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Rick Partlow is a bestselling science fiction author from Florida. The Tampa, Florida native was born to a Baptist preacher that had worked as a B24 gunner during World War II that used to tell him all manner of stories about the war.
He was lucky enough to get an ROTC scholarship and went to Florida Southern College, from where he got a commission in the Army and a bachelor’s degree in History. He would then work as an Infantry platoon leader in Hawaii before he quit and worked all manner of jobs before he decided to take a teaching job.
All this time, he kept writing and by the time he was in the 10th grade, he wrote his first novel and his second while he was in high school. He wrote both of the novels on notebook paper, but he would trash them when he was in college.
It was while in college that he started writing his debut science fiction novel that after many revisions would become “Duty, Honor, Planet.| It was also at this time that he wrote the idea for a novel that would be the basis for the “Birthright” trilogy and the Glory Boy character.
Growing up, Rick Partlow cut his teeth on the juvenile novels written by Robert Heinlein. During this time, he must have gone through “Have Space Suit-Will Travel” at least twelve times before he turned 10. He still remembers the cover of the copy that he got from the local library.
From there he read other works such as “Red Planet,” “Rocketship,” and “Between Planets” before he moved on to the more adult-oriented works such as the “Ringworld” by Larry Niven and the “Foundation” trilogy by Isaac Asimov.
Apart from his reading, his service in the military has also been very influential as it provided the familiarity with the mindset and tactics he needed to write military science and space opera fiction.
As a member of a small unit tactical infantry team, his military science fiction which features orbital kinetic kill strikes, Gauss, and artillery or Gauss rifles are often very realistic.
As for writers that have been a huge influence on his writing, he counts the likes of Walter Jon Williams, John Steakley, and Peter F. Hamilton. He loved the aesthetic and themes of these authors and he adds his own twist when writing his own novels.
Rick Partlow had two starts to his writing career. He started writing back in the 1990s and this is when he finished writing “Birthright” and “Duty, Honor, Planet.” He signed with a literary agent but after years of trying to get a publisher interested, he finally had to give up his dreams for the time being.
After more than ten years in the wilderness, he came across Amazon Kindle self-publishing. Within a year of publishing his two books, he sold more than 10,000 copies, which is when he knew he needed to once again get serious with writing.
He has always been a pantser and as such, it would take a year to write two sequels to his debut. He would then improve a bit as it would take less than a year to write the sequels to “Birthright.” Partlow then began working on his outlines and in three months he was done with Glory Boy.
“Contact Front” by Rick Partlow introduces Cam Alvarez, a young man that was brought up living hand to mouth in deep poverty. His present and future are not that great, as he is under constant danger and he could just die.
The novel opens in a future in which much of the population of the planet is living in huge metropolises, while the poor live in underground caverns and never get to enjoy the sky or see the sun.
As one of the poorer residents, Cam lives in the underground and eats and sleeps where he can, as he survives on a certain amount of crime and his wits. But a few days after attaining the age of majority, he commits a crime that could get him sentenced to involuntary hibernation.
It is a dangerous sentence as the people in charge could decide that he would never be awakened. The politicians are driven by the whims of the populace and may decide that convicts should not be woken up just to please them.
The only other choice is to snitch against his former girlfriend who had left him holding the bag. But then he is told that he can join the Marines and fight to protect the Earth and its inhabitants from aliens to repay his debt to society.
Rick Partlow’s novel “Kinetic Strike” is a follow up to the debut of the series. Cameron Alvarez has been growing up real fast that he is now a Drop Troop Marine.
He thought highly of himself until he learned that as long as they accomplished their mission, the top brass did not care much for them. In fact, they were deemed very expendable by the military top brass.
But contrary to his bosses, he does not think of himself and the fellow Troopers as throw away pawns. He thinks the tactics adopted by the top brass are suicide attacks in which almost of the Drop Troopers could get killed.
The attacks are carried out in attack shuttles and the marines have to deal with devastating beam and missile attacks while they travel through space. Cameron is torn as he is a marine trained to follow a battle plan and follow orders even if he does not necessarily agree with his superiors.
But his fellow troopers have become more like family and as their leader, he is reluctant to lead them to certain death. Will he be able to develop a better plan and what will the high command do to him once they realize he is not following orders?
“Danger Close” by Rick Partlow is the brilliant third novel in the “Drop Trooper” series. For years, all that Cameron has known is war. For more than three years, he has been fighting the Tahni aliens and leading a squad of marine Drop Troopers from one planet to another.
But the war is about to change as he has just graduated from the OCS and is now an officer. He will be taking command of his old platoon and has his work cut out as things have reached a tipping point.
Rather than fighting in a defensive formation, he has decided that he will be taking offensive action to show the Tahni aliens that the Commonwealth was ready to take back everything that had been taken from them. But victory often comes at a price and lives are put at stake as the marines and the colonists head into bloody battle.
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Any issues with the book list you are seeing? Or is there an author or series we don’t have? Let me know!
As a veteran myself I enjoy the depth and detail to your realistic books. I was personally in the Air Force and then in Army for combined 27 years till medically discharged.