D.T. Read's Mountains of the Gods and Crucible of the Gods (The Seventh Shaman Books Two and Three)

Listen folks, go read these books!

REVIEW WRITTEN! PUT IT IN THE CAN!

*Takes celebratory gulp of Coca-Cola Classic*

Sorry to those who are disappointed by that statement but I don't really drink and Mountain Dew is the Hard Stuff, so...

Yeah.

Okay, so I'm not that lazy. Usually. That's not the whole review. Probably. 

Being dead serious though, D.T. Read has outdone herself with Mountain of the Gods and Crucible of the Gods. These books kick so much afterburner that I had to congratulate her on her Facebook page before I had finished Crucible.It and Mountains are that good. I thought Running from the Gods,  the first book, was amazeballs (and it is) but these two kick it up a notch. I guess I kind of expected that, but I didn't really expect that.

 I mean, the first book in a series like this is usually world-building and moves a bit slowly. This is especially true when the first book is basic military and Military Occupational Specialty training. Things take a minute to build to where they really take off. Starting with Mountains that's not really the case anymore.

Mountains of the Gods is the story of a young pilot's introduction to real-world combat. He serves in a military that is currently losing a war and needs him out and doing his job. He does his best to do it, too. Don't get me wrong Akuleh Masou (AKA Ku) is a terrific pilot and he's game for the fight, but things seem not to go the way he wants them to at times. The historian in me believes that this just might be because the other side gets a say in what happens, but it hurts Ku just the same.

And that is something that is missing in a lot of military fiction. I just had this conversation with a friend of mine on Sunday night while I was out with some friends from a fan organization that I'm part of. The author of the series is amazing and writes truly awesome books (that's why I joined the organization) but I hadn't really thought about that until recently and I wonder if it's his background as a history student that causes that. Historians, after all focus mostly on the Butcher's Bill and not as much on individual stories, unless they're talking about some general somewhere.

Ku faces war and all of its ugliness head on. I don't want to spoil too much here, but he faces the psychic shock of the experience in a very visceral way. Ku is not the hero of a World War II movie that was made during the 1950s. He goes through a lot and it beats him up sometimes. He has to deal with the flashbacks afterward. More than anything else I've read, with the possible exception of J.A. Sutherland's Alexis Carew series, Ku has to deal with the things they don't show on the recruiting poster. 

It almost feels paradoxical to say this, since military fiction is a lot older than I am and leaving that part out has always been part of a working formula that sells, but it adds a lot to the story. I've read a lot of heroes of a lot of works that don't seem as real as Ku and his friends do and it's because they deal with the parts that people don't want to talk about. Seriously. I'm a huge Mel Gibson fan and Hal Moore didn't feel this real in We Were Soldiers  and Hal Moore was a real guy who really did what they show on the screen. 

I guess that's what really drew me into these books. Ku acts like he would act in real life. He deals with problems as they come up, just like he would in real life. He struggles with a lot. I've been there. I haven't had the same problems, never having been anywhere near a combat environment, but struggling is a feeling that I'm a lot more familiar with than I wish I was.

Let me put this out there, too. It's spoiling but I can't help it. Ku has to seek out help for his mental issues at one point. His PTSD hits him hard and he find someone to lead him through it. Again, mine wasn't combat related but I've had to do the same. It wasn't easy for me. It wasn't easy for Ku. There probably aren't many people on the planet who find it easy to ask for help with mental issues. But he did it. I did it and so have many others. But we've endured and so has Ku. He also has a tendency to bounce back from physical trauma that is truly impressive. I'm wondering if a particular injury he suffers wasn't stolen from something that happened in the real world, because it feels realistic but has just a bit of "I don't think you could make that up" to it. 

Maybe I'm spending too much time on the protagonist and maybe I don't care. Ku is on my Top Ten List of Fictional Characters to Have a Drink With Someday, Except never, because he doesn't really exist, but you get the idea. It's not all just about what he does while in uniform either. I really have to tighten the snerk collar here, but Ku does things in an honorable manner in his personal life when it is very obviously hard for him to do it. He's a solid dude, the guy you want at your back when things go awry.

*SIGH*

Yes I'll have his babies, but only if he asks politely.

Something else I've noticed that I don't always see in Science Fiction: Read treats matters of faith with respect and reverence. It has happened elsewhere. I've reviewed Declan Finn's work here a lot and he's a man whose faith comes out in his work. J. Michael Strac, Straz, Stratz...

The guy who wrote Babylon 5, who I believe is an atheist, was also very respectful of religious beliefs but that's not always the case. Asimov wrote a planned future of the human race with no mention of religion or religious movements. Suzanne Collins never put so much as an "Oh God" in The Hunger Games. The organizers of David Weber's own con wouldn't let him hold a prayer meeting on a Sunday even though he's an actual deacon in his church. Seventh Shaman is so named because it involves a lot of religion which, in its own way, is closer to something you'd see in Dungeons and Dragons than what you'd get in a JMS work but I say that lovingly. I've been a D&D guy since Second Edition. I'm still trying to roll the stats to get a paladin. It's not just the way the religion feels either. It's the effects granted by its chanters which are considerable.

Speaking of religion, there are parts of what Ku deals with that remind me of things I've read in the Old Testament. I won't say what and I won't say how, but I have a feeling that Read may have done a bit of study in her time. I just get that feeling based on things. I don't want to reveal too much here so I'll move on. If you're familiar with the Old Testament though, I dare you to read Crucible and tell me I'm wrong. 

Ku, of course, is not the only character in the book. People like Hanuk, Gram, Derry, Kimmie, etc..

They make sense too. Pretty much anyone Ku comes in contact with has motivations and takes actions that make sense in their own mind. That doesn't mean that everyone is friendly or that it's all hunky-dory, but once you're immersed in Read's work you'll stay that way until your dispatcher calls and sends you on another call...

Oh, sorry. That's more of a 'me' thing I guess.

