A Soldier's Duty by Jean Johnson
Jean Johnson's A Soldier's Duty, the first installment in her new science fiction series Theirs Not to Reason Why, is a pretty good book. From the standpoint of a sci-fi enthusiast it brings a lot of the critical elements together, such as extreme technology, alien races, and a space-faring society. In addition, Johnson creates a military backdrop that feels realistic. The result is a better than average novel.
Ia, the main character, is a psychically gifted woman from a heavy-gravity world. Her gift (or curse), the ability to see the future and to know what she has to do to achieve certain ends, is a potent tool. Johnson has created a strong female superhero and gives us reasonable explanations for how it all works. Ia's physical strength and incredible endurance come from being born and growing up on a world where the gravity is livable, but so heavy that there are marke... Read More
More books by Jean Johnson
Sons of Destiny — (2007-2011) Publisher: Eight brothers, born in four sets of twins, two years apart to the day — they fulfill the Curse of Eight Prophecy. To avoid tempting their destiny, the brothers are exiled to Nightfall Island, a land where women are strictly forbidden. But, when the youngest of the mage-brothers rescues a woman from another universe, their world is altered forever. Kelly Doyle had wanted to get away from the world. Threatened, attacked, and accused of witchcraft, Kelly had enough of her narrow-minded small town. And now she has somehow landed in another, magical dimension — the only woman in a realm inhabited by eight men who are desperately in need of a woman’s touch.
Shifting Planes — (2009-2012) Prequels to SONS OF DESTINY. Publisher: Centuries before the time of the Sons of Destiny, a female shapeshifter became the leader of the people of the Shifting Plains… Tava Ell Var never really knew her mother, but she did know her tragic fate at the hands of a band of cruel shapeshifters-a history set down by Tava’s father as a warning about life on the Shifting Plains. But after her father is murdered, Tava encounters a Shifterai warband fighting to rid the Plains of the terrorizing bandits. Shifterai leader Kodan Sin Siin is sympathetic to Tava’s suffering, but he’s determined to bring the wary young woman to the Plains. Because he knows her secret: She, like he and his men, is a shapeshifter. Once she joins them, he knows that she will see for herself the true fate that awaits her on the Plains, and most of all, lose her fear of his people. And, in time, he knows she will find her place is in their fight-and by his side.
Guardians of Destiny — (2013-2014) Publisher: In a fertile valley undisrupted by the aether-shattering death of the old Aian Empire, the Tower and its Guardians have entertained generations of wealthy mirror-scrying mages while adventurers from around the world risk their lives for fortune and fame. But on the one day the Tower stood unguarded, an intruder tried to seize the magic powering the vast structure. Now, locked out of the Tower’s innermost chambers, Kerric Vo Mos must brave the deadly traps keeping trespassers at bay in order to reclaim control. Unfortunately, Kerric wields a pen far better than a sword, and the way into the Tower’s sanctum is treacherous. Only the help of an experienced player like Myal the Mendhite can get him to where he must go. But mutual respect will not be enough. Passion must also be employed, along with armor and weapons, as they embark on a perilous quest past monsters, riddles, and other dangers that even the Tower’s most dedicated viewers have never seen before.
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Jean Johnson has a Ph.D. in Religions and is the great-niece of the late Nunnally Johnson, award-winning screenwriter, director, and producer. Jean lives in the Pacific Northwest with her family. Learn more at 
