Cobra Strike
Second Book of the Cobra trilogy and it goes off the rails of the first Book. (Also different too now going for a tradition third person structure with multiple main characters and traditional chapter structure)
Going from Cobra, a story of a man who joins a special military force for a war only to sprung himself into scenarios beyond his control all for a well made idealist anti-war anti-extemist message, now is morally bankrupt invasion storyline where I try so hard to find a reason to root for the protagonists but can't. They go to an already claimed planet to spy on them, get caught and arrested for questioning out of parania and then kill one of them with a hidden weapon they didnt see coming which only confirmed their Paranoia. Not to mention the anti-war conflict resolution they come up is to just straight up destroy the Planets eco-system by bringing in an invasive species to **** around with them. Under the guise of heroics because Birds might be manipulating the Humans on the plant (but the Birds were the native species that just adapted to those Humans arrival).
It's actually hilarious at the end where one of the guys refers to them as Heroes when they just commited something so evil.
I did really like Jonnys characterisation again, not having much time left but trying to burden responsibilities in politics and his family using experience to help his children grow as people. I got teary eye when they send him off to one of the planets to live his last few years with his wife finally retired. At least he was intact from rest if the Books nonsense.