Looking For a Good Book

When I saw that Jay Posey, author of the Duskwalker series, had a new book – a new series – coming out, I was very excited.  And I’m even more pleased to say that Posey shows that he can recreate the magic once again.

Lincoln Suh dies in order to join a special ops force, but during the training he is dismissed without getting any real reasons.  But on his way out, he is approached by an even shadowy-er special, special ops director looking to recruit Suh to be the leader of a very secret, very small unit known as the Outriders.

Someone is trying to start a war between Earth and Mars with a Martian assassination and the destruction of a space station and the Outriders, fast, strong, smart, and with the ability to rise again if killed, are sent to investigate.  And it will take a little bit of all those skills to survive.

This is a very simplistic synopsis, but trying to give more details is difficult without giving away too much.

Jay Posey is stepping up and showing the science fiction community that he is a powerhouse in the genre.  Based on this, his fourth published novel, Posey shows that he can weave an intricate plot within a larger story arc; that he can create very realistic, three-dimensional characters; that he writes dialog very smoothly; and gives us thrilling fight scenes and action sequences.  All wrapped up it means he tells a real fine story.

This book is much more of a military sci-fi book than Posey’s Duskwalker’s series, but it doesn’t slow Posey down at all.  He is clearly adept at writing in this genre, and Lincoln Suh is a tremendous hero – one who is introduced in brilliant fashion and steps it up to show that he is worthy of leading this story as well as the Outrider force.

When it became clear that this was a story in which there was a present threat of war between Earth and Mars and that someone was trying to trigger the start if the war I had real concerns that this would be a retread of the popular Expanse series (both book series and SyFy network series).  There are some things that are just a little too similar for me, but the attention paid to the Outriders group is very different and the story takes us in a different direction.

All in all, my excitement at seeing a new Jay Posey novel stayed with me all through the reading of the book.  There are only a small handful of writers whose works I will buy and read immediately upon publication, and Posey has joined those elite few.

Looking for a good book?  Outriders, by Jay Posey, is a militaristic science fiction action adventure story, extremely well-told and worth your time.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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Outriders

author: Jay Posey

series: Outriders #1

publisher: Angry Robot

ISBN: 0857664514

paperback, 448 pages