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Marines (Crimson Worlds Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Jay Allan (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.2 2,132 ratings

Book 1 of 9: Crimson Worlds

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Erik Cain joined the Marines to get off death row. The deal was simple; enlist to fight in space and he would be pardoned for all his crimes.

In the 23rd Century, assault troops go to war wearing AI-assisted, nuclear-powered armor, but it is still warriors and blood that win battles. From one brutal campaign to the next, Erik and his comrades fight an increasingly desperate war over the resource rich colony worlds that have become vital to the economies of Earth's exhausted and despotic Superpowers.

Erik rises through the ranks and becomes a deadly warrior, and he finally finds a home, first with the Marines who fight at his side and later among the colonists - men and women who have dared to leave everything behind to build a new society on the frontier, one where the freedoms and rights lost long ago on Earth are preserved.

But causes can be fleeting and loyalties complex. Amidst the blood and death and sacrifice, Erik begins to wonder. Is he fighting the right war? And who is the real enemy?

Now Included: A sneak peek at Crimson Worlds 2: The Cost of Victory. Read the first three chapters, immediately following the end of Marines in this Kindle edition.

Marines is the first book of Jay Allan's bestselling Crimson Worlds series (over 800,000 books sold)...

The Crimson Worlds Series (Reading Order)

Book 1: Marines
Book 2: The Cost of Victory
Book 3: A Little Rebellion
Book 4: The First Imperium
Book 5: The Line Must Hold
Book 6: To Hell's Heart
Book 7: The Shadow Legions
Book 8: Even Legends Die
Book 9: The Fall

Standalone, Can be Read at Any Point:
Red Team Alpha (A Crimson Worlds Adventure)

Jay Allan’s Blood on the Stars Series

Book 1: Duel in the Dark
Book 2: Call to Arms
Book 3: Ruins of Empire
Book 4: Echoes of Glory
Book 5: Cauldron of Fire
Book 6: Dauntless
Book 7: The White Fleet
Book 8: Black Dawn
Book 9: Invasion
Book 10: Nightfall
Book 11: The Grand Alliance
Book 12: The Colossus
Book 13: The Others
Book 14: The Last Stand
Book 15: Empire’s Ashes (coming)
Book 16: Attack Plan Alpha (coming)

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

By Jay Allan

The Crimson Worlds Series
Book 1: Marines
Book 2: The Cost of Victory
Book 3: A Little Rebellion
Book 4: The First Imperium
Book 5: The Line Must Hold
Book 6: To Hell's Heart
Book 7: The Shadow Legions
Book 8: Even Legends Die
Book 9: The Fall
Crimson Worlds War Stories (Crimson Worlds Prequels)

Crimson Worlds Adventures
Red Team Alpha
Here We Stand (Coming 2018)

Blood on the Stars Series
Book 1: Duel in the Dark
Book 2: Call to Arms
Book 3: Ruins of Empire
Book 4: Echoes of Glory
Book 5: Cauldron of Fire (Coming Fall 2017)
Book 6: Dauntless (Coming Winter 2017/2018)

The Far Stars Series
Book 1: Shadow of Empire
Book 2: Enemy in the Dark
Book 3: Funeral Games

Far Stars Legends Series
Book 1: Blackhawk
Book 2: The Wolf's Claw (Coming Soon)
Book 3: Astra (Coming 2018)

Crimson Worlds Successors Series
Book 1: MERCS
Book 2: The Prisoner of Eldaron
Book 3: The Black Flag (Coming Soon)

Crimson Worlds Refugees Series
Book 1: Into the Darkness
Book 2: Shadows of the Gods
Book 3: Revenge of the Ancients
Book 4: Winds of Vengeance
Book 5: Storm of Vengeance (Coming Soon)

Portal Wars Series
Book 1: Gehenna Dawn
Book 2: The Ten Thousand
Book 3: Homefront

Pendragon Chronicles
Book 1: The Dragon's Banner

About the Author

Jay Allan writes science fiction and fantasy from his home in New York City. His works include the bestselling Crimson Worlds series.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00902U0C2
Publisher ‏ : ‎ System 7 Publishing (December 28, 2013)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ December 28, 2013
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 480 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 238 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #325,841 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #1,137 in Alien Invasion Science Fiction eBooks
- #1,838 in Space Marine Science Fiction eBooks
- #1,876 in Space Fleet Science Fiction eBooks

Customer Reviews:
4.2 2,132 ratings

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Jay Allan

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I’m a lifetime Northeasterner, and I currently live in New York City, where I write from my apartment…and continue to fill small notebooks with ideas for future books. I've been reading science fiction and fantasy for just about as long as I've been reading, so, of course, when I started to write, that’s where I ended up. It’s been a great ride so far!

