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Decker's War #1
Death Comes But Once
Zack Decker wanted only one thing in life: to fight as a Marine Pathfinder. But his temper and his loathing for careerist officers cost him dearly. Forced into early retirement, with a wife who left him long ago, no job, no friends and no future, the former sergeant crawled into a bottle and stayed there, moving from planet to planet, looking for some reason to keep on living. Until, that is, he wandered into a bar owned by an old Marine buddy who offered to help. On the run after killing a corrupt cop, and nowhere to hide, he accepted.
Decker would have done better to head for the hills, or surrender to the militia, however old friends could be persuasive and he soon found himself signing on as security officer of a starship with dubious owners and a dubious crew, doing things for his new employer that tested the old saying 'Once a Marine, always a Marine.' Curiosity was Decker's other major failing and in short order he was on the run, hunted by a shadowy government organisation, and in possession of a secret that could destroy the Commonwealth. It was a secret to die for, and the people on his trail wanted to make sure he did. Along the way, they forgot that he could still fight like one of the Few...
Decker would have done better to head for the hills, or surrender to the militia, however old friends could be persuasive and he soon found himself signing on as security officer of a starship with dubious owners and a dubious crew, doing things for his new employer that tested the old saying 'Once a Marine, always a Marine.' Curiosity was Decker's other major failing and in short order he was on the run, hunted by a shadowy government organisation, and in possession of a secret that could destroy the Commonwealth. It was a secret to die for, and the people on his trail wanted to make sure he did. Along the way, they forgot that he could still fight like one of the Few...
- GenresScience Fiction
378 pages, Unknown Binding
First published October 8, 2014
130 people are currently reading
79 people want to read
About the author
Eric Thomson
39 books129 followersEric Thomson is my pen name. I'm a former Canadian soldier who spent more years in uniform than he expected, serving in both the Regular Army (Infantry) and the Army Reserve (Armoured Corps). I spent several years as an Information Technology executive for the Canadian government before leaving the bowels of the demented bureaucracy to become a full-time author.
I've been a voracious reader of science-fiction, military fiction and history all my life, assiduously devouring the recommended Army reading list in my younger days and still occasionally returning to the classics for inspiration. Several years ago, I put my fingers to the keyboard and started writing my own military sci-fi, with a definite space opera slant, using many of my own experiences as a soldier as an inspiration for my stories and characters. When I'm not writing fiction, I indulge in my other passions: photography, hiking and scuba diving, all of which I've shared with my wife, who likes to call herself my #1 fan, for more than thirty years.
I've been a voracious reader of science-fiction, military fiction and history all my life, assiduously devouring the recommended Army reading list in my younger days and still occasionally returning to the classics for inspiration. Several years ago, I put my fingers to the keyboard and started writing my own military sci-fi, with a definite space opera slant, using many of my own experiences as a soldier as an inspiration for my stories and characters. When I'm not writing fiction, I indulge in my other passions: photography, hiking and scuba diving, all of which I've shared with my wife, who likes to call herself my #1 fan, for more than thirty years.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
June 9, 2019
It's a pretty bold move to make the protagonist so unlikable; I don't think it really pays off.
July 27, 2024
What the hell
**Contains Spoilers**
This book takes place in the Siobhan Dunmoore universe, Far enough in the furture for the characters in that series to be elderly. I absolutely loved that series and was excited to read Deckers War and see how the Commonwealth was fairing.
We start off with Zack Decker being forced to retire from the marines, he's sad and down on his luck, fast forward a little and he ends up as a Gunnery Officer of a merchant ship and this is where the actual story starts.
Initially an outsider with the crew we watch them go through a few shipments and see zack work in trying to be accepted by the crew and butting heads with the bosun.
These regular shipments turn into running contraband and arms to planets outside the commonwealth. I begrudgingly accepted this because it was shown in the last series that an unfortunate amount of former military turned to this lifestyle to survive.
We see Zack develop a relationship with the first officer and at this point all is going pretty decent (id say 3.5 if not 4 out of 5).
But then, as soon as the progress tracker ticked over to 49% it all went to hell. All of a sudden, instead of being a hotshot former marine, zack turns into a "haha me no able to think if see pretty woman" stereotype and he starts cheating on the first officer.
Then, in the same instance the above was first introduced, Eric decided to throw in a sentence that completely took me out of this book. I’ve never lost interest in a book so fast before. I will not be including a quote of the sentence in question, but its on page 204 of the kindle version to whoever is curious. I’ve never gone from "eh this book is okay" to "i hate this book" so fast before.
