Genre: Science Fiction / Military Sci-Fi
Pages: 415 pages
Published Date: August 6, 2019
Publisher: Ace Books
Series: Cry Pilot Series (Book 1)
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

So I have been hearing a lot of good things about this series and particularly the first book, “Cry Pilot”. Now I will start off by stating that I have not read a lot of Sci-Fi books, but that’s not saying that I dislike the genre. I love sci-fi and I liked this book, just did not love it for reasons that pertain to me.

The story is set in a future where the Earth has been devastated by three A.I.’s that no longer exist, but may have left something behind. Something so terrible that there is no way to stop them. Maseo Kaytu wants to join the military to help fight, but with his criminal past he knows that he is unable to become military. The only way to be a part of the military, he volunteers to become a ‘cry pilot’. This is a suicide mission where only six percent of the the volunteers survive, but he figures out a way to cheat the system and beat the odds. After he does this he is assigned to a squad where he grows and bonds with his fellow recruits, but can the hide his past and still keep the trust of his new friends?

Here is what I loved – the characters and the connections they all had. Of course their connections did not happen from the beginning, but dale brought them together nicely. Now what I had trouble with is that I cared more about the vast characters than I did about the underlying military story. There are many characters that Dale introduced and I wanted to know more about them. I had trouble following the terminology / descriptions of the weapons, the machines, basically anything that didn’t concern the characters.

Now with that said, I really did like the book and plan to read the second in the series, “Burn Cycle”, to see where Dale plans to take this motley crew. But most of all I want to know what happens to Ting and maybe get some insight into her ‘kind’ and her past. She is one of the most interesting characters in the book. If Joel Dale wanted to, Ting could have her own novel.