The action in both books is realistic and engaging. Things go bang and boom when they should and the actions taken by Ku and his fellow pilots are both realistic and believable. At times it almost feels like you're in the cockpit. As mentioned previously, the other side gets a vote in ways that matter and that makes the lives of Ku and his fellow pilots interesting in ways that they probably wished that it wouldn't but that's how it would work in the real world. 

There is a lot of foreshadowing going on here. In some ways it feels like the prophecy in Harry Potter. It's not quite the same though and the outcome doesn't seem quite as obvious. I'm pretty sure I know what's coming but not exactly when or how or what it will mean once it happens and I'm not sure the characters in the books do either. I'm okay with that because it adds a little more intrigue to an already tense series and I can't wait to see it resolved.

I got into this series too early. It's not done yet and I need to know where it's going. I know the fourth book will be out soon. I'm thinking there might be one or two more after that, but I'm not making any promises. I can hope though, right? It's not like I'm losing it or anything.

Probably?

Maybe?

Well, let's just say that shaving my head keeps me from pulling my hair out.

Bottom Line: 5.0 out of 5 Missiles Fired

Mountains of the Gods

D.T. Read
Theogony Books, 2022

Crucible of the Gods

D.T. Read
Theogony Books, 2022

Mountains of the Gods and Crucible of the Gods are available for purchase at the following links. If you click one of the links and buy literally anything from Amazon, I get a small percentage at no additional cost to you.

Richard Weyand's Eve of War (Agency Book One)

The Agency doesn't exist. I know it. You know it. I bet even he knows it. But somebody forgot to tell Bert Magnum and he works for the Agency. I know, I know. I mean, I get it. If it doesn't exist then how can he work for it? Listen, I'm a book reviewer. If you wanted a sense maker, you came to the wrong blog. That's not my thing. But you can read Richard Weyand's Eve of War and then we can not make sense together. Togetherness is a good thing, right?

This is actually a really entertaining story. A detractor might be tempted to say that it's pretty much James Bond INNN SPAAAAAACE, but honestly, I thinks it's totally James Bond IIIIIIINN SPAAAAACE! and I love it. Listen, folks. Things work because they work and James Bond works. There's a reason that James Bond has like 87689768976876876868688969869876868968976 movies and they all sell like a billion tickets each, then live forever on rentals/streaming. And trust me, it's not just the martinis.

What could possibly be better than a super-cool secret agent with lots of neat toys who gets the girl and does the super-spy stuff and tries to save the day? I'll tell you what. It's the super-cool secret agent with lots of neat toys who gets the girl and does the super-spy stuff and tries to save the day who has an alien companion. I mean, the fact that it basically lives in the shower IS a bit weird but, I mean, it's an alien. It's SUPPOSED TO BE WEIRD.

There should be a song about how aliens are supposed to be strange. Maybe we could set it to the tune of someone else's song. Does anybody have Weird Al's number? Seriously guys, you don't want me to sing it. You just don't.

Anyway...

There are widgets and gizmos and superdrugs and hot chicks and guns and bombs and mishaps in cars and maybe some other stuff...

To go with allergies. Seriously, that was a shocker. What secret agent has allergies?

And yes, we get to find out how the alien got there EVENTUALLY. I won't tell you how but it works and it's interesting and yes, it's weird but we just had that conversation.

There's a lot of good stuff here, and the even better news is that there is more coming. It seems that Eve of War is the first book in a series called The Agency, which apparently DOES exist. The books, not the Agency. The actual Agency is basically just like Area 51 and Delta Force. It doesn't exist, never will and does all kinds of stuff that never happened. Actually, I know a couple of guys who served on submarines. Maybe they can tell me how things that never happened in places they never were worked. Uhh...

Nevermind.

You know, the whole Science Fiction thing doesn't mix very often with the whole Super Spy thing, except in cases where the spy has nifty tools that don't exist in the real world. Eve of War is a legit Science Fiction story complete with star nations and interstellar travel. Humanity is still humanity, but they're out there.

Eve of War takes place in a corner of human space and the rest of humanity is only mentioned passingly. There are definitely strong hints of something out there though, and I kind of get the feeling that the playing field is going to expand in future volumes of the series. I haven't read any of the follow on books yet (and I think only one exists at the moment) but there's a hint, a possible hit of foreshadowing I detected...

Yup, you're right. I'm more Inspector Gadget than James Bond, despite the similar first names. Go, go Gadget review!

Didn't work, still writing.

So yeah, I think there's more coming, similar to how David Weber started his Honorverse in one corner of the universe and then made it bigger, or how I started my Dungeons and Dragons campaign with one town and expanded it. This is an approach that a lot of writers use because it makes sense and it works. Try to cram too much in too quickly and you get the Green Lantern movie. It's better this way.

I'm really looking forward to where this universe can go. It's kind of refreshing to read some SF that's not the same old SF and Weyand has achieved that here. I love starships and big, stompy robots and weird unobtainium power sources, etc but there's more to the genre than that and it's nice to see someone step outside of the standard tropes and give us something new and, this is key, do it in its own universe.

Seriously, those of you have read John Ringo's Human-Posleen War/Legacy of the Aldenata series may remember The Weapon and the trilogy of books centered around Cally. Those were good books, well written and action packed with believable characters but I think they lost something because they didn't fit in with the rest of the universe. For me, at least, the LOTA universe is, and always has been, about mass combat and asskickery. There may have been a bit of "Uh oh, here they come" at the beginning of Gust Front,  but the story is supposed to take place on the front lines. 

For Weyand, that's not an issue. He didn't pull the bait and switch with this story. This is a spy-centered story and that's what he's given us. I hope he keeps it that way. The day may come when mass space battles are part of the story of Bert Magnum and The Agency, but I hope they either happen "off-screen" or as a small point of the larger story rather than a focal point. Magnum is the kind of guy who risks his life for his star-nation, but in a different way. Don't get me wrong: I'm excited for more of this series but I want it to stay like it is. Here's hoping, anyway.

Bottom Line: 4.75 out of 5 Doses of Com-Ply

Eve of War (Agency Book One)

Richard Weyand
Weyand Associates, Inc, 2022

Eve of War (Agency Book One) is available for purchase at the following link. If you click the link and buy literally anything from Amazon, I get a small percentage at no additional cost to you.

