The Terrans: First Salik War

Today's post is on The Terrans: First Salik War by Jean Johnson. It is 464 pages long and is published by Ace. The cover has the main character in a shapeship being very cool. It is the first in Johnson's First Salik War trilogy. The intended reader is someone who likes science fiction, very cool female main characters, and interesting plots. There is some mild language, talk of sex, and some violence in this book. The story is told from the third person close perspective of two of the main characters. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the back of the book- Jean Johnson's first novel in an explosive new science fiction trilogy set in the world of the national bestselling Theirs Not to Reason Why series—set two-hundred years earlier, at the dawn of the First Salik War…
Born into a political family and gifted with psychic abilities, Jacaranda MacKenzie has served as a border-watcher and even spent time as a representative on the United Planets Council. Now she just wants to spend her days in peace and quiet as a translator—but the universe has other plans
Humans have long known that they would encounter more alien species, and while those with precognitive abilities agree a terrible war is coming, they do not agree on who will save humanity—a psychic soldier or a politician.
But Jackie is both.
After she is pressured into rejoining the Space Force to forestall the impending calamity, Jackie makes an unsettling discovery. Their new enemy, the Salik, seem to be rather familiar with fighting Humans—as if their war against humanity had already begun…

Review- It took me a little whole to get into this book but when I did, this is a great story. The heavy world building and all the science explanations do slow things down but the characters and fascinating plot make up for that. The main character Jackie is great. She is a very intelligent, honest, and interesting main character. She has to try get everyone to work together, to make First Contact go well, and learn everything that she can about the V'Dans. Johnson does a great job at making this world believable and interesting. There is so much about this book that I liked, making this very difficult to write a good review for. Johnson has done a really good job with this book and I am excited to read the next in the series.

I give this book a Four out of Five stars. I was given this book to read by Ace/ROC publishing in exchange for an honest review.