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Frank Chadwick

Chain of Command Mass Market Paperback – March 26, 2019

by Frank Chadwick (Author)

82 ratings

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Military SF from legendary game creator Frank Chadwick. Lieutenant Sam Bitka finds himself commanding a starship against an alien enemy who always seems one step ahead of him.

A CAPTAIN FINDS HIS CALLING

Lieutenant Sam Bitka, U.S. Naval Reserve, is fed up with the military. He just wants to get back to his civilian job and leave the infighting and pettiness of careerist officers behind. Then real war breaks out as tensions between Earth and the alien Varoki boil over. As tactical officer aboard the deep space destroyer USS Puebla, Sam is thrust into the thick of things.

The Varoki launch a crippling surprise attack against the Earth coalition fleet, and Sam finds himself in command of the Puebla—a job he is far from certain he can perform without screwing up. Not only must Sam deal with his stunned and reeling leaders in the human task force, he must also face down a particularly brilliant alien enemy who has made a deep study of human motivation and how to exploit it—an enemy who intends to use human indecision as a weapon to destroy the fleet.

Now one freshly minted, brave new ship captain must learn what hundreds of leaders before him have discovered:

THE CHAIN OF THE COMMAND STOPS HERE

Praise for Chain of Command:

“Chadwick’s heavy hitter succeeds at teeth-gritting action scenes, deep psychological portraits of diverse characters and societies, and abundant puzzles and mysteries. All . . . mixed in seamlessly with the vivid tragedies of war and balanced with dark humor.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"...strong characterization and the briskness of the plot should please. Fans of military sf and of Chadwick, in particular, should give it a look."—Booklist

"Chain of Command is very smartly put together… Chadwick gets the details right, whether he's talking about the effects of prolonged weightlessness or the intricacies of geo and interstellar politics and economics… a solid piece of Mil-SF writing that pulls from many historical sources and manages to convey a lot of what the Surface Navy is like…. it isn't the steel hulls that make the navy tough, it's the sailors that crew them."—SFRevue

About Come the Revolution:
“[A]dventure, family secrets and humor. . . . The plot is as hard as the science Chadwick uses. . . . [E]ngages readers. First-rate science fiction; it moves at a fast pace throughout.”—Daily News of Galveston County

"Chadwick offers an exciting military SF story set on the Varoki home planet of Hazz’Akato in his follow up to How Dark the World Becomes...Chadwick, a leading designer of military and science-fiction board- and role-playing games, knows his way around a battlefield...eccentric cohorts are entertaining, and a few surprises guarantee that readers will be seeing more of this series."—Booklist

"This sequel to How Dark the World Becomes is a fast-paced, action-packed sf adventure. Readers new to Chadwick’s series will be able to start here without too much trouble; essential background information is given, and the author leaps straight into an original story set two years after the previous entry.”—Library Journal

About How Dark the World Becomes:
“How Dark the World Becomes is a crackling debut novel that speaks of great things to come! It's whip-smart, lightning-fast and character-driven—in short it has everything required to be totally satisfying. Highly recommended." —Jonathan Maberry, New York Times best-selling author of Assassin’s Code

“. . . [a] far off, hard scrabble intergalactic underworld . . . fast-paced intergalactic adventure full of far-flung alien intrigue.”—Astroguyz

" . . . thrilling space adventure . . . I was reminded of Jack McDevitt's Alex Benedict novels and Mark L. Van Name's Jon & Lobo adventures."—SFCrowsnest

Print length

544 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Baen
Publication date

March 26, 2019
Dimensions

4.5 x 1.1 x 6.75 inches
ISBN-10

1481483943
ISBN-13

978-1481483940
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Frank Chadwick is the New York Times number one best-selling nonfiction author of over two hundred books, articles, and columns on military history and military affairs, as well as over one hundred military and science fiction board and role-playing games. His game Space: 1889 was the first Steampunk game and remains a cult favorite. His other game writing credits include legendary fantasy game En Garde!, groundbreaking SF role playing game Traveller: The New Era, and many others. Chadwick’s SF novels include Come the Revolution, How Dark the World Becomes and steampunk thriller The Forever Engine, all from Baen Books.

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Baen (March 26, 2019)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Mass Market Paperback ‏ : ‎ 544 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1481483943
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1481483940
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.8 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.5 x 1.1 x 6.75 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #744,264 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4,054 in Space Fleet Science Fiction
- #10,418 in Space Operas
- #15,007 in Science Fiction Adventures

Customer Reviews:
82 ratings

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Frank Chadwick

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Frank Chadwick is the New York Times number one best-selling author of the Desert Shield Fact Book as well as over two hundred books, articles, and columns on military history and military affairs, and over one hundred military and science fiction board and role-playing games. He currently writes science fiction nearly full time and is the author of five science fiction novels from Baen Books: How Dark The World Becomes (2013), The Forever Engine (2014), Come The Revolution (2015), Chain of Command (2017), and the forthcoming Ship of Destiny (2019). His game Space: 1889 was the first steampunk roleplaying game and remains a cult favorite. The Forever Engine is set in that world, as was his earlier e-novella, A Prince of Mars. He currently resides in Illinois and teaches continuing education courses in writing and military history.

