**Warning** This post may contain mild spoilers for the first 6 books in the Frontlines series. I will keep them to a minimum, but avoiding them all is nearly unavoidable.
Over the years, humanity has managed not only to make a firm, final stand in the solar system, but they have also been able to clear out most of the Lanky invaders on Mars. Now, seven books into the series, they are finally getting the strength to push back and reclaim ground. What happens when a small human fleet revisits the site of the first Lanky contact? Where do these invaders originate, and what exactly can the humans do to gain a permanent reprieve?
I started reading the Frontlines series from Marko Kloos years ago soon after his first book was released. I have enjoyed the other books in the series well enough that I make each additional book an instant pre-order (I am sure that will give some indication about what kind of review I will give this book).
Orders of Battle was written by Marko Kloos (author’s website and Amazon profile showing his other books) who is best known for this Frontlines series. He has also released two books in his newer Aftershocks series, and he has written various short stories (including a great little 1-hour contribution to the Wild Cards collection). Orders of Battle was released on December 8, 2020. The paperback is 271 pages long so it is a slightly shorter read.
Read on for a detailed breakdown, or click here to jump to the conclusion.
We can travel between star systems and harness the power of the sun in our spaceships, but we’re still worried about pissing off the fates if we skip the proper supplications.
Plot
Orders of Battle throws Andrew Grayson back into the thick of things. The Lankies (gigantic bipedal aliens with whom the humans still cannot communicate) have been pushed back after the major battle on Mars; however, the armed forces still find a way to throw Andrew back into the thick of things. They are launching the first expedition outside the solar system since the invasion, and Andrew ends up on that voyage heading back to the exact system where he was part of the human’s first encounter with the Lankies.
The plot mostly just follows this trip out to start exploring areas that the Lankies have controlled for decades. Honestly, I felt that the plot was a bit incomplete and underdeveloped. It falls into the trap of relying too much on just creating a pretense for some action. Some of the other books in this series have had a similar issue, but most have had slightly more realized plots than this one.
Kloos does throw in a twist near the end which helps both with creating more interest for this book’s plot and with expanding the lore for the entire series. Unfortunately, the twist serves mostly to underline how weak the other plot points were. When I reached the end, I felt like I had only read the intro for a longer and better book. That being said, it does give me hope for the following book (or books; I am unsure of his future plans).
Worldbuilding/Series Connection
As mentioned in the plot section above, Kloos includes a bit of a twist near the end of the book that opens up his universe and creates lots of possibilities for future entries. Unlike most of his earlier books (which were quite episodical and wrapped most things up by the end), this book leaves a lot of threads open and ends on quite a cliffhanger. As such, it serves as a great entry for fans of the series and expands on the previous worldbuilding a lot. I am quite curious to see where he takes his series from here.
Characters
Saying something new about characters when reviewing the seventh entry in a series can be difficult. How much more can you learn about a character after that amount of time? In the case of Orders of Battle, the answer, surprisingly, is “a decent amount”. Kloos shows a maturing Andrew Grayson (the main character and first-person narrator for the book) who is dealing with growing older in the armed forces. Throughout the series, Andrew has faced the trials of war, dealt with the shock of losing friends, struggled with PTSD, and managed a long-term relationship. In this book, we get to see Andrew experiencing general fatigue, becoming comfortable with the realization that he is now one of the “old guys”, and reckoning with the difficulty of long separation from his wife, Halley.
Kloos’ character work with Andrew is great as always. The writing shows that Kroos is himself a veteran. Though I do not have any military experience and can, therefore, not bring personal experience to bear, I can say that no other work of fiction has struck so many of the same notes that I get when reading military accounts like With the Old Breed and Band of Brothers. The realism in military life and psychological stressors makes the Frontlines series feel like it is actually a memoir of an alien war.
However, the remaining characters are far less developed in Orders of Battle. Most of the Frontlines series has a least a few memorable supporting characters, yet I got to the end of this book without really caring much about anyone besides Andrew. Halley was a notable absence. Of course, having her somewhere else helps emphasize the loneliness of deployments (which would be important for what Kloos was trying to do with Andrew), and including her on the mission would have seemed like a little too much deus ex machina–even for a series that flirts with the author’s hand being a bit too visible in the plots at times anyways.
Prose
Like the excellent character work with Andrew, I can feel some of Kloos’ military experience bleeding through into the prose. He has a way of making both the daily life of the characters and the explosive action scenes feel immersive and realistic. I especially appreciate his use of military slag for his futuristic weapons; that creation of new military slag for new equipment shows a continuity of culture from now until his invented future and adds a touch of believability to it.
Conclusion
As should be no surprise after my intro, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will have the next book pre-ordered as soon as I see it available for the Kindle. However, I cannot say that it was without its flaws. The characters (other than Andrew) were like cardboard cut-outs without much to distinguish them. The plot was a bit thin, and it felt like I had read only the first half of a longer book with a fuller plot. Despite those issues, I would gladly buy Orders of Battle again. The explosive action sequences and furthering of the universe are worth the small flaws, and it will please any fan of Frontlines.
You should read this if …
- You have been reading the other Frontlines books
- You enjoy military sci-fi. This series is one of my favorites in that genre.
- You like military memoirs. I often feel like Kloos is writing his own life as a veteran into his sci-fi world.
