One Jump Ahead by Mark Van Name is a wonderful little sci/fi adventure. Funny how I don’t read much sci/fi compared to fantasy and mysteries, but this year, the books I’ve most enjoyed have been in the sci/fi camp. Anyone who likes John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War series will love this series by Mark Van Name. I’d say I even liked One Jump Ahead just a bit better because I connected with the main character, Jon Moore, better. The creativity in this book gets extra points–there’s some use of animal characters that I really appreciated. There weren’t many female characters, but those that were in the book were fully developed and not stereotypical.

This is a great adventure with interesting and well-developed characters. The main character has some unusual characteristics, rather than your standard strong he-man. I liked that he didn’t spend time drowning his sorrows in booze, and there were several spots where the character stopped–and noticed the waves on the beach or the strange beauty of unusual woodwork.

For non-sci/fi readers, this book is a lot like Frederick Forsyth’s Avenger. Fans of Forsyth that haven’t ventured into sci/fi would do well to start here. Some excellent reconnaissance setups and “infiltration.”

Full review over at Bookspot.