Marko Kloos https://www.markokloos.com is the author of 10 novels. Orders of Battle was published in 2020 and is the 7th novel in his Frontlines series. It is the 56th book I completed reading in 2023.

Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own! The long fought war with the Lankies has been over for four years. Their attack has been repulsed and they have retreated into their own space. Major Andrew Grayson of the Commonwealth Defense Corps and Halley have married. They have settled into the dull service of peace.

General Masoud has approached Grayson offering him command of a Special Tactics Team that is about to be deployed on a deterrence patrol. They will be part of a Task Force sent to check on a colony 42 light-years away that was overrun by the Lankies. The hope is that they will be able to locate and destroy Lanky seed ships. It should be an easy mission, but then it is rare for everything to go as planned.

I enjoyed the 5+ hours I spent reading this 273-page science fiction novel. The novel is a bit of a cliff-hanger and short. Only the first half of the story. I have had the opportunity to read three other works (Fields of Fire, Points of Impact, and Ballistic) by Mr. Kloos and found them every bit as enjoyable as this novel. I give this novel a rating of 4.5 (rounded to 5) out of 5.

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Disclaimer. I am a sales rep for this books publisher.
Having said that I only review books I wanted to read myself.
My father recommended this series to me and I laughed since it is one of "mine"
It took years but I finally got around to reading them all. Including this one that I had asked to see over two years ago.
The first book of the series, not this one, is really good. The last book is really good and satisfying.
All the middle books serve the purpose of moving from the start to the finish with good bits and less good bits.

The characters are nearly all really nicely done and with growth over the books. The battle scenes are often good. (I often skim or even skip battle scenes in space opera but did not skip most of them in this series.)

I have picked up the first book in the author's next series and won't wait years before reading it!

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. An enjoyable space opera and well worth you time to pick it up.

I enjoyed this book, but not quite as much as the last few Frontlines books. I found the cliffhanger to be the worst part of it. I read some reviews that complained about the first half, which I didn't find to be as bad as all that. I'm finding that the story is petering out a bit, so I'm interested to see the next installment. The Lankies are full of surprises, but there's got to be some brains there and the big dumb monsters schtick is getting old. Hopefully we get to see a little more of their inner workings soon...

The ongoing saga of the war with the giant Lankies continues in this book that is essentially a bridge to the next episode. Kloos builds the story slowly, delving into the history of the war, the gap between the new recruits and the veterans of the wars as well as the improving Terran space force. The book does build to an exciting climax with the set up for the next episode completed but overall is slow, a novel for those who've followed this series but difficult to recommend for anyone else. Hopefully the set up for the next iteration of the war found at the novel's end will lead to new life to this aging series.

Due to a problem with send to kindle I was unable to read the title. I realized this problem only now, but it seems there was no sychronization for the past two months.

A worthy and exciting addition to the Frontline series from it's sad (so sad!) beginning to the cliffhanger ending. Can't wait for the next one!

After 4 years of peace, Major Andrew Grayson had it good. A loving wife, a cushy job and good food.; Then, an officer cane to offer him a new post. He would be leading his own battle group on a brand new Avenger warship. His job being to train his group to fight the Lankies, an alien race.

After speaking with his wife, he decided to take the position. Once he's boarded the ship and just started to get used to things, he learned their orders. The captain called the squad leaders to a meeting where he informed them that they would be heading to a base that was completely taken over by Lankies. It was the first world the Lankies had taken many years ago.

Now, Grayson and his team and all of the battle groups on the ship were going to stick their noses in where they didn't belong and hope the Lankies didn't snap them right off!

Normally, I try to avoid series. I'm glad I didn't miss this book. Can't wait to read the next book!

I've been sitting on this review for too long. Thank you NetGalley and 47North for a copy of the eArc. Marko Kloos returns to the Frontlines series taking a break from the Palladium Wars series. Like all previous books in the series, this one is told from the perspective of Andrew Grayson. The book starts off with familiar views of Maine before Andrew takes off on a warship on closely guarded mission. That's where the similarities with previous books ends. Just as this one started to drag on with the familiar, the book gets into some interesting action and a wholly different kind of ending. The book also dispenses with characters we've come to know and like (although you'll recognize some names) and introduces many great new characters.

That's all I'm saying with this non-spoilery review. I was pleasantly surprised by the direction this book went. My one misgiving is not knowing if this direction was towards the conclusion of the series or if it was an effort to expand it further.

Starts up with just enough of Andrew and Halley to make you slide right back into that Frontlines groove, then all I will say is that it kind of does what the Expanse series does every few volumes and changes the stakes. If you dig the series, you will enjoy Orders of Battle as well.

This title was an ARC provided by Netgalley. Thanks for the opportunity.

Orders of Battle (Frontlines Book 7) by Marko Kloos | 08 Dec 2020|47North

I don’t usually include books in a long series, but Orders of Battle starts a new arc in Marko Kloos series about the war between Earth and the Big Grey Blobs called the Lankies, so it’s a good place to jump in. We’ve followed Major Andrew Grayson from his start in a housing project through the entire conflict with the Lankies, and this book opens with him in command of a training facility on Earth, looking forward to retiring and finding a patch of green where he can spend time with his wife, who still outranks him.

When a senior offer asks him to lead a special tactics team on a somewhat vague mission, Andrew is conflicted. Not just because training is a cushy gig and he gets to spend time with his gal, but because the General offering the job has screwed him over in the past. The problem is that Brigadier General Khaled Masoud may be a right bastard, but when he points out to Andrew that he misses being at the pointy end of the spear, our boy knows the General is just plain right.

Besides, he gets to command a team of the best the service has to offer onboard a brand new Avenger class warship, and it’s probably a quick in-and-out mission to test the Lanky’s responses. Unless it turns out to be something much, much, more.

Andrew is a tremendously likable character, the sort of thoughtful commander that science fiction often serves up, and he’s matured a lot over the previous books. He’s still young for his rank, though a war will do that, and all his battles won’t be with the enemy. Marko Kloos remains one of the best mil-sf writers out there, and the only objection to his work, either here or in his Palladium series, is that they’re too short. The alternative (waiting longer between books) is a painful alternative, so I’ll take what I can get. Highly recommended.

I did not know why, but I swear I thought this one would be the final book of the series. Imagine my surprise at the end of the book.

I actually don't mind if we have more, I mean, Marko Kloos's writing is wearing an old, over-sized t-shirt - it's relaxing for me. Yet, I now wonder where he's going to take us next.

Andrew Grayson, our tired kickass hero, is now a major and he's leading a special tactics team in a recon mission, this time behind the enemy line. The first half of the book was most introspective accounts of his current life, job, and new acquaintances. The relationship with female characters are a bit tropey but I appreciate platonic friendship and I could use some more of that in my mil SF.

The ending was the thing that irked me the most. Way too abrupt and bland at the same time. I wish it had been a cliffhanger so I'd get more excited to read the next one. But, knowing myself, I'd still read it when it comes out. Yet I find myself wanting to move on to the Palladium Wars instead, which I very much enjoyed so far.

Marko Kloos returns for another round in the Frontlines series with "Orders of Battle". I will admit up front that I am a big fan of the series. There was a bit of a longer wait for this than the previous books because the author started another series in between this and the last Frontlines book, but who wouldn't want to switch gears after writing one series exclusively for a number of years.

In any event, this book was like falling back in with an old friend. I normally don't go for first-person books, but for some reason this series is written in such a way that I don't mind it in the least. The action picks up 4 years after the last book. The Lankies have been run out of the solar system, and humanity has basically been at peace. There have been continuous patrols on Mars to mop-up the Lankie presence there, but no new invasions. The military has used this time to beef-up its resources.

Andrew Grayson returns, of course, this time holding down a plum training position at a "swanky" military base, if such a term can ever be applied to a military base. It's not long before he is offered a spot on a top secret mission. I won't say any more to avoid spoilers, but there are spaceships and ground battles and all the things we've come to expect and love from this series. Grayson's wife, Halle, is not in the book for very long, but I can appreciate that Kloos doesn't invent ways for them to be stationed together at all times. Other characters admirably fill in the gap left by her.

It does set up a pretty big twist ending that I really didn't see coming, and I cannot wait to see where things go from here. It could almost be the "second era" of the Frontlines series and I eagerly await the next book.

Orders of Battle is the 7th book in Marko Kloos' Frontlines series, a series of Military Science Fiction novels (MilSci) published under Amazon's own 47North publishing imprint. As I say every so often on this blog, MilSci is not really my thing, so I usually don't seek it out unless the books are doing something unusual with the format. But I've been hooked on this series by Kloos ever since it came to my attention during the Puppy uproar at the Hugos a few years back. Nothing about the series is unusual or deep, but it features an enjoyable main character and deals with some serious issues with war and human nature, so I've always looked forward to the next installment.

Orders of Battle is.....an interesting next installment, reminding me quite a bit of book 2 in the series (Lines of Departure). Once again we have our main character - this time without his wife - being sent on a deep space mission on a new battlecruiser in the continuing fight against the Lankies. The book does not contain any old side characters but instead introduces a new side cast for this mission, which as usual works well from beginning to ending - an ending that ends on a cliffhanger (again like Book 2). On the other hand the book begins with a time skip that is kind of awkward, and the PTSD issue our hero Andrew has dealt with for a few books just seems to have disappeared, which just felt weird. Overall though, I really will look forward to book 8, which hopefully will come out in 2021 without another break.


------------------------------------------------Plot Summary---------------------------------------------------
A few years of peace and a cushy posting have made Major Andrew Grayson of the North American Commonwealth relax. But after his mother's death at age 53, he begins to wonder again what is left for him and Halley anymore. He certainly doesn't want to go back into combat....but what else is there?

So when now Brigadier General Masoud - the higher-up Andrew hates the most - comes to Andrew with an offer of a new confidential field deployment, Andrew can't bring himself to say no (Masoud's insinuated blackmail notwithstanding). And so he packs his bags and says goodbye to Halley one more time for a few months and gets ready for the worst.

But what Andrew could not have anticipated is that the mission will take him back to the very beginning of the war - the place where Andrew became one of the first to encounter the terrifying alien force known as the Lankies. Humanity seems to now finally have the weapons to deal with the Lankies, so it shouldn't be a repeat of that nightmare....except Andrew knows full well that when it comes to the Lankies, nothing is ever easy, and the unexpected is only a moment away.....
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As with the last book in the series, this book begins with a bit of a time jump, during which humanity has basically had no serious conflicts with the Lankies and there have been no sightings of them in Earth controlled space. Unlike that last book, it feels kind of a bit jarring since it just happens without any acknowledgement of it happening, and the last book ended with a major conflict on a human colony, which led me to believe there'd be more such conflicts to come. And humanity essentially lost that conflict really, even if some of that loss was due to human reinforcements coming too late rather than actually being undermanned. But here we are, with the book assuming that that was the last such incident for a while as part of the status quo.

That aside, as usual the plot works here. I compared this book above the jump to book 2, Lines of Departure, and it really does remind me quite a bit like that book - the plot sends Andrew on a journey without Halley on a brand new ship with a new cast of characters (that book included one old cast member in Sergeant Fallon, who sadly is missing for the 3rd straight book), a journey that may or may not be concluded by the end of this book. Readers of this series will of course expect things to go to shit at some point since the mission seems too well thought out and of course it does, and Kloos does his excellent job with the battle scenes as Andrew fights on the ground and his ship fights in the stars.

But again, even as the plot mostly hits all the expected beats for the first 75%, it works because Kroos is excellent at his craft. Our newly introduced side character cast - a technician with ties to the last book, an overly inquisitive scientist who in a surprise twist does NOT have a death wish, an Executive Officer who seems to dislike Andrew from the start, etc. - is all well done and helps build the story, and we learn new things about the Lankies and the setting in this plot to keep a reader interested. And then there is that final 25% when shit really hits the fan, and we find ourselves in a situation that is both old and very new, with intriguing potential. One thing I've really hoped for in this series is to find out more about the Lankies, who have basically been an unstoppable alien menace that humanity knows nothing about - having no way to communicate with them or to observe them in their natural habitat, and this book shows signs of changing that.

It's not a perfect story - besides the awkward time jump, Andrew's PTSD from the last few books kind of disappears, with it replaced by Andrew's other personal issue of him having no idea what type of life is left for him and Halley other than continued fighting until they're dead. Which is interestingly done mind you, but it's kind of weird that the PTSD just disappears - there's one moment where it seems likely to be retriggered by a connection to book 4, but it never occurs here.

But other than those blips, this is still a solid installment in an excellent series, and I look forward to book 8, which hopefully will come out early enough in 2021 even as Kloos continues his other epic space opera series.

