Review: One Good Soldier by Travis “Doc” Taylor

“Doc” Taylor does a great job of wrapping up this series. I really enjoyed the mechas and especially the battle scenes. I think I’ll explore some of his other series as well. Visit the author’s website.

Check out my review…

Bring On The Mechas

Travis Taylor's "One Day On Mars"

Last summer, I was looking through the “new books” section at my local library and I was instantly intrigued by the cover of one of the books (and the title BTW, I’m an admitted Mars junkie). After reading the inside cover blurb, it sounded like a good read.

I blew through the book in three days! It was great! I loved the sci-fi element as well as the military aspects. Two major features of the story were mecha-based aeroplanes for the space jockeys and mini-mecha suits for the Marines. Now, I grew up on Robotech, which in my opinion still is one of the best anime series around (I need to get that on DVD). I was really digging Mr. Taylor’s detailed description of the mechas and the soldiers that went to work using them.

This morning, I was catching up my Google Reader and read a Wired article (via the Danger Room) about an exoskeleton head-to-head rivalry going on between two scientists, Stephen Jacobsen and Hami Kazerooni. In recent years, both have made tremendous progress in the development of human-augmentation suits. I wonder how soon we will develop something as robust as Taylor’s mechas? His story takes place in 2383. I hope I don’t have to wait that long…