Squad Kill

Retired U.S. Navy officer and bestselling author Campbell (the Doomed Earth duology) puts his military experience to good use in this action-packed account of an extraplanetary mission to investigate new planets. Navy ensign Osiris Aquino has been assigned to command the marines stationed onboard the Darwin, a civilian vessel. While working to overcome his charges’ distrust of a leader from a different part of the military, Aquino must also figure out how the understaffed contingent, only half of a full squad, can function, a task made harder by his suspicion that the six marines and their sergeant are not the cream of the crop. Those concerns are tested after an interstellar jump takes Darwin to Janus Five, a planet whose former inhabitants appear to have gone extinct with no evidence of why they vanished. A reckless decision by the scientific team dispatched to that planet’s surface, possibly linked to the agenda of the private entities funding the expedition, puts lives in danger, and forces Aquino to learn his capabilities, and those of the marines, in an extreme situation. This taut, entertaining military SF plot will appeal to fans of Jack McDevitt. (May)