Book Review: They Also Serve by Mike Moscoe

They Also Serve
Author: Mike Moscoe
Series: Jump Universe (Book 3)
Publication: Ace (August 27, 2013)

Description: A WAR WITHIN

Colonel Ray Longknife and Marine Captain Mary Rodrigo were once enemies in an interstellar war. Now they’re working together to keep the peace. But can they protect themselves from an enemy they can’t even see?

When a bad space jump flings their starship thousands of light-years away from home, Longknife and Rodrigo make an amazing discovery: a planet inhabited by the descendants of a ship’s crew—lost three hundred years earlier.

As acting ambassador, Longknife is eager to welcome the planet’s population back into the fold of humanity. But Rodrigo is suspicious. She senses that something is wrong under the planet’s veneer of peace and prosperity. And she’s right....

My Thoughts: Sabotage flings the spaceship Colonel Ray Longknife and Marine Captain Mary Rodrigo are travelling on thousands of light-years away from home where they discover a planet settle by the descendants of a spaceship lost 300 years earlier. 

While the ship's captain and crew try to find the way home, Ray and Mary are on planet trying to be ambassadors to the castaways. They discover a planet that seems peaceful and prosperous until they look closer. The descendant of one of the settlers, who claimed all the mineral rights on this mineral poor planet, is getting ready to make herself the ruler of the world.

But what is more troubling is that the humans are not alone on the world. There is a massive computer in the ground that has been tampering with the new settlers since they arrived - engineering them to survive on the planet and encouraging the growth of a new organ in their brains. 

Ray has been tampered with which is actually a good thing because it means that he can communicate with the computer that calls itself Teacher. But after a million years of isolation, the computer is going insane. It has decided that the humans infesting it have to be eliminated.

It is up the Ray with three young human children and nodes of the disintegrating computer to fight against the large piece of the computer that wants humans dead. While he is battling, Ray learns a lot about the jump gates that humans use but don't understand and which were built by the three long-vanished races that the Teacher taught.

This was a fast-paced and engaging space opera. I liked getting to know more about Ray, Mary, and the Marines who were on planet with them. There was a lot of intriguing stuff about war and fighting and making choices. 

Favorite Quote:

If you find yourself in a situation, you can always choose not to use the rifle you've got. You can't use the one you don't have.

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.