Book Review: A Soldier's Duty

A Soldier's Duty, Theirs Not To Reason Why, by Jean Johnson takes places in the far future where Ia, a young female from a high-gravity planet has a horrendous, portenteous dream. A precognitive dream showing her the almost certain terible future for humanity. As precog, she navigates the possible futures in her visions and forms a plan centering around her and her abilities to see the future to change that fate and give humanity a fighting chance.

Three years later, she joins the Marines and quickly puts her plan into motion. Going through basic training and getting her first posting she earns a nickname and a reputation, and begins building the foundation of what will be her life-long efforts to steer humanity away from the terrible future she foresaw.

I really enjoyed reading A Soldier's Duty, the first book in a series. But I really wanted to not like this book at first. For some reason, my initial reaction to the premise and to Ia and her methods rubbed me wrong, but the story kept me reading and when it ended I wanted more.

It's pure military science fiction, complete with "Oo-Rahs!", call-signs, space ships, armored combat, and a smattering of aliens; plus Ia's navigation of the timeplains she sees in her visions- these all combine into an exciting and fun read.

A Soldier's Duty gets 4 Stars out of 5. I liked it a lot and want more.

The publisher provided my review copy of A Soldier's Duty, Theirs Not To Reason Why by Jean Johnson.