Obtain Immediately A Just Determination (JAG In Space, #1) Articulated By John G. Hemry Supplied As Online Book

this book combines three of my favorite genresthe courtroom thriller, science fiction, and sea fiction/Navy fiction, This book quite literally appeals to all three,

Set at the end of this century, thes, the US and various other countries have "claimed" various parts of the Solar System as "theirs.
" The United States Navy has extended its mission into space, and, the result is a mixture of the familiarnaval ranks, naval procedures, etc, and the futuristic an amazingly designed spacefaring warship that, using today's technology, could probably actually be built and work if a government decided to construct one.
The extrapolation is amazingly well done Hemry builds his future seamlessly and explains it as he tells the story, The settings he creates are so realistic that they don't seem like science fiction extrapolation, but rather places the author has actually scene,

The novel and it is the first in the series follows the fortunes of Paul Sinclair, a newly minted ensign, who's assigned to a ship about to go on a cruise.
Paul is kind of an everyman, going through all of the problems, challenges, and screw ups that befell a new officer as she or he learns the ropes shipboard.


But the ship winds up in a sticky situation and the captain orders an attack on a ship that has ventured into US "Space.
" Although the captain thinks the vessel was military and was planning at attack, investigation after the crew of the other ship is killed reveals that it was a research vessel with no military armament.
The ship is ordered back to port a space station and the Captain is placed on trial,

Paul is placed in a tricky situation although he does not care for his CO, he realizes that the Rules of Engagement the orders issued that dictate if, when, and how deadly force can be used the captain has been working on were unclear and that the captain's actions were potentially defensible given the unclear rules of engagement.
Paul does not think the captian should be fully exonerated, but he does not think he should be railroaded and imprisoned because the captain's superiors bear a measure of the blame for issuing unclear rules of engagement.


So Paul must decide whether to think of career first, or to defend an ineffective officer against a court martial that may be unjust.


The book really rocks fast plot, believable characters, realistic portrayal of Navy life I am a Naval veteran, morally complex issues that aren't easily resolved.
It's a book that is thoughtful and exciting at the same time,

A court procedural set in space is an interesting concept, but one which is wellhandled by Campbell/ Hemry, However, despite the blurb on the back cover, the destruction of the science ship doesn't happen until about halfway through, and despite the title, the book isn't really about a JAG in Space the main character just happens to have some legal training.


Very much enjoyed the book, but be prepared that the trial is only the last third, it's really obvious which way it's going to go, and the plot of the first twothirds of the book is entirely revealed by the blurb.
A quick read, light and fluffy, which would seem to be the wrong adjectives to describe a hard scifi military courtroom drama, but the shoe fits.
I enjoyed it, and will likely look into its sequels, this book and the entire seres are too short Though it's a sci fi series, John Hemry provides the best description of daily pressures, stresses, and neuroses of junior officer life that I've ever read!.
stars

I liked the story and the characters, It was just a litte to wordy and technical for me, Also an appendix for some the "navy language" would have been great,

Fresh from the Academy, Ensign Paul Sinclair has been assigned to the warship USS Michaelson, whose mission is to stop any foreign vessels from violating U.
S. sovereign space. When Captain Peter Wakeman mistakenly destroys a civilian science ship perceived as hostile, Sinclair must testify against Wakeman at a courtmartial hearing, But Sinclair believes that the severity of the charges against the captain are unjustand becomes a witness for the defense, . . A Just Determination is written by John Hemry which later goes by his name Jack Campbell, This story revolves around Paul Sinclair which is a newly minted Ensign fresh from the Academy and specialized training to board his first ship the USS Mickelson.
It goes about being acquanted to ship life, have specialized duties as the ships legal officer, and go about a situation that would require Mr.
Sinclair to make a difficult decision,

A Just Determination is a fantastic novel and I ordered the rest of the series, so I will update on future books in the series.
Mr. Sinclair is a great protagonist and someone easy to root for, He has many flaws, makes many mistakes, but lives by the noble notions of honor and justice, Those kind of ideals are hard to see even today, but it makes for great reading having someone start from the bottom on up and learning through all the challenges.


For this review, I try to keep spoilers to a minimum, This is the first sci fi book in a long time that had me forget about sleep to finish the book andstar rating is something of a rarity to me.
For someone such as myself that has never been in the military, following the ranking of officers can be a bit tricky at times, It doesn't detract from the story because all the characters, including side character, feel like real people, There is a problem nowadays that has writers have their character or side characters portrayed as perfect, It pisses me off, rolls my eyes, and most times detracts from the story, This story doesn't do that, All of these people have flaws, make mistakes, and to me that makes getting invested in these characters that much easier,

All I will say is that I loved the ending and in parting words my favorite line from the book, "Where is Tweed!" Read in print inand listened with David in, Very nice "read" for a car trip! Nice characters and great extrapolation of naval culture to the future space navy,
Reading again for my SF group October, A Just Determination s clever introduction to the character of Paul Sinclair as he is put through his pacing as of his first assignment to the USS Michaelson! The charaterisation of Paul and the others such as Wakeman, Jen etc is brilliantly done.
This all keeps Sinclair on the hop and Jens and Wakeman interaractions you will not see coming!

The plot, and Pauls seeing that Wakeman gets a fair try, is brillianlty done! The tension is al there from the start but A Just Determination is also packed full of action and humour throughout! The cast of characters are all three dimensional but at the same all different to each other making for unpredicatable interations! You will be up late guessing as to which way things are going to go!

