The problem with reading 7 books in 5 days is it gets hard to remember which things happened in which book. Chains of Duty is the third book in Anthony James’ military science fiction series that moves at the speed of light.
Captain James Duggan is still with his favorite 4-person crew, now augmented with a most unwelcome member, Lieutenant Nichols from Military Asset Management. Yes, that’s right. The Confederacy is just maybe, possibly able to make peace with their enemy after 30 years of war. And now is the perfect time to come count beans. Of course John Duggan is not the sort of guy to waste time worrying about nickels and dimes when an even dangerous alien threat is looming over humans and Ghast alike, which doesn’t endear him to the dollar-watchers. We will see more of Military Asset Management in later books.
Chains of Duty is good, very fast reading, with an intricate plot. Author James has left behind some of the character development that made the first story, Crimson Tempest, such a pleasant surprise. James also spends a little more time explaining all the war materiel in this novel than he did in the first two.
The novels are almost too fast reading. Chains of Duty was about a 2 1/2 hour read, about what we’d expect from a basic paperback. The series would have been stronger had James combined the 7 novels into 4 or even 5. We’d have had a little more bang for our reading time and James could have put more people interactions into his books. Or he could have added some side stories or sub plots.
Anyway, despite the fact Chains of Duty is too darn short, it is still good.
4 Stars
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