Planet of the Voles — Charles Platt

A science fiction thriller in the classic tradition. Chicago Daily HeraldIt is the future, and humankind has spread to the stars. But hundreds of years of peace have atrophied their aggressive instincts. Then warlike aliens, the Volvnians, swoop out of nowhere and began attacking the human planets, conquering them with ease.Earth an its remaining colonies quickly start a genetic engineering program to produce warriors to defend the colony worlds and retake the planets they have already lost. Battle rages across the stars.Tomas and Jon are engineered, not to fight, but as support staff. Tomas is an artist who creates everything from inspiring murals to medals and insignia. Jon is engineered to be only five feet tall so he can clean a narrow tube essential to the hyperdrive.When their battleship is destroyed by the Voles, Tomas and Jon find themselves the only survivors, marooned by over a colony world the Voles have conquered. Furious, frightened, with no training for battle, and Jon too short to even reach the controls of any of the of the heavily armored battlesuits, these two men-one an artist the other engineered for a single cleaning job - swear revenge on the Voles and to liberate the whole planet.Platt's situations are well-detailed and carefully thought out. His plot moves along nicely, and his prose is consistently readable. He tells the story of two congenital nonentities who find themselves the last survivors of an Earth-ship full of warriors which is destroyed by an extraterrestrial race, the Voles. The heroes are forced to land what's left of the ship on a Vole-occupied world. This, and their subsequent efforts against the Voles, is the story. I was never once bored. Paul Walker, Luna MonthlyEnjoyable scifi adventure, with some interesting science. Goodreads