Scorpio

Frontlines: Evolution, Book 1

By: Marko Kloos

Narrated by: Arielle DeLisle

Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

On a distant Earth colony, an orphaned survivor of an alien invasion discovers that the greatest world-ending dangers aren’t behind her.

It’s been eight years since an alien invasion drove a small surviving group of settlers to seek refuge in an underground shelter. Cut off from the rest of humanity, the ragtag band has maintained a narrowly functioning colony due to communal effort and salvage runs. Alex Archer has her own duties as a dog handler. While this off-world colony may be harsh, Ash, Alex’s black shepherd raised to sense threats, makes living in it a little nicer.

But the tenuous hide-and-seek with the monstrous species known as the Lankies is about to come to an end for Alex and her close-knit crew of soldiers, techs, and friends. When a salvage operation goes catastrophically wrong, the Lankies home in on the humans.

With hopes of a rescue long faded, all Alex has left is will—and the fear that there’s so much more to lose.

©2023 Marko Kloos (P)2023 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

"Kloos has created a believable universe and a fast-moving story of resilience, rescue, and reintegration that reads like a combination of John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War (2004) and Andy Weir’s The Martian (2014).”—Booklist

“Kloos is well on his way to becoming one of the genre’s best assets.”—io9

“There is nobody who does [military science fiction] better than Marko Kloos.”—George R. R. Martin

Great start to new chapter in the war

The book started a little slow but quickly sped up and can't wait to see where the rest of the war goes

When do we get more of the story?

Intrigue, humanity, surprises
Great for people that like a bit of science fiction. Hoping that the story continues.

Great start to a new series

Frontlines is one of my favorite series. I’m excited for this new start in the existing universe and can’t wait for the next book.

Good story, not may fav narrator

I’m interested to see how the story unfolds in the second book, nice to have a female lead character, love the dogs aspect, I hope the dogs continue in the next book. Narrator kind of sounded like Siri or a decent robot voice. Not much inflection and the different character voices were not very different. Really enjoy the Marlo Kloos stories and I imagine narrators are hard to find. When Front Lines switched from Luke to Eric, it took some getting used to but they were both good. This narrator for this book is too flat imo.

Great story

Lots of reality of the military experience woven into a great science fiction story. Highly recommend this book.

Great story!

Loved the novel, it’s a great continuation of the Frontlines universe. Can’t wait for the next book :)

loved Frontlines love this start to a new character

more frontlines with a fresh character sign me up narrator is fantastic and I'm excited to see the setting continue

Amazing Immersion into a Different World!

This is the first book I've read by author Marko Kloos. It will not be my last. I love it when I find a great author who has previously been unknown to me, so this story was a definite win!

The world Kloos has created here is stark, formidable, and cruel. The Earth colony that inhabited this planet a few years ago was all but wiped out when an alien invasion by a species known as the Lankies came to destroy and kill. Only a few human colonists survived and have been in an underground bunker for nearly a decade, eeking out a bare subsistence by working together. They have managed to keep machinery and tech going by venturing onto the surface occasionally to salvage necessary items. But these are acts of desperation and extremely dangerous since the Lankies control the surface.

Our heroine is a girl named Alex, who is celebrating her 18th birthday on the surface as part of a salvage mission. She's a dog handler who goes out routinely with the military force because her dog Ash can detect the Lankies well before any human can. Alex's birthday doesn't exactly go as one would hope for such an important milestone. It goes to hell. Fast.

Alex, Ash, and the soldiers on this mission captured me quickly and completely. I was totally in this alien world with them, trying to determine a way they could overcome Everest-sized obstacles and make it back to base. Once drawn into the fast pace and full-on danger, I could not put this book down. The characters are diverse, compelling, genuine. The antagonists are vicious and deadly. The storyline is whip-smart with a warp-speed pace. Awesome.

As for me, my breathless adventure with the fierce and brilliant Alex left me wanting more. The first thing I did after finishing this book was to look for the next in the series. I'll be waiting, Mr. Kloos... but not very patiently.

Glad I stuck with it

This story was a roller coaster for me. It started out slow, picked up speed and became downright scarry in spots, and then had a long smooth drop to the finish. I was ready to stop at the scarry part, but perservered and it was worth it.. I wish there had been more of the dog though.

Enjoyable story and worth a listen, but...

To start I have to say I did enjoy the story and I will listen to the next story in the series. However, it kinda felt similar to Marko's other stories. Alex Grayson and his dog. I hope the series deviates from the similar plot lines.