Angel Six Echo

by Robert Appleton

Beyond war. Beyond love. Into legend.

Armed with a fabled combat suit left to her by a dying warrior race, Gabby Rojas enters the deadliest standoff of the war as a rogue sniper with one goal: to keep her husband alive at all costs. Dalton is a high school teacher, not a soldier, but he's volunteered to fight for the good of the colonies, against her advice. Gabby, on the other hand, is a black-ops prodigy who turned her back on the military years ago. The consequences of re-entering the fray alone like this, wielding the power of her extraordinary armoured suit, could tip the balance of power in the galaxy.

To reach her full potential, she must bond with the suit over six gruelling stages. She doesn't know what form they will take, only that the final bonding is permanent, and any changes made to her will be irreversible. Can she see Dalton safely off Orontes before the final transformation? Stealth is her ally, but it's tough to stay inconspicuous when you're taking tactical combat to the next level. No human has seen anything like the things she can do, and word of her exploits soon spreads across the colonies, attracting the attention of powerful enemies, including her old alien nemeses, the Finaglers.

As the stakes rise, Gabby's loyalties and fighting skills are tested to their limits. But through it all, the love of her life only seems to make her stronger. That, in turn, stirs ancient forces inside the biotech suit, making it far more powerful, and potentially more dangerous, than she could ever have imagined.

Genres: Science Fiction

338 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 17, 2020

About the author

Robert Appleton is a British science fiction and adventure author partial to tales of survival in far-flung locations. Many of his sci-fi books share the same universe as his popular Alien Safari series, though tend to feature standalone storylines. His rebellious characters range from an orphaned grifter on Mars to a lone woman gate-crashing the war in her biotech suit. His sci-fi readers regularly earn enough frequent flyer miles to qualify for a cross-galaxy voyage of their choosing. His publishers include Harlequin Carina Press, and he also ghost-writes novels in other genres. In his free time he hikes, plays soccer, and kayaks whenever he can. The night sky is his inspiration.

His work has been nominated for several awards, and in 2011 he won the EPIC Award for Best Historical Fiction.

Be sure to follow Robert on BookBub for the latest on sales: https://bit.ly/3qLWVHu

Reviews

[PamG · Rating 4 out of 5]

ANGEL SIX ECHO by Robert Appleton is the first book that I have read by this author. It is a combination of science fiction action-adventure and a love story and is told from three perspectives: Gaby Rojas, who has retired from the military black ops; her husband Dalton Volante who is a high school teacher history teacher that has volunteered to fight for the colonies, and law enforcement detective Ferrix Vaughn. Dalton is sent to Orontes, a disputed mining planet. Gabby decides to protect her husband, acquires a combat suit left to her by a dying warrior race, and heads to Orontes as well. What follows is an adventure that kept me captivated.

Gaby and Dalton are engaging characters that have a lot of depth. Volante is not quite as well developed. They are easy to like and root for. The secondary characters are not as well-developed but they enhanced the story. The internal and external conflicts were well defined; arising out of characterization and circumstance rather than feeling forced or contrived.

The story starts out somewhat slowly and seemingly disjointed, but it gives the author an opportunity for both character and world-building. Then the story comes together and the story line advances rapidly with metaphysical surprises, action, betrayal, and some occasional humor. Themes also include friendship, love, officer expertise, and much more. What an ending!

Overall, this was an action-packed, compelling and entertaining novel with love and a fight over natural resources at its core. I highly recommend this to those that enjoy action-packed science fiction stories. The expected publication date is November 17, 2020. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 stars.

BooksGoSocial and Robert Appleton provided a complimentary digital ARC of this novel via NetGalley. This is my honest review. Opinions are mine alone and are not biased in any way.

[Amy Verkruissen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Angel Six Echo is one of the most original science fiction stand alone books I've read in quite some time. The story is told from two points of view the first being Gabby Rojas. She is a highly trained retired military fighter who obtains a warriors battle suit from a race of aliens she worked with closely in the past. The reason? To get to the planet that her husband went to fight on against her wishes. The other point of view is from her husband, Dalton. Fighting, on a planet far from home, for what he believes is a just cause.
Gabby and the suit are slowly becoming one. With guidance from the lives of the previous warriors who had worn the suit, Gabby realizes that the changes that are going to take place cannot be reversed. If she can get her husband off this planet alive...it will be all worth it.
So really, at this books heart, is a love story, and what you will fight to keep your loved ones alive. Definitely worth reading. It is a fast paced read, and like I said previously, very original. Loved it!

