Gas never wanted to join the military but when one of his soldiers goes missing during a mission, he'll do anything he can (to get him back safely.

Fun, inclusive military sci-fi that doesn't skew to the libertarian right. ( )

I checked this out from my library!

If you avoid science fiction for fear of it containing misogyny, you can read this one. I'm impressed. It is a little slow right up until it isn't; I was entertained, and then VERY entertained, and I grinned at the end. ( )

Mammay, Michael. The Misfit Soldier. Harper Voyager, 2022.
Michael Mammay is a writer who likes to mash up military space opera with other story types. In Planetside it was detective fiction. Something similar happens in The Misfit Soldier. Its antihero, Sergeant “Gas” Gastovsky, is a self-proclaimed conman, a fixer, and a scrounger. He is also a soldier with command presence who gives and gets loyalty from his squad. When he finds out that one of his team members was left behind on a hostile planet in a battle that went sideways, he must reassemble the team for an unauthorized rescue mission. It is more a caper story than a hardboiled action thriller. Gas is witty and iconoclastic. His first-person narration is what holds the story together. I am not sure that all the plot gimmicks make sense, but then in what caper story do they ever? The novel’s blurb calls it Ocean’s Eleven meets John Scalzi. Add a soupcon of MASH, and I guess that is about right. 4 stars for the right audience. ( )

I read this as an ARC from the publisher.

Written in a dynamic and colloquial voice, The Misfit Soldier begins with a premise that is basically Saving Private Ryan on a different planet. When the protagonist’s friend Kendrik is left behind on the hostile planet Gallia when his platoon retreats, Sargeant “Gas” Gasovsky stows away aboard a supply ship to return to the service on a one-man power-armor rescue mission. He is immediately caught, but a helpful Colonel says he will send a rescue mission if Gas can get him more favorable odds.

While attempting to get better odds documented, Gas uncovers a rivalry inside brass on base. Gas discovers the rivalry will prevent him getting planetside, so he assembles a team who operate, like he does, outside their designated roles, and they steal a drop ship and go on world, all in mech suits. Then they have to fight to get behind enemy lines and extract Kendrik, which is an adventure in itself.

But this grunt’s-eye special ops tale is far more than it seems and there are multiple levels of people plotting that Gas is involved with or uncovers along with his squad. It’s a really fun ride and Gas is an engaging, if unreliable, first-person narrator.

Like Agatha Christie, however, the reader is not given clues to unravel the mystery as Gas, have I mentioned he’s unreliable, doesn’t tell what he knows and it’s all first-person POV. Like Miss Marple, you have to wait for him to reveal he knew what was happening all along, or at least a lot of it.

This book has elegant integration of gender, racial and orientation diversity, interesting near-future tech and is basically a quite fun adventure/war story about the smart-ass scam artist who somehow got in charge of the platoon.

I feel that it’s rather short and the plot is underdeveloped, but I’m not sure this tale could have withstood more weight, so it was probably a good decision on the author’s part. The characters drive this, and he brings really great ones who are not sad stereotypes.

It’s fun. If you like Scalzi’s work, you’ll probably enjoy this as well. ( )