The Ten Most Badass Men in Science Fiction and Fantasy

(Before you even go there; I already did my list of SF/F's Ten Most Badass Women. You can find it here.)

The Speculative Fiction genre encompasses all types of things, but one thing that really pushes a Science Fiction or Fantasy story along is a true bad ass. Seriously, fans of works like Battletech, Honor Harrington, or even to a certain extent Star Wars are well versed in political wheeling and dealing. It goes on all the time. But the thing that really pushes a story along is a dude (or chick, if you prefer. The link to that list is above.) that does what he has to do to get things done. The man who, alone or with allies, has the can-do attitude and achieves results. To a badass, nothing matters so much as getting the job done, whatever that job happens to be. What follows is a list of the Ten Most Badass Men in Science Fiction and Fantasy. 

I'm going to catch some heat for this one. I'm okay with that. I've gotten some grief over my list of Badass Women. It's all good. I know nerd-rage, having experienced it from both sides. My only word of advice is that it you're going to flame me, do it here in the comments section and not on Facebook. A couple of people got in trouble with some mods last time. If you say something here, you won't catch crap from me. Your call.

At any rate, here we go...

Number Ten: Tony Stark (Iron Man)

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist."

What could possibly be more badass than taking shrapnel to the chest, hooking yourself up to a car battery and killing the people who took you prisoner, only to walk away? How about building a suit around a new power source and using it to fight evil? How about having it all and knowingly giving up your life anyway? Or building a suit for your little buddy to take him safe, just because you can?

Yeah, Tony Stark is a true badass. Whether in Civil War, protecting the rights of persons with super powers or fighting the bad guys in Central Park, Tony Stark is among the baddest of the bad.

Number Nine: Gotrek Gurnisson (Gotrek and Felix)

"No slayer has anything to be proud of."

Gotrek Gurnisson is a Slayer: His job is to seek out and destroy the enemies of dwarves and kill them while, and yes you're reading this right, dying in the process. A Slayer has been disgraced, his name placed in some clan's Book of Grudges and the only way to atone for what he's done is to die in honorable combat. A Slayer will, in all cases, seek out the biggest, baddest, most evil opponent and kill it or, even better, die trying.

The problems for Gotrek is that he's a little too good at the slaying part and not so good at dying. He is the star of a series of books by the Black Library in which he kills all kinds of big bads and, at least to the point I've read to (I kind of lost the thread after my divorce) managing to somehow not end up dead. If you see Gotrek coming for you, run. He is a dwarf after all. They can't keep up. And, let's face it, you have to be alive for it to matter that he just called you a coward. 

His buddy Felix follows him around chronicling his adventures and that just adds to the fun. One often wonders why Gortrek allows it since he has no reason for pride, and his axe would surely put an end to this silly human following him, but he does. I'm usually more of a fan of dwarves with hammers than with axes, but for Gotrek I'll make an exception. He's way too good with the thing to argue with him.

Number Eight: Inigo Montoya (The Princess Bride)

"My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."

One of the defining traits of any badass is persistence, right? Doing something easy doesn't make you a badass and the hard stuff you have to gut your way through. Of course, having a sword and being prepared to use it doesn't hurt and neither does having the guts to make your father's killer beg for his life before you stab him in his guts. 

And let's not forget loyalty. Who was it who took Westley to see Miracle Max? It would have been pretty easy to give up on a guy who was, admittedly, dead and move on after possibly shedding a single, manly tear. Montoya didn't. He didn't give up on his quest. He didn't give up on his friends. And, at the end of the day, he accomplished his mission. 

Above all though, he was a man of honor. Montoya did what he needed to do in a manner befitting his quest. Climbing ropes, fighting left handed until he realized that he had a worthy opponent and seeing the error of his ways and joining with his erstwhile (TWO POINTS FOR USING ERSTWHILE IN A SENTENCE! MY ENGLISH TEACHER WOULD BE SO PROUD!!!) enemy all mark Inigo Montoya as not just a man of action, but of thought and total badassery.

Number Seven: Jean Luc Picard (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

"You may test that assumption at your convenience."

Jean Luc Picard stopped at nothing to do what was necessary. He would hem, he would haw and he would consider the ramifications of his actions, and then he'd do it anyway. This is a man who faced down Q on multiple occasions. Picard faced the Borg and became one of them before returning to his normal self. Most of what Picard did was unpredictable because he was, in many ways, the wise Old Man that everyone wishes he could serve under. Picard lost subordinates (not the least of which was Tasha Yar) but he never did so cavalierly or unnecessarily and he always made their deaths mean something.

And who gets a knife through his back and out his front, passing directly through his heart, and goes on to serve in deep space duty anyway? That Nausicaan must have assumed that Picard was dead, only he wasn't. 

Picard was also a man who understood obligation. When his friend passed in the service, Picard took his wife and son aboard The Enterprise to make sure that both of them prospered. He got his friends' kid into Starfleet Academy with real world experience. A true badass looks after his own.

And yes, although I know he belongs nowhere near a list like this, I am a Wesley Crusher fan. Wil Wheaton is four years older than me, so Wesley was like the cool big brother that gets to do all the stuff that you don't. Bring the hate if you need to, but understand that I've heard worse and didn't care about it then, either.

Number Six: Westley (The Princess Bride)

“To the pain means this: if we duel and you win, death for me. If we duel and I win, life for you. But life on my terms. The first thing you lose will be your feet. Below the ankle. You will have stumps available to use within six months. Then your hands, at the wrists. They heal somewhat quicker. Five months is a fair average. Next your nose. No smell of dawn for you. Followed by your tongue. Deeply cut away. Not even a stump left. And then your left eye—" 

 "And then my right eye, and then my ears, and shall we get on with it?" the Prince said. 

 "Wrong!" Westley’s voice rang across the room. "Your ears you keep, so that every shriek of every child shall be yours to cherish—every babe that weeps in fear at your approach, every woman that cries 'Dear God, what is that thing?' will reverberate forever with your perfect ears.” 

