Terms of Enlistment, by Marko Kloos

This is an entertaining sci-fi novel.   The hero is Andrew Grayson, a young man whose only shot at escaping the poverty of his home is to join the military - which translates to either subduing civil unrest in the slums of Earth's cities, or space travel.

The novel reads like a movie, and like a movie is a bit superficial.  But the characters are interesting and the plot moves along well, so the superficiality is not a big deal: just be clear that this isn't literature (or sci-fi at the Stranger in a Strange Land or Cryptonomicon level).

Terms of Enlistment