[S.J. Higbee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a thoroughly entertaining read. Gabby is a super-soldier, trained from childhood to become part of an infamous black ops unit. Until she broke – both physically and mentally. And Dalton, kind, non-judgemental and caring helped put her back together again – and in the process of doing so, they fell in love… The relationship between them is touchingly portrayed – they are clearly passionate about each other. And I liked them both very much. Dalton is rather goofy, easy-going and with a charm that is attractive. Not innate super-soldier material, so it’s just as well that he’s a coms specialist, tasked with keeping in touch with those out on the front line, trying to stave off the increasingly bleak odds they are facing. Gabby is driven, single-minded and ruthless. She doesn’t kill needlessly, but will do so without a qualm if it becomes necessary.

The supporting characters worked well and I thought the battle scenes were well written. Appleton manages to balance the necessary explanation and the full-on action without losing the reader or holding up the pace, which is harder to do than he makes it look. I liked the fact that things often went wrong – plans didn’t work out, and those in the front line paid the price. There are deaths of characters I’d grown to like, but nothing that felt manipulative or careless. Gabby’s relationship with the suit was well handled – inevitably there was stuff that wasn’t explained, because neither Gabby nor the suit really knew what was going on. But I felt that was okay.

What, for me, was never really tackled adequately, was why Dalton – kind, caring husband who knew his wife was emotionally very reliant on him – suddenly ups and leaves for the front line. He always talks of her with great fondness, evidently missing her. And yet, even though he knew she was desperate for him to stay – he left. I would have been a lot happier if he’d been randomly picked in some sort of lottery system, for example.

But other than that one niggle, I found this to be an engrossing and at times, really poignant story of love, loss and hard decisions made in the heat of battle. Oh, and some really nasty aliens! The ending wasn’t what I was expecting, but it did work. Recommended for fans of character-led military sci fi adventure.
8/10

[Peter Baran · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is something gleefully old school about this bit of space warfare and after a lot of cerebral sci-fi I have to admit it was welcome. We start in media res with out veteran putting on her inherited space battle armour despite being out of the game. The war isn't all that nuanced or deep - its settlers versus navy with a side order of alien intervention, but the hook is that the space armour is in itself alien and no human has ever successfully bonded with it before. Our heroine wants to enter the fray to keep her husband safe - he has signed up on a foolish whim. In many ways the motivation isn't the point, we have some moral dilemmas about the changes the alien tech is forcing on her, the effect of a free agent in a complex space war and the grunt side view of attrition warfare.

That makes it sound grim, but weirdly it is anything but. Appleton starts at a relatively staid trot but once he gets it it he lets loose on his language and the stuff flies like some gonzo fifties pulp. It doesn't all work - but there is a glorious sense of style in something like ""She's here to watch over someone, like an angel in the field. She's here for love, Trillion. Good old-fashioned crazy strike-me-down love." And actually out of what felt like a pretty generic set-up he manages to pull a few interesting metaphysical surprises out of the bag - along with secrecy and misunderstanding that would grace any half-arsed romcom.

Fun, done in one and reveling in its stock characters, Angel Six Echo is no masterpiece. But it is also pretty honest about the thrills involved, and works as adventure, pulp, sci-fi and romance. And its been a while since I've read something that does all of that without pretension.

[NetGalley ARC]

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a military space adventure on the front lines of a bitter standoff. Gabby, a retired black ops soldier, is on a one-woman mission to save her husband Dalton, a school teacher who volunteered to fight. The main characters are better developed than you might expect in an action story. This is a big war and a big world, but the story is focused on a small group of characters and mainly the story of Gabby and Dalton. There is interesting worldbuilding without being distracting or wandering into tangents. The story went places I did not expect. The action was exciting and tense. The love story was heartwarming without being too sweet or feeling shoehorned in. The end is great for a stand-alone and was not what I expected. I loved it. It was satisfying and fit the tone and themes. It leaves enough of an opening for a follow-up to make this a possible series in the future.

BooksGoSocial and Robert Appleton provided a complimentary digital ARC of this novel via NetGalley. This is my honest review. Opinions are mine alone and are not biased in any way.

[D.A. Cairns · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, it's a science fiction novel and an impressive one, but Angel Six Echo is a romance of intergalactic proportions. How far would a woman go, how much would she risk for her man? Read Appleton's action packed sci fi adventure to find out.

