DT Read's Echoes of Issel The Sergey Chronicles: Book Two

 

I remember seeing something D. T. Read had written about one of her Seventh Shaman novels. She thought a lot of fans might not like it because it was less action oriented.  I can't remember which one it was (And this is a common failing of mine. ) but it focused on Ku, the main character of that series, and his coming terms with being a husband and a father during some leave time during a war. I kind of wonder if she thinks the same thing about Echoes of Issel. I hope not. Seriously, not all of Science Fiction has to be space battles and explosions. Echoes of Issel has both of those, but this is a really phenomenal character driven drama.

Some of you missed the first book in The Sergey Chronicles, Ganwold's Child. You should be ashamed of yourselves. That much having been said, Tristan, the main character of both books, kills his first person in combat at the end of Ganwold's Child. If you've done the reading (and I have)  a lot of combat vets suffer from PTSD not from the horror and fear of combat, but because of what they were forced to do. A lot of Echoes is Tristan trying to recover from his PTSD related to that kill, and it makes sense.

A lot of Echoes of Issel is also Tristan and the rest of his nuclear family, his father Lujan and mother Darcie, as they try to become a family again after years of separation. As well as Read writes her action sequences, her forte really seems to be family interactions and bonding. She knocked it out of the park here. She obviously put some study in for this one. Some of what her psychologist character says sounds like it comes almost straight out of a textbook. I'm guessing it might. Seeing that study put into use as she takes us through Tristan's actions toward his father especially was amazing. Then add in a dash of a stranger in a new land (Darcie raised Tris among aliens) and things get really complicated. Read works through things with her typical aplomb and if I may have felt a desire to get in Tristan's face a couple of times that just means that:

A.) I'm a crusty old dude who doesn't deal with teenagers being teenagers any better than the crusty old man who raised me.

and 

B.) Read got an emotional reaction out of her reader. Emotional response being the goal of any smart artist, that translates into "job well done."

None of that is to say that Echoes of Issel is all talk and no action. The second half of the book, following a training interlude, is almost a straight Military Science Fiction action novel. Tristan remains a civilian but goes to war as a civilian scout attached to a Special Operations unit. Things get hectic.

In fact, Echoes of Issel  was part thriller, part medical drama and part Mil-SF. There is a lot here and it's actually impressive to see all of that in one book and have it work. 

Totally non-spoilery hint:

Don't mess with that Sergey kid.

Anyway...

I had gone into Echoes of Issel with full knowledge of the fact that Tris would be joining a SpecOps unit, but I don't think I was totally prepared for it. Most of the combat in Read's books, at least the ones I've read, have been mainly space battles. Fighter versus fighter, ship versus ship, etc. The combat in Echoes is much more up close and personal. Tris is fighting on foot with a rifle for the combat sequences. I should have expected that, but for some reason it caught me by surprise.

Huh?

Goofball? Me? You're just noticing that? Seriously? 

Your powers of observation are weak. 

Continuing on...

Read, being a retired Lieutenant Colonel, has a ton of knowledge and experience with things military and it shows. She has the military feel down. I expected that. What I didn't expect as much of was how well she integrated a young man with no real military experience into a military unit and made it feel real and make sense. I would expect members of a SpecOps unit to have reservations about having a civilian into their ranks and they do. But Tris, being an intelligent young man, earns his place in the unit and it feels organic. I could actually believe it happened as I read it. It felt right. I don't know how else to put it.

And Read's background as an intelligence officer shows through. She not only displays knowledge of how to conduct a debriefing, she also shows how that intelligence is put into use. There's a bit of ops planning revealed here, and I'd be willing to bet she sat in as a consultant during her military career as well. Echoes of Issel was not just well conceived. It was well executed.

The best Military Science Fiction always includes some political intrigue. Wars are, after all, an extension of policy using other means. The most talented authors not only acknowledge this basic truth, they use it as a tool to move their stories along. Echoes gives us just enough of the political end of things to move the story along without becoming overwhelming and bogging things down. I won't say precisely why, but I have a feeling that there is a political angle coming up in the next book, which I'm totally looking forward to.

I'm going to admit to being a bit miffed at myself here as well. I, was aware that Read was going to attempt to sell this series to Chris Kennedy Publishing (Theogony Books being their MilSF imprint) and I didn't get this book before CKP did the smart thing and bought it. It was totally for sale months ago. I had read the first one. I could have just flopped down the cash for Echoes of Issel and the next book (the title of which escapes me) months ago and I didn't. That was a mistake of titanic proportions. I’m kicking myself about it, if only because I still don’t have the last one in my greedy little hands. This is a problem which will, of course, be solved in due time but which was totally preventable. I'm looking forward to finally putting that problem to bed.

Bottom Line: 5.0 out of 5 Borbiks

Echoes of Issel
D.T. Read
Theogony Books, 2023

Echoes of Issel 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.

Savage Wars (Galaxy's Edge: Savage Wars Book 1) By Jason Anspach and Nick Cole

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.