Customer reviews

5 star		78%
4 star		12%
3 star		8%
2 star		2%
1 star 0% (0%)		0%

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Top reviews from the United States

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jeff kinsey

Adversity reveals true character

Reviewed in the United States on December 11, 2017

Verified Purchase

Superb. I do understand the other viewers noting stereotypes about senior military officers characters, etc. However, I consider the time and point of view switching needed to see all sides and get nuanced character development of most of those minor characters a waste. This is about the Sam Bitka, the protagonist. The real development is how he evolves over the space of a few weeks of real time from uncertainty and self doubt about ability to command that is evident to his crew to, well uncertainty and self doubt that is not evident to his crew. True courage is not grace under pressure, true courage comes through the self discovery that is messy, sometimes ugly, but results in doing what needs to get done.
This book superbly captures how it feels to be in a critical and dangerous situation in a military unit - on a military ship in the midst of conflict - and how people develop and show the inner truth of who they are as military officers in a short period of adversity. As a former Navy pilot who has been there (no spoilers about what I discovered about myself, this is about Frank's character) - Frank got it here. Thank you and more please.

6 people found this helpful

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Tghu Verd

Gritty, realisitic space warfare

Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2018

Verified Purchase

This military sci-fi is one of those novels where you get under the skin of the characters - both human and alien - via subtle and unobtrusive observations that do not drag you out of the story or mar the tension. In that, it reminded me of Jack McDevitt in style, though Chadwick is more sophisticated in his approach, or even L.E. Modesitt, Jr. (though Chadwick is not as verbose and is way more upfront with the action).

The story is straightforward: protagonist Sam Bitka is a Reservist, currently serving a tour aboard the deep space destroyer USS Puebla to further his resume, and not expecting anything more than the usual ribbing from the regular navy crew that he's not "real Navy". Then the aliens unexpectedly attack and Bitka is thrown into the firing line, literally, assuming a role he does not feel ready for and adopting tactics that his peers question.

I liked the realistic space battle aspects, particularly the accounting for the speed of light. I also liked that characters died. It adds tension when you are never sure if the character you are rooting for is going to make it or not. A bonus is that Chadwick clearly knows the military mind, so the novel drips with expertise and is very much better for it. Still, it's an emotional-driven story and Chadwick does well in never letting the jargon or Navy details get in the way of telling what is essentially a fish-out-water/coming-of-age story. There was also a good balance of overachievers and incompetents in Bitka's chain of command. That was nice; those lazy military novels where everyone senior to the protagonist is a gibbering idiot in a uniform are hard to believe.

I did have a few niggles. The aliens were anything but. In fact, apart from some facial tics, their motivations and way of thinking mirrored ours. And humans have that special 'something' that no other race has. That was necessary to drive the plot, and it was not overdone, but the "we're special" never sits well with me as a narrative because it is just so self-serving.

Still, those niggles aside, this was an excellent book, and I'm already looking for more Chadwick with fingers crossed his other novels are as good as this one.

2 people found this helpful

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Ray Spitz

Some of the very best in Military Space Opera.

Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2017

Verified Purchase

This is a superb book.
It tells a an great war story with excellent characterization. It is the story of ordinary men and women required to extraordinary deeds under the most difficult circumstances. None of the characters are Weberesque paragons. The seem like real, believable people conflicted between their personals goals and desires, the fears, and their duties.
The technology described helps with the suspension of disbelief. I loved the DDRs.
Frank Chadwick is an amazing writer who tells a hell of story! He can even capture military life (remarkably boring and often frustrating) with amazing accuracy and mix it with adventure, and make it all seem credible.
I can't recommend Chain of Command and Ship of Destiny enough!

5 people found this helpful

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John Cunninghan

A great Mil-SciFi read with good characters and excellent action

Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2017

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This is a great Mil-SciFi read, read this book twice already! The characters are well developed with some depth, the setting is interesting (Earth as a junior bit player in the galaxy), and the combat action superb. The characters act and talk like real people, and Chadwick leavens his setting background and tech with story development and action, so the story never bogs down.

And as I'm reading I kept thinking, boy this sounds familiar somehow -- then the author explains in the notes that the story was influenced by the experiences of WW2 DD captains during the Guadalcanal campaign. Very cool, and it worked!

l hope this isn't a one-off and that Chadwick plans more stories with these characters!

4 people found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

A very good book, focused on how people hand war situations

Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2020

Verified Purchase

There is stirring action in this book, but the main part of the book for me is how people handle stressful war situations. Not just the main character, but his subordinates and the hierarchy above.

I loved the Red Duchess as well. I liked it that the main character was not a hot head, or a lovable rogue like Han Solo. I have more respect for this kind of character - dig in and do the job, care about people, learn and grow.

Also, the "politics" of the book is also very interesting.

One person found this helpful

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Efer

Great story with interesting characters and plenty of action

Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2017

Verified Purchase

This is an excellent book. While it is the third book set in this universe, it's set in a different place in the universe with different characters, so you don't need to read the other books (although it you haven't, you'll want to). I read it twice and like Sam Bitka, the protagonist even more the second time. Chadwick provides plenty of action and s.f. tech, but really excels at writing characters. Sam moves quickly up the chain of command because such things happen in war and he has to quickly grow into this role. Of course, this causes conflict with many co-workers (he's an unknown, some are jealous, etc.). But the interaction among the characters is compelling. It's a book you can enjoy whether you like action, s.f., or interesting characters and good writing. And if you like all four, you're in for a treat.

2 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Book Worm

Excellent!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 15, 2019

Verified Purchase

Frank Chadwick is simply one of my favourite SF writers. Once again he didn’t disappoint!
His characters are always really so well put together.
And his lastest foray into sci-fi naval battles is now one of my favourite in the genre.

Gray

Great engaging character driven military sci-fi

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 6, 2017

Verified Purchase

Set 3 years after the events in his other books 'How Dark the World Becomes' and 'Come the Revolution' but with new characters. Unputdownable and I felt the tension of the story. Great engaging character driven military sci-fi.

mrs deborah wyld

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 7, 2017

Verified Purchase

excellent military sci-fi - great characterisation and lots of action, more please

Kindle Customer

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 9, 2018

Verified Purchase

Brill