The narrative is full of much loved sci fi tropes, breathtaking suspense and mind blowing intrigue, but what sets it apart, and the reason I enjoyed it so much is Angel Six and her man, Dalton. Highly recommended.

[Mike]

Terrible, immature dialog, poor writing.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

My thanks to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for an eARC copy of this book to read and review.

I can see this being popular with sci-fi readers who like to read about space, aliens and war in space. It wasn't quite what I had in mind, but it was interesting.

There is a neat twist when the reader realizes that one side of the war is like the Empire from Star Wars and the other is like the Rebel side, both sides human, with allies on one side that comes as a neat surprise that I'm not going to spoil here. When I made the connection between who was the Empire, it flipped the script as it were.

The characters seemed realistic to me. I could see the story naturally unfolding from the characters' actions, nothing felt forced. Unfortunately, people can be dumb at times, even the most intelligent of the group and when they make mistakes in war, lives end up being lost. Though one jerk got his, it was a hollow victory since so many others also perished.

There was ONE rather obvious plot point near the end that went the way I expected, though I was not happy about being right. The end was both hopeful and sad, but while it felt like a natural progression, it wasn't one I was happy with, so that flavored the rest of the book for me. (I did mentally write an epilogue to this book, to explain to myself what happened after the end.)

The book was dark and gritty, as war books should be, war isn't glamorous, it's hell and should be shown as such. Given the year we just left behind however, dark and gritty isn't exactly what I need right now.

Not saying this is a bad book, just that it's not the right time for me with it. It was written well, though it was confusing at first due to a spoilery plot point that I won't discuss, but I will say hang in there, it will make sense later. One quibble I had was that we didn't get one more scene with Helen to help out Gabby. That was kind of a mean tease.

I did like that the tough one in the relationship was the wife and not the husband, though he REALLY should have listened to her. Typical, the man doesn't listen, he blunders into something he doesn't understand/can't handle and the woman has to help/save his bacon.

3 solid stars and recommended for sci-fi lovers out there who like books similar to Starship Troopers.

[S. Jeyran Main · Rating 4 out of 5]

Angel six echo is a sci-fi action-adventure novel written about Gabby, a retired military black op, and her husband, Dalton, a history school teacher. Dalton volunteers to go to Orontes, a disputed mining planet, to fight for the colonies. Gabby goes with him to protect her husband, and so the adventure begins.
I particularly enjoyed the relationship between Gabby and Dalton. They were two engaging characters, and their personalities grew as the story went along. The book was filled with action, adventure, love, betrayal, friendship, and so much more. The ending was very satisfactory.

As the story was written with two viewpoints, it created a beautiful dynamic of thoughts and descriptive telling. Gabby is a highly trained retired military fighter, and so she knows her stuff. Her love and goals were admirable, trying to go to the planet her husband is, just to help him even though she was against it. I liked that.

I recommend this book to anyone who likes to read stories that are action-packed and filled with sci-fi-related genres.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a bit of surprise. I went in with pretty low expectations. I think I may have gotten it free on Amazon but it sounded interesting. Like the old days of browsing a bookstore and picking something on nothing more than the cover and blurb. Anyway, it was a fun book. Action packed, and well written action at that. Interesting characters, cool worldbuilding. It left enough out for you to want more, instead of over explaining things. Kept the mystery and of course now I want more stories from this. Sounds like there are sort of sequels from one of the minor side characters, so I will have to check those out.

I wasn't too keen on the very ending, seemed a bit out of place. There is some pretty strong influence from Frank Herbert's Dune, as well, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Action-packed, emotional, and refreshingly original.”
This book delivers high-stakes sci-fi action with real heart. Gabby Rojas is a fierce, compelling heroine, and the bond between her and the combat suit adds a fascinating layer to the story. What really stood out for me was the emotional core love, sacrifice, and loyalty drive the action just as much as the battles. A fast-paced, cinematic read that balances explosive combat with genuine character depth.

[Eric Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought the book was pretty good. It starts off slow and takes a bit admittedly to get the flow of the story but once you put all the pieces together it's a good read. I recommend it as it shows the love of a woman to his man and the emotional impact at the end is what it should be, deep and worth the ending.

[Roxanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good sci-fi packed with action but not my favorite ending. I recommend it still :)

[Dan Hurley · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Great read

This book truly defined many different characters and wove them into a great story line that kept building to a really interesting finish