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Marko Kloos is a German freelance writer and author of military science fiction novels.

He is best known for writing the Frontlines Series and Palladium Books.

Born and raised in Germany, Kloos served in the West German military as a junior Non-Commissioned Officer, something that played an integral role in inspiring his military science fiction works.

The biggest of nerds who is passionate about fantasy and science fiction, he has also worked as a bookseller, a freight dock worker, a tech support drone, and a corporate IT administrator over the years.

A contributing member of George R.R. Martin’s Wild Cards consortium, Kloos currently lives in New Hampshire with his beloved wife and two lovely children.

He is agented by Evan Gregory at The Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency.

More about Marko Kloos

Genre: Fantasy / SF

Germany

Website: https://www.markokloos.com/

Frontline

  1. Terms of Enlistment (2013)
  2. Lines of Departure (2014)
  3. Lucky Thirteen: A Frontline Short Story (2013)
  4. Measures of Absolution: A Frontline Novella (2013)
  5. Angles of Attack (2015)
  6. Chains of Command (2016)
  7. Fields of Fire (2017)
  8. Points of Impact (2018)
  9. Orders of Battle (2020)
  10. Centers of Gravity (2022)

Novellas

  1. On The Use Of Shape-Shifters In Warfare (2019)
  2. Berlin Is Never Berlin (2020)

Palladium Wars

  1. Aftershocks (2019)
  2. Ballistic (2020)
  3. Citadel (2021)

Detailed book overview

Frontline

Terms of Enlistment

The year is 2108, and the North American Commonwealth is bursting at the seams. For welfare rats like Andrew Grayson, there are only two ways out of the crime-ridden and filthy welfare tenements: You can hope to win the lottery and draw a ticket on a colony ship settling off-world . . . or you can join the service.

With the colony lottery a pipe dream, Andrew chooses to enlist in the armed forces for a shot at real food, a retirement bonus, and maybe a ticket off Earth. But as he starts a career of supposed privilege, he soon learns that the good food and decent health care come at a steep price . . . and that the settled galaxy holds far greater dangers than military bureaucrats or the gangs that rule the slums.

Author: Marko Kloos
First Release: 2013
ISBN: 978-1477809785
Publisher: 47North
Lines of Departure

Vicious interstellar conflict with an indestructible alien species. Bloody civil war over the last habitable zones of the cosmos. Political unrest, militaristic police forces, dire threats to the Solar System…

Humanity is on the ropes, and after years of fighting a two-front war with losing odds, so is North American Defense Corps officer Andrew Grayson. He dreams of dropping out of the service one day, alongside his pilot girlfriend, but as warfare consumes entire planets and conditions on Earth deteriorate, he wonders if there will be anywhere left for them to go.

After surviving a disastrous space-borne assault, Grayson is reassigned to a ship bound for a distant colony―and packed with malcontents and troublemakers. His most dangerous battle has just begun.

Author: Marko Kloos
First Release: 2014
ISBN: 978-1477817407
Publisher: 47North
Lucky Thirteen: A Frontline Short Story

The story of rookie pilot Lt. Halley's first drop ship command. (A short story in the Terms of Enlistment universe).

Author: Marko Kloos
First Release: 2013
Ebook: B00CDA4IQC
Publisher: Frostbite Publishing
Measures of Absolution: A Frontline Novella

In the aftermath of the Battle of Detroit, Corporal Jackson finds out how the 365th AIB got a mauling in the Public Residence Clusters, and why the Territorial Army may have lost control over a big chunk of Detroit.

Author: Marko Kloos
First Release: 2013
Ebook: B00G8TQUG0
Publisher: Frostbite Publishing
Angles of Attack

The alien forces known as the Lankies are gathering on the solar system’s edge, consolidating their conquest of Mars and setting their sights on Earth. 

The far-off colony of New Svalbard, cut off from the rest of the galaxy by the Lanky blockade, teeters on the verge of starvation and collapse. The forces of the two Earth alliances have won minor skirmishes but are in danger of losing the war. For battle-weary staff sergeant Andrew Grayson and the ragged forces of the North American Commonwealth, the fight for survival is entering a catastrophic new phase.

Forging an uneasy alliance with their Sino-Russian enemies, the NAC launches a hybrid task force on a long shot: a stealth mission to breach the Lanky blockade and reestablish supply lines with Earth. Plunging into combat against a merciless alien species that outguns, outmaneuvers, and outfights them at every turn, Andrew and his fellow troopers could end up cornered on their home turf, with no way out and no hope for reinforcement. And this time, the struggle for humanity’s future can only end in either victory or annihilation.

