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Terms of Enlistment
- Frontlines, Book 1
- Narrated by: Luke Daniels
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
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Summary
“There is nobody who does [military SF] better than Marko Kloos. His Frontlines series is a worthy successor to such classics as Starship Troopers, The Forever War, and We All Died at Breakaway Station.” - George R. R. Martin
The year is 2108, and the North American Commonwealth is bursting at the seams. For welfare rats like Andrew Grayson, there are only two ways out of the crime-ridden and filthy welfare tenements: You can hope to win the lottery and draw a ticket on a colony ship settling off-world...or you can join the service.
With the colony lottery a pipe dream, Andrew chooses to enlist in the armed forces for a shot at real food, a retirement bonus, and maybe a ticket off Earth. But as he starts a career of supposed privilege, he soon learns that the good food and decent health care come at a steep price...and that the settled galaxy holds far greater dangers than military bureaucrats or the gangs that rule the slums.
The debut novel from Marko Kloos, Terms of Enlistment is an addition to the great military sci-fi tradition of Robert Heinlein, Joe Haldeman, and John Scalzi.
Revised edition: This edition of Terms of Enlistment includes editorial revisions.
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- Andrew John Rae
- 09-02-14
Military SciFi in Classic Style
Terms of Enlistment is a newly written but old-school military science fiction novel. It follows the protagonist, Andrew Grayson, from high-rise slums through book camp, a combat infantry posting, and then out into space. The tone and style are similar to Robert Henlein's Starship Troopers or Jerry Pournelle's Co-Dominium. The action is up-close and personal, set in a universe where government isn't perfect, conflict isn't clean, and the military gets to play hero on a small scale whilst the overall morality of the conflicts they take part in is constantly questionable.
At least in this first book of the series, the action is well above average for the genre. In any fire-fight it is easy to visualise where everyone is and what is happening. The technology is plausible, and is never used as a get-out-of-jail-free card by the author.
The main character is likeable without being super-human. He is no author-avatar with perfect military skills and likeable flaws. He is just a young, impulsive enlisted soldier.
The secondary characterisation is below par for a novel. Whilst Kloos does a fantastic job of "show, don't tell" with army life and the background political unrest and intrigue, friendships and even romances just appear out of nowhere. After a major plot-turning firefight, most of the casualties are really just names to the reader despite their importance to the main character.
The plot arc isn't well structured either - although I think this is really an artefact of the way the series was written. I get the impression this is an episodic series broken arbitrarily into novel length portions, in which case the first half of the novel is really establishment of the series plot rather than the novel. If considered as a single novel the initiating event comes around 3/4 of the way through the book. Up till then it's a good read, but it comes as a surprise to find that it's all really just scene setting.
These issues aren't enough to spoil the book. Go into it imagining that you're listening to the first 10 episodes of a 5 season audio show, and they become style rather than problems. I'm certainly going to give the second book a try based on the first.
The audio performance by Luke Daniels is okay, but I imagine it might irritate some people. He has an overly-dramatic tone which rolls consonants and stretches vowels. This suits the book, but is a bit wearing on the ears. He does voices prettty well, at least for the main characters. It's hard to imagine him as actual voice of the first-person narrator though, which takes it a star down from the really top notch audio book performances.
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12 people found this helpful
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- Matthew
- 05-10-16
Sci-fi hoorah at its best.
This is a set up book. It start how you would expect. But the universe the book paint is pretty cool. I like it. A lot of sci-fi you have to have a good amount of suspension of disbelief for how the earth gets to it current situation. This one you could see it happening on the way. Other than the aliens the size of a three stories building or were they bigger? If you read all four of the current books you will find that you forget about this book in a good way. So much happens in the next three. This is a good book but a better series.
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4 people found this helpful
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- C
- 03-07-16
Entertaining
Enjoyable story although in my opinion the story ended abruptly.
But all in all it was entertaining.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Gerhard
- 24-08-21
What an awesome book!
first off, I'm definitely reading the rest of this series haha
Wow I was pleasantly surprised by this masterpiece from Marko Kloos! The narrator has a great voice, although he has a total of 4 accents and his female voice only works for the first female character in the book, but it's something that you get used to, and learn to overlook because the book is so brilliantly written. The plot is extremely engaging and fun, and the perspective is also perfect for the style of book.
I would recommend this to EVERYONE who loves sci-fi, war stories, a slight look into the psychology of war, and kickass adventure that is realistic in it's transitions and plot flow.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Tallorders
- 26-02-17
could not stop listening.
For a sci-fi fan like me, i can't reccomend it enough. Likeable characters and a great story.
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1 person found this helpful
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- ADBerry
- 26-04-16
First dip in to Sci-Fi
Really enjoyed this and am looking forward to the next one in the series. Well narrated and kept me interested throughout.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Anonyme C
- 27-11-15
Very fun, by-the-book military SF
If you could sum up Terms of Enlistment in three words, what would they be?
Fun, well-written, believable
What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)
It felt like the beginning of the real story but not in a bad way. I still wanted to know more so I got the next two books.
What about Luke Daniels’s performance did you like?
He's a very good narrator who really performs the book rather than just read it. His reading feels very natural and he really brings out the humanity in the characters.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
There's a scene in hospital with a certain Master Sergeant that gave me many feels.
Any additional comments?
This book is not the most original military SF out there except for the fact that the main character is a regular guy getting through basic training, doing his job, trying to stay alive. He's not a naturally gifted super-soldier type, which is very refreshing. The writing is also particularly good and makes up for the predictability of some of the plot.
The sequels advance the plot a lot more and are also very enjoyable if you're reading this and wondering whether it's a good idea to start reading a series :)
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1 person found this helpful
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- Mr. R. Chvapil
- 13-04-14
from fatface to badass
If you could sum up Terms of Enlistment in three words, what would they be?
how a young boy was transformed into a confident soldier and how he followed his heart's dreams despite all difficulties. Sounds familiar? Always works for me! Nicely written by Marko Kloos. The story flows easily. Characters are well defined and Mr Luke Daniels is easy on the ears which helps :)
What was one of the most memorable moments of Terms of Enlistment?
Andrew's last combat experience in TA. It felt like Black Hawk down all over again. Only difference being that some of his squad actually survived...just
Which character – as performed by Luke Daniels – was your favourite?
I liked all characters. None stood out. Very balanced performance by Luke Daniels. 5stars
If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?
Against all odds
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1 person found this helpful
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- CJSILV
- 02-01-24
Great book 📖👍😀
Great book loved the story and the book narration can’t wait to listen to the next one I highly recommend this book 📖😀👍⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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- --Colin
- 18-11-23
How gripping the action is!
After a snooze fest of books that did nothing but annoy me I'm glad to find this absolute gem.
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