Note: This copy of Vanguard Strike was provided by NetGalley.

The story is set in a future which has just come out of a war that our protagonist, Lax, was very instrumental in. A safe future for everyone else though isn’t on the cards for him. Considered one of the military’s best kept secrets, Lax is no ordinary soldier but a Vanguard. A bioengineered super soldier whose creation is as much a secret as the strong dislike people have to his kind. After the war Lax decides to get out of the military, and the public eye, and eventually finds himself on a salvage crew taking on jobs raiding lost and abandoned ships in space. A quiet life on the horizon seemed probable until one bad mission.

Vanguard Strike is one hell of an action-packed book. There were very few slow scenes so this book breezed by fairly quickly. The plot is fairly well written and quite entertaining. The audiobook narrator, Jeff Harding, does a very good job of making Lax seem like a really tough guy, and one not to be messed with. Vanguard Strike felt like what you would get if Jack Reacher was part of the Expanse universe. While there was a little disconnect with regards to the larger political climate in the book (this seemed like something that would be cleared up in the coming books), the characters are interesting in their own way which helps endear them to us, and the larger plot is intriguing enough to have me curious about how these characters go forward.

There are several issues that are tackled and addressed in this book, most notably around trauma and substance abuse. This should be kept in mind in case you are triggered by scenes around that. That being said, this book was quite fun and I’m looking forward to the next book in the Paragon Space series. If you want a super soldier Jack Reacher in a space-opera setting, maybe give this book a go.

Links:

• Goodreads: Vanguard Strike – Jarom Strong