Author: Marko Kloos
First Release: 2015
ISBN: 978-1477828311
Publisher: 47North
Chains of Command

The assault on Earth was thwarted by the destruction of the aliens’ seed ship, but with Mars still under Lanky control, survivors work frantically to rebuild fighting capacity and shore up planetary defenses. Platoon sergeant Andrew Grayson must crash-course train new volunteers―all while dulling his searing memories of battle with alcohol and meds.

Knowing Earth’s uneasy respite won’t last, the North American Commonwealth and its Sino-Russian allies hurtle toward two dangerous options: hit the Lanky forces on Mars or go after deserters who stole a fleet of invaluable warships critical to winning the war. 

Assigned to a small special ops recon mission to scout out the renegades’ stronghold on a distant moon, Grayson and his wife, dropship pilot Halley, again find themselves headed for the crucible of combat―and a shattering new campaign in the war for humanity’s future.

Author: Marko Kloos
First Release: 2016
ISBN: 978-1503950320
Publisher: 47North
Fields of Fire

The time has come to take the fight to the Lankies.

Mars has been under Lanky control for more than a year. Since then, the depleted forces of Earth’s alliances have rebuilt their fleets, staffing old warships with freshly trained troops. Torn between the need to beat the Lankies to the punch and taking enough time to put together an effective fighting force, command has decided to strike now.

Once again, seasoned veterans Andrew and Halley find themselves in charge of green troops and at the sharp tip of the spear as the combined military might of Earth goes up against the Lankies. But if there’s one constant in war, it’s that no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy…and the Lankies want to hold on to Mars as badly as humanity wants to reclaim it.

Author: Marko Kloos
First Release: 2017
ISBN: 978-1503940710
Publisher: 47North
Points of Impact

Humankind may have won the battle, but a new threat looms larger than ever before…

Earth’s armed forces have stopped the Lanky advance and chased their ships out of the solar system, but for CDC officer Andrew Grayson, the war feels anything but won. On Mars, the grinding duty of flushing out the twenty-meter-tall alien invaders from their burrows underground is wearing down troops and equipment at an alarming rate. And for the remaining extrasolar colonies, the threat of a Lanky attack is ever present.

Earth’s game changer? New advanced ships and weapons, designed to hunt and kill Lankies and place humanity’s militaries on equal footing with their formidable foes. Andrew and his wife, Halley, both now burdened with command responsibilities and in charge of more lives than just their own, are once again in humanity’s vanguard as they prepare for this new phase in the war. But the Lankies have their own agenda…and in war, the enemy doesn’t usually wait until you are prepared. 

As Andrew is once again plunged into the chaos and violence of war with an unyielding species, he is forced to confront the toll this endless conflict is taking on them all, and the high price of survival…at any cost.

Author: Marko Kloos
First Release: 2018
ISBN: 978-1542048460
Publisher: 47North
Orders of Battle

The battle against the Lankies has been won. Earth seems safe. Peacetime military? Not on your life.

It’s been four years since Earth threw its full military prowess against the Lanky incursion. Humanity has been yanked back from the abyss of extinction. The solar system is at peace. For now.

The future for Major Andrew Grayson of the Commonwealth Defense Corps and his wife, Halley? Flying desk duty on the front. No more nightmares of monstrous things. No more traumas to the mind and body. But when an offer comes down from above, Andrew has to make a choice: continue pushing papers into retirement, or jump right back into the fight? What’s a podhead to do?

The remaining Lankies may have retreated in fear, but the threat isn’t over. They need to be wiped out for good before they strike again. That’ll take a new offensive deployment. Aboard an Avenger warship, Andrew and the special tactics team under his command embark on the ultimate search-and-destroy mission. This time, it’ll be on Lanky turf.

No big heroics. No unnecessary risks. Just a swift hit-and-run raid in the hostile Capella system. Blow the alien seed ships into oblivion and get the hell back to Earth. At least, that’s the objective. But when does anything in war go according to plan?

Author: Marko Kloos
First Release: 2020
ISBN: 978-1542019583
Publisher: 47North
Centers of Gravity

Stranded light-years from home, Major Andrew Grayson and his crew are on a desperate mission to discover the Lankies’ secrets. They can’t let what they’ve found die with them.

Nine hundred light-years from home, Major Andrew Grayson and the crew of NACS Washington are marooned in a sunless system with limited water, reactor fuel, and food. The last hope for survival is to go where nothing human has gone before.

After embarking on a scouting mission to the only moon with surface signs of life, Andrew and his special tactics team make two startling discoveries. One is a dream: a form of protein and plant life that could save the starving humans in the rogue system. The second is a nightmare: this harvested rock is infested with Lankies. Far from the seemingly mindless aggressors Andrew has battled for years, these show a terrifying awareness, and they have surprising secrets of their own hidden away in the darkness.

