Poor Man's Fight

Written by Elliott Kay

Narrated by Timothy Andrés Pabon

Quick-witted Tanner Malone has bombed the Test, an all-important exam that establishes how much he owes for his corporate-funded education. With his future plans crushed under a mountain of debt, Tanner enlists in the navy of his home star system of Archangel. But he hasn’t factored in the bullying shipmates, the civil war brewing on the border, or the space pirates.

As Tanner begins basic training, the government ramps up its forces to confront the vicious raiders wreaking havoc throughout human space. Led by the complex and charismatic Captain Casey, the outlaws never let their egalitarian and democratic ideals get in the way of a little murder or mayhem.

Assigned to the front lines, Tanner learns there’s only one way to deal with his ruthless foes, cruel comrades, and the unforgiving void of space. He’ll have to get up close and personal.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Jun 16, 2015
• ISBN: 9781491588697

Elliott Kay

Elliott Kay grew up in Los Angeles and currently resides in Seattle, Washington. He has a bachelor’s degree in history and is a former member of the US Coast Guard. Kay has survived a motorcycle crash, severe seasickness, summers in Phoenix, and winters in Seattle.

Reviews for Poor Man's Fight

[davidr1958 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Really good mil-SF novel with nice socio-economic depth. Fair characterization, lots of excellent action, mostly troop combat at individual or squad level. Fast pace, very well told story, this first book in the series moves from basic training to down and dirty fighting with pirates. The gore level is fairly high, and I felt that Tanner Malone was just a little too much of a one-man army towards the end. The language and military slang is 20th/21st century American, which was a little odd for a colony allegedly founded by the (future) Roman Catholic church. Bottom line - a rip-roaring military SF slugfest, which is great if you like that kind of thing, and I do.

[rivkat_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Free review copy, which is great because I wouldn’t have taken a chance on this military sf otherwise. Tanner Malone is Kip from Have Space Suit, Will Travel without the paternalism (and, sadly, without Peewee): he is intelligent, dutiful, hard-working, kind, etc. etc., and he is also too poor for college. (Part of the plot involves a future of far-flung colonies in which corporations make you pay for your own education so you start off hugely in debt.) He enlists in the Archangel space navy, and for half the book he trains while we get some others’ POV intertwined between his chapters, including a guy who accepts the recruiting pitch of a pirate crew. Then Tanner starts to see action, and it is bloody and leaves him devastated, but he also gets to be a hero on a large scale. This is power fantasy done right, with believable good guys who are very far from saints (except Tanner) and bad guys who aren’t bad guys in their own minds. Looks like the next book might involve more of the politics behind the space pirates and corporate oligarchs, and I’m looking forward to it.

[richard.fox · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a great book, well worth anyone's time, money and effort.

I am impressed with Kay's tight story and outstanding action sequences. If you like military sci-fi, you'll like this book. The opening hook is great, most everyone takes on great amounts of debt at the end of high school. I wish we'd seen more of the corporate oppression in the book, as sci-fi is meant to comment on the present as much as look into the future.

There is one mistake that I must nitpick. Tanner says his friend is a midshipman at Annapolis, then later says she's at West Point. Yes, both are locations for 'the Academy,' but very different Academies: the United States Military Academy (West Point) and the United States Naval Academy (Annapolis). One trains people to play around in row-boats and the other trains officers to lead Soldiers. As a increasingly crusty Old Grad (USMA 2001), I have to point this out. This didn't affect my 4/5 star review.

I can't wait to read more from Elliot Kay.

[halkeye · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I'm pretty sure I loved this book. I ended up staying up an extra 3 hours on saturday night reading.

The synopsis of the book certainly does it justice (Though I rarely read those anymore, I just check out the samples on amazon). The story jumps around a bit between a couple characters. Its hard to tell who the main character is, but for whatever reason it seems to work out.

I had trouble keeping track of some characters. It didn't help that I was on an e-reader and wasn't really able to flip back a few pages quickly. One paragraph will be the main character, the next will be from the point of view of someone he's interacting with. It got ..distracting near the end of the book.

Its very obvious to me the book was self-published (I had to do a big of google searching to confirm). It defiantly needed a bit of editing.

That being said, I would still absolutely recommend it to other people. Especially since the book is only $2.99 on the kindle store.

[matt.kurjanowicz · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a really engrossing sci-fi story. I enjoyed the discussion of the military being a way out of educational debt. I also thought the idea of a test at the end of your education, with the student being liable for the cost of education depending on the test, was a great twist. This is not an environment I would have envisioned or thought of.I'm looking forward to Elliott Kay's next book, and will likely buy that and read it.