My tastes as a reader are fairly varied and eclectic, but I'd say my favorites are military and dystopian science fiction, space opera, alternate history, and epic fantasy, usually a little bit gritty. I also read a lot of non-fiction, mostly history. I write a lot of science fiction with military themes, but also other SF and some fantasy as well. I like complex characters and lots of backstory and action. Honestly, I think world-building is the heart of science fiction and fantasy, and since that is what I've always been drawn to as a reader, that is what I write.

Among other things, I write the bestselling Crimson Worlds series and the Far Stars series published by Harper Voyager.

I've been an investor and real estate developer for a long time (mostly retired from it now), a fiction author more recently. When I'm not writing, I enjoy traveling, running, hiking, reading. I love hearing from readers and always answer emails. I think you stop growing as a writer if you stop listening to those who read your books.

Join my mailing list at http://www.jayallanbooks.com, for updates on new releases (and some free and discounted books), and follow me on Twitter @jayallanwrites for an occasional look at work in progress and thoughts on the genre in general. Or you can email me at jay@jayallanbooks.com. I try to answer every email.

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4.2 out of 5

2,132 global ratings

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Mike Keller

Alex Cain and the Western Alliance Marines bring solutions where problems break out.

Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2017

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Alex Cain was a product of twenty-third century New York, surviving on the shattered remnants of an Earth broken into 8 superpowers. After nearly destroying the planet in their wars for supremacy over the starving masses, a treaty was formed allowing no struggles, no combat in the Solar System. So naturally, they moved their struggles to Space and made war in the colonies.
Unless you were born into the Political Class, the aristocracy of a tortured world, life was a struggle with no guarantee of a future, not even a meal. Caught up with the street gangs, providers of drugs, sex, or protection for the masses at a huge cost, Alex was caught, charged and sentenced to death.
Alex was saved from the executioner by a recruiter for the Alliance Marines. He survived basic training and six years of specialized combat, weapons and tactics training and learned to operate in powered armor. These amazing suits, powered by small nuclear reactor backpacks, were capable of extended jogs at 80 kph and jump 10 meters straight up. Protected by their armor and able to perform acts of heroic strength and endurance, wielding weapons of unimaginable ferocity, the Marines were devastating soldiers fighting against the enemies of the Western Alliance and it's allies on foreign soils, under strange skies, often in toxic atmospheres.
Showing an aptitude for leadership and survival, Alex rose quickly in the ranks, becoming an accomplished warrior and an intuitive leader. Alex Cain realized he had found a home.
This is a remarkable piece of military sci-fi, and displays a firm grasp of strategy and tactics, and almost scary deep understanding of the workings for bad or good of the human mind. This provides for terrifically written characters and exciting, charged action scenes and combat sequences. Tremendous story! I can't wait for the next episode.

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Kindle Customer

The Fanboy in me loves this, but I have my doubts

Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2012

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**EDIT**: After reading a bit of Book 2 in the series, I can say that some of my reservations about the book and some of the problems may have been intentional. One reviewer commented that it seemed like the book was a mission report to his superior. I can say that it appears to be more accurate than I thought. More likely the first novel is meant as a history lesson given to his students over the course of a semester. The book is personal and given the brevity of the main character, it seems reasonable that he would focus primarily on the battles shifting between interludes that explain some of his thoughts and giving meaning to the exposition of the battles.

The focus of this book is really to give an introduction to the mechanics of the battle suits (mecha), the setting, etc. I think a more descriptive, 'complete' book might have drawn away from the point the author wanted to get across. I also think that if the author was more established, he probably would have done a much better job at adding more to the various bare parts of the story. At the very least, the book opens you to the world and the second book is, so far well worth it. However, given that you don't need to have read the first book to completely understand the second. I would suggest that if you get caught up with the artistic style of the first book that you skip to the second. It is third person throughout and more descriptive. Less epic battles of course, but I guess that it the price you pay to prevent the book from being 1000 pages.

If you liked the Lost Fleet series, then you may like this series. It would be the marine combat side of the battles as opposed to the space navy battles. These series aren't related, but the focus of the story telling are similar.

The book is written in an narrative, first person journal style. Which is to say that if you're expecting a descriptive modern story telling, then you'll be disappointed. If you are annoyed with the telling as opposed to describing what is happening then you will also be disappointed. There is some passive voice when describing the battles, but most of the story consists of what amounts to very brief interludes in between the 'good stuff'.

