Books written in the first person are not a favorite of mine. I can’t help but hear Garrison Keillor’s voice in my head reading A Prairie Home Companion “Guy Noir” skit whenever I read books written in this style. However, the Points of Impact storyline is good. It’s that quality that kept me reading.

Military life during war times is the same in any era, any country, and, I’m sure, any world; days of boredom followed by minutes of extreme chaos, fear, and danger. The author accurately describes this scenario and makes you feel the emotion and concerns of a combat soldier.

Captain Greyson is that soldier in this story. While trying to maintain his marriage to a drop ship captain strong, the needs of the space corps they both serve keeps them apart even when on the save ship. His wife is the anchor in his life that preserves his sanity so he protects the sanctity of that marriage despite temptations to stray.

Greyson’s story is well told in a way that keeps you reading even though there are few edges of the seat passages and no gore or sex in the book. It is a more realistic read than the superhero books that have their soldiers moving from one frightening moment to the next.

This is the first book in this series that I’ve read. Fortunately, that in no way hindered the enjoyment of the book as the story is complete in itself.

http://freshfiction.com/review.php?id=66017

reviewer: Clare O'Beara
recommendation: Military scifi that will intrigue and captivate!
title: POINTS OF IMPACT

"Points of Impact" eBook was published in 2018 and was written by Marko Kloos (http://www.markokloos.com). Mr. Kloos has published six novels in his "The Frontlines" series. This is the 6th in that series.

I categorize this novel as ‘R’ because it contains scenes of Violence and Mature Language. The story is set in the far future. Humanity has expanded into the stars, but now they are struggling against the alien "Lankies". The primary character is Andrew Grayson.

Grayson is part of the crew of the first of a new generation of warships designed to specifically combat the Lanky advances. While on their shakedown cruise, the ship is directed to a colony on a distant moon that is under Lanky attack. Will the new weapons be enough to stem the Lanky incursion?

I thoroughly enjoyed the 8+ hours I spent reading this 297 page military science fiction tale. I have read three of the novels int his series now and have enjoyed all of them. I like the characters and the world created for this series. the cover art is OK, but I would have preferred something displaying combat with the Lankies. I give this novel a 4.5 (rounded up to a 5) 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 very average military space opera.
The characters are boring and nothing really happens for large periods of the story.
Far better military space operas about.

received an early review copy in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed the first 2 books. I nearly quit the series after the 3rd and 4th. The 5th book is starting to get a little more hopeful. I don't read pollyanna books, but Kloos dances on the fine line of despair and hopelessness that normally turns me off on a series. I am hoping that he steps back from the edge and continues in the direction the series is going based on the latest book.

[Possible Spoilers]
I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I have always wondered how authors will handle their protagonist through a prolonged series particularly when the story is told through a single character in the first person. At this point, the reader knows Andrew Grayson. They know he is going to be in the thick of it. They know his feelings for Halley, his mother, retirement, Kopeka, etc. They know he is from the PRCs, and that he won't expend lives carelessly. It would be nice to get another perspective on the war, and more character development outside of Grayson.

The Lankies continue to be big and dumb, and yet all powerful. While humanity keep escalating their arms, the Lankies have changed very little. They are just now changing tactics, which hopefully means there's something more to learn about these strange aliens.

Overall there is not much new in Points of Impact. The story follows a similar narrative as previous books, but the overall plot of the war continues to development, and the storytelling continues to be concise and entertaining.

Kloos’ Frontlines has been my favorite MilSF comfort food for the last few years. On the surface, Points of Impact, has all the qualities that endeared the series to me: crisp, tense action scenes, tight and efficient storytelling, sympathetic yet flawed characters. Most impressively, over the course of the first five books, each entry has improved upon the last.
It’s sad to say that streak has come to an end with Points of Impact. It became clear to me about halfway through book six that Kloos was kind of spinning his wheels here. The premise revolves around the development of a new armored battle cruiser designed to take out Lanky seed ships with ease. Most of the first two thirds of the novel has the Earth alliance taking their new toy for a practice spin, with Andrew and Halley both crewing up but, due to some pretty flimsy reasoning, separated because of a confounding regulation that keeps married couples from bunking together (?!?).
Notably, one of Kloos’ flaws as a writer is his unwillingness to step outside of his comfort zone with his characters. It’s particularly frustrating in this entry, as the most intriguing early development in the story finds Andrew diagnosed with PTSD – a thread that Kloos fails to explore adequately. Kudos to him for introducing such an important topic to the series, rather than just pretending it isn’t there (as our present-day military would prefer to do). Hopefully he will offer more on the subject in future books.
I still love the details about military culture that Kloos is so good at depicting, and the climax delivers the usual goods. Kloos hasn’t necessarily lost his touch, but his momentum has definitely stalled.

