Yes, it’s marines in space. Royal Marines. Royal Marines of the Second British Empire. Either that will make you put down the review and dial up the Amazon page immediately or the book’s not for you. If you’re already dialling up the Amazon page, then you’ll soon find out that the Marines in question are downloaded into waiting clone bodies when there’s a bit of a barney brewing, and that they’re proper British Marines – which means understatement in the face of overwhelming odds while still getting the job done with astonishing efficiency and bravery – rather than their gung ho, overgunned namesakes across the Atlantic. The aliens they’re fighting might not, it turns out, be all that alien but you’ll need to read the next volume in the series to find out more, as well as more about the galactic extent of the Second British Empire. For lovers of military science fiction written with true Brit.