Where the book shines and why I enjoy the story so much, are the mecha(!!!) battles. Not as descriptive as I would like, but hardcore enough to be excellent and enrapturing. The way the author writes is slightly annoying, for a pedantic, but it is similar to the Jim Butcher of keeping to the action and always moving the story forward.

The author clearly has a vision for where the story is going and I have a sense that from the uniqueness of the battles in this book, that he spent a lot of time studying tactics and developing the story. I don't know if the author holds on to that in his later books. It is difficult to create new strategies, it would seem from the later staleness of other series, but I do look forward to reading the other books.

The characters are one dimensional, but somehow that doesn't seem to matter much. It tends to as series progress. However, I think the goal of this story is to tell an engaging story and not to make you think. Nothing wrong with that, it is fun.

There are a few things that I do find amusing.

1. At some points in the story, I have a sense that the story enforces the Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas dynamics. Having read that story, I can hear the characters shout as they die, "Oh no! I joined the narrative." Sadly, it isn't giving much away, since the story basically spells out that the character survives the book in the first chapter. However, to raise the main character up, the odds of the other teams are stacked against them. So you have a greater chance of survival if you are in Cain's group, unless the author wants to throw in some drama, then he'll kill off some minor character that has a name. Let me clarify, you care nothing about these characters that died. Well, you might, I didn't.

2. I don't know if the author has read The Five Stages of Leadership, but the author codifies the stages very well in this book. Holm is the embodiment of the fifth stage. The political class are all level 1 at best. Most marines it seems are level 2 or higher. The character basically goes through the stages of leadership starting at the lowest level and working his way up.

3. Oh, the author is also pretty hardcore. None of this sissy stuff found in other series. I don't want to spoil the second chapter, but it would be funny if it wasn't so sad and just plain horrible. While not completely 'real' as reality gets, it pushes the boundaries with the histories of the characters. You can imagine that the stuff that some of them did or had done to them were 1st century bad. I think it would have been better if the author went into more detail, but he leaves a lot of it to the reader's imagination, which might be a good thing if you've ever read Battle Royale. That is to say, it isn't as bad or graphic as Battle Royale, but it is slightly shocking if you haven't been exposed to that sort of content in a story before.

Overall, a fun book that was immensely enjoyable. Hopefully the other books are as good and I suspect they will be.

If you enjoyed the Starship Troopers book, you'll most likely enjoy this simplified version.

Mechas!

Reviewed in the United States on June 23, 2013

Verified Purchase

I am a big reader, so I go through a ton of books... but rarely do I find a series I am willing to pay full price for, and this series starts with Marines. I read this book pretty much straight into the deep hours of the morning (or was it night?) and then went on to buy the rest of the series (at least the ones that are out as of today). I love and enjoy these books (crimson worlds series) mainly because they are very easy to follow, have great characters/character development, packed of action, their plot goes in unexpected ways, and they aren't short stories that you burn through in an hour; I'm a fast reader and it takes me a good 4-8 hours to finish one Jay Allan book.

I find the characters quite compelling, and the way this author creates the story and manages to bring about the the problems that make this storyline a story to be written is very compelling. And the way Jay brings the main character from a no-life to a superstar life is just simply amazing. And being a superstar character in any of Jay Allans books is NOT going to be all sappy, all-goes-well, hero saves the day by himself, every time. The hero suffers even in the face of his victories. This storyline tells of a lot of aspects of life, but most importantly that although life isn't perfect, we can overcome what we were yesterday and change to become something better today. There is A TON of perspective that gets airtime (or read time), so be prepared to get involved with the thoughts from very pessimistic and negative criminal masterminds who see humanity as nobodies to the hopeful, futuristic thinking of colonists/marines who bond together as brothers and sisters.

I can't immediately find anything major to complain about, so I'll leave it at that and not think too deeply just to find such a problem.

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gingergirl

Good book

Reviewed in Canada on December 1, 2018

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Good book

SH55

Forget the sci-fi and just enjoy the action.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 30, 2020

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I'm not normally into sci-fi books but this was 99p on BookBub so I thought give it a go and I'm so glad I did. This isn't just about Erik the hero of the book, a poor kid given a choice of sign up or else. The depth of imagination that's gone into this story leaves you wanting more...Much more. This is my first Jay Allen book and it will not be last and you will be the same especially if you live a good war story and put your sci-fi prejudice to one side and just immerse yourself in a great story. I honestly wish Amazon would increase the number of stars they allow for their products because not just this book but others I've read deserve 10/10 a few books and certainly some products can be given ⭐⭐ just for arriving on time and in good condition where as a single ⭐out of 10 lets you know how rubbish the products really are. Sorry for going off topic but this book and many products are far superior to others and it annoys me so much. Please buy and enjoy this book for what it is and that's a great fictional war story.

