Finished book 1 of a new series (KU up to book 4 available),
Ensign Year 1 by J Durham - excellent stuff.
Not sure how it ended in my KU recs but I opened it and got hooked from page 1, read it in one sitting and moved to book 2 immediately- somewhat similar in premise with the
C Cameron Marca Nbarro series but in a star trek like universe with various types of humanity like Vulcan analogs etc - I guess whatever AI Amazon uses for book recs has me pegged under competence sff as D Weber, LE Modesitt, the Russian MagicDome series etc are all competence sff regardless of being sf of various kinds, fantasy of various kinds, alt hist etc and ChatGPT itself told me that when i asked it once for fun to tell me what a few of my favorite series have in common; the short blurb and my Goodreads review below:
Blurb:
Montgomery Hale is seventeen, broke, and about to commit the biggest fraud of his life.
He's spent years fixing machines on a backwater space station, saving every credit for a fleet academy education he'll never afford. When a last-minute vacancy opens on the Union's flagship, he does the only thing a desperate kid with a talent for forging documents would do.
He fakes his way aboard.
Now he's an ensign on the most prestigious ship in the fleet, surrounded by officers who earned their commissions, flying a vessel he's never been trained to operate, and reporting to a captain who sees more than he lets on.
Goodreads review:
Excellent book - came up in my Kindle recs and I opened it just in case and couldn't really put it down until I finished it and jumped to book 2 which is as good as this so far.
An interesting premise done in various ways in various series though here taken to the limit - young orphan technical prodigy on a space station in the middle of nowhere trying to save money to attempt the space fleet academy exams, sees an opportunity to fake his way as an ensign pilot on one of the most advanced Union starships - in a fairly interesting universe too with the Union composed of a few human-like races with various specific characteristics.
But what works first and foremost is the voice of the main character, Montgomery Hale, as well as his flaws - while technically gifted, his orphan upbringing makes him a loner and struggling with the notion of teamwork - and the supporting characters, while the storyline works well too - ship sent on a 14 month mission to reopen space lanes and reconnect to a bunch of colonies abandoned for budgetary reasons some decades ago.
The way ftl works (flex space with narrow channels) makes the job of the pilot essential, though integrated with the navigator adjusting the course and the tac officer analysing the possible obstacles and dangers, and of course our hero excels at the piloting but not so much at the integration which is part of the challenges he faces.
Luckily both the chief pilot, his immediate superior - coming from an enlisted not academy background and intuiting that not all is quite what it seems with his new ensign due to his superb but unorthodox piloting skills, and the captain who cares only about results and not about who comes from where, as long as they are good at their job, recognize Montgomery's talent and are willing to give him a chance and help with his less than stellar people skills.
Similarly a few other crew - an ensign from an emphatic race and a young petty officer engineer who kind of befriend Montgomery by chance help and so it goes with a tour of the universe and a book that cannot be put down.
Highly recommended - would love an audio version with a young enthusiastic narrator matching the main character's voice
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