Flesh and Iron

Flesh and Iron - Henry Zou,
Potentially a new Dan Abnet, starts off with a book about an inquisitor (Emperors Mercy 9781844167340) and follows up with an imperial guard novel, time will tell....
Flesh and Iron follows the dangerous mission behind enemy lines of a rough and ready imperial guard battalion, the kind you see in every vietnam war movie on the riverboats, but this time with lasguns.
It is written from the point of view of the Colonol desperatly wanting to be accepted by his men, and from the indiginous warrior driven into the arms of the arch-enemy of man by the brutal treatment of their Imperial liberators, with minor side trips for supporting cast and higher command element politicol bickering.
Zou portrays the the tension well, the set piece battles work, and while you see some of the plotlines and battles develop how you expect, the books climax is definatly unexpected.
My biggest complaint is I can't remember what happened to a major supporting character, either it was so undramatic it didn't register, or he just wandered off and the author forgot about him, or I read that when I should have been asleep....
Defintly worth a read.