History Literature / PoorMansFight

Quick-witted Tanner Malone has bombed the Test, an all-important exam that establishes how much he owes for his corporate-funded education. With his future plans crushed under a mountain of debt, Tanner enlists in the navy of his home star system of Archangel. But he hasn't factored in the bullying shipmates, the civil war brewing on the border, or the space pirates.

* StudentDebtPlot: where the debt owed to corporate overlords for studying is established by the Test. Tanner bombs it, which leads to him having to join the military to WorkOffTheDebt.

* TheEveryman: Tanner is just a new recruit to the Navy who just wants to pay off all of his student loans.

* ThereAreNoTherapists: Tanner starts showing the early signs of PTSD in ''Rich Man's War'' but it's not until ''Last Man Out'', set almost five years later, that he actually starts receiving treatment for it, after he's out of the military.

* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: ''No Medals For Secrets'' switches to focus on Alice Wong, Tanner's childhood friend and fellow naval recruit while she goes off on a secret mission set between ''Rich Man's War'' and ''Dead Man's Debt''. Tanner shows up in the beginning of the book but suffers a combat injury that leaves him sidelined.
* ArmorIsUseless: Zig-zagged. Body armor helps against smaller anti-personnel weaponry, but even the heaviest personal armor suits can't protect the wearer against plasma weapons. A similar situation exists for space combat- the most well-armored destroyer is still no match for the main guns of the average cruiser, while the most well-armored cruiser is toast if it takes a direct hit from a battleship's main gun.

** In ''Poor Man's Fight'', Tanner attacks a pirate ship by himself. He doesn't expect it to work, but he's the last person on his ship after it took a direct hit from the pirate ship's gun that left it a lifeless, drifting wreck and the only other option he has besides trying to spacewalk to the pirate ship is simply drifting off into the void until his oxygen runs out. He succeeds largely because the pirates just didn't expect anyone to actually true something like that.

* DrillSergeantNasty: Played with with Gunnery Sergeant Janika, Tanner's instructor in boot camp. She's a drill sergeant, and she's nasty, but she genuinely cares for everyone under her command and takes their well being into account. She pushes people to the limit, but she does not try to cause them to have a mental breakdown or drill until they're injured.

* ScaryDogmaticAliens: Humanity has this opinion of all alien species. In ''No Man's Land'', it turns out that the majority of alien aggression toward humans is actually caused by humanity not obeying any of the treaties that have been made with any of its alien neighbors, causing them to justifiably view humans as untrustworthy. [[spoiler: But played straight with the Minoans, whose queen believes herself to be absolute ruler of the galaxy and everyone, Minoan, human, or otherwise, to be her slaves]].

* SergeantRock: Gunnery Sergeant Janika again. While she does do basic training sometimes, she's primarily a combat specialist and is easily the most dangerous human character in the series. The only reason she's doesn't have the same reputation as Tanner is because she's actually skilled enough to insure that the things she does ''don't'' get reported in the civilian news.

* ThereAreNoTherapists: Tanner starts showing the early signs of PTSD in ''Rich Man's War'' but it's not until ''No Medals For Secrets'', set almost five years later, that he actually starts receiving treatment for it, after he's out of the military.