A Soldier’s Duty by Jean Johnson

Military Science Fiction

I saw a recommendation for A Soldier’s Duty on another web site and decided to check it out.  It is the first in a new series, Theirs Not to Reason Why,  by Jean Johnson.

The story is riveting.  Ia (this is her only name) is a precog .  She has visions of the future and when she was 15 she sees a future where everyone dies.  As she searches all the many time streams she finds only one where there is a chance of survival but only if she works very hard to make sure certain events happen.  That is what drives and shapes Ia’s life and leads her into a life in the military.

The first book chronicles Ia’s first few years as a member of the Terran United Planets Space Marines.  A Soldier’s Duty is just the right mix of science and action.  Since the story is told from Ia’s point of view it is easy to see how she uses her precog to shape events around her but even Ia is not infallible.  Sometimes events do not spin exactly as she expects and that increases the tension in the story

I was spellbound by this book.  Events shape this story and Ia is in control of the events.  I found the concept new and fresh and look forward to second book in the series, An Officer’s Duty that will be published in August of 2012. 

ACE published A Soldier’s Duty by Jean Johnson in 2010.