Points of Impact by Marko Kloos
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Andrew and his wife, Halley, are still doing battle with the Lankys. They have moved the battle from Earth and they have new and better battlecruiser. Other than that this is just more battle with some new characters and some from the past. It is a fun space opera and Andrew and Halley are really great characters. Time will tell if they continue with this fight. Losing someone from the past is giving Andrew pause. This is a series but each book works well as a stand alone.

I received a free copy of the book in return for an honest review.

Like the book's blurb says, we've beaten the alien Lanky's to a draw on Mars, but once they've dug into a planet they're pretty much impossible to dig out. Andrew Grayson, the main character we've been following since boot camp six books ago, is burned out from garrison duty on Mars as well as having come from a stint working with local forces back in North America getting control of just the sort of ghetto he left to join the military. Earth has finally put together a new class of starship designed to go head to head with the nearly indestructible Lanky "seed" ships, and Andrew, along with his wife Halley, who is a Major to his Captain, are sent along on the Ottowa, first of the class for its shakedown cruise. It won't surprise readers that all too soon they're headed for the real deal, back on the same planet that Andrew helped put down a military takeover attempt in the second book in the series (Lines of Departure). It's a frozen world where the weather is as brutal as the Lankies, and the Ottowa is outnumbered three to one, but that's the job, no matter the cost.
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Marko Kloos is one of my "must read" Mil-SF authors, and I look forward to the release of new books in his Frontlines series every year. My only complaint about Points of Impact is that at just shy of 300 pages, it's over to quickly.

Marko Kloos is yet to write a bad novel. However, Points of Impact, the sixth in his 'Frontlines' series, is not his strongest effort to-date.

The problem is that the book feels like padding, with a thin plot stretched out to fill a full novel. With the exception of a short and inconsequential opening on Mars and an equally rushed return to the Formahault System as a denouement, the book features very little military action. Much of its length is filled with introducing the Ottawa, the newest and most formidable ship in Earth's military fleet, which has been designed specifically to take on and beat the existential threat posed by the Lankies. Add in yet another quick trip to peaceful Vermont for recurring leads Andrew and Halley and some introspection from the former on the personal impact of war & combat, and that's pretty much three quarters of the book's length spoken for.

Whilst these sections are well written as always, they're not exactly jam packed with excitement and whilst the Ottawa's appearance evens up the on-going Human vs Lanky war, that conflict doesn't really progress from where it was left at the end of 'Fields of Fire'. The concluding battle, which feels rushed and rather as if it was included to fulfill some-sort-of action quotient, doesn't greatly alter the respective sides positions, and both Andrew and Halley are pretty much where they were when the book opens.

The overall result is a book that takes quite a long time to not really go anywhere, leaving the series' wheels spinning without much forward momentum. I wasn't bored by Points of Impact; the chance to spend time with familiar characters in a richly conceived future world and Kloos' ever-accessible prose saw to that. Nor however, was a blown away or genuinely enthused by the book. I'll stick with the series, but the next installment needs to offer more than shiny tech and the odd skirmish to keep me gripped.

I've been a huge fan of the Front lines series since the first novel, Marko Kloos never fails to deliver a richly descriptive, intense, but fun military sci-fi world.

My only complaint about Points of Impact is a very small one; it is the perfect place to wrap up the story of he feels like it, and selfishly, I'd really rather he not have Frontlines end. Ever.

Points of Impact by Marko Kloos
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I am authentically impressed by this series. It's easily some of the very best milSF I've ever read. Why? Because the writing is super clear and manages to be both light and dark at the very same time. I love how humanity is portrayed as being people, with both sexes getting over the baggage we never seem to get over in RL, everyone focused on living amidst horror and devastation and death always being on the doorstep.

