Review of A Soldier's Duty (Theirs Not to Reason Why)

Mini-review #6
This is the sixth of a series of short reviews for military SF and mecha SF.  You will not see a review of something I don't like as it isn't worth writing about in that case, but I will tell you what works for me and what doesn't about the stories I did like.  When I was writing my Exocrisis Blue stories and trying to find places to post about it or reviews of other mecha SF I was unable to find any, so I'm creating my own hub. Now onto the review.  For the master list of reviews, click here.
 
Is prophetic military SF a genre?   Jean Johnson has written a pretty good military SF novel in A Soldier's Duty.  I'm actually working my way through the sequel right now (and finding it a slower read at the beginning), but the first book was fairly gripping all the way through.  After reading it I actually wondered what else Jean has written.  When I went through her catalog afterwards I found she writes paranormal romances and such, but this particular work isn't a romance and I'm glad I didn't know that beforehand as it is a good military SF story!

Flickr / Defence Images

Hundreds of years in the future, mankind has spread out to the stars.  Our heroine, Ia, is from a heavy gravity world which gives her strength benefits, but she also has the gift of precognition and can see different future world lines.  Unfortunately she has foreseen a great disaster happening that cannot be stopped unless she manipulates events in a particular manner.  In fact most of the possible futures are bad.  Kind of like the Foundation foreseeing the collapse of the empire with psychohistory.  So Ia joins the marines and needs to gather allies and gain influence to alter things.

The first novel basically establishes her character and she uses her abilities to rise in the ranks and successfully complete missions with impossible odds.  Precognition definitely helps out here in combat.  How not to get shot!  You would think that battles would be anticlimactic because of her abilities, but they are still entertaining even though some of the tension is gone sometimes.  If you are looking for something entertaining with a different spin on things this book is worth a read.


Does it have a cast of characters listing? 
No.  

What is the scope / scale of the story? 
Small unit operations, raids.

Does it have likeable characters?
Yes.  Ia is pretty single-minded in her drive to save the galaxy.  Plenty of supporting characters and family members to boot.  You wonder who is going to live and become part of the cause.

Does it have an entertaining storyline?
Yes. There is enough hidden as to how Ia is going to succeed.  Obviously she can also fail, but can she pull off the rescue of the future?  I think it was written pretty good in this regard.  If people complain about predetermination, I'd disagree as most novels have heroes that succeed so that by itself is kind of like predetermination.

How is the internal consistency / plausibility?
Yes. No problems with the story.  This is a long novel in a good way.  As a writer I'm jealous, I'm more terse.  In terms of the battles scenes I would only have my standard complaint which is that the soldiers hundreds of years from now are equipped with weaponry that is roughly at our current technology level (I'd guess it would look antiquated in 20 years).  In fact, weaponry, technology, and tactics should be radically different that far in the future.  Book series like the Kris Longknife books by Mike Shephard also have this same problem, but I'm still reading that series too. Even with this complaint it is okay as I'm in it for the story first.

What cool bonus features are there?
Hey, Ia, is a precog who will gain additional abilities.  Interesting world building about the source of her powers (influenced by the paranormal romance angle? But I liked it.)