Space Force: Building the Legacy, edited by Doug Irvin

 

(Welcome to Day Two of Jimbo's 2021 Memorial Day Extravaganza! For your reading pleasure [COUGH] we've got an anthology today. Not all of the authors are military, but the following (and maybe someone else if they left it out of their author bio in the book) are:

Chris Dinote, 20 years USAF and USANG and still serving.
Ray Daley - 6 years RAF and we love our allies here at Jimbo's. 
Brennen Hankins worked for the Air Force on the ground. That's all the bio says.
Ali Abbas isn't technically military but he served as a civilian contractor to the military, so he gets an honorable mention.
Karl K Gallagher served as a crew commander and mission planner in US Space Command in the 1990s.

I'm sorry if I left anyone out. I'm too lazy to do the real research on five authors for one book.)

So I have to admit that I was pretty jacked up to read Space Force: Building the Legacy. See, I have a degree in history and what I do is primarily military and political history (so the Potsdam conference and the effect of the US Civil War on the election of 1864 would both be of interest to a guy like me.) and the creation of the Space Force was a wow moment for me, because I’ve never been alive for the creation of one of the Armed Forces before. I mean, the Army, Navy, and Marines were all founded at the beginning of the American Revolution. The Coast Guard was founded in 1790. That all happened before my family emigrated from the Old World. The US Air Force was founded in 1947, before my mother’s parents met and after my father’s parents met but before he was born. I didn’t get to witness any of that. But then one day, the Donald was on TV announcing a new military service and I was here to see it! That was an exciting day. I honestly meant to get to this sooner and I’m kind of sad that I didn’t,  but I’m also kind of happy that I get to do it for Memorial Day.

Thoughts on Space Force: Building the Legacy as a whole:

I never, ever recommend this, but you should start with Irvin’s note at the beginning of the anthology. I usually hate the foreword because it gets in the way of reading the first story, but this one actually feels relevant. There’s a first time for everything I guess. But seriously, he’s right about some things that I should have already considered but didn’t.

What comes after that is a collection of stories that all have remarkably different points of view and occurences. What could have been a series of stories about battles really isn’t. The point of any military force anywhere is to fight wars…

And yet that’s not all that goes into it. Somehow, Irvin managed to find authors who wanted to tell the stories that are super important but get left out. Good on him.

And now for the fun part:

“Best and Brightest” by P. A. Piatt

I like this one. If you read my review of Piatt’s first novel, then you know I love his whacky, zany, madcap style. Of course part of that is probably because it’s nice knowing I’m not the only person with a penchant for pushing out words and a sanity deficiency, but Piatt definitely knocked it out of the park on this one. I never thought you could use a bulldozer like that but hey, it sounds like fun.

“Frickin’ Guard Guys” by Christopher DiNote

This is the story of a disgruntled former member of the US Space National Guard’s JAG corps. He gets is head turned around something fierce. I liked this one too. There may be a bit of irony here but hey, I like irony. 

“For the Duty” by Ray Dudley

Is about a Brit who gets seconded to the USSF. HIs impression of what’s going on around him isn’t necessarily everything you would want it to be, but he gets the job done. The historian in my likes this one because it matches up with everything I’ve read about British attitudes toward the American military during the World Wars. 

“Dick Dibble’s Birthday” by Susan Murrie MacDonald

I love the premise of this one and how it’s based on an old USN excuse to throw a party. It reminds me of a poster a friend of mine had back when we had first gotten out of high school. The main character of “DDB” is Sean Fitzgerald Rooney and he is a world class genius of the non-genius sort. If it can be done he can do it. He’s not always on the up and up but he’s always out to help a friend. If he enjoys himself in the process, is that his fault? I also like his irreverence. Seriously, I’d totally buy Rooney a Guiness if only he actually existed.

“The Decision” by Brena Bock

If you’ve ever seen Master and Commander then you know that, when in the service, one must always choose the lesser of two weevils. Or sumfin’. Look, sometimes people in the military have to do things that suck in order to keep things for sucking worse. This is the view of someone who has to do something truly sucktacular in order to save a bunch of lives. This is what Jack Nicholson is talking about when he says “You can’t handle the truth.” It’s the whole point of the ST:DS9 episode “In the Pale Moonlight.” It’s a sad story, but as part of our Memorial Day event, it is perhaps important to remember the officers that had to make the tough calls that kept everything that went to crap. This is a somber story, but it’s a good one and it needed to be here. The ironic part is that it started out so optimistically. Bock outdid herself here and I wouldn’t argue with her if she wanted to make this a novel. I’d even review it for her.

“CAG” by Richard Paolinelli

If the entire planet and every human being on it were under the threat of death, what would you be willing to sacrifice to save it? What if there was no time to even consider an outside intervention and it was just you out there doing what needed to be done? How far would you go?

I love this story as it is. I don’t think it would work as a novel the way “The Decision” would, but I’d love to see a full length treatment about Robert Carrington, the CAG and his rise through the ranks though. I think he deserves it.

“Olivia and the Asteroid Pirates” by Jim Robb

I don’t want to say too much about this story because it’s too easy to spoil. Let’s just say that I loved it and leave it at that.

