Robert Buettner, Orphan's Journey (Orbit, 2008)
Orphan's Journey is the third book in Robert Buettner's military sci-fi series, after Orphanage and Orphan's Destiny. However, thanks to an easy-going, relatable writing style and an engagingly down-to-earth protagonist, readers who are new to the series and just picking up this book should still be able jump right into the story and enjoy it immensely.
Many years ago, Jason Wander, a dedicated but sensitive soldier, helped defend Earth from the Slugs -- destructive aliens who attacked and devastated the Earth's population. With the Slug threat defeated (for now, anyway), Jason works on Earth as a military adviser to rebel forces fighting unjust oppression. However, when Jason's well-intentioned meddling lands him with difficult injuries, the United States army gives him a new mission: to convince his genetically gifted sixteen-year-old godson to help the army test the Firewitch, an old Slug spaceship that contains the aliens' secret to intergalactic travel.
Jason complies, and the test proves successful -- too successful. The Firewitch powers up, and before Jason can blink, it jets off towards a pre-programmed destination -- a planet far out of the Earth's galaxy. There, Jason, his godson, and the rest of his crew discover a world where humans and dinosaurs supposedly co-exist, and where the Slug threat is still very real.
Admittedly, on paper the plot to Orphan's Journey sounds almost too pulpy to be true. Dinosaurs? Slug aliens? Mutants and spaceships? However, Buettner bolsters the story with evocatively realized characters and prodigious military detail. Jason, in particular, carries the United States army around with him in his head wherever he goes, and his opinions and decisions are heavily influenced by the nitty-gritty everyday details of army life. Even with futuristic weapons, armour, and vehicles, Buettner still shows how it all continues to fit within the U.S. Army's particular brand of bureaucracy.
The only difficulty Jason has with being a soldier is the burden of command. He freezes at the thought of ordering soldiers to die, and is repulsed by the thought of any loss of life, even the kind that might be seen as necessary for the greater good. Buettner ably demonstrates how this is both a virtue and a flaw as a commander, soldier, and human being. Ultimately, it renders Jason an appealing human character: he's not an indecisive ninny, but neither is he an emotionless killer.
However, the novel's villains -- the Slugs -- are not nearly as clearly defined. Basically just mindless killing machines, the novel wastes little time on them, because they are, in point of fact, almost inconsequential to the story. The bulk of the book lies in the human interactions between Jason and the alien planet's oppressed inhabitants, and how very realistic and relatable cultural obstacles must be overcome before Jason and his crew can rally the natives to purge their world of the Slug menace. The ending, sadly, is a little abrupt, but that doesn't change the entertaining and insightful lead-in. Gifting the novel with a strong human centre, Orphan's Journey serves as both a testament to the courage of troops and an admittance of the horrors of war, along with providing wicked cool sci-fi weaponry.