Kindle-Kunde

Der Anfang einer guten Reihe

Reviewed in Germany on March 25, 2013

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Da die Produktbeschreibung bereits eine brauchbare Inhaltsangabe enthält verzichte ich hier auf selbige, und komme direkt zu meinen Eindrücken.

Beim ersten lesen war ich zunächst etwas skeptisch, da 'Marines' alles in allem mehr einem Bericht denn einem normalen militray-scifi Buch gleicht.
Der Protagonist beschreibt eine ziemlich desolate Welt die sebst für einen Steampunk/Neogothic-Fan wie mich anfangs etwas seltsam wirkt, da zwar das Schicksal des Helden recht gut dargelegt ist, die Gesamtwelt jedoch lediglich mit einem 'ist halt so' erklärt wird.
Dazu kommt noch der große Mangel an Dialogen die die entwicklung der anderen Charaktere sehr hemmen, weshalb eigentlich nur der Protagonist wirklich im Focus steht und alles andere eben beiwerk ist.
Als SciFi fan habe ich jedoch schon einige Bücher des Military-SciFi gelesen, und so wurden viele Aspekte recht selbsterklärend, wobei einem der Autor auch viel Spielraum für Selbstauslegung lässt was mir sehr gut gefällt.
So wurde Beispielsweise die 'keine Gefangenen'-Politik beschrieben die von beiden Seiten größtenteils praktiziert wurde, was man sowohl als Kriegsverbechen auslegen kann die ein Teil der neuen, desolaten Menschen sind, als auch als logische Konsequenz aus Kriegen/Kämpfen im Weltraum, wo z.B. ein Loch in der Rüstung den Tod bedeutet, weshalb sich ein anderer Umgang mit dem Kampf und Tod entwickelt hatt.

Die Positiven Adpekte waren damit für mich ausreichend um mir das zweite Buch der ' Crimson Worlds'-Serie zu kaufen, und ich wurde weiterhin positiv überrascht. Mit jedem neuen Buch der Reihe beseitigt der Autor viele 'Fehler' die die Leser gestört haben nd verändert/verbessert seinen Erzählstil.
So komme mehr Dialoge hinzu, Nebencharaktere bekommen mehr Tiefgang, mehr Fakten und genauere erläuterungen über die Geselschaft/Politik/Welt werden gegeben etc., wodurch die weiteren Bücher der Serie zu wirklich lohneder Lektüre werden.

Fazit:
Einsteiger in das Military-SciFi Genre muss ich dringend von diesem Buch abraten, da das Buch mit Wachsender Erfahrung besser wird, da es zwar viele 'Selbstverständliche' Aspekte kaum erklärt, jedoch viele ungewöhliche Aspekte abdeckt. (Für Einsteiger empfehle ich die Wayson Harris Bücher von Steven L. Kent).
Für alle alten Hasen kann ich das Buch nur empfehlen. Normalerweise würde es von mir eine 3 bekommen, jedoch ist es der Einstig in die Crimson-Worlds-Reihe, die sich bisher auf vier bzw. Fünf Sterne Bücher hochgearbeitet hatt, da der Autor merklich auf die Anregungen seiner Leser eingeht und auch immer besser im schreiben von Büchern wird. Daher gebe ich dem Buch 4 Sterne mit der Empfehlung die Serie insgesammt zu lesen und nicht bei Geil eins aufzuhören.

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Gardy52

A very entertaining and fast paced read

Reviewed in Australia on October 31, 2014

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Great start to a series! Quite enjoy this genre and this doesn't disappoint. Futuristic equipment and armaments tied into an interesting storyline (albeit we've read this hero saves fellow soldiers stuff before) set in today's events, makes for a good read. Characters maybe a bit "usual"(hero, buddy, villains, old Man "troop leader")) but nevertheless the story develps at a cracking pace. Looking forward to the next instalment

Noel Rodrigue

Once you dip your toes...

Reviewed in Canada on May 1, 2018

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Interesting from many points of view. Only late did I realize that I have read one of the follow on books quite awhile ago. Now it makes sense!
I also found that, apart from the plot line, there is also an effective leadership primer throughout. It fits in effortlessly and effectively.
Finally, I thought that the 'bible' at the end was a good idea both in terms of location ( not disclosing plot secrets) and content.

Well done and eminently readable.

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Marines (Crimson Worlds Book 1) Kindle Edition

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