Against All Enemies
JAG in Space #4
John Hemry
SF
2 Stars
203 pages, Epub

the final book in the JAG in Space series. Paul has ticked off enough people that he is being reassigned to Mars. But before he goes, he has to participate in another courtmartial for someone on their ship who has been selling secrets to the SASAL’s. He and Jenn get married hurriedly at the end and then that is it.

Kind of a “going out with a whimper” ending. Not sure why this series was so popular.

Rule of Evidence
JAG in Space #3
John Hemry
SF
3 stars
276 pages

On a joint mission, the sister ship of Sinclair’s ship blows up. On board is Sinclairs girlfriend, Jen Shen. She is implicated and court-martialed. Everything is circumstantial and unprovable, but Shen is the scapegoat. Sinclair uses his parents former military pull to find some problems about a new engineering piece of equipment. Turns out the equipment wasn’t ready and Shen is exonerated. They become engaged.

Now, what I thought of these three books. It pretty much is the same for all 3. Very slow, and not until at least halfway through does the main plot start to form. Until then you just have a description of life shipboard and everything. The legal stuff is very legal, and hence dry. Interesting, but definitely not something you’d get excited about. I think these could be a precursor series to the Lost Fleet series, before Space had been divvied up.

Definitely in no rush to get the final book now. I can wait.

Burden of Proof
JAG in Space #2
John Hemry
SF
3 stars
293 pages

an accident on board kills an officer. Evidence points to the officer working outside of given parameters and all blame is hung on him. Sinclair finds evidence of a coverup by another officer, an admiral’s son, and sets out to prove the first officer innocent, post-humously.

A Just Determination
JAG in Space #1
John Hemry
SF
3 stars
259 pages

A young man, Paul Sinclair, is fresh out of Space Academy and on a ship for the first time. One of his side duties is to be the ships legal advisor. The captain fires upon a civilian ship outside of US territory and is court-martialed. Sinclair testifies on the captain’s behalf, even though he doesn’t like him at all, because he believes that the charges brought against the captain do not reflect accurately.

Ends up with Sinclair getting involved with an officer on another ship and the captain being reassigned to some backwater office, instead of getting hung.