Book Review: Grunt Life

Task Force Ombra: Grunt Life by Weston Ochse
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Starting off with a thorough reading an uncomfortable topic (suicide, specifically a service member suffering from PTSD committing suicide), this book gives him and others suffering like him a second chance in a special unit fighting an alien invasion.

The alien invasion comes fast, and off-screen, while our characters are still in training in their new unit. This leads quickly to the typical trope of the last remaining vestiges of military fighting the aliens. They quickly realize all their efforts are having no effect, and must find new ways to gather intel, fight effectively, and win. By the end, they've made some progress, but in no way have won the war yet.

I enjoyed this book, though the suicidal tendencies of the characters were at times uncomfortable to read. People this distraught, this broken, make unique character point-of-views. But it's their overcoming of this that makes them readable heroes.

There's no paranormal stuff here, it's just the military against the aliens. Fans of Bob Mayer's Atlantis and Area 51 series, James Rollins, Matthew Reilly, Myke Cole, or Jean Johnson will enjoy Grunt Life.

An eARC of Grunt Life was provided to me for review through NetGalley.

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