And whats worse, the first officer, Raisa, who at this point is a much better character with a richer backstory than the main character, Zack, ends up sacrificing herself to save zack when they are cornered by an agent who is going to kill them because they found information they were not supposed to. This and Zacks admittedly strong reaction to her loss rings quite hollow though. As i mentioned above he had no issue inviting his bunkmate into the shower and cheating on Raisa. Added to that, Raisa wasn't even dead for 24 hours and he's already making inappropriate jokes and innuendos towards the VERY FIRST woman he meets. This is the WORST main character I've seen in a long time.
So anyways, we continued following the story admittedly the story itself is pretty cool but it brought down by zack. And eventually he ends up on a different fast trading ship to try and get the information i mentioned to the Fleet. Now, Eric was either bad at portraying the passage of time 10 years ago or i missed something, but it appears he's already over Raisa in like a month or two and is already trying for the Captain of this new ship! I honestly cant explain it. Eric needs to keep this crap out of his books. It'd be a decent story.
The chapters are unnecessarily long. I appreciate the section breaks, but i see little reason why chapters ever have to be 30 minutes long, and im not a slow reader by any means.
**Contains Spoilers**
This book takes place in the Siobhan Dunmoore universe, Far enough in the furture for the characters in that series to be elderly. I absolutely loved that series and was excited to read Deckers War and see how the Commonwealth was fairing.
We start off with Zack Decker being forced to retire from the marines, he's sad and down on his luck, fast forward a little and he ends up as a Gunnery Officer of a merchant ship and this is where the actual story starts.
Initially an outsider with the crew we watch them go through a few shipments and see zack work in trying to be accepted by the crew and butting heads with the bosun.
These regular shipments turn into running contraband and arms to planets outside the commonwealth. I begrudgingly accepted this because it was shown in the last series that an unfortunate amount of former military turned to this lifestyle to survive.
We see Zack develop a relationship with the first officer and at this point all is going pretty decent (id say 3.5 if not 4 out of 5).
But then, as soon as the progress tracker ticked over to 49% it all went to hell. All of a sudden, instead of being a hotshot former marine, zack turns into a "haha me no able to think if see pretty woman" stereotype and he starts cheating on the first officer.
Then, in the same instance the above was first introduced, Eric decided to throw in a sentence that completely took me out of this book. I’ve never lost interest in a book so fast before. I will not be including a quote of the sentence in question, but its on page 204 of the kindle version to whoever is curious. I’ve never gone from "eh this book is okay" to "i hate this book" so fast before.
And whats worse, the first officer, Raisa, who at this point is a much better character with a richer backstory than the main character, Zack, ends up sacrificing herself to save zack when they are cornered by an agent who is going to kill them because they found information they were not supposed to. This and Zacks admittedly strong reaction to her loss rings quite hollow though. As i mentioned above he had no issue inviting his bunkmate into the shower and cheating on Raisa. Added to that, Raisa wasn't even dead for 24 hours and he's already making inappropriate jokes and innuendos towards the VERY FIRST woman he meets. This is the WORST main character I've seen in a long time.
So anyways, we continued following the story admittedly the story itself is pretty cool but it brought down by zack. And eventually he ends up on a different fast trading ship to try and get the information i mentioned to the Fleet. Now, Eric was either bad at portraying the passage of time 10 years ago or i missed something, but it appears he's already over Raisa in like a month or two and is already trying for the Captain of this new ship! I honestly cant explain it. Eric needs to keep this crap out of his books. It'd be a decent story.
The chapters are unnecessarily long. I appreciate the section breaks, but i see little reason why chapters ever have to be 30 minutes long, and im not a slow reader by any means.
October 3, 2017
I liked the Siobahn Dunmore books by this author set in the same universe. While there were a few things I liked about this book, the bad outweighed the good.
The MC is supposed to be a noir drunken broken reluctant hero. In reality, this ex marine pathfinder brung low is a blithering idiot and a loser who can not function outside of the military.
Despite being a flat, clueless, self absorbed, and self pitying man, every woman in the series loves him, has sex with him, or wants to have sex with him.
And most of them are subsequently killed off in a desperate attempt to motivate the worthless slug of an MC into doing something about it. Thus the "dead-bond-girl" rating.
The MC is supposed to be a noir drunken broken reluctant hero. In reality, this ex marine pathfinder brung low is a blithering idiot and a loser who can not function outside of the military.
