Very good read, kept my attention focused for the entire book. Saw in the reviews that some people were put off by the betrayal by members of our own species but I thought the author conveyed both the good and the bad pretty realistically.
For the record this book is an adventure in space with lots of sneaking and space warfare among alien races, with the humans being so far outgunned that they send out patrols for the express purpose of scavenging the destroyed ships for any technology they can reverse engineer or simply use. Victoria, as captain of the Vulture, finds some shared values with another race and tries to aid them as a scout. Her plan is betrayed by another human.. A really strong story which has me looking forward to the next book.
There books are well edited, stand alone, full book length editions.

To Fall Among Vultures by Scott Warren is the second book in the Union Earth Privateers series. Once more we get to strap in with Victoria “Vick” Marin, captain of the U.E. Condor, as they search for salvage while staying under the radar of the many other, more powerful species roaming the galaxy. Vick’s Vultures, the first book in the series, did not fare well in terms of my review, earning a two rocket rating. Normally I would not have continued with this series given the failure of the first book to impress me. But I received To Fall Among Vultures from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review and so I set out to honor my side of the deal. Unfortunately, where Vick’s Vultures had a fairly linear storyline that, while not executed well, was at least somewhat easy to follow, To Fall Among Vultures is just plain confusing and I ultimately had to give up.

The series story ideas as a whole are not entirely bad. Earth is a small fish in a very big ocean; they realize very quickly that their best chance for survival is to stay hidden, all the while utilizing privateers to salvage advanced technology from wrecked or otherwise disabled ships belonging to the many other races that are technologically superior to Earth. I give credit to the author: for once humans aren’t the best and the brightest in the galaxy. It’s a setting that really had a lot of potential.

Unfortunately that potential is never realized because the story is just do darn difficult to follow because of the poor writing. Characters are never really given life, point of views seem to switch with reckless abandon, and, with dialog, it’s really difficult to figure out who is saying what.

I’m giving To Fall Among Vultures a single rocket rating as befits a DNF. Sadly, I will not be continuing with the Union Earth Privateers series.

"To Fall Among Vultures" eBook was published in 2017 and was written by Scott Warren (https://www.facebook.com/scottwarrenSCD/). Mr. Warren has published five novels, this being the second in his "Union Earth Privateers" series.

I categorize this novel as ‘R’ because it contains scenes of Violence. The story is set in the far future, with the primary character of Captain Victoria Marin of the space craft Condor.

Marin leads one of the few Earth Privateer ships that is scouring the galaxy for any technology that can be salvaged, bought or stolen to help advance Earth. Generally the Privateers keep a low profile and out of the way of the 'big three' space civilizations.

Marin is approached with a potential deal to bring Earth an ally in what is growing into a war between two of the 'big three'. She and her crew are drawn into a major battle. She also finds herself at odds with another Privateer.

I enjoyed the 7.5 hours I spent reading this 234 page science fiction thriller. I like the concept of Earth as a 'third-world' in space tech, having to scrounge to survive and advance. I thought that the characters were well developed in the story. The only complaint I have is that the story seems unfocused in places. While this is the second in a series, it reads well on its own, though I did read the prior novel "Vick's Vultures". The cover art is OK, depicting a scene in the story. I give this novel a 3.8 (rounded up to a 4) out of 5.

Further book reviews I have written can be accessed at https://johnpurvis.wordpress.com/blog/.

My book reviews are also published on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/31181778-john-purvis).

This is a wonderful space opera which follows on nicely from the first book.
If you enjoy military space opera this is for you.

"Fall" is a much darker book than "Vick's" and the ending leaves me feeling somewhat unsatisfied. I loved vick's vultures and the universe Scott has envisioned for the reader, so reading the second book was a given. Humans are struggling to survive in this hostile galaxy. Unfortunately they are technologically less advanced than the other three warlike civilizations. The captain struggles to keep humanity alive while still trying to stay true to her principle. There are very believable fight scenes and many realistic conundrums. The story has many good characters that were engaging and interesting. An overall really good military sci-fi adventure.

It happened again, folks: I read the second installment of a trilogy series without having read the first book. Damn. By the fourth chapter in I began feeling it though; Warren doesn’t forgive readers who stumble halfway into a series without getting something of a debrief session as each concept, technology, character, and element is thrown at you from left, right, and center.

I got the hang of it eventually though, and man…what an awesome story! I felt like a boxer in the ring with a champ; I’m dodging these blows but gradually my eye begins to kick in and I can read his movements, predict his next attack, foil his strategy.

To Fall Among Vultures is not for the faint of heart, and justifiably so. This is a high-octane military science fiction novel focusing on complex politics and out of this world action with lethal stakes should bad come to worse. Other than it being a bloody and violent compilation of hard-hitting military science fiction and space opera, To Fall Among Vultures is a great concept written with the flair for the dramatic.

Warren gives us everything and then some.

I remember the good days, back in book one. Lots of scavengin', more than our fair share of close calls, some characters you'd like to see make it to the last page just don't luck out. But once you fly with Vick, ain't nothin' in the galaxy will keep you from boarding that ship. So when book two heads outta port, I'm on it.

Now, that mess of xeno bickerin' hasn't let up one bit. They still makin' the galaxy one helluva tough piece of black to slip around in. You'da thought then, what with all the super-tech ships getting tore up, we'd have plenty of scavengin' to keep us busy from Prologue to "The End". Ha. That woulda been a fair shake from your friendly neighborhood galaxy. When's the last time that ever happened? Well, Vick's Vultures don't fly in no fairy tales.

So guess what mess we fly headfirst into in this book? Mm-hmm, government. And wouldn'tya know it? Our fancy new hi-tech xeno allies, they got government too. And the big bad xenos, government. Even the super xenos that barely blink at all the other xenos. Government. So guess what happens to us Vultures stuck in the thick of it? Yeah, that's what I said, too.

So strap in for another ride, crack this book, and don't let go, 'cause it won't let you go.

The story and characters were far too complicated to easily keep track of. I do not think it flows easily from the previous book in the series. It has an interesting premise of Earthly humans being the backward hicks of the galaxy.

Another strong volume in the new Union Privateers series. This one took a while to get going, simply establishing a wide range of characters and alien races (it was actually quite confusing until about halfway through the book), but once the board was set, it was off to battle. And those were incredibly fascinating and amazing to read. The concepts were definitely hard science fiction, and contained concepts that I have never seen before.

Really looking forward to the next book!