When the Lankies sense an uninvited presence in their world, Andrew’s operation becomes an expedition to hell. The odds against his small crew are stacked high. Of all the mysteries of space, how to escape with their lives is the greatest unknown of all.

Author: Marko Kloos
First Release: 2022
ISBN: 978-1542032810
Publisher: 47North

Novellas

On The Use Of Shape-Shifters In Warfare

The 300th Special Operations Company is the Army's only segregated lycanthrope unit. Forbidden by international accords to engage in combat, the "dog soldiers" lend their skills to the regular Army units, sniffing out IEDs and guarding the troops against things that go bump in the night.

Sergeant Decker and his 300th comrade, Sergeant Sobieski, are assigned to a Forward Operating Base deep in the mountains of Afghanistan when they have to face a local threat far more dangerous than roadside bombs or insurgent ambushes.

Author: Marko Kloos
First Release: 2019
Ebook: B07PR7KKP8
Publisher: Frostbite Publishing
Berlin Is Never Berlin

For over 25 years, the Wild Cards universe has been entertaining readers with stories of superpowered people in an alternate history. "Berlin is Never Berlin" by Marko Kloos draws upon the seedier side of the city, beyond the dance club lights and all-night parties, as one bodyguard with a certain feline distinction goes on the prowl....

Khan only had one job: chauffeur and guard an American wealthy socialite and her friends. When his client Natalie Scuderi gets nabbed by the Georgian mafia, this joker-ace has no choice but to go underground and rescue her.

"Losing the man’s daughter on the job would be a fatal black mark on his professional resume. Khan had never lost a client, and he wasn’t about to start a habit."

Author: Marko Kloos
First Release: 2020
Ebook: B085BLC2G4
Publisher: Tor Books

Palladium Wars

Aftershocks

Across the six-planet expanse of the Gaia system, the Earthlike Gretia struggles to stabilize in the wake of an interplanetary war. Amid an uneasy alliance to maintain economies, resources, and populations, Aden Robertson reemerges. After devoting twelve years of his life to the reviled losing side, with the blood of half a million casualties on his hands, Aden is looking for a way to move on. He’s not the only one.

A naval officer has borne witness to inconceivable attacks on a salvaged fleet. A sergeant with the occupation forces is treading increasingly hostile ground. And a young woman, thrust into responsibility as vice president of her family’s raw materials empire, faces a threat she never anticipated.

Now, on the cusp of an explosive and wide-reaching insurrection, Aden plunges once again into the brutal life he longed to forget. He’s been on the wrong side of war before. But this time, the new enemy has yet to reveal themselves…or their dangerous endgame.

Author: Marko Kloos
First Release: 2019
ISBN: 978-1542043533
Publisher: 47North
Ballistic

There is a personal price to pay for having aligned with the wrong side in a reckless war. For Aden Jansen it’s the need to adopt a new identity while keeping his past hidden. Now he’s integrated himself aboard the Zephyr, a merchant ship smuggling critical goods through dangerous space. But danger is imminent on planet Gretia, as well. Under occupation, torn between postwar reformers and loyalists, it’s a polestar for civil unrest.

Meanwhile an occupation forces officer is pulled right back into the fray when the battle alarm is raised, an ambitious heiress is entangled in a subversive political conspiracy, and an Allied captain is about to meet the enemy head-on.

As Aden discovers, the insurgents on Gretia―and in space―are connected, organized, and ready to break into full-scale rebellion. History is threatening to repeat itself. It’s time that Aden rediscovers who he is, whom he can trust, and what he must fight for now.

Author: Marko Kloos
First Release: 2020
ISBN: 978-1542090070
Publisher: 47North
Citadel

The war should have been over. But it’s not for a group of nationalists grabbing for control.

It’s been two weeks since a missile with a nuclear warhead tore through the planetary defenses in the most blistering large-scale attack ever committed in the history of the Gaia system. Commander Dunstan Park of the Rhodian navy has been handpicked to command an experimental cruiser that could dictate the course of the escalating conflict. All he has to do is keep the ship from falling into the wrong hands.

On Gretia, the powder keg is beyond control. A terrorist attack against civilians draws Idina Chaudhary into a costly battle. It also forces a cautious Aden Jansen back into the fray. Now dedicated to a just cause, he’s still keeping his past hidden. The risk of exposing his former alliance could twist not only his fate but also that of his sister, Solveig, heir to the family empire.

With no time to waste, Dunstan hits the ground running. But as insurgents threaten the unstable peace, what’s ahead for both sides could change the destiny of the Gaia system forever.

Author: Marko Kloos
First Release: 2021
ISBN: 978-1542027243
Publisher: 47North