[rating=4]

I first got into this universe with the authors second series, starting with Overkill. Thankfully, it didn’t require any pre-knowledge, and didn’t provide any spoilers. (Undercurrents did, but nothing /that/significant)

Orphanage is the first of the Jason Wander series. It’s a definite homage to Starship Troopers (the book, not the film.) Not that it’s a bad thing. Starship troopers is a good book. It tells the story of Jason Wander (big surprise there 😉 ) And how he goes from being an orphan, to being one of the troopers about to drop-assault an alien base on Ganymede.

I didn’t really give you any big spoilers there, as it starts in medias res, before flashing back to cover all his training and so on. The training and reasons behind it are where the Starship Troopers homage really comes into play. It’s not play for play, but there are times it’s damn close. It works. It works damn well.

The series follows up pretty well too. I’d recommend them, if you like the first book. And if you like Starship Troopers, you should like the first book. If you’ve not read Starship Troopers, go read it now. It’s a sci-fi classic.