Despite being a flat, clueless, self absorbed, and self pitying man, every woman in the series loves him, has sex with him, or wants to have sex with him.
And most of them are subsequently killed off in a desperate attempt to motivate the worthless slug of an MC into doing something about it. Thus the "dead-bond-girl" rating.
August 8, 2018
I loved the author's other series Siobahn Dunmore, so having a lack of interesting SciFi books to read at the moment I decided to give this series a try.
This book started well and for a time looked like being a real favourite, but that slowly ebbed away as the story dragged on and ‘Zack’s” only interest seemed to be sex with every women he meets.
By halfway it really felt like the story was ‘marking time’ waiting for something significant to happen and to be honest it wasn’t particularly interesting. Eventually everything goes wrong for Zack and the real action begins.
The story wasn’t bad, but it didn’t excite me and I probably won’t be reading anymore in the series.
This book started well and for a time looked like being a real favourite, but that slowly ebbed away as the story dragged on and ‘Zack’s” only interest seemed to be sex with every women he meets.
By halfway it really felt like the story was ‘marking time’ waiting for something significant to happen and to be honest it wasn’t particularly interesting. Eventually everything goes wrong for Zack and the real action begins.
The story wasn’t bad, but it didn’t excite me and I probably won’t be reading anymore in the series.
January 18, 2020
When Eric Thomson's 2014 novel "Decker's War, Book 1: Death Comes But Once" graduated from constant sexual innuendo into sex with anything female at the 49% point, I quit reading. Up until the sex became active, the book was tolerable though cliched. The story takes place in the same universe as Thomson's "Siobhan Dunmoore" series, but is entirely stand alone. Since the characters are also fairly one-dimensional, there's really not anything worth reading here. So, I'm rating the book at a Not Very Good 2 stars out of 5.
November 24, 2021
This was an excellent novel. Best book in quite some time. Mr. Thomson should fire his editor though because there were many grammar errors, i.e., missing words, wrong words. Most of the mistakes were at the beginning of the book though.
September 8, 2018
A good story with even pacing and interesting characters. The plot was not a mystery but there was enough left open to keep one guessing up to the end.
April 11, 2021
Good series
September 5, 2023
Way too much 'hardened ex-Marine who crawled into the bottle and got dragged out is irresistible to every woman he comes across' for my liking. Finished, but won't be continuing with the series.
March 24, 2024
Very enjoyable read, but getting some fatigue on the main character always being right and always figuring it out
May 3, 2017
Gave up around the 70% mark.
February 22, 2017
I started this book with great expectations having just finished the author's other series Siobahn Dunmore. I rated each of those books as five star due to their strong and intricate character development, multiple plot lines and overall quality of the read. This is an OK book, just the usual fare however with a strong military sci-fi aspect. The hero is a down and outer who gets an opportunity to get back into the fray. When he does, he is of course a brilliant marine, qualified to do almost anything and takes on the world. His character is quite simplistic and, while there is really no overt sex in the story, the hero manages to make love to virtually all the women in the book at one time or another. It is probably better than three stars but I did find it tended to plod along it was a little bit of work finishing up.
September 27, 2016
All Too Familiar Cliched SciFi Storyline
"Death Comes But Once," is a quick, somewhat entertaining, unoriginal, and lazily constructed SciFi story.
The basic storyline takes place centuries in the future, where the human civilization ("Commonwealth") is a semi-functional government, stealthily combating a wealthy cabal from within, and an aggressive alien empire without. A murky, neutral zone between the two (2) civilizations, occupied by various species, including humans, is the environment of proxy combat, smuggling, slavery, espionage-you get the gist. A competent, experienced, Pathfinder Marine noncom, after being jettisoned from the military, becomes the unwitting, manipulated pawn of some of the involved players.
The writing is barely ok, as the author needs to hone his skill set. The word "...but...," appears so often, it is nearly a nervous writing tic. The main character is a one dimensional cliche: hardened vet abandoned, falls into alcoholic haze, rescues young, junkie hooker, falls into an espionage game of others, while trying to right himself, and copulates with abandon, falling in love often. He is also submissive to women he finds sexually attractive. The plot lines, devices, are borrow from various, well known sources. It's a bit hackneyed, eliciting the sense of "...been there, done that...," while reading.
The editing and proofreading reading are lackadaisical, with more than a few errors. The eBook is readable and mostly entertaining.
The eBook is a qualified recommended and was fully read via Kindle Unlimited.
"Death Comes But Once," is a quick, somewhat entertaining, unoriginal, and lazily constructed SciFi story.