Brilliant, tense, full of action and acventure! Crisp High Five! Get it When You Can! Highly Recommended! Interesting blend of hard SF and legal drama.
Ensign Paul Sinclairs first ship assignment is on the USS Michaelson, where, in addition to his other duties, he acts as the ship's legal officer.
The naval dialogue seems quite realistic, and were it not for a few references to space stuff, one might think they were aboard a modern day Navy ship.
Except there was not one “fuck” in the entire book, So maybe in the future they have eliminated all swearing yeah, right,

The Michaelsons captain Wakefield, anxious to see some combat, decides to intercept an alien vessel that is technically outside his patrol zone.
Hes the typical Queeg without the steel balls and stolen ice cream, As an aside, the Caine Mutiny is a must read and based oin Herman Wouks experiences aboard a WW II minesweeper/destroyer, Queegs must have been relatively common because my brotherinlaws first assignment as an ensign was under a similar character, When the ship fails to heave to and then makes what appears to be a threatening move, the captain asks Sinclair for a legal interpretation of the orders, very broad and suitably vague, then destroys the ship only to learn it was an unarmed civilian ship, albeit an alien one.
Remember the USS Vincennes shooting down Iran Air Flightinsee sitelink wikipedia. org/wiki/IranAir Im still puzzled by how an Airbuscould have been confused with an attacking F,civilians were killed includingchildren,

Unlike the captain of the Vincennes, Wakefield is courtmartialed and the last third or so of the book is the trial, itself quite interesting if you like legal drama, which I do.
Sinclair finds himself in some interesting moral and ethical dilemmas that are sensitively handled,

Billed as a legal thriller, its not much of the latter, but the legal aspect is quite good,

Quote from the Wikipaedia article: When questioned in aBBC documentary, the U, S. government stated in a written answer that they believed the incident may

have been caused by a simultaneous psychological condition amongst thebridge crew of the Vincennes called 'scenario fulfillment', which is said to occur when persons are under pressure.
In such a situation, the men will carry out a training scenario, believing it to be reality while ignoring sensory information that contradicts the scenario.
In the case of this incident, the scenario was an attack by a lone military aircraft, Just imagine what the U, S. reaction would have been to an Iranian attack downing a U, S. civilian airliner.

That reminds me of something a candidate for a job once said during an interview, One of the search committee had asked something about mission statements, and the guy bless him said that he was familiar with mission statements, that they were “vague yet meaningless.
” Direct hit. Military science fiction and law! The combination just appealed, I am, of course, someone who read a tome on the U, S. Supreme Court history for fun

I got exactly the story I predicted from that simple description, There was nothing unexpected about this book except perhaps the unflinching portrayals of incompetents in the Navy, They seemed a bit cartoonish, but sadly I could accept that people with issues this severe could indeed make it through the military ranks, Ensign Paul Sinclair, of course, isn't one of them he's new on board, determined to do his best, and even when he doesn't always succeed, keeps on trying.
Given that he's assigned three collateral duties alongside his primary job on the first day he steps on board, I felt a fair bit of sympathy for him.


One of those duties is as the ship's legal officer, because he's taken a onemonth course, It's from that perspective that he watches the captain give orders that eventually lead the ship's crew into testifying at a court martial,

The dialogue felt a bit wooden to me not a dealbreaker when a higher ranking officer was addressing Paul and there were lots of "Yes, sir"s, but even the banter between ensigns wasn't quite natural.
But the A Just Determination's written quite earnestly and it's very readable, and there were a couple of minor characters that I thought were interesting, so I think I'll pick up the next one.
This novel exhibits what is coming to seem a pattern in Henry / Campbell's books of amazing settings and characterization and a soso plot, Very, very little happens in the story, but the backdrop is amazing, The nickname "JAG In Space" is apt, The story centers on the trial of a captain following questionable actions in combat, What is interesting about the story isn't the combat event or even an emotional stake in the outcome of the trial but in seeing modern military court practice extended to the future with space travel.


One thing I wish it had done more of is fleshing out the sense of the law and practice of command necessarily turning full circle in an era of space travel.
In centuries gone by ship captains were largely laws unto themselves given the long time they spent between contact with home and command, Their power was farreaching and there was tremendous weight vested in their judgement, We now live in a period in which communication is nearly always instantaneous between and level of command and action that is desirable, The potential negative outcomes of that are one of the two major themes of Campbell's first trilogy on Stark's War, Distant space travel returns us to the previous state where there will again be long, cutoff periods where action must be taken, This element is present in the novel, and in fact gives rise to the limited plot that exists, but could have been taken much further.
Perhaps the law could have been archaic in a sense, developed during a period more like the current one with space ship captains hobbled, Perhaps the author could work out the similarities and differences to traditional military rule and made that more interesting,

This doesn't sound like a fourstar review, It is really hard to say what is amazingly good about the novel, I really cared about the main character, His world is drawn in wonderful color and your heads snaps about wanting to see what it is like, Though I wouldn't say it is done to the same extent, he shares this with sitelinkRobert A, Heinlein who, particularly in later novels, might let a plot fall apart somewhat but compensated with such amazing characters and settings that you don't mind much.
The first book in the “JAG in Space” series is a short and neat novel about a young ensign, an incident, and a court martial.
Hemry delivers a page turner, Not the heaviest reading, to be sure, but there are depths between the lines, There is in fact quite a decent coming of age story between the covers,

I am always partial to books where I can identify with and feel sympathetic with the characters, Hemry is excellent at making the reader well, this reader at least identify with protagonist Paul Sinclair during his struggles on his first deployment, The other crew members of the U, S. S. Michaelson are a mix of good and bad, with wildly varied motivations, just like in real life, Overall, the characters feel well fleshed out, and Hemry is skilled at portraying both them and the action, entirely from young Sinclairs perspective,

It could perhaps be argued that this novels setting is incidental, and that it would have worked just as well on the sea.
That may be so, but that does not detract from its appeal, A fine read.

Note: Hemry also writes under the pseudonym Jack Campbell,

sitelink books. rosboch. net/p.