3 out of 4 stars
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U-10 by Sam B Miller II is a science fiction book that follows Ty Lavender, a soldier stationed in Afghanistan, after he comes into possession of a mysterious and powerful alien device: the U-10. He's joined by the rest of his squadron, a high-ranking member of the US government's supernatural investigation department named Lincoln Frost, and Koritt, the alien who lost the U-10 when he crashed on Earth. With the help of the U-10 and the gadgets it creates, they take on terrorists while preventing advanced alien technology from falling into the hands of government spooks.
It should be obvious from the summary that this book is extremely action-oriented. The characters are pretty standard - Ty, for example, is a prototypical action protagonist whose bravery and disrespect for authority command respect from those around him. This wasn't too much of a problem, though. I found that these archetypes worked fairly well for the story the author was trying to tell, and there are enough characters involved in the story that it's hard to get bored with any of them.
The action scenes themselves are quite interesting, particularly due to the U-10's highly variable abilities. I do wish that it wasn't quite so powerful, though. Most conflicts end with Ty and his team using a nigh-unstoppable alien weapon, and while they can only use each type of device once, there just aren't enough drawbacks associated with this power to maintain tension throughout most of the book. I felt like the author tried to preserve tension by killing off side characters, but this became stale very quickly. The final showdown was the one exception to this; I felt like the ending to the book was both exciting and narratively satisfying.
I found just over ten typos, but they are easy to gloss over if you aren't looking for them. Most of the errors pertain to things like misplaced apostrophes, commas, and quotation marks. The writing style is effective and not too flashy, and the pacing is consistent throughout the book. The author does a great job of switching up the narrative's status quo - as soon as things start becoming repetitive, some new, greater threat is unearthed.
Overall, I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. It's exciting and well-structured, with a strong action focus, so it's a good choice if you enjoy action-oriented science fiction. If you're a fan of "hard" science fiction that focuses more on actual science and logic, you're better off looking elsewhere. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I have to admit that there are a few rough spots. If the author moves beyond common character archetypes and maintains the narrative's tension more effectively, the next books in this series are going to be exceptional.
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U-10
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