amazon in Kindle format (as well as hardcopy)..
Omega Force Series Omnibus (Books 1-3) $4.99 (not bad deal to get started to see if you'd like it)
Omega Force 7-books series ($24.93 - a bit of a discount over ordering them individually)
Omega Force (OF1) Omega Rising
Omega Force (OF2) Soldiers of Fortune
Omega Force (OF3) Savage Homecoming
Omega Force (OF4) The Enemy Within
Omega Force (OF5) Return of the Archon
Omega Force (OF6) Secret of the Phoenix
Omega Force (OF7) Redemption

The Last Praetorian (The Redemption Triology), by Mike Smith.