Transit to Scorpio
(Dray Prescot #1)
by Alan Burt Akers

Kenneth Bulmer is the pseudonym of Alan Burt Akers, and this is  book one of the 52 volume saga.

Dray Prescot is transported by magical elements to a fabulous world where people speak English. He embarks on adventures, well part ones as I never finished this book.

Written in the 1970’s the prose can get a bit purple. So while competently written, it fails to draw you in as a modern writer would.

But in the end it was the rather poor plot that finished my reading. It just feels like a string of episodes linked together for no apparent reason. Anyway, with 51 more in the series there are a lot more better books out there.

The Cost of Victory
(Crimson Worlds #2)
by Jay Allan (2012)

The Third Frontier War is raging, and all across human-occupied space worlds are burning. Massive fleets struggle for dominance and kilometer-long war ships exchange thermonuclear barrages.

Battered in the early years of the war, the Western Alliance is resurgent. The brilliant Admiral Augustus Garret leads the Alliance fleet from victory to victory, taking the war to the very heart of the enemy empires. And on the ground, Colonel Erik Cain, hero of the Marine Corps, leads his crack troops again into combat, seeking the final battle.

In the second book, the narrative switches from first person to third person. Unfortunately this doesn’t help. Now there are multiple threads, and none explain the war.

This allow the author to introduce the ‘evil’ guys. And they are of the moustache twirling variety. Any shades of grey have gone, everyone is either good or bad.

Now the story becomes less interesting. Combined with the war stories that feel more like documentary reporting, I lost interest. Ended at 48%.

Marines
(Crimson Worlds #1)
by Jay Allan (2012)

Erik Cain joined the marines to get off death row. The deal was simple; enlist to fight in space and he would be pardoned for all his crimes.

In the 23rd Century, assault troops go to war wearing AI-assisted, nuclear-powered armor, but it is still men and blood that win battles. From one brutal campaign to the next, Erik and his comrades fight an increasingly desperate war over the resource rich colony worlds that have become vital to the economies of Earth’s exhausted and despotic Superpowers.

Fast paced and interesting Military Science Fiction. The first person narrative helps confine the story to single engagements and focus on the fighting and life of a soldier. It’s not until the later stages of the story the the overall picture of a splintered earth and multiple colonies on other worlds becomes apparent.

The appendices, while detailed help little in explaining the motivations of each group.

What’s lacking (and hopefully will be explained later) is why the human groups are at war.

Hedy’s Folly
by Richard Rhodes (2011)

The story of how film star Hedy Lamarr and an avant-garde composer George Antheil invented spread-spectrum radio, the technology that made wireless phones, GPS systems, and many other devices possible.

You would think this was an interesting book. However it soon becomes apparent that Hedy and George are in well-off families with little to worry about. Antheil gets grants to peruse his musical creations.

After just too much time explaining Antheil’s social life it just becomes boring (not enough Hedy) and I gave up.

Call to Arms
(Black Fleet Trilogy #2)
by Joshua Dalzelle (Goodreads Author)

Captain Jackson Wolfe survived the initial incursion of a vicious alien species into human space … barely.

He had assumed the juggernaut that had devastated three Terran systems was the herald for a full invasion, but for the last few years it has been eerily quiet along the Frontier.

This one starts OK, but soon the plot meanders into politics and just lost all momentum.

After 60% I gave up.