The basic storyline takes place centuries in the future, where the human civilization ("Commonwealth") is a semi-functional government, stealthily combating a wealthy cabal from within, and an aggressive alien empire without. A murky, neutral zone between the two (2) civilizations, occupied by various species, including humans, is the environment of proxy combat, smuggling, slavery, espionage-you get the gist. A competent, experienced, Pathfinder Marine noncom, after being jettisoned from the military, becomes the unwitting, manipulated pawn of some of the involved players.
The writing is barely ok, as the author needs to hone his skill set. The word "...but...," appears so often, it is nearly a nervous writing tic. The main character is a one dimensional cliche: hardened vet abandoned, falls into alcoholic haze, rescues young, junkie hooker, falls into an espionage game of others, while trying to right himself, and copulates with abandon, falling in love often. He is also submissive to women he finds sexually attractive. The plot lines, devices, are borrow from various, well known sources. It's a bit hackneyed, eliciting the sense of "...been there, done that...," while reading.
The editing and proofreading reading are lackadaisical, with more than a few errors. The eBook is readable and mostly entertaining.
The eBook is a qualified recommended and was fully read via Kindle Unlimited.
December 13, 2015
Good book
I enjoyed this book. It had some good characters and a good storyline. It wasn't loaded with a lot of science like some sci fi books. It had just enough and didn't take away from the story. I somewhat liked the main character and that he is flawed. I was a little disappointed in a couple of his decisions. (Spoiler) He was screwed over and drummed out of military after standing up to his superiors and was devastated by it. He was screwed over again by his friend and an intelligence officer who both manipulated and used him. As a result he was hurt in unimaginable ways and he gets a little mad and then lets it go like nothing. The book portrays him at times with great pride (good) and honor and he just accepts getting screwed over again. The intelligence officer offers him a job at end and he says no thanks. He doesn't tell her to shove it, like he should, I mean all the crap he went through was because of her. It's contradictory. He goes from badass to pansy and then back over and over again. I hope in the next book he's not a pansy and lets his friends and military screw him over again and say "thanks can I have another".
I enjoyed this book. It had some good characters and a good storyline. It wasn't loaded with a lot of science like some sci fi books. It had just enough and didn't take away from the story. I somewhat liked the main character and that he is flawed. I was a little disappointed in a couple of his decisions. (Spoiler) He was screwed over and drummed out of military after standing up to his superiors and was devastated by it. He was screwed over again by his friend and an intelligence officer who both manipulated and used him. As a result he was hurt in unimaginable ways and he gets a little mad and then lets it go like nothing. The book portrays him at times with great pride (good) and honor and he just accepts getting screwed over again. The intelligence officer offers him a job at end and he says no thanks. He doesn't tell her to shove it, like he should, I mean all the crap he went through was because of her. It's contradictory. He goes from badass to pansy and then back over and over again. I hope in the next book he's not a pansy and lets his friends and military screw him over again and say "thanks can I have another".
February 9, 2017
Really fun to read.
Once again a tptaly interesting and enyertaing book. I am just starting to read the third book on this setie and am looking forward to startinhgit soon
Once again a tptaly interesting and enyertaing book. I am just starting to read the third book on this setie and am looking forward to startinhgit soon
April 24, 2022
Zach Decker is retired from the space marines after disobeying a superior officer's (inane) orders during an operation. Crawling into a bottle he slowly reawakens to life when his neighbor needs help. Needing a new life to avoid law enforcement he signs on as private security for a interstellar trader.
This was good fun. Nice bits of action and good plotting. I enjoyed it and look forward to the next book.
This was good fun. Nice bits of action and good plotting. I enjoyed it and look forward to the next book.
January 27, 2017
Nice one
It is not as attention grabbing as the Siobhan Dunmoore series, and i have a bit of an annoyance bug over the speed of female partner changes, next to being a bit predictable. Still, it is a good read.
It is not as attention grabbing as the Siobhan Dunmoore series, and i have a bit of an annoyance bug over the speed of female partner changes, next to being a bit predictable. Still, it is a good read.
March 10, 2016
Nice
Could be read as a slightly cheesy, macho bullshit type of novel, but just read it in fun and you will find you empathise with the characters to an amazing extent. Thank you
Could be read as a slightly cheesy, macho bullshit type of novel, but just read it in fun and you will find you empathise with the characters to an amazing extent. Thank you
August 12, 2021
3 stars. so-so.
February 19, 2015
3.7 stars. A well written space opera with a main character you can root for.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews