The story here is not as interesting as the previous books. Also, there is a bit of vitriol against support personnel and city folk comes out of nowhere sometimes. I was disappointed about the continuous use of the term “R.E.M.F.” as a spelled-out “R-E-M-F” instead of pronounced as a word “remf” as it is actually used. This is similar to usage in previous books, but the term becomes a wildly swinging bludgeon in this volume. If you don’t know, “R.E.M.F.” means Rear Echelon Mother F**ker, and applies to all personnel not currently serving as frontline combat troops (i.e. on the ground with a rifle shooting the enemy). I only mention it because there are places in the story where the “R.E.M.F.” club is being wildly tossed about by a “R.E.M.F.” against another “R.E.M.F.”
Anyhow, the story is so-so, with more focus on the rightness of the libertarian ideals of The Commonwealth, and less about the characters themselves. There aren’t any big changes aren’t any big reveals or character developments. Most of the things I enjoyed about the early books appears to be drifting away.