It’s that day again, friends and neighbors–book release day!
CHAINS OF COMMAND, the fourth novel in the Frontlines series, is now available for IMMEDIATE PURCHASENINGS in Kindle, dead tree, and unabridged audio format:
CHAINS OF COMMAND takes place roughly a year after the events of ANGLES OF ATTACK. With humanity up against the ropes after the Lanky takeover of Mars, Andrew Grayson is asked to join a high-stakes, high-risk mission to help stack the deck in the NAC’s favor for the upcoming do-or-die assault on Mars.
CHAINS is the longest Frontlines book yet by a fair margin, and the beta and ARC readers all seem to think it’s the best one in the series yet. I think it came together pretty well, but it’s always nice to have confirmation that I didn’t just squirt ink onto a notebook for the better part of a year. If you’ve followed Master Grayson’s exploits so far, consider picking up CHAINS OF COMMAND in the format of your choice. (The audio version, from Audible/Brilliance Audio, is again read by the awesome Luke Daniels.)
Now I get to finish up Frontlines #5, FIELDS OF FIRE, which may see a release late this year if I don’t screw up. Until then, dig in and read up on what Andrew has been up to in the year since New Svalbard and the Second Battle of Detroit.
In the latest book there was a reference to a small event from TOE, so I flipped through TOE until I found the reference. Then proceeded to read about a third of the book, damn thing sucked me right in all over again. Love how your actual military experience shows itself in small, silly little ways. Like describing old, faded cammies as “salty” and Parris Island blowhards whining about their fleas.
I just sold almost all my books out of necessity. The only ones I kept are your four and my complete Calvin & Hobbes.
Finished it yesterday 🙂
EXCELLENT! Best one yet in the series. Better even than the first.
Soooooooooo………..when’s the next one coming out? 😉
Much kablooie. Very enjoyment.
Just finished this book and I can’t wait for the next. Keep up the good work! I seriously can’t get enough of this series! Do me a favor though… if you ever get propositioned to let them make series into a movie please don’t let them butcher it…
I do have a couple questions: What was your inspiration for the Lankies? Also… do you plan to expand the universe past the Lankies/Humanity? I suppose that is something you probably can’t reveal but I thought I’d ask anyway 😛
Regardless. Awesome book! I’ll definitely be buying the next!
Do you know any Benavideses? Was reading and saw my last name, not a common Hispanic one.
Back in the day (before Kindles), I would have two to five books running at any given time. Now that I read exclusively with an eReader, I tend to do one book at a time (otherwise I’d abandon books and I fear I’d never get back to them). Since I finished JT Vaydensen’s Rogue about four days before Chains of Command was available, I had to start Stephen Hunter’s Black Light. I feel I have to finish it before I start CoC, otherwise I’ll never come back to it.
@Stephanie B. Interesting. I don’t see any reference to an SRA officer in chapter 17. What version of the book do you have? I’ve got the Kindle…do you have the physical book? Interesting if there are different edits between versions.
It snuck through revisions in error and was changed on the Kindle already, but the print run went out with the name still in there. 😉
Just stumbled over ToE – a week later finished with chains of command…
i love it, all about
1. the language 😀
2. alive characters
3. very realistic convincingly world
4. the aliens – not stupid masqueraded humanlike – but enigmatic even after 4.2 books
i cant wait ….
übrigens: ich hatte auch 2 Rauhaardackel – wurden beide 13 Jahre alt – waren beide … Individualisten
Grüße …
As Marko alluded, I bought the paper version. I have an eReader, which I love (yay Project Gutenberg), but nothing compares to a physical book.
I just paid $6.95 CAD for the audible version. Other recent, military sci-fi audiobooks of shorter length are going for thirty bucks…. I don’t think you charge enough!
Looking forward to the drive home now!
Is there a scheduled release date for #5?
(In “please take my money” mode)
Read it.
Loved it.
Write more.
Write faster.
🙂
If you ever write another novella, please please please be Dmitry as the antagonist! He might not get as much screentime nor as fleshed out as Halley or Fallon, but he’s my favourite secondary character 🙂
Just readed it, I cant wait for the next part
Nice, very nice. Read it as slowly as possible. I’ve tried to write stuff, probably should go smash my hands in a vice.
One teeny quibble: Chapter 17, paragraph 2: Why is a certain SRA person in the ops center of Portsmouth?
But yeah, me likey. It’s not often anymore that I can lose myself in a book for a few hours.
Almost killed me last night to have to put it down in the middle. Ten star rating, if Amazon gave them.
It’s the usual Marko Kloos conundrum. Both good and bad. The good news is Chains of Command is great read and continues the Frontline series in the with the same high level of craftsmanship in storytelling that Marko has delivered with the previous books.
The bad news is that now we have to wait for the next book. Keep up the great work. It’s appreciated!
Dipped my toe in last night and had to force myself to put it down. Excellent stuff as always!
Awesome. Been waiting for this one.
I’ve been an inveterate reader for over sixty years, with a preference for well-written sci-fi and military novels. I have read and re-read Aasimov, Heinlein, Vonnegut, Tolkien, and O’brian. After reading all four books in the Frontline series I think you have the talent and imagination to join that elite group. Of course I hope you will prove to be as prolific as you are talented. I’m glad to hear you are working on the fifth novel in the series. I think Patrick O’Brian was working, in long-hand with a fountain pen, on number 19 of the Aubrey/Maturin series, when he passed on. So please, please, keep on with the great work and know you have dedicated fans waiting for the next publication.
There was a 20th Aubrey novel dealing with the hero’s final command—“Blue at the Mizzen” Go get it and enjoy.
Incidentally, this is an excellent novel. However, and I am doing my best to avoid spoilers here, but let’s call it a spoiler alert anyway: I am a psychiatrist who worked with lots of combat vets from Vietnam and WWII. Paul Fussell was a left wing English PhD who was also a company commander in WWII. He wrote “Wartime,” and “The Great War in Modern Memory.”
He also wrote “Thank G-d for the Atom Bomb.” I think that essay might be useful for Mr. Kloos to review before concluding work on the next novel. I am not sure that his character’s response to the final outcome was all that probable. Possible, yes, but not probable based on my clinical experience and reading.
For every Robert Leckie there were a dozen Paul Fussells. Excellent work, Mr. Kloos, and I hope you will take this missive in the constructive spirit in which it is written. Full disclosure: I am a friend of Tom Kratman’s.
Congratulations, Mr. Kloos! I got my preorder delivery confirmation early this morning, and I can’t wait to finish Angles of Attack so I can get started on CoC.
Physical copy will be at my house tonight and I have the Kindle Copy loaded up for my 24 hour duty