After being removed from their homes as children, and enhanced biologically and cybernetically to become the ultimate soldiers, the Vanguards were released from duty after winning the the War of unification and struggled to find their place.

While Vanguard Strike by Jarom Strong, contains many common Sci-Fi tropes, the story is well executed. And while I am normally not a fan of Military Sci-Fi, this was a great story that does not get bogged down by military jargon. This will be a great read for those who enjoy stories about biological engineered beings, mercenaries and a well executed found family trope.

The narration by Jeff Harding was stellar. I had the opportunity to read the book and listen to the audiobook, and was able to seamlessly move between both with ease. Cannot wait to get to the next installment in this series.

Thank you Bookouture Audio, Second Sky, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to this ALC and Read the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Rating: 5 Stars
Pub Date: Jun 13 2025

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I genuinely really enjoyed this space opera! I was looking for something science fiction with the extra layer of drama, and this really left me satisfied. I do think that if fans of Mickey 7 are looking for something just a skosh more serious, then they will love the Paragon Space series! Jarom Strong writes a very powerful and layered story and Jeff Harding brings it to life as a great narrator.

Vanguard Strike by Jarom Strong is a wild space adventure. Strong delivers not only a flawed but sympathetic hero, but I really enjoyed the world building (or is that universe building?). Lax was an elite augmented solider. (Often referred to as a ‘puppet’.) But after a fall from grace he’s sent to prison for years. Now older and in rough shape (especially mentally) an old friend from the past offers him an opportunity that sounds almost too good to be true. Who doesn’t love a good heist story? I’ve read a few books lately where you could see had a ‘Firefly’ influence. One felt sort of hollow, Vanguard did not. It had many of the elements that made Firefly such a classic, but also managed to very much have it’s own identity. I enjoyed this one quite a bit and look forward to continuing the tale in future book. Jeff Harding does a great job with the audio narration and made this one a pleasure to listen to. I’d like to thank Bookouture Audio and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review an advanced copy of the audio version of Vanguard Strike.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/vanguard-strike-jarom-strong/1147374977?ean=9781835258347&bvnotificationId=17e332d3-4a75-11f0-97e3-0affc3a9f163&bvmessageType=REVIEW_APPROVED&bvrecipientDomain=gmail.com#review/349839627

Sci-fi space opera, heist and monsters aplenty.

A fun read with plenty of action and twists and turns. Great world building and intriguing characters.

The narration on the audiobook was great and really bought the different characters to life.

Thank you NetGalley and second Sky books for the arc

In the book Vanguard Strike, author Jarom Strong writes about Lax who is trying to find his identity after the war has ended. Being taken as a boy and turned into a mechanically enhanced soldier who follows orders with no emotion, how do you exist in a universe with no war? You find something to steal. There is loot on abandoned ships but they have been abandoned for a reason – Rippers. Created in the lab and now left to their own devices on these ships, can Lax and his team survive the salvage trip to make money? This was a very good space-opera story and beginning of the series. The audio-book narration was good. I received a copy of this audio-book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This isn’t really my usual genre, so I went in with pretty neutral expectations—and I had a good time with it! It’s military sci-fi with a great found-family, solid action, and enough character depth to keep me engaged. Lax, has reluctant-hero energy, and while I didn’t always connect with him, I liked the mix of tough-exterior and soft-trauma-core.

The plot is fast-paced, and the world building is accessible even if you’re not deep into sci-fi stuff. There’s banter, some creepy creature moments, and a space-heist happening, which kept it fun.

That said, I probably won’t rush to continue the series. It didn’t quite grab me entirely, and I didn’t feel super invested in the longer arc. But as a one-off listen? Totally enjoyable. If you're into action-heavy space stories with a splash of character drama, this’ll be right up your street.

This was a fun read with a lot of the hallmarks of a classic sci-fi adventure, including futuristic tech, intergalactic empires, daring heists, gory battles, and some good old moral quandaries to boot. If you're in the mood for gory sci-fi battles, monsters, convicts with hearts of gold, and ethical questions about human technology usage, this book is a good fit for you. I found that it balanced character conversations with action sequences well, and I think it set up a solid start to the series.

There were a few things that I wasn't a huge fan of (such as some of the choices the author made about the female characters), but none of them were big enough for me to truly be bothered by the book. If anything, my biggest complaint was that I really struggled with the audiobook narrator. He sounded like he was trying to be an announcer/cowboy, and his pauses and intonation patterns were really hard for me to track properly. For some reason those issues dropped out any time he voiced a female character, so I enjoyed listening to him more when he was voicing those characters. I could resolve most of the intonation and pausing issues by speeding up the book fast enough, but I would have liked to have not needed to, you know?

On the whole, this was a solid read, and I think sci-fi adventure fans would do well to give it a try.

What a ride! This book had me hooked from start to finish. The pacing was fast, the action scenes were solid, and there were plenty of twists that genuinely caught me off guard—I never knew what was coming next.

Lax was a standout character. As an ex-elite soldier, he had that tough, no-nonsense edge, but it was his personal growth throughout the story that really made him likable and memorable.

I don’t usually gravitate toward space sci-fi, but I’m so glad I gave this one a shot. I’ll definitely be checking out the rest of the series!

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture Audio for giving the opportunity to review this book.
Unfortunately, I had to DNF at about 48%. I thought the story just kind of dragged on. I know we were building a world but it felt like too much. Not sure if it was the narrator or the actual story. I liked the idea of it and the narrator but it just fell short for me. Something wasn’t connecting but I was hoping it would but it didn’t!
I hope it is received well!

4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This is a fast paced, action-packed space opera. The narrator captures that perfect, deep, gritty ex-military/ex-con tone of the main character. The world building is superb and the story never lets up. I was surprised at how long it was, but despite the unusually long length the story kept me entertained and engaged.
Thanks to Netgalley and the author’s team for the privilege of reading this audiobook.

A Space Heist? You son of a bitch I'm in. Vanguard Strike follows a former Vanguard soldier who the Pargon modified to be physically bigger, stronger, and controllable to be an unstoppable weapon of war. We begin our journey by knowing little about him, except that a traumatic event has occurred in his past and that he has been hired for a massive salvage mission. We follow our Vanguard as he meets up with old friends and faces old fears to eventually end up at the big mission that inevitably goes wrong. Overall, this was a fun book to start a new series. I enjoyed the characters and the concept of people modified as weapons of war suddenly having to face a life post-war. I would've rated this book higher if it weren't for a cliched and sexist trope that took place not once but twice.

I listened to the audio, which I enjoyed. Jeff Harding does an excellent job narrating and gives each character a unique voice, so it's easy to tell who is who. At times, I could have done with more emotion or inflection, but since our main character is supposed to be gruff and tough, it still fits.

Vanguard Strike by Jarom Strong follows a former Paragon soldier who has witnessed (and committed) some truly horrific acts of annihilation. After he is released from the military, the main character (whose name I can't quite make out in the audiobook, likely because I sped it up to 1.5 speed) becomes a salvage raider. Through some unfortunate events, he ends up in prison for 8 years. An old friend from his Paragon days shows up and breaks him out, under the condition that he will raid a Paragon science vessel filled with Rippers.

There are military sci-fi vibes along with horror elements.

The book is enjoyable, but I found the narrator left too much empty space between words and sentences, which led me to speed up the narration, which in turn made it difficult to understand the main character's name. Maybe it is just me, but that is why it lost a star.

This was really good. I had such a fun time. It was giving Halo vibes (the TV show, I've never played the game - don't have an Xbox) which was perfect because I've recently finished the show and was looking for something to fill the void. I enjoyed the characters, getting the back story of Lax as well as what was going on current day. The parallels of his life past and present we're super interesting. I'm excited to continue the series when the rest of them come out.

The premise of this one is interesting, and I liked the world building that was included. The idea of the tech that allows people to control the emotions and thus actions of their soldiers is an interesting concept, and it played out well.

Unfortunately, there were many things that just didn't quite work for me. The writing style was heavily telling rather than showing, which left most aspects of the book feeling weak. It was impossible to really immerse myself in the world/setting or the characters. The characters were flat. The MC was one-dimensional and was difficult to care about, and the secondary characters weren't any better. The only development the MC got was that he was big, humongous, monstrous, super strong, and we were reminded every other page. The pacing isn't great either. It's close to 80% through before the plot gets to the actual heist/job, and the lead up to that point moved quite slowly.

