Recon: A War to the Knife

By: Rick Partlow

Narrated by: Kyle McCarley

Tyler Callas is the pampered heir of a high-level Corporate Council executive, groomed from birth to take a seat beside her as a member of the ruling class of the Commonwealth society. But the bloody war with the alien Tahni has hit close to home and Tyler wants to join the military, something his powerful mother won't allow.

Desperate to escape her control, Tyler changes his identity to Randall Munroe, a product of the poverty-stricken Underground, and enlists in the Marines. There, he flourishes, becoming a member of an elite Force Recon unit and striking deep behind enemy lines. But when his platoon is assigned to take back the colony on Demeter from the Tahni, the mission falls apart, most of his comrades are killed, and Munroe is wounded, separated from his unit and left for dead on an enemy occupied world. With no other choice, he organizes the civilian colonists into a resistance movement and begins fighting against the occupation with limited supplies and no support. As the situation becomes more and more desperate, what began as a high-tech, interstellar conflict will become a war to the knife....

©2017 Rick Partlow (P)2017 Tantor

Narrator sounds like Pee-Wee Herman

Those cartoonish voices and silly accents of the narrator’s spoil the book! Story is good, but if I heard the term, GAUS RIFLE once, I heard it one thousand times. Yeesh!

Good book

Although it started a little slow, it turned out to be a great read. Another great book by this author!

Great Main Character, excellent descriptions

I loved the view of a man just trying to survive. The choices made while trying to weigh morale. The author isn’t afraid to kill off characters, and he isnt afraid to leave the ones you don’t like. Honestly great space war novel.

Kyle McCarley is a horrible narrator!

Rick Partlow writes great scifi and space opera books, and this series is one of his best.
Unfortunately, the publisher (Tantor) chose Kyle McCarley to read it. His over-dramatic, breathless, hyper-emotional delivery, and nasal, whining, high-pitched voice are completely unsuited to any book relating to anything military (or even adult, for that matter). He actually manages to make a Rick Partlow book NOT worth listening to. This is not the only one of Partlow's books the publishers have ruined with McCarley's narration: they chose him to read the entire Recon series, as well as Glory Boy (Birthright series), but fortunately got Evan Harris to read the remainder of that series.
Kyle, a man's got to know his limitations: stick to romance novels and stories about sparkly vampires.

The military scifi I've been looking for

Great narration. Great story. I will be reading more in the series. Great work, Rick and Kyle!!