April "Reads"/Reads

Lots of driving for the Army leads to more "reading"of audio books:

• Joe Ledger: Special Ops (Joe Ledger #5.5) by Jonathan Maberry

• A great collection of short stories. The Joe Ledger world combines high tech, investigation, action and, yes, a little of the unexplained (in some ways this is the X-Files from operators perspective as opposed to a more passive special agent perspective). They fill in some of the backstories of specific books and/or characters. This was a excellent way to prepare for the release of the new book in the Joe Ledger series later this month. (5/5) 

• Do Unto Others (Freehold: Ripple Creek #2) by Michael Z. Williamson

• Bodyguards. You may ask yourself, what can be more boring that being a bodyguard. Well.. When you are the bodyguard for the only child (daughter) of the richest man in human space? Well, then things get complicated. Located in the Freehold universe (authoritarian Earth that embodies the nanny state, but also containing Freehold, libertarian paradise) this is the story of the Ripple Creek bodyguards (from the previous book, Better to beg Forgiveness) who have the difficult task of keeping this young woman alive. (4/5) 

• The Dark Between the Stars (Saga of Shadows #1) by Kevin J. Anderson

• Bringing back most of the surviving cast of the Saga of the Seven Suns, this book jumps 20 years into the future (so now the children of the main characters are involved as well). There is a new bad guy for the hero's to face, as well as some returning bad guys and some new allies. It will be interesting to see how the story continues to develop, as the scope of this story is pretty far reaching (which leads to some significant jumps in perspective). Overall a solid story. (3.5/5)
• Chaos (A New World #1) by John O'Brien

• It was an entertaining read. The world is going down due to a flue virus, and the vaccine turns out to be worse than the disease. My one big issue was that it seemed to easy for the main character, Jack. He flies an C-130, there just happens to be one with extra internal fuel tanks. The only person he encounters in the sky is his girlfriends brother? Yeah, I want to be this guys friend since he appears to be the luckiest guy alive (and of course his GF is one of the few survivors at the military base in Kuwait she is at). I will definitely read (listen to) the next book to see where this goes. (3/5)