If you're looking for a light sci-fi that's focused more on fighting and being macho than anything else, you may enjoy this one. My thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture Audio for allowing me to read this work. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Vanguard Strike is an action-packed military space opera. I could not stop reading this book. The stakes are high!
I loved the main character, the modifications he was dealing with, his ability to fight and build a team. An absolutely brilliant cast of characters are brought together, the found family trope is well done. I also loved the more tender moments and connections explored.
The heist itself is exciting and intense. Even though it’s sci-fi I felt very grounded throughout and the world made sense. It’s not overly complex but at the same time it’s vast.
The narration is amazing, the perfect voice! This really added to the adventure. It reminded me of Red Rising!
If you like lots of action, shooting, some gore and high stakes this is a book for you. I will definitely be continuing with this series as I am so invested in these characters.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this advanced reader copy. This is a voluntary review of my own thoughts.

I was given an ARC of this book by Netgalley in Exchange for providing an honest review.

My rating: 3 out of 5 stars.

I have to start my review by stating that my copy of this book was an audiobook, and I really disliked the narrator. It's like the narrator couldn't decide if he should do a stereotypical detective voice from a noir, a radio announcer voice, or a cowboy's. His voice was much more tolerable when he voiced the female characters.

As far as the story goes, I have never heard the word "cacophony" used so many times. It was quite jarring at times. Certain phrases or words were repeated a lot, which I get, the main character was traumatized, but still, I feel like that could have been conveyed better. Also, I have never read a more overtly masculine book. I love SciFi, it's one of my favorite genres, but it was clear the female population was not the author's targeted audience. Overall, the book was just interesting enough to make me want to finish it, but I would not buy it for my library's collection.

The plot of this is really interesting, however I was unable to finish the audiobook due to the narration. The narrator was very monotone with the exception of ending each sentence with a rise. The voice was clear and easy to understand what was being said; I just wasn’t able to follow the story listening to it. I’m sure it has its place, and it definitely sounded like a military voice, but it wasn’t a fit for the story in my opinion. I look forward to reading it.

Thank you for letting me listen to it, and I hope this helps.

I won’t post this on social media because it’s not a fair review of the book itself, My rating is for the audiobook only, and not the story itself.

Vanguard Strike is a compelling read for fans of hard sci-fi, military fiction, redemption arcs, and morally complex characters. The writing is solid and the premise has a lot of potential.

That said, it just didn’t click with me personally. Sometimes a book can be objectively good but still not the right fit—and this was one of those cases.

I am not sure if it was the audio narration or the plot itself but I simply could not get into this book. It didn't go much of anywhere for the first half and the main character was very one-dimensional. I respect that this is supposed to pave the way for character growth after hardships shut him down; but it still felt like I was reading a testosterone-laden macho novel set in space.

Story: Lax was sold into the army as a young boy and transformed into a super soldier - part of the Vanguard elite known colloquially as 'the puppets' for their single purpose in life. Now older, he finds a chance to retire but ends up framed and in prison. There, slowly shutting down mentally, he is given a lifeline from a former squadmate - a heist. But is it all that it seems?

The narration was frustrating - odd voice inflections and very heavy pauses in the middle of sentences. The main character is given a sort of hick pseudo Texan accent that makes the character sound simple minded. Other characters get cliche New York and other accents that were cringeworthy. That, combined with the plot, felt like I was reading the story of someone with the intelligence (and pathos) of a 10 year old. But with really big muscles, I guess.

The characters felt very cliched - about what I would expect from a pulpy heist novel of the 1970s but with sci fi decorations. There just wasn't a lot of depth or nuance and attempts to make the main character emo were almost laughable.

I got through 3/4 of it but had to give it up when it never got better. Again, it might have been the audio narration that was too problematic for me or simply the story itself and the audio narration combined to make the book feel very weak. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

Vanguard Strike was as close to a video game as a book can get. As a gamer, I love when mediums collide, but this was different. This was just a well-told story that made me think of it like a video game.

The game feeling started immediately when the opening battle sequence was underway. There are soldiers battling it out, but there is someone controlling their emotions, pumping them full of drugs every time they feel worried or afraid to make those feelings go away and just be killing machines. This made me think of games like StarCraft or Rise of Nations, where I build up an army and, with one click of my mouse, send them off to battle, no matter how bleak the outcome.

The rest of that story played out like the games Dead Space and Warhammer Space Marine had a sadistic baby, and I’m here for that. Who doesn’t love a gritty, unrealistic main character that they make somehow relatable through good writing?

This was a great start to the series, and I can’t wait for more. It captures so much of what makes stories like this amazing. The battles, the sense of dread, the feeling of being alone, and everything else that comes with space. If any of what I described sounds good to you, check this out.