Reddit reviews Forging Zero (The Legend of ZERO, Book 1)

• Demon Trap by P.S. Power I also re-read the previous books in the series in preparation. Another good sequel in the series.
  
  
  
• Bill The Vampire by Rick Gualtieri as well as the sequels (4 books total i believe) It's a pretty good series, new take on urban fantasy / vampires. The main character got a little stale towards the end... its somewhat sitcommy
  
  
  
• The War of Stardeon by Cooley, Trevor H. Four book in the series just came out, so i nabbed it... its an easy read, nothing ground breaking but very entertaining. Main char is a bit marry sue (but a guy)
  
  
• The Cor Chronicles by Martin Parece I read all three books that are currently out. Its a good read, fairly epic. Interesting take on gods, very much about gods interacting with the world and warring. boy grows up to find out he turns into a rare race that was created by a lesser known blood god, has to fight persecution.
  
  
• Forging Zero by King, Sara as well as the sequel Zero Recall This is actually a sci fi book, the first once I've read in a LOONG time, its basically an alien invasion, but instead of the normal story the aliens conscript children to sue as solders, pretty neat take on things, because of these two books im going to look into more sci-fy.
  
  
• Mageborn: The God-Stone War fourth book recently came out, so i re-read the first three, then read the new one. Its good stuff, big cliff hanger though... cant wait till the next book.
  
  Now i just realized i read 18 books this month... what the hell.

Try out The Legend of Zero Series. I'm reading it now and it gives off some Red Rising vibes. Here's the Amazon book summary:



First Contact didn't go as expected. Now they own us.

Earth has been conquered by a massive galactic empire, and its war machine needs soldiers. In a cruel twist of fate, fourteen-year-old Joe Dobbs accidentally ends up on a ship carrying Earth's children to an alien training planet. To make it out alive, he must survive an apathetic bureaucracy that sees humans as little more than spare rations. Meat with guns. Or, if they're really unlucky, servants.

The oldest of the children drafted from humanity’s devastated planet, Joe unwittingly becomes the centerpiece in a millennia-long alien struggle for independence. Once his training begins, one of the elusive and prophetic Trith gives Joe a spine chilling prophecy that the universe has been anticipating for millions of years: Joe will be the one to finally shatter the vast alien government known as Congress. And the Trith cannot lie.…

But first Joe has to make it through boot camp.

For lovers of sci-fi thrillers, alien invasion stories, space opera, and sprawling first contact science fiction, this is an unforgettable post-apocalyptic epic about perseverance and survival in a harsh new world where humanity is just another item on the menu...

Player of Games is a good book, and it's early enough in the Culture series that Banks hadn't yet realized he made the Minds too powerful and doesn't need the human characters to actually do anything. But it is not military science fiction and I don't think it's similar to The Forever War.

If you're looking for more military sci-fi I can recommend Forging Zero, All You Need is Kill, David Weber's Honor Harrington series, Orphanage...and many more I'm sure. Armor is great and I'm sure you've heard of Starship Troopers.

A note on David Weber, I find his overuse of italics a constant irritation when reading his books. It really helps to get digital copies and run them through calibre to eliminate all the italics first.

This is the best book I have read about humans being taken by an alien empire. This focuses on one group of people, and mostly one man, but it is an amazing work. Forging Zero - http://amzn.com/B00BTKA42Y

If you are looking for totally new authors, try Sara King and her Legend of Zero series. Two books out now, more to follow.

Starts with [Forging Zero] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BTKA42Y/)

Military scifi, yes, but with lots of character focus.

For what it's worth, as I was setting up my son's Kindle app I ran across a series of books I read a while ago that is good for his age that I thought I'd share with anyone else interested: The Legend of Zero series. It's about a kid (somewhere 9-12, I believe) is abducted by alien invaders and conscripted into their multi-species army. Not dystopian, obviously, but good sci-fi.