By: Noah Douglas
Greetings, if you saw last week's post on The Lost Fleet, we're going to continue our delve into my personal suggestions concerning military science fiction. If you haven't yet read our post on The Lost Fleet, click HERE.
Rogue Clone is a ten-book military science fiction series by Steven L Kent that exists both in text and as a Graphic Audio collection. I actually strongly suggest the audiobook format for this series! Graphic Audio does a stellar job at giving the characters a sound voice while adding in immersive sound effects.
Description
"Earth, 2508 A.D. Humans have spread across the six arms of the Milky Way Galaxy. The Unified Authority controls Earth’s colonies with an iron fist and a powerful military—a military made up almost entirely of clones…
Private first-class Wayson Harris was raised in a U.A. orphanage among thousands of clones born and bred to be the ultimate soldiers. But Harris isn’t like the other Marines: he has a mind of his own. He figures he’s paying for that independent streak when his first assignment out of boot camp is the smallest Marine outpost in the whole U.A.
When a rogue general surfaces, the remote desert world Harris thought was a dead-end posting becomes anything but. Fighting off the general’s raid gains Harris a promotion. But it also brings him to the attention of some unfriendly U.A. leaders. They have their own plans for the military—plans Harris disrupts by his very existence. For in an army of clones, the one unforgivable sin is to be different…"
Why I love Rogue Clone
Rogue Clone, the technical series name, is hard military science fiction at its very best. Wayson Harris is a U.A. Marine, a clone amoung many like him. Seeing the story from the perspective of someone who is one amoung many identicals is a perspective we don't get all too often. What makes you unique when everyone else is just like you?
I think that Harris' struggle for individuality and his bottom-up adventure of rising through the ranks is inspiring, human, and real. Furthermore, Harris is forced into a position that pulls him away from the U.A., the only thing he has known for all of his life. Harris is ultimately in a position that requires him to act independantly from the maternal figure of the U.A., but also face a larger threat that goes beyond the politics of Enlisted Man's Empire or United Authority.
We ultimately see a shift in Harris' personality. He is always a marine at heart and combat is quite literally built into his DNA. However, despite this, Harris slowly develops into a humanitarian figure just as much as he is a military one. He will always struggle internally between his innate desire to destroy and his newfound appreciation for the dwindling human life in the Milky Way Galaxy
I give this entire series 5 gold stars. Each book is extremely engaging and has heavily influenced my own military science fiction writing. If you like military sci-fi, Rogue Clone is a must read series
All the titles:
I made certain to list links to each of the written titles and their audio counterparts in order because unfortunately, Amazon doesn't list the books in an ordered series format. So see all ten titles below!
Book 1
Book 2
Book 3
Book 4
Book 5
Book 6
Book 7
Book 8
Book 9
Book 10
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