The Last Marines By Lawrence N. Oliver

Multi-volume author, Lawrence Oliver, introduces us to his debut novel, “The Last Marines”:
Having been replaced by robots and drones, veterans Ben Corbin and Sam Garrett go into business for themselves towing derelict vessels and space junk out of the shipping lanes around Mars.
Business was good, but a couple of malfunctioning service robots forced them to return to Earth for replacements. Aliens attacked the freighter they’d booked passage on, slaughtering and feeding on the crew and passengers. Only Corbin and Garrett managed to hold their own until they could hide in stasis pods.

200 years later

Earth and her colonies, governed by the Commonwealth of Nations, are at war with a race of aliens known as the Nineteenth. Not with the Gar Rei Jhi who had attacked Corbin and Garrett so many years past. That war had been fought and humans lost. The Nineteenth is a new alien threat whose origins and motives are unknown.
What information humans have on this new enemy comes from the uneasy alliance with the Gar Rei Jhi who’ve been fighting an even longer war with the Nineteenth. Though long ago, Corbin and Garrett’s history with the Gar Rei Jhi hasn’t been forgotten. They are to be ambassadors serving at the pleasure of the same aliens that attacked them.

Thrust into a new age of engineered soldiers, interplanetary politics, and self-aware robots, Corbin has to quickly decide who he’s going to trust as he journeys back to the Mars colony. But his search for truth may come at the cost of his life, and the fate of the Commonwealth may rest on his decision.​​

I didn’t know robots could be so sassy and sarcastic. Some of them are downright funny. Scary robots? No, it’s some of the aliens that are scary.
Reading this book was a great pleasure! Sci-fi is my number one favorite genre. The author is not new to writing and his skill shows in this book. He catches the angst of a guy who is 200 years out of his era so effectively. The people around him are quite ably represented also. His characters really seem to be alive. I love the plotting; the pace is perfect and very exciting. The dialogue is very funny at times, and solemn when appropriate.
I award a score of 4.8 stars to “The Last Marines”! 
I really hope the author writes more in this series, prequel and sequel. This is easy to picture as a trilogy and maybe more.

You can buy this book:
https://www.amazon.com/LAST-MARINES-Lawrence-N-Oliver-ebook 
https://www.goodreads.com/book/-the-last-marines 
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-wolf-we-feed-s-a-sheppard 
 
You can follow the author:
https://twitter.com/Ollie3104 
https://www.lawrencenoliver.com 
https://www.facebook.com/LawrenceNOliver 
 
Copyright © 2019 Mark L. Schultz except for the author’s introduction