Dalmas specialises in military SF, and has written several convincing stories, where he depicts soldiers, usually infantry, in future wars, on other worlds. Typically, those wars have been against other humans. In this book the opponents are a horselike race from distant stars, in a massive armada, facing a mostly demilitarised humanity, that sprawls across many light years. Some branches of mankind have kept up their martial traditions. The humans desperately train infantry and build up virtually from scratch a navy.
The scenes in the book of the boot camp for infantry would be familiar to readers of military fiction, and not necessarily science fiction. (Think Full Metal Jacket, for example.) Dalmas adds nothing new here, but the character depictions are competently done. But much of the book is spent in boot camp. The actual infantry battle scenes are relatively late in the book.
