Veteran
Jul 2010 · Hachette UK
3.8star
8 reviewsreport
eBook
416
Pages
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About this eBook
Three hundred years in our future, in a world of alien infiltrators, religious hackers, a vast convoying nation of Nomads, city sized orbital elevators, and a cyborg pirate king who believes himself to be a mythological demon Jakob is having a bad day:
"Nothing gets in the way of a hangover like being reactivated by your old C.O. and told to track down an alien killing machine. The same kind of killing machine that wiped out my entire squad. And now it's in my hometown.
My name is Jakob Douglas, ex-special forces. I fought Them. Just like we've all been doing for 60 bloody years. But I thought my part in that was done with.
My boss has other ideas. If I didn't find the infiltrator then he'd let the Grey Lady loose on me. And believe me; even They've got nothing on her. So I took the job. It went to shit even faster than normal.
And now I'm on the run with this teenage hacker who's had enough of prostitution. The only people I can rely on want to turn the internet into God. And now it turns out that They aren't quite what we'd all thought.
I've been to the bottom of the sea and the top of the sky and beyond trying to get to the truth.
And I still can't get far enough away from the Grey Lady. All things considered I'd rather be back at home deep in a whiskey bottle."
Veteran is a fast paced, intricately plotted violent SF Thriller set in a dark future against the backdrop of a seemingly never ending war against an unknowable and implacable alien enemy.
"Nothing gets in the way of a hangover like being reactivated by your old C.O. and told to track down an alien killing machine. The same kind of killing machine that wiped out my entire squad. And now it's in my hometown.
My name is Jakob Douglas, ex-special forces. I fought Them. Just like we've all been doing for 60 bloody years. But I thought my part in that was done with.
My boss has other ideas. If I didn't find the infiltrator then he'd let the Grey Lady loose on me. And believe me; even They've got nothing on her. So I took the job. It went to shit even faster than normal.
And now I'm on the run with this teenage hacker who's had enough of prostitution. The only people I can rely on want to turn the internet into God. And now it turns out that They aren't quite what we'd all thought.
I've been to the bottom of the sea and the top of the sky and beyond trying to get to the truth.
And I still can't get far enough away from the Grey Lady. All things considered I'd rather be back at home deep in a whiskey bottle."
Veteran is a fast paced, intricately plotted violent SF Thriller set in a dark future against the backdrop of a seemingly never ending war against an unknowable and implacable alien enemy.
Ratings and reviews
3.8
8 reviews
Andrew KENNEDY (adk)
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4 January 2013
An interesting concept, and fun enough to read, I suppose. The book is let down by the writing, though. Poor grammar, phrasing and stylistic choices mean it comes across as little better than a first effort by a student. Will not be reading the sequels.
Jacques Richard Du Toit
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12 November 2015
Good book but all the action left me slightly exhausted at the end. A wild ride for sure, and I think the author will improve on overall narrative structure as his career progresses.
Dalek Caan
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6 March 2019
This is a great book. I love the way Gavin has tired in his Dundee heritage in the locations. The plot was great too, and was everything Cyberpunk should be. I read this through very quickly and read eager to head on to the sequel.
About the author
Gavin G. Smith is the Dundee-born author of the hard edged, action-packed SF novels Veteran, War in Heaven, Age of Scorpio, A Quantum Mythology and The Beauty of Destruction, as well as the short story collection Crysis: Escalation. He has collaborated with Stephen Deas as the composite personality Gavin Deas and co-written Elite: Wanted, and the shared world series Empires: Infiltration and Empires: Extraction.
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