Astrid's War: Attack on the USS Valley Forge (Astrid Amundsen Military Science Fiction Series Book 1)

Midshipmen Astrid Admundensen and her classmates are.assigned to OUR on the Valley aRrive spqceship. Everything is normal until enemy vessels are aighted. Protocol is to retreat when outnumbered but the Captain suffers a.psychotic break and arrests the bridge officers so it's Astrid and her classmates with the ship's marines who do most of the heavy lifting. A standard story plot but filled with enough fast paced action to be quite enjoyable.

“Astrid’s War” tells an interesting story overall, and Alan Householder has given us far fewer typos and grammatical/usage errors than is normal for an indie writer. It’s his understanding of how the military works that trips him up, over and over again.Astrid Amundsen is a Midshipman in the United States Navy, assigned to a training cruise aboard the USS Valley Forge along with other middies. As such, she would have no authority and minimal voice. That is not at all how she is portrayed here.I realize that the author probably has no military experience himself, and certainly not as an Academy graduate. That, by itself, shouldn’t bar him from writing about the military. Sufficient research about the military’s rank structures, culture, etc. , or beta reader who’d been a Naval officer, would have made a big difference in this book.In “Astrid’s War”, not only Astrid herself but the other characters consistently gave Astrid far more authority than she could actually have. She and the other midshipmen were not yet commissioned officers in the Navy— they were still students at the Naval Academy, lower in rank than the junior-most ensign or second lieutenant.The willingness of the ship’s officers and the Marine Flight Det. not only to listen to her opinions but to act on them grated on this reader over and over again. When it was just her and the senior Marine it was bad enough— when senior Naval officers were stopping in the midst of battle planning it was worse.There was also the question of the senior Marine officer’s rank. He’s referred to as a Lieutenant, which alone makes no sense— the Marine Corps’s two junior-most ranks are Second Lieutenant and First Lieutenant, the equivalent of Ensign and Lieutenant Junior Grade (or j.g.) in the Navy. Neither is sufficient to head up a detachment of ten pilots— he should be at least a major. Allowing for his friendship with Astrid from the Academy, he might be a Marine Corps Captain— the equivalent of a Naval Lieutenant. Is that the author’s intent? If so, he should have been called “Captain Waters” from the beginning— and should not have been looking to a mere midshipman to confirm his orders to his men, all officers senior to her.I was also bothered by the role played— or not played— by CDR Rabinowitz. Even ignoring the whole business of whether or not the CO had gone crazy (a decision that should have been made by the chief Medical Officer on board (and no doctors appear until the final chapters), when the ship’s XO does come up from her unlocked brig cell, she takes herself to the Midshipmen’s Ready Room and focuses solely on their relatively small part of the ship and its battles. Should she not, as the senior ship’s officer, take responsibility for the entire ship? And why, under the pressures of dealing with a ship under siege, was she spending her time listening to midshipmen, who almost by definition would have nothing to offer either in terms of knowledge or experience?And so on.There was a strange— almost weird— issue with Astrid and the author’s description of space. This is a young woman who is supposedly a qualified and skilled pilot, flying her fighter in outer space, and yet who appears surprised that it’s dark? This comes up multiple times. Well, yes, it’s dark— there’s no sunlight in space.The author has a nice handle on writing an adventurous story, and I appreciate his morality— naval vessels aren’t prime locales for romance, despite too many authors trying to make them appear so. The idea that there must be one requisite sex scene per novel for it to succeed just doesn’t work at sea (or in space)— the average junior officer is already exhausted from all the collateral duties and study assigned as he or she works to qualify for their warfare device in addition to their regular duties.I am a retired naval officer. Among other commands, I served aboard the USS Cowpens (CG-63), sister ship to the USS Valley Forge (CG-50), the now-decommissioned pre-cursor to the book’s ship. I wish the story had done her more credit.The plot is exciting, and the author writes quite well. He just doesn’t write military fiction quite well. I especially appreciated the business with the medal of Our Lady, brought in as a normal part of the story (I wore one throughout my service).So I shan’t be reading the rest of the series, but wouldn’t mind finding something else by this writer.

It was very well told from a first person perspective. The story teller was concise and very human,showing her fortitude and beliefs.

Was there some reason that they could not tie a rope the bomb, and move the fighter at the same time? Remember count down timer in the bomb. Why do they stop working on bomb removal to talk talk talk about dead people when they are setting on a100kt bomb? If some one was sitting in the space fighter, they could have fired a few rounds at the enemy when They entered the flight deck.

On one hand the military entanglement is thoroughly detailed. Exciting and thrilling. Heroics and aliens. Battle and strategy. All very epic reads. The personal byplay and interpersonal relationships feel a little two dimensional. Mention of huge events at the end only get less than a paragraph. Makes me hesitant to read the next one. It was great as far as just a mission log. If it was just the battle and tactics which were chefs kiss awesome I would’ve been sold. But the interactions outside of combat are a little flat. Thus I feel torn.

Fast pace action that was non-stop. The characters were strong and well developed, easy to identify with. I really like this book and I highly recommend it .

Empathetic characters. Good writing will read more. Hopefully we'll find out more about the aliens next time. Good to see the US navy in action. The tag that

I'm only about 30% into this book and I don't think I will make it farther. There are just too many things wrong. First, the entire book is monotone. Everytime anyone says anything it is "so and so said". There is no yelling, no exclamation, no questioned, no mutters, nothing. It's boring!Second, I feel like the author has any military experience, nor did he do any real research. Measuring distance in space as miles? Who would do such a thing? Certainly not the military.***spoilers sort of***Third, senior officers keep looking to Astrid for her approval. She's a midshipmen. She is nothing. No one. Not even graduated. No one would look to her for approval for anything. Not on her first training run. She has no established credibility.Forth, the "mutiny". It was awful writing. The XO refuses a command because she thinks the CO is going to get everyone killed, then meekly goes to the brig but not really to the bring because the marine LT who looks to Astrid for advice just left the cell unlocked? What? That could have been a hugely tense scene. Instead, it plays out like someone watching paint dry.Fifth, the author keeps sticking "explanatory" thoughts into the worst places. I get it, you need to give the reader background, but not in the middle of a thought Astrid is having.Sixth, the chapter breaks make almost no sense. It feels like some just break up a scene.Seventh, the author needs a professional editor. The word "that" should not be used as much as it is.Eighth, the US space navy has better technology except they don't. But they do. But they don't. Make up your mind! It's lazy writing to move a plot forward.I wanted to like this book. I really did. I love space operas. I love sci-fi war and space battles. This book does not deliver on anything and in general made me sad for the future of the genre.

Astrid is a midshipman aboard the cruiser Valley Forge on a purely educational cruise. Lots of bad luck and crew dying, no reason given.There is an enemy fleet approaching and then the Captain becomes irrational and deranged.What follows is a midshipman leading people and giving orders. A battle in which the marines and midshipmen seem to have no assignment and basically decide for themselves what course of action to take, etc etc.Probably the worst military SciFi story I’ve ever read.There are many authors who significantly better at writing stories n this genre. Go read their stuff.

Spoiler alert, although the real spoiler is this howler of a book.This is supposed to be a fast paced military action adventure. The characters are 1 dimensional at best, with no real characterisation, no depth and no charisma. If the USA really does get into a space war as described they have had it if they run their military in the slapdash method described. No one on their ship takes charge or even properly tracks the apparently overwhelming enemy, who can, it seems, cloak their ships to be undetectable - but usually don't bother. Instead the crew seem to have no proper battle stations but can wander where they want. Having exhausted the humans ammunition, the aliens (very poorly described), make a number of boarding attempts during which they seem to be even less effective than Imperial Storm troopers. Having been beaten off, they then leave the US ship undestroyed, merely trying to blow it up by leaving a nuclear warhead with a timer which helpfully tells the heroine how much time she has to get rid of it. Which she does, in spite of allowing herself to get distracted into hunting down yet more aliens herself rather than leaving the task to the marines who one assumes would be trained for the role. If you want a good space opera, look to David Weber. This is the first of a series but I have no intention of reading any of the remainder.

Non-stop action almost - i was surprised by the delays at the start to carrying out a simple order, but after that it hotted up and went from disaster to survival against the odds. The interesting thing was how both sides saw the other as initiating the battle and conflict generally. I also found it odd that specifically just Americans were fighting, with mention of various other nationalities having space forces of much lesser size and deliberately out of the conflict. Well, off to get the next book, to see if these issues are cleared up and to enjoy more of the action.

A bit wooden to start with but as you progress through the storyline it becomes more readable. Will look out for the next instalment.

Really liked this book. While set in space in read more like an action book with a focus on how the characters handled war and emotional trauma. The world building was good and the writing flowed at a fast pace. It was an interesting concept with the focus on one battle that only lasted for a couple of hours.