Yes, I'm reviewing Asbaran Solutions by Chris Kennedy. Yes, it is the second of the novels in the Four Horsmen Universe and yes, I can hear someone out there already:
"Dood! There are like a million novels in the Four Horsemen Universe and the Chris Kennedy Publishing Kindle Unlimited Writing Factory puts a new one out every four point three seconds. You are literally never going to catch up at this pace."
To which I reply: "Dooooood! I know. It's gonna be fun to try though. NOW GET BACK TO WORK PROLE!!!:
Or sumfin'.
Sorry, I'm in a weird mood today.
So yes, I picked up a copy of Asbaran Solutions because I felt like I needed more ass-kicking in my life. I mean seriously, who doesn't like to spend their time reading tales of derring-do and explosions? (And if you don't, why are you here?)
And this is definitely a book with a high amount of ass-kickery. Our main character is one Nigel Shirazi and his family has been fucked with. He seems to be less than okay with that fact in a "Michael Corleone said that this was too harsh" kind of way. (And if you don't get the Godfather reference, hie thee off to the video store. I'll wait until you get back.) Seriously, if he has anything to say about it, someone is going to pay for messing with The Family. Oh, and the Shirazi family owns the mercenary company Asbaran Solutions, hence the title of the book and the ability to commit the aforementioned acts of ass-kickery.
I really thought I was going to enjoy this one and I was right. I ended up enjoying it more than I thought I would though. See, Chris is a veteran and, while Red Tide: The Invasion of Seattle was a really good book, I had to wonder if Kennedy was going to be able to deliver on the less formal atmosphere of a merc unit. Well, I'm here to tell you that he owned it. And, as the former commander of a 'Mech company cum regimental combat team in the universe of the Battletech board games and Mechwarrior pen and paper role playing game, stuff like that matters to me. Don't get me wrong, the troops follow orders (they wouldn't succeed otherwise) but you don't get the crisp salutes or the perfectly pressed pants that you would get out of a member of the United States Navy, where Kennedy served as an aviator. You also wouldn't see people switching between branches like a few switch between merc companies in the book. This is a good thing. Kennedy gets it when I wasn't sure he would. Troops sometimes talk back in ways that would get them in big trouble in an actual military and that makes sense as well.
It's interesting the way Kennedy uses the free-wheeling nature of mercs to move his story along too. In any type of military unit members are going to be faced with putting their duty over their personal feelings, but in a merc unit, sometimes it's possible to do what you want and get paid for it anyway. This is another positive about merc life that I was really happy to see Kennedy put that in his work. The ability to pick and choose contracts is what makes a merc unit different from a member of a standing military. The setup in the book just makes sense.
The fight scenes in Asbaran Solutions do something very well that I've never seen attempted in another book and I love it. Kennedy occasionally uses radio messages more than once to create a sense of simultaneity. (Oh look. I think I spelled that right!) You really do get a sense that there is stuff happening all over the place at the same time and it rocks. Seriously, if you're an author out there and you write military fic (whether SF or not) read this book because Kennedy puts on a clinic. I've never seen this before but I want more. It's not that reading things sequentially is bad ( I mean, that's how the human brain processes things so it makes sense) it's just that this method of writing adds a lot of excitement and a sense that things are occurring all at once. And guess what folks? Combat is chaos and Asbaran Solutions definitely gives you a feeling of being in a situation where no one is truly in control and there's no telling what could happen next. On the other hand, you may want to be careful here. Reading Asbaran Solutions before you call your girlfriend is contra-indicated if you want to call her when you were supposed to. (Huh? Experience? What? And I was only five minutes late. HMPH.)
Oh, and I kind of have to mention the aerial battles. Kennedy is, after all, a retired naval aviator and I expected these to rock. They did. I wonder how much of one particular scene was motivated by his training and how much was based on a personal fear, but I guess it doesn't matter. Just know that it was super believable and realistic and had me in physical pain just reading it.
I don't want to spoil too much, but I really like Nigel's character arc in this story. He starts out as a spoiled little shit and ends up.. well, something else. All I'm going to say for the record is that it was a big improvement. By the end of the book I was almost to the point where I had forgotten just exactly how well I had initially wanted to clean his clock. The people around him have a lot to do with it. He doesn't just spontaneously learn to stop being a complete douche and that makes sense too. Maturation comes from dealing with people and experiencing things and that's how Nigel learns.
I've already picked up my copy of Winged Hussars, which is the book that follows this one in The Revelations Cycle. It's not by Kennedy. It's by Mark Wandrey but so was Cartwrights Cavaliers and that was amazeballs, so I'm excited. I almost feel bad for Wandrey though. I wouldn't want to have to follow a book like this. It's going to be hard to live up to.
Bottom Line: 5.0 out of 5 Red Diamonds
Asbaran Solutions: The Revelations Cycle Book Two
Chris Kennedy
Chris Kennedy Publishing, 2017
Asbaran Solutions: The Revelations Cycle Book Two is available for purchase at the following link:
No comments:
Post a Comment