It's hard to believe, but just a few short years ago, I heard about this Nick Cole guy, and how he was this great GameLit author who had just been banned because he said something naughty. At the time I kind of pigeonholed the guy and decided he was a writer of GameLit (which I love) and I'd probably never see anything from him BUT GameLit. I was okay with that though, because he was good at it and, let's face it CTRL ALT REVOLT was a pretty awesome story and so was Soda Pop Soldier, although I seem to have failed to review the latter. My bad. My seriously bad, because Soda Pop Soldier was not just an awesome book, it was a gamers dream in a lot of ways.
Oops.
Yes, that is my official excuse.
Then one day, along comes this Anspach guy, throws him in the trunk and refuses to let Cole out till he agrees to co-author some awesome Military Science Fiction.
I mean, probably not. But that makes a good story, so that's what I'm going with.
Anyway...
This is a really awesome book. Apparently I missed it when it was first released because that's life in the salt mines, but I'm glad I got caught up.
It's weird because I hadn't read the Galaxy's Edge or Galaxy's Edge: Savage Wars series and for some reason I assumed that the Savages would be some kind of alien. And they kind of are. The Savages in the book are humans who left Earth to settle the stars in sublight ships and have evolved into uhh...
Something? Post humans? Monsters?
I'm struggling to find the right term here. They are, however, definitely xenophobic toward both other groups of Savages (basically, anyone from a different ship) and the rest of the human race, including those that stayed behind on Earth and eventually moved out to populate the universe using faster than light ships and got their before the Savages.
The Savages tend to invade a planet, take what they need and leave...
Eventually.
And at some point, they begin to obtain FTL engines and it's on.
The scary part is that no one knows where they are out in the void. Anspach and Cole seem to have a grasp of the fact that space is freaking huge and there really is no way to find something in the Darkness if it doesn't want to be found. I like that.
Our story starts right in the middle of a fight against the Savages when they invade New Vega. The fight is up-close, intense and personal. Neither author seems to have wanted to spare anyone the details and I like that. Too often, Military Science Fiction (as well as Military Fiction and quite frankly Military Non-Fiction) seem to want to shy away from the goriness of it all. This is war at its ugliest (or at least the ugliest it can be to those of us who don't experience it in person) and it feels real and gritty.
Something else that feels real is the lack of true leadership at the highest levels. The feeling I get here (and I could be a bit off) is that the various human militaries that have been fielded for this battle are under the command of an entity that is a close analogue to the United Nations in terms of aim, purpose, usefulness, and competence.
For those of you that missed it, that means that The Galactic Confederacy (Sort of. The GC is more of a hope than a governing body at this point) is a group that wants to make things better, has no clue how to do so and stumbles over itself through cluelessness and a general lack of trust. I'm thinking that Savage Wars is a trilogy prequel and hopefully things get better for humanity's last great hope, but for right now I don't think much of them. Still though, the whole new society aborning thing does give Savage Wars a feel similar to the better parts of Star Trek: Enterprise only without the ending that I hated so badly.
Our main characters are soldiers stuck in a war against an enemy that they can't understand. The trans-human nature of the enemy is something that they grapple with and eventually figure out, but it's not really like fighting typical human beings for the most part. Also, they Savages tend to enjoy a large technological advantage. And that brings up an interesting point.
I don't think you need to read the Galaxy's Edge series to enjoy Savage Wars because I haven't read the other series and I loved this book. I do, however think I may be missing something here. I can't quite wrap my head around the fact that the Savages have developed super weapons over centuries in space (and the alien super weapon thing is a theme in the story) with no reason given. It messes with my mind a bit. I mean, once you accept that they have everything that follows makes sense. I just feel like maybe there's a threat out there that I don't know about, or maybe they've made war against each other previously or...
I dunno, sumfin'
There are twists and turns aplenty in Savage Wars and that makes sense. War is not a static situation where one side can simply dictate how things go. Both sides have a say and things go wrong regardless of which side you happen to be on. If some things made me want to scream, then so be it. They work. Savage Wars, at least from the point of view of this fledgling author, seems to have been well planned and executed. The characters may not have known exactly how the Battle for New Vega was going to go, but the authors clearly did and if flows smoothly, believably and entertainingly.
Oof. I was feeling another -ly ending there and couldn't come up with one. Feel free to pretend it's there.
Of course, we don't do spoilers here at Jimbo's and so I can't talk about my favorite part of the Savage Wars. I will say that it's the best kind of twist: I had no clue before it happened and then couldn't believe I missed it afterward. I am, however, seriously peeved that I can't mention what I want to and totally plan to stick my tongue out at whichever author I meet if I ever happen across them at a con.
Bottom Line: 5.0 out of 5 Crusty NCOs
Savage Wars (Galaxy's Edge: Savage Wars Book 1)
Jason Anspach and Nick Cole
Wargate Nova, 2020
Savage Wars (Galaxy's Edge: Savage Wars Book 1) is available for purchase at the following link. If you click the link and buy literally anything from Amazon, I get a small percentage from Amazon at no additional cost to you.
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