In the far future of Bennett R. Coles’s Virtues of War, Earth’s colonies are in rebellion. The politics of the rebellion are a little fuzzy, but that doesn’t matter. What does matter are space battles and futuristic ground combat. Not that the story and characters take a back seat to the action, but there is plenty of action. The story follows several up and coming officers of the Astral Force as they combat insurgents, rebellious colonies, and sometimes one another. This is Military SF done right. Coles’s experience in the Canadian Navy is obvious throughout and while tomorrow’s space combat bears a resemblance to the naval combat of today, it is more than naval warfare translated into space.

The 400+ pages of Virtues of War went by in a flash and if real life had not interfered, I would have finished it in one sitting. Virtues of War is the first volume of the Astral Saga, with the second volume, Ghosts of War due out in March 2016. If Coles can maintain the quality of storytelling and writing he displayed in the first volume, I imagine we will be hearing much more from him in the future. I hope there is more solid Military SF from Coles yet to come.

I received an Advanced Reader Copy of this book from the publisher. ( )