So, you leave home. Then you're threatened with death every day. Then the guy who was threatening you retires and leaves you his way of making money. Somewhere along the way you learn to swordfight like there's no tomorrow. Then of course, you take on a prince and all of his followers after having been mostly dead all day.

Yep, you're a badass. 

We'll leave out the Rodents of Unusual Size and taking down a giant in a fight, but drinking a poisoned goblet on purpose is something we have to bring up. Oh, and threatening an armed man when Westley was too weak to stand was unbelievably badass.

I spoke earlier of persistence and coming back from the dead is probably the best example of persistence in the history of literature. The only better example may be Orpheus, but even he faltered at the end. Westley never did. And he got to call someone a "warthog faced buffoon" which is something none of use will ever do.

That's the first half. Ready for the top half?

Number Five: Aragorn (Lord of the Rings)

"If, by my life or death, I can protect you, I will."

I said before that a true badass does what needs to be done to accomplish the goal, and it doesn't really matter what the goal is. I meant it. Aragorn is the heir to a throne. He could easily waltz in and demand what was rightfully his, disrupting the war effort and probably handing the war to Sauron. A lesser man would have done precisely that. He had reforged Narsil, the Sword that Was Broken and had all the proof he needed had he put his needs above those of the people he should have been serving as king.

Instead he followed a hobbit and a wizard, rescued a couple of more hobbits and rallied some ghosts to his side. 

And listen folks, I love the fact that Peter Jackson left Tom Bombadil and the Cleansing of the Shire out as they add nothing to the story but the fact that we had to wait for the Director's Cut to see Aragorn recruit and then release The Army of the Dead was complete horse poop.

Anyway...

Aragorn could kill orcs like they weren't even there. He managed to rescue Merrie and Pippen and fight at the Battle of Helm's Deep. And at the end of it all, he did the most badass thing ever: He knelt to someone far beneath his station in respect for his accomplishments, one badass to another.

Number Four: Frodo Baggins (Lord of the Rings)

"I will take the Ring, though I do not know the way."

Some badasses start out with all of the advantages: A gun, or a big ship with a big gun, training, resources to draw on and the knowledge they need to use all of it. Of course, having a huge organization at their back, think Starfleet, the Rebel Alliance, The Royal Manticoran Navy or even The Agency (let's see how many get that one) at your back helps and gives them advantages that they would never possess on their own. It doesn't mean that they're not badasses. Intelligence is a trait that is common among badasses and utilizing every advantage available is the intelligent thing to do.

The fact remains that when Frodo Baggins gets into that canoe and begins to paddle across the river, he is leaving what backup he has behind. Of course, Sam eventually joins him, but Frodo doesn't know that Sam will follow him and actively tries to avoid it because he knows he can't trust those who are closest to him with the One Ring and he sets off with what he can carry and, having nothing but some pluck and a sword he doesn't know how to use, he sets off for the heart of the enemy's kingdom hoping not to get detected. Of course, the Ring itself is the thing most likely to get him noticed...

And he does it. I already mentioned persistence. How does one persist when they are starving and surrounded. When their best helper is likely to choke them to death and rob them how do they keep going? How can you make it to the center of the enemy's power and destroy the thing that is most precious to him knowing what it will cost you to do so?

Frodo almost doesn't. He almost keeps the ring. It takes the loss of a finger for Frodo to rid himself, and Middle Earth, of the ring. But he does it. Then he makes it out. Frodo has the courage of ten men packed into a body smaller than the average seventh grader and he's too badass to let it stop him.

Number Three: Tyrion Lannister (A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones)

"Every time we deal with an enemy, we make two more."

Tyrion did what was necessary. He didn't always do what was popular. He sought power for himself, but then he used it to do what was right, or at least right-ish. I mean, assassinating a king is a big deal, but Joffrey kinda had it coming, right? There may have been worse tyrants, but that just means that he wasn't the only one who deserved it.

Tyrion spent the entire series trying to find someone who deserved his loyalty. His father didn't. His brother didn't. Cersei damn sure didn't. He thought Daenerys did, but she went off her rocker with like an hour left in a multi season show.

And seriously, whoever wrote that ending to the series is the worst thing that ever happened to script writing. A three year old could have written a better script in crayon.

But I digress...

Tyrion took his tiny little behind out to fight at the Battle of King's Landing and let's not forget that while he was a dwarf in a fantasy story, he wasn't a true fantasy dwarf: He didn't have the mass, the strength or the constitution. Come to think of it, he didn't have the super-long beard either, but maybe that is a little less important. Here's the thing though: He led his side to victory.

Tyrion gave good counsel to whoever asked for it. He survived a duel to the death and, even if it took a champion to win the fight for him, surviving is all that matters. 

Tyrion was a weird dude because his morals were probably closer to those of Tony Soprano or Vito Corleone than Superman but he stuck to them as well as he could. And maybe that's what makes Tyrion the badass that he truly is: He has money and to spare but, like Frodo, he doesn't have the size or physical gifts that many others do and he gets things done anyway. The ability to get 'er done despite the odds is the badass's defining trait.

Oh, and bonus points because he looks like Sir Hung the Magnificent, the biggest badass in The Knights of Badassdom.

Number Two: Severus Snape (Harry Potter)

"Has it ever occurred to your brilliant mind that I don't want to do this anymore?"

I can hear the whining already: "Snape bullied twelve year-olds." Yeah, maybe he did. The thing about bullies is that they were almost always bullied themselves, and that Snape survived James Potter bullying him. That doesn't excuse it, but it does explain it. And, when you get down to brass tacks, just about every real world hero has some character flaw or some act in his past that they don't want to acknowledge because it makes them look bad. Human beings are that way.

What Snape did right is to try to save the woman he loved using the only method available to him. What Snape did right was protecting her child from real, physical harm from the Dark Lord that he purportedly served. Read that again. Snape protected the child of the woman he loved and ANOTHER MAN. What Snape did right was protecting the students of Hogwarts as best he could because he knew if he didn't follow orders, one of the Carrows would take over and it would be even worse.

Yeah, Snape killed Dumbledore, but he did it at Dumbledore's request. Snape had taken the Unbreakable Vow assuming that he wouldn't do it and would die. Snape was the man who saved Draco's life after Harry almost killed him. Snape was the guy who fought through the pain of dying after being attacked by a snake to show Harry what he had to do. Snape was the guy who fought off the world's greatest mind-reading Legilimens and got that mind reader to trust him anyway.

I may be a bit biased here, since Snape is my favorite character of all time, second only to Raistlin Majere of Dragonlance fame, but he is an amazingly badass dude.

It's time for the single greatest Baddest Man in Science Fiction and Fantasy history. Are you read to see who it is? Too bad. It's...

Benjamin Sisko (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)

So... I lied. I cheated. I bribed men to cover the crimes of other men. I am an accessory to murder. But the most damning thing of all... I think I can live with it. And if I had to do it all over again, I would. Garak was right about one thing, a guilty conscience is a small price to pay for the safety of the Alpha Quadrant. So I will learn to live with it. Because I can live with it. I can live with it..."

Benjamin Sisko was a Starfleet commander turned Captain. Benjamin Sisko was a Commanding Officer who did his best to complete his mission while doing his best to take care of his people. Benjamin Sisko was a loving father and a dutiful son and a widowed husband who remembered what he had lost till his dying day. Benjamin Sisko was a political figure and a religious icon. Benjamin Sisko was the man who defied the Prophets and got remarried anyway.  But, above all, Benjamin Sisko was the guy you weren't quite comfortable having on your side but that you did not want to see on the other side under any circumstances whatsoever.

The writers of "Emissary", the first episode of ST:DS9 took a big chance when they had their new main character get in Jean-Luc Picard's face. Picard was, by that time, an immensely popular character and here's this newbie (to the audience anyway) pushing back against Picard HARD. I get that Sisko was upset. He and Picard had fought on opposite sides at the Battle of Wolf 359 and Sisko's wife was killed. It made sense, but...

HE WAS CAPTAIN PICARD!!!!

It worked though and Sisko was established as the take-no-crap type right off the bat. And then a couple of episodes later he rocked Q's world in a boxing ring. 

Right off the bat, anyone who was paying attention knew that Sisko was not a man to be trifled with. Sure, he had lost his ship at Wolf 359 to a technologically superior enemy that wiped out nearly the entire fleet. That wasn't his fault. But when you went to war against Sisko, he went to war against you.

Sisko has been my favorite Starfleet captain for a couple of decades now because he did what was needed unflinchingly. I was awfully young when the series first started and patience was not something I was known for. When he punched Q, he became my favorite because Q was annoying on his best day. But it was later on that we learned what he was capable of.

Sisko's decisions to deceive the Romulans into joining the alliance against the Dominion, later leading to the deaths of an entire ship's complement of Romulans and the ambassador they were carrying and to poison an entire planet to drive the humans who lived on it illegally were morally ambiguous at best, but they were effective. His dressing down of Worf for acting to save Jadzia's life at the cost of their mission was almost as cruel as it was necessary. 

At the end of the day though, Sisko was not to be denied. He always won, whatever it took. He took the rap when he needed to, but he won the war and brought most of his people through it. For that alone, he is a badass. When you add everything he did up he, alone, is the Most Badass Man in Science Fiction history.

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Warpath: One Vietnam Veteran's Journey through War, Disillusionment, Guilt and Recovery by AJ Moore

This post is dedicated to every veteran of the Vietnam War, but most especially the American troops who were degraded, spit upon and ignored by the same people who sent them off to fight and die. The way my country treated them was both sickening and offensive. I have no right or responsibility to apologize for something I never took part in or had the power to prevent, having been born over a year after the fall of Saigon, but I will never, ever, for as long as I live, show support for what happened to you or those that did it. They have no love for you, but I do. Thank you for all that you've done, both during the war and for society since you came home. 

 

It strikes me as ironic that I found Warpath: One Vietnam Veteran's Journey through War, Disillusionment, Guilt and Recovery by AJ Moore the day after I announced the lineup for my annual Memorial Day Event here at Jimbo's, but one thing I've never been accused of is having a perfect system. For those that missed it, this is a review of a work of Non-Speculative Fiction, specifically a memoir by an American Veteran. I know that this is a space where I usually stick to the world of SF/F, but this is my blog. My blog, my rules and Lord knows that Moore has earned a review, both with his writing and his sacrifices.

Warpath is the story of AJ Moore, a man who willingly enlisted to serve in Vietnam (as did roughly 70% of the troops who served there) and then volunteered for combat duty despite the fact that he was a helicopter mechanic who could have stayed on post. He wanted to experience combat. He got his wish and went through some things that no human being should have to deal with, but many have. It's only through luck and a bit of skill that he managed to get home and work in IT instead of ending up as just another name on the wall. 

But it's weird because Moore never once calls himself a hero or acts like he deserves any special type of recognition, at one point turning down a chance to apply for a Purple Heart. Having been through some things myself, although nothing to compare what he has to deal with, I'm tempted to believe that Moore wrote Warpath as a form of therapy. I've done similar things myself, I've just never written anything this extensive, or thought to get paid for it. Regardless of the reasons he wrote it, I hope it helped him to do so.

Moore does not go for the heavy description I've seen in many works of fiction and for that I'm actually thankful. He has seen and done some truly horrifying things and, while he is graphic enough that I don't think I'd let my eleven year-old daughter read Warpath, it could have been much, much worse if he had added too much detail. I kind of wonder whether he did it that way on purpose or if he just didn't think to include the details, but it's the right decision either way. 

Moore also talks about the cost of war to the survivors. He is open about the mental anguish he has suffered and the fact that he suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I hesitated to review Warpath for precisely this reason, but it's a subject that needs to be openly discussed. It's important to note that, while some of the action Moore took were not necessarily perfect, he never once seems to have intentionally harmed a human being since getting home or intentionally harmed anyone mentally or emotionally. There were some things that he did that weren't good for his kids or his spouse, but he didn't realize it at the time. And...

Well...

Dear Lord, if there is any chance that I can do any good in your name with this blog, let it be this:

Let some veteran of the Iraq or Afghanistan wars see this, or let someone they know show it to them, and have it help them to get the help they need to spare their family the same thing. If it does I'll never know it and that's okay. All glory goes to you. 

*AHEM*

I guess that's a little off topic but I needed to do it.

At some level, I wish they would teach works like Warpath in history classes. I know the cool thing in academia is to ignore military and political history in favor of breaking things down to the lowest common denominator, but the bottom line is that military and political history is something that has effected, and continues to effect, literally every culture on Earth once it hits a certain size. Warpath is the kind of document that details the actual emotional effects of war on the people who fight it on a level that nothing else ever could. 

Seriously, when Moore talks about what he went through just trying to take a shower in Vietnam at his base camp or the time he got crotch rot (which is an actual thing) from living in the wet conditions in Vietnam it adds something to what you're learning. Historians call this a "primary source document" but there's more to it than just being a primary source. I've read dry, clinical after action reports before and they can't come close to matching Warpath for what it is. 

Warpath is an actual recounting of things as they happened, at least to the extent that a human being is able to remember things accurately. But it is also a collection of the impressions of the person who lived the war and who paid the price that all people who were there paid. It's something that a work like Maus or X-Men: Magneto: Testament never could be, because it is told in the realest terms possible. Moore is a man who learned to work on helicopters in the states and how to fly them in Vietnam so he could get home if his pilot was injured. He was a man who actually shot at the enemy and took fire himself. He did things for real. This isn't some comic book which, while certainly well-written, probably contributes to the fact a third of North American students think the Holocaust either didn't happen or is exaggerated. Comic books create that aura. Those who teach comic books in a classroom setting perpetuate it. An honest memoir does not.

Moore tells it like it was. He was there. He saw it. He did it. He changed his mind about whether he should have been there or not. Then he came back to a world of suffering that he never would have had to endure if he hadn't set off to do what he thought was right at the time. He's honest and open. That is what true authenticity looks like. 

This is a book worth far more than the time it takes to read it and the money it takes to buy it if you don't have Kindle Unlimited and can't just read it that way. Seriously, put the time in. 

And seriously, if someone in Washington can find a way to create a medal/decoration to award to people who serve their fellow veterans after their time in service ends, award one to AJ Moore. He's got it coming.

My apologies to Specialist Moore if this became more of a soapbox for me to speak from and less of a review than he deserved. I am responsible and could have prevented such and didn't.

Bottom Line: 5.0 out of 5 Thankful Bloggers

Warpath: One Vietnam Veteran's Journey through War, Disillusionment, Guilt and Recovery
AJ Moore
Apache Press Books, 2022

Warpath: One Vietnam Veteran's Journey through War, Disillusionment, Guilt and Recovery is available for purchase at the following link. If you click the link and buy literally anything from Amazon, I get a small percentage at no additional cost to you.

The Ten Most Badass Women In All of Science Fiction and Fantasy

 While I was working yesterday, it got a bit slow. That has a tendency to happen on Sundays. While I was sitting in a parking lot meditating over whether I would have enough time to run into the store I was parked in front of for a quick pit stop, my mind started to wander. I thought about who the most amazing badass characters in Science Fiction and Fantasy were. This told me two things:

1.) Yup, I'm a geek. That's confirmed.

and 

2.) I need to get to a con stat. I haven't had a chance to discuss the things that really matter for a while.

So as I sat there, staring past the crack in the windshield, I started making a list. As I went along, I realized that everyone on it was female. I found that kind of weird, I guess. I mean, I've always loved a strong female character. I'm a member of The Royal Manticoran Navy: The Official Honor Harrington Fan Club.  Honor is a career military officer. I've mentioned my love for a strong female protagonist several times over the life of this blog. It's not that I have anything against strong women. It's just that I expected some dudes to make the list, too.

And I'm sure they will. I'll do a most badass dude list someday, I guess. Maybe framing it that way will make it easier to write. 

But for now, here are the Ten Most Badass Women In All of Science Fiction and Fantasy as compiled by our Publisher, Chief Editor and Lead Author here at Jimbo's (All of which happen to be me. It's good to own the blog and award the titles.) as of January 2, 2023 at 1630 hours. Buckle up. It's gonna be a fun ride. See if you can guess which woman was one of the people I thought of first and didn't make the final list. 

Oh, and spoilers abound. None of this is new material but you may not have seen/read all of it. You have been warned.

Number Ten: Molly Weasley (Harry Potter)

"Not my daughter, you bitch!"

I see you out there. You think I've finally lost it. I'm crackers. That Jimbo Guy has totally gone 'round the bend. 

You're not wrong, except that none of that applies here.

Listen, this chick rode herd on six young boys and a young girl, kept her household straight, kept Arthur Freaking Weasley out of trouble with the law and oh, by the way, killed Bellatrix Lestrange, multiple murderer and trusted confidante of the Dark Lord in a wizard's duel at the Battle of Hogwarts. Mama Bear was in full effect that day. Let's not forget that it was also her second war. Order of the Phoenix, indeed. 

The only thing worse than sending five of your six kids off to war would be going with them. Molly had to look upon the face of her dead son and go back out to fight. I couldn't have done it. Mollywobbles is bad to the bone and I'd never have the guts to go heads up with her in a duel. Props to an often ignored character. 

Number Nine: Kathryn Janeway(Star Trek: Voyager)

"There are three things to remember about being a starship captain:  Keep your shirt tucked in, go down with the ship and never abandon a member of your crew."

First, she gets sent across the galaxy by something she doesn't understand with a crew of Starfleet officers and Marquis rebels. Then she manages to build a crew out of them, keep them from fragmenting due to the poor morale that resulted from being seventy plus years from home, get the ship pointed in the right direction and travel an awfully long way. While doing all of that she manages to defeat the Kazon. Then she straight up punks the Borg, managing to get them to make a deal to preserve her and her crew. She was the only Starfleet captain ever to do so. Next up, she defeats Species 8472, the only species ever to come close to beating the Borg. Then she makes it home and gets promoted to Admiral.

Janeway wasn't the straight up fighter that some of the other women on the list were, but there may not be a better leader on the list. We'll see what you all think, but to hold things together through the Year of Hell took a leader of the highest order.

Number Eight: Luna Lovegood (Harry Potter)

"Harry Potter, you listen to me, right now!"

Luna was loving. Luna stood strong for her beliefs in the face of adversity. Luna survived the bullying of countless classmates and managed to stay strong. Luna was Luna and didn't care what you thought about it. Luna was good with her wand. Luna, above all, was loyal.

When Harry needed help at the Department of Mysteries, Luna answered the call. When Dumbledore's Army needed to posse up and fight at the Battle of Hogwarts, Luna was there. And, when the crucial moment came and Harry needed a conk on the head to find what he needed to find, it was Luna who led him to the right place. Okay, so I'm a Harry Potter mark and Luna is my favorite character, but it doesn't change the facts.

No one, not even Harry himself, faced more adversity or fought harder than Luna Lovegood. She risked it all for people who treated her like crap. Harry didn't remember his parents. Luna was there when her mother passed. 

And it is possible, maybe, that the reason I see Luna as such a badass is because she grew up as a nerd and so did I. It's possible. But I know what it's like going through that crap and she survived it and prospered. But to hell with all of that.

'Nuff said.

Number Seven: Diana Prince (Wonder Woman)

"If no one else will defend the world, then I must."

Somewhere along the line, Wonder Woman has defeated Nazis, the First Reich, aliens, and a whole lot besides. She blocks bullets with her bracers. She can defeat just about any man in a straight up fight and she's not afraid of anything.

I've been a fan of Wonder Woman longer than any other woman on this list. In comics, on TV, the movies, whatever. I remember taking my daughters to see the Wonder Woman movie. My youngest was scared. She was six at the time. My oldest freaked out when I said that yes, poison gas is very scary. She hadn't realized that such a thing existed. Well now she knows and I doubt that she'll ever forget. 

Whether she's a drawing on a page, or being portrayed by Gal Gadot or Lynda Carter she's one of the most badass women around. Don't get caught up in that Lasso of Truth.

Number Six: Princess/General Leia Organa Solo (Star Wars)

"Someone has to save our skins. Into the garbage chute, flyboy."

Princess Leia is the woman who stared down Darth Vader, the woman who saw her lover frozen in carbonite and rescued him, the woman who led the Rebel Alliance to victory and who refused to back down from anyone or anything. She was good with a blaster and never gave up.

I can't help but think that if I were going into danger and had to take one woman with me, it would be Leia. Fans of the Star Wars Extended Universe know how hard she fought to protect her children. Anyone else needs to do some reading. Leia was loyal to a fault and strong without being brittle. She didn't just lose her family or her friends. She lost her whole planet and everyone she grew up with and - after that - she kicked the Empire's ass. Leia Organa Solo is the woman who was forced into a metal bikini and choked the thing that did it to her to death. 

So that's the first half. Ready for the rest?

Number Five: Ellen Ripley (Alien)

"I say we take off and nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."

Going on missions to explore strange planets takes enough guts for a lifetime. Having an alien organism attack you after sneaking aboard your ship would be worse. Having it kill crewmembers left and right before you can finally take it out yourself is straight up gangsta. 

Alien came along during the heyday of topless, screaming women fleeing from monsters. Ripley was having none of that. She went straight at the threat and killed it. Her decision to nuke the remainder of the hive was not only the most intelligent thing she could have done, it was the safest. She managed to protect the entire human race from what was down there. At least until the next movie came along.

It doesn't get any more intense than it does in Alien. The courage of a character like Ripley is amazing. How did she not panic in that situation? I'd like to know. Lord knows if people were dying, murdered by some weird freaking alien whatever and I didn't know what it was, where it was or the best way to fight back I'd be more than just a little worried. Ripley may very well have felt that way but she never let that limit her ability to do her job and get out alive. That fact alone is enough to put her in the top five. 

Number Four: Katniss Everdeen (Hunger Games)

"I realize that the answer to who I am lies in that handful of poison fruit."

Katniss Everdeen was a badass before the beginning of the first novel. I mean that seriously. In a world where gun control is so complete that you can be executed for owning a bow, she found a way to not only own one, she used it to feed herself, her family and a lot of other people, besides. Those who have never fired a bow may not realize this, but hitting what you aim at with a bow is not an easy task. Katniss was known to use one to take down small animals. That's hardcore folks.  I've bow hunted, but I've never even thought of shooting a bow at something smaller than a deer. The amount of skill needed to hit a squirrel in a tree or a bird on the wing is something I just don't possess. Katniss did, and that's how she made her living.

Then, having established her bona fides as a hunter, she steps in to keep her sister from having to go to the Hunger Games and probably die. Given the fact that twenty four kids go into the Games and only one survives, her odds don't look good. But not only does she survive, she brings Peeta with her, angering no small amount of people.

Then, of course there's a second Hunger Games, the rebellion, a win and, of course, killing the Communist who deserves it. She looses Prim (the same little sister whose life she volunteered to save) at the big battle and keeps fighting. One gets the feeling that there is absolutely nothing Katniss can't do. The Girl on Fire is among the Baddest of the Bad because she's earned it.

Hermione Granger (Harry Potter)

"Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to bed before either of you come up with another idea to get us all killed, or worse - expelled."

Is it humanly possible to say enough about Hermione? 

Okay, first things first. There are multiple ways to be a badass:

Some people are badasses through sheer physical skill. They can beat someone to the ground/shoot them/blow them up, etc.

Some are badass leaders: I've already mentioned Captain Janeway, and George Patton would be a good, real -life, example. The ability to pull people together and get them to work toward a common goal is a rare one.

They can be badass schemers: This is the third Harry Potter  character to get mentioned on a list of ten women, so let me make one more HP reference: Voldemort/Tom Riddle is a schemer of the baddest order. There aren't many Death Eaters really, but he manages to infiltrate, connive and scheme his way almost to the top of the wizarding world, if only it weren't for that kid and all of his little friends.

But the ultimate badass, and the one that is most useful to any endeavour, is the intellectual badass. The IB is the person who can look at a problem and find a solution. They know where to look to get the information you need, because sending your physical badass to the wrong place to fight the wrong people is worse than useless. The IB will find a way where none should exist.  Hermione Granger is that person.

I mean, don't get me wrong. Hermione fought the Snatchers. She was at the Department of Mysteries. She was at the Battle of Hogwarts. She destroyed a horcrux. She impersonated Bellatrix Lestrange and got into her vault. Anyone who says Hermione can't or won't fight is a liar.

But Hermione was more than just a soldier. Hermione was the brains that made the whole thing work. Think about it like this: There was no danger that Harry wouldn't brave. He went to his death knowingly and willingly with no idea that he wouldn't actually die. But he never would have made it that far without Hermione's help along the way. 

Hermione discovered the Basilisk. Hermione deciphered the clues to find out what and where the Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone was and how to get to it. Hermione is the reason Ron didn't flunk out of Hogwarts. Hermione solved all of the riddles except one and who really wants to eat Gillyweed anyway?

I may be waxing a bit eloquent (in my own mind, at least) here because the Intellectual Badass is the kind of woman I've always wanted and, alas, thought I had at one point, but that doesn't take away from Ms. Granger's unbelievable badassness. I almost feel like she's under-rated at three, but I couldn't put her in front of the next two for reasons that will soon be revealed.

Number Two: Susan Ivanova (Babylon 5)

I am Susan Ivanova, Commander. Daughter of Andre and Sophie Ivanov. I am the right hand of vengeance and the boot that is going to kick your sorry ass all the way back to Earth, sweetheart! I am death incarnate, and the last living thing that you are ever going to see. God sent me.

Hold on. I'm going to go ahead and drop that video into this post because it is, quite simply, the single most badass moment of TV in the freaking history of TV. No, that wrestling spot wasn't better. Yes, I saw the cage break and I know that JR thought Mick Foley was actually dead. It doesn't matter. Claudia Christian has you beat, bro.

Susan FREAKING Ivanova. Listen folks, this is the last woman you want to mess with. First, she was the executive officer of Earth's last, best hope for peace. Then she was the executive officer of Earth's last, best hope for victory. Somewhere along the line, Earth's government went bad and she led the effort to remove them. Regime change happened. Then, of course, came the Shadow War and they had to be vanquished, and...

Yeah, Ivanova did it all. She lost one commanding officer, then lost another and then became the commanding officer, lost her lover....

And shot down anything that got in her way.

Just being real, Ivanova probably would not have made the list if Babylon 5 had gotten cancelled before the fourth season. That season is, simply put, the best season of television in the history of ever and I'm a ST:DS9 fan. (IYKYK) The fact of the matter is that Season Four is where Ivanova went from being someone who ACTED like a badass to some who ACTUALLY WAS a badass. Seriously, don't get in her way when she's in a bad mood.  Ivanova becomes, quite simply, an unstoppable force of nature while leading the White Star Fleet. 

It's weird too because, in like one or two episodes (it's been awhile since my latest rewatch) you go from feeling bad for her because she's been forced out of the uniform she's worn her entire adult life into a new one that's just been invented and has no real history to it to hiding under the bed every time she gives someone a dirty look. There is no one who can lead a fleet like Ivanova except...

Number One: Honor Harrington (The Honorverse)

"Let's be about it."

If you read that phrase the Big Fight is about to start and people are going to start dying in job lot quantities.

 But first...

I can hear the wailing now. Someone out there has read this far, is interested to see who the Number One Most Badass woman is and...

Doesn't know about Honor Harrington because she's the only one here with no TV show or movie. 

Please allow me to express my sympathy to you in my most sincere and heartfelt terms.

YOUR BAD. GO READ THE BOOKS.

It's not my fault that Hollywood doesn't have the guts to do the right thing and turn Honor's exploits into a movie. 

Seriously, David Weber is the highest selling Science Fiction author still capable of drawing breath for a reason and her name is Honor Harrington. There's a reason I'm a member of the fan club.

Honor is the single most badass woman ever for a number of reasons, but the first is that she is a badass leader. Honor starts out the books in command of a destroyer in the Royal Manticoran Navy. Things go awry quickly and she and her ship get sent to the worst posting imaginable, where she very quickly notices things that could be improved and sets about improving them, despite the fact that her CO abandons his post and takes the larger of the two ships that should be guarding the post along with him. Somewhere along the way, she prevents a major invasion from happening...

And that's the end of the first book in the series named after her. In book two, she saves an entire star system from conquest and they're technically not even allies yet. They end up so amazed with her that she's made the first female Steadholder (Basically the equivalent of a medieval duke) in the history of the planet and they name a class of ship after her. 

Then her lover gets killed. She manages to find and kill not just the paid duelist who shot him, but the man who hired him. The latter she kills while wounded, if I recall correctly. It's been a minute. But please believe me when I say that dude had it coming and I wanted it just as badly as she did. Then again, I'm a McCoy of the McCoys and Hatfields so that kind of thing just come naturally to me. 

Harrington is gene engineered, is over six feet tall, has increased muscle mass and is trained in the Martial Arts. She can fire a ten millimeter semi-automatic pistol well enough to hit her target flawlessly and has a pulser (think high caliber gun except deadlier) installed in a bionic arm that was implanted to replace one that got blown off. 

She gets captured, saves her home planet from invasion, both while in command of an entire fleet, and still manages to get married and have a couple of kids. In the last book she turns down promotion to First Lord of the Admiralty and goes home because she's tired of all the killing.  At that point I couldn't blame her. What she has gone through to get there would have broken most human beings. 

And there it is. Feel free to flame me in the comments because I got one wrong. I know someone is upset because their favorite didn't make it on the list. I'm a big boy, I can take it. 

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