Marko Kloos has lost none of his skill at writing action packed stories. This book was fast paced and had enough implied dangers for the characters to keep me on the edge of my seat the whole time. As a long time fan of the Frontlines series, I would say that this book ranks among the best. I liked the call backs to many of the previous books, as well as the introduction of several new characters that gave the story an interesting deviation from previous Frontline novels and helped this book stand out. Fans of Sci-Fi should definitely give this book, and by extension this series, a try. I only have two main criticisms about this book. Firstly, while the story does move along at a good pace, with plenty of fast paced action sequences, I feel like some chapters were superfluous and simply took up time that could have been put to better use advancing the main story further. My second issue is that this books ending was a little jarring. No Frontlines book has ever ended on a cliff hanger before. If it was the authors intention to end on a cliff hanger for this book, I feel like he should have ended the book a few chapters earlier. This would have made for a better and far more dramatic ending. Overall though, I found this book to be thoroughly enjoyable and certainly a worthy addition to the Frontlines series. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a fast paced, action packed adventure with some interesting mysteries and well developed characters mixed in.

I have been waiting for the release of this book for 2 years. Marko Kloos has me hooked into his Frontlines universe. The storytelling is engaging and leaves enough mystery to suspense to keep you wondering where things will go next. The dynamic between Halley and Andrew is enjoyable. The plot and twists are unexpected yet always fall in line with the overall storyline. And the continued presence of past acquaintances (both good and bad) increases the complexity of the storytelling and how it impacts Andrew and his exploits.

I believe that this book is the most compelling book in the series. It takes some leaps of faith in the storytelling that ultimately pay off in the end. I won't spoil any of the story or the overall plot but this is one of the best in the series. The ending leaves the series wide open to any number of possible paths that could expand the universe of the Frontlines series by leaps and bounds.

I truly enjoy the detail that goes into writing this series. There is enough technical and scientific detail to show that everything was thought out and planned; rather than made up as it went along. However, the detail is not overbearing in the sense that it bogs down the storyline. Overall, I highly recommend this book and the series!

This is an excellent addition to the series. The characters continue to grow as the story progresses, and their adventures continue to be exciting and interesting! I look forward to many more from t his author.

I enjoyed the book. It's a military space opera. I look forward to the next book in the series. The plot was interesting and fast paced.

Marko Kloos writes about a scene in this book as if he lived the experience. Major Andrew Grayson, his main character in Orders of Battle, takes into account the size and layout of the room, its furnishings, wall hangings, and people, as well as the attitudes of those people toward him. Although this attention to scene detail is interesting and shoes a mastery of writing skills, it makes Orders of Battle a longer story episode than it needs to be. This book is the seventh entry in the Frontline series and the pace and the way the book ended tells me that there will be several more books needed to finish this series.

While I enjoy getting into a well-written book series due to its familiar characters, at some point, either from waiting so long for the succeeding book or due to displeasure about the series not concluding, I abandon it. Frontline has now crossed into that line for me.

How many books in a series is too many? I think anything more than five is too many, with three being about right. When too many books are needed to complete a series, it ceases being an escapist story and becomes more about a character's daily life.

I like Kloos’ writing but the Frontline storyline suffers from too much coverage of the mundane. He is already beginning to show this same averageness focus in the second book of the Palladian Wars series. I hope he wraps that story up in the next book otherwise I may find myself moving away from Kloos books entirely.

Orders of Battle by Marko Kloos(Frontlines #8)- In the last entry in this entertaining Military SF series, the Lankys had been driven down into the depths of Mars and out of our solar system. Many thought we had won- wrong! A task force sets off for Capella C, with two new battleships and thousands of troops. Returning to where the first Lanky incursion occurred, once a home to two thousand colonist, it now is a desolate blasted planet. There they find Lanky ships, one a huge ship, different from the others. There is no safety, they realize- the war is far from over. They end up following the enemy ship to the far side of the galaxy, nine-hundred light years from home. Opening a new chapter in this ongoing saga. I enjoyed the characters and the military standard throughout their voyage. We see everything through the eyes of Andrew Grayson, as we have from the beginning. I like the first person narration, but I also like multiple POV. I really like his Palladium Wars series where each chapter focuses on what's happening to one character, and they bounce back and forth. Very good writing in both series. This one, for me, took a bit to get going, but was expertly told throughout. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC, and thanks to Marko Kloos, a talented writer.