THE LAST PRAETORIAN (The Redemption Trilogy #1) By Mike Smith






Published November 1, 2012.
Kindle e-book.
Estimated length: 405 pages.

Reminiscent of the TV show Firefly, The Last Praetorian has humanity moving out into the galaxy and occupying multiple planets. Also, like in Firefly, the newly settled planets fought a civil war. But, instead of an oligarchy, this universe's civil war resulted in an emperor, much like the chaos at the end of the Roman Republic led to Julius and Augustus Caesar.

 Now, hundreds of years later, the current emperor is assassinated in a plot led by one of the admirals of one of his fleets of star ships. The fleet proceeds to move against the emperor's only heir, his daughter, as she travels to the planet where her school is. But, she is protected by the praetorian guards and their leader Jonathan Radec. At the cost of all of the praetorian guards (except for Radec) the princess survives.

 The Last Praetorian is the story of the Radec and the the princess and their romance and why they broke up and how they still like each other from afar as Radec and his new crew fight space mobsters and the like.

 The positives:

 Smith knows how to describe space battles - they are vivid and interesting.

 The negatives:

 -Poor, poor, poor editing. Missing apostrophes, confusion over the uses of  "to" and "too" and sometimes just plain old clunky writing. For example: "Silently Sofia hoped that Albert was safe, as in the short time she had met him she had grown fond of the man."

 -Unrealistic plot details. For example, while the princess and Radec are on the run from the assassins she is able to tap into her bank accounts without being traced.

 -Radec's emotional range is simple: he broods or he gets angry and throws things or he tries to seduce women he works with (or for).  Plus, his ultra-sharp sword is a rip off of the light saber from Star Wars.

 I rate this book 2 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: THE LAST PRAETORIAN (The Redemption Trilogy #1) By Mike Smith.

 Reviewed on October 7, 2013.

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