I appreciate this a lot. It gives us all hope. It gives a very solid reason why we ought to survive. That, and competence reigns even if the baddie aliens are bigger than life and they're completely inscrutable and hulking and have always refused to communicate with us.

Sure, it's a plot device focused on survival and forcing the rest of us to get over our crap, but again, I like that, too.

As for this book, I think it's even better than the battle for Mars. There's something really delicious about the new battlecruiser and rescuing a colony and going all out with the battle sequences is always a winner.

I'm surprised I'm actually saying this... but Go Humanity, Go! :)

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC, it's great fun! :)

Review of Points of Impact by Marko Kloos

In the interests of full disclosure, I was sent an ARC of this book by the publisher through NetGalley for review purposes. All my reviews, good, bad, or indifferent, are based on my own opinion and from my personal viewpoint. They are also spoiler free.

I highly recommend Marko Kloos’s novels to any military SF fan. They draw you in, make you care about the main character, and then proceed to shake up his world. The books provide excellent story-telling combined with good writing and interesting, twisty plot lines.

In Kloos’s author bio it states that “In the past, he has been a soldier, bookseller, freight dock worker, and corporate IT administrator...” and you can see all of those experiences in the authenticity of his writing.

Points of Impact is Book 6 of the series, currently available on pre-order, and scheduled to be out January 9, 2018.

The latest book continues the storyline a few years after the climactic events of Book 5, and yet again proves that the daily life of Andrew Grayson is never dull, especially when he would prefer it to be. At times wonderful, at times terrifying, at times routine, but never dull.

I originally picked up a copy of Book 1, Terms of Enlistment, from a publisher’s table at Worldcon where they were giving out free books. At the time I wondered if they got anything in return besides goodwill. (Although they did get a lot of goodwill. Free books to a crowd there for the Hugo Awards goes a long way.) Then I read the book and realized it was Book One of a series, and the light bulb went off.

If you have not already read them, Books 1-5 plus a short story and a novella are available now, while you wait for January.

I give it 5 stars.

Book Review Rating System
1 star Not even worth the $1 at the used bookstore
2 stars Worth the $1
3 stars Worth the time to read
4 stars Good book! Earns bookshelf space
5 stars Great book! Start hunt for more books by this author

Very interesting future war novel. This reads as if it is a continuation of a previously published story but that is not clear. The combat on Mars is well thought out but the author does not seem to take into consideration the variance of gravity and the much lower atmospheric pressure of Mars over Earth. No explanation was given as to where the aliens came from or why they don'r modify their tactics and weaponry while Earth forces do. All in all a good read if you don't quibble over the details.

I've been anxiously awaiting the release of Points of Impact. I did a binge read on the Frontlines series when I got a recommendation. Author Marko Kloos has created a marvelous universe for those addicted to science fiction--it's got everything: a magnetic, but all-too-human protagonist, action, adventure, aliens, love and friendship.

What has kept my interest is the growth of the main character, Andrew Grayson. In this book, he's taking up a big leadership role and it feels like a natural progression of a real life. The author has a skillful way of using the science and technology that underlie all sci-fi works, keeping it believable and understandable, but a backdrop to the story itself.

In this book, a large part of the tale becomes about new, advanced technology and the hubris that can accompany its development New machines and weapons have been juxtaposed with people and places from past books, in a recombinant DNA that results in a fresh, exciting story. There is a richness and complexity that is as delicious as chocolate layer cake--but without the sugar high.

Once again, I am struck with the way the author fashions a society where there is no gender dominance. Heroics and villainy appear in both sexes, and in that, the future feels like one we aspire to--it is Trekian is that way. But every person is multi-dimensional, with shades of grey. I am especially enamored of Grayson's wife Halley, a skilled pilot and leader who outranks her spouse.

The starkness of all bad is reserved for the Lankies, but even this formidable enemy is being shown to be more complex than mindless insects. The aliens are still quite a mystery however, and I would like to know more about them...perhaps in the next book?

Mr. Kloos writes authentically about combat and its toll. No one comes through a war completely untouched--some are honed and some are shattered.

Like all great sagas, it's not the time, place, or technology that enthralls, it is the people who are impacted by the events. Points of Impact is great science fiction...
but read the other books first.