(Every once in awhile, when life isn't going the way you want it to, a book can take you out of that stressful place you're in and move your mind halfway across a galaxy. Today and tomorrow, I'll be reviewing two such books. I hope you enjoy my reviews as much as I enjoyed the works in question.)
Having read The Revelations Cycle in the Four Horsemen Universe, I couldn't wait to get to the Omega War Series. The life of a book reviewer is, however, a rough one and I couldn't justify taking the time away from people who sent me review copies to pay for something. Then I found myself in a situation with no way to read e-books and a good paperback novel was just what the doctor ordered. Of course, I probably screwed up my prescription because A Fiery Sunset by Chris Kennedy and Mark Wandrey is better than merely good. I mean that.
If you've read the Revelations Cycle then you've met the head of all of the Four Horsemen: The heads of the Mercenary companies known collectively by the same name. There is Nigel Shirazi of Asbaran Solutions, Jim Cartwright of Cartwright's Cavaliers, Sansar Enkh of the Golden Horde and Alexis Cromwell of the Winged Hussars.
If you haven't read the Revelations Cycle yet, you fall into one of three categories:
1.) Someone who doesn't like Military Science Fiction
2.) Communists who oppose the free market that allows smaller companies to flourish
or
3.) Someone who needs to get to Amazon and whip out the plastic money As Soon As Humanly Possible.
Of course, I'm willing to settle for quicker than that if you can figure it out. I mean, if it's worth doing in the next five minutes, it's probably worth doing yesterday if you can pull it off.
Oh, wait. Maybe I should talk about the book!
A Fiery Sunset is the first in the Omega War series. As such, it asks a lot of questions. There are things going on that we are not at all sure of the implications of everything that has happened and continues to happen. In some ways, the book functions in a manner similar to a detective novel or an episode of Law and Order. We're trying to figure out what's going on and who is at fault. Unfortunately, the Galactic Union doesn't seem to have a RICO statute and that makes things difficult.
Of course, the fact that the aliens are casting humanity as the bad guys doesn't really add a whole lot to their - and thus our - odds of figuring out just what is going on. All of the fighting does seem to take up a lot of time that the Horsemen could be using to figure out why this is all happening to them. There is a lot to A Fiery Sunset. I'm guessing Kennedy and Wandrey spent a lot to time planning just how they were going to get here, because this tome fits in damn near perfectly with the earlier books. They did a phenomenal job working everything together.
And that's where the really cool part of A Fiery Sunset comes in, because even though it starts the series off, it's also a payoff of sorts. The first four books were each about a different one of the Four Horsemen mercenary companies. They're really good books, but we don't see the companies or their commanders mix at all. The only recurring character is someone I would cheerfully push out of an airlock with no suit on just to see if the explosive decompression thing would actually happen. Who am I kidding? I'd do it, but science would be beside the point. No, I'm not going to paint you a picture if you haven't read the first series. Not even if it would look good on a CASPer.
That all changes in A Fiery Sunset. If any of you are fans of the Battletech novels (and please believe I am) you'll remember the time we finally got to see Jamie Wolf in the same room as Grayson Carlyle. Do you remember how cool that was? Do you remember how you wished it would never end? That's A Fiery Sunset in a nutshell. We finally get to see all of our heroes working together. It's freaking sweet. This isn't some "Scotty's stuck in the transporter" type junk either. Everyone is there because they need to be. Of course, this isn't the family reunion where you have to watch your great aunts and uncles sit around playing bridge. Lots of stuff happens and it comes at a very fast pace.
If you read my review of Asbaran Solutions then you know that I'm a huge fan of the way Chris Kennedy writes combat. If you read my review of Cartwright's Cavaliers then you know that Mark Wandrey does a damn fine job of it too. I'm guessing, based on the fact that I read too much and recognize certain authors' styles, that both wrote the combat in this book. That's good. They owned it.
Something that frequently annoys me in books, and something I struggle with in my own work, is that with big ensemble casts like the one is A Fiery Sunset it's not always clear why people are working together. There always seems to be that one annoying person who is just there because the author needs them to be with no clear cut motivation to show up. Not here. It's a fight for the fate of humanity and even the one company whose membership is nearly half alien has a definable motivation for being there. These characters make sense.
Combining characters can also provide some poignant moments and there is one character in the book that I can feel a lot of sympathy for. Dude goes through some major stuff and comes out okay. I like these kinds of moments in pretty much any book (if they're well done and they were here) but especially in works of military fiction or military history. A lot of people seem to forget that members of the military have real lives outside of just being soldiers/sailors, etc. It's not just that though. People who serve have feelings, too. Look, I'm a fan of free speech. If someone wants to throw terms like "baby-killer" or "bloodthirsty savage" around they have the right to do so. That doesn't make what they're saying correct though. Service members are people too. They love. They hate. Sometimes they hurt. What is truly amazing about members of the military is their ability to do their duty even when most civilians would fold up their tent and go home. It's not always easy for them, but they do that. We see some of that resilience here and it comes from one of my favorite characters. Kudos to Kennedy and Wandrey for giving a realistic depiction of military life instead of relying on negative stereotypes.
There is just so much here that works so well. I read this twice in less than a week because reasons, but also because it's just that good. Pick this one up folks, because it's that awesome.
Bottom Line: 4.75 out of 5 Raknars
A Fiery Sunset
Chris Kennedy and Mark Wandrey
Seventh Seal Press, 2018
A Fiery Sunset is available for purchase at the following link:
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