“Slivers of Hope” by  Rosie Oliver

Wow. Just wow. This is a story of human resilience. It is a story about human brilliance. It’s something I wish I had written, but didn’t. I’m not sure about the science here, but it makes sense from a layman’s point of view. Yeah. This one is going to haunt me.

“One Time, One Night on Aldrin Station” by Brennen Hankins

This one is the story of the old salt and the newbie. It’s a tale that has taken place millions of times in just about every military ever and that’s awesome. Of course, the old man (Stargeant Grantham) has a few tricks up his sleeve, well, isn’t that the way it’s supposed to work?

“What We Learned from the Fire” by Ali Abbas

This is well written and sobering. It shows the dark side of military service but that’s a valid part of it. It also includes a bit of gallow humor, but that fits as well. 

And last but not least...

“Visitors” by Karl K Gallagher 

I loved this story! It’s the story of a new alien race and the only human that can be found to serve as an ambassador to them. I don’t want to spoil the reason why, but it works. I love that the anthology ends on a positive note, but not necessarily a triumphalist one.  I could see this as a novel as well.

Bottom Line: 4.75 out of 5 Successful Launches

Space Force: Building the Legacy Doug Irvin, ED Midlands Scribes Publishing, 2020

Space Force: Building the Legacy is available for purchase at the following link. If you click the link and buy literally anything from Amazon I get a small percentage of the purchase at no cost to you.

Jennifer Brozek's Ghost Hour

 

Life is good when you can revisit an old favorite in a new way. It's even better when the new stuff is enjoyable. Enter Jennifer Brozek's <i>Ghost Hour</i>, a newly release Battletech novel. It's a Young Adult novel, which is something I wish they had when I was young enough to fit into the demographic. Ah well, I've got two daughters in the YA age group now. I still loved this thing.

We all know that the Young Adult genre really began with J.K. Rowling. Before Harry Potter readers went straight from childrens books to the big leagues. I kind of feel like this is probably closer to Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows than Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone. Like Deathly Hallows, Ghost Hour does not shy away from the cost of war. The body count is pretty high and the anguish the characters feel at losing their friends and family members is real.  Ghost Hour is a rough read in a good way.

Seriously, there is a lot here that is honestly kind of gut-wrenching. Brozek herself has served as I mentioned when I reviewed the first in the Battletech YA series, The Nellus Academy Incident. It shows here, as she exposes the dark side of war better than the vast majority of Military Science Fiction authors I've read. With a lot of authors you see the glory side of war. Maybe a friend or two gets lost along the way, but they're nearly forgotten for most of the rest of the story. Maybe a spouse is left behind somewhere (and if you haven't seen the film We Were Soldiers you need to because it does this well, too) but the reader never hears about the anguish they feel not knowing what's going to happen to their loved one. There is a lot of that here, although it is people that are serving wondering about their loved ones who are also serving. It's pretty deep. 

That's not to say that there aren't some really awesome slam, bang slugfests, because there are. No one loves a good old-fashioned 'Mech battle like the guy who used to set them up on his bedroom floor and leave them there because they lasted for weeks and trust me, I'd know if they weren't done right, but they are. There are plenty of explosions to keep even the most hardened grognard among the Battletech elite happy. I mean, unless they're the "OMG EVERYTHING AFTER <insert year here> SUCKS" camp, in which case they can go cook along with their character. I mean that literally. Double heat sinks FTW!

For the record, no Ghost Hour does not go that deep into the tech. At least not for the most part. I will confess to not having seen the latest edition of BT, and there is apparently at least one new weapon that I'm not aware of but totally could have used in my mixed Battletech and Mechwarrior RPG campaign even though it wouldn't have been invented in 3050 because GH takes place a century later, but...

Yeah, I'll stop whining now. But still, it was cool. 

And for those still wondering, no you don't have to have a very good understanding of the technology of Battletech to enjoy Ghost Hour. There is a glossary at the back if you have any questions. Those with just a passing familiarity will find the story extremely easy to follow. With one exception, Brozek keeps to the classics of the series. And if you like tabletop war-gaming at all, you can always check Battletech out. I love it. I used to run a mixed Mechwarrior TTRPG/Aerotech/Battletech/Battletroops campaign and I loved it.

This series is about a bunch of cadets who won't stay in their place when their planet is attacked and  go rogue and try to fight the war before they're out of training. I find this to be a lot of fun, even if it often works the other way in the real world. (During World War II, training times were reduced and West Point classes graduated early.) It was still a rollicking good time and a good representation of members of the military and their desire to be involved in "the real thing" whether they're ready for it or not. Although these kids do appear to be about as ready as anyone else ever was. 

At the end of the day too, it's the kids that make the book. It should come as no surprise to anyone who reads my reviews that it's characters and what happens to them that really get me into a work of fiction. The thing is that the main characters in Ghost Hour are precisely the kind of people I can respect and worry about. They go through an awful lot, but they never give up. For most of the book they're losing or just taking a pasting they can't really do much about. They don't care. Actually that's wrong. They DO care. They just don't let it stop them. They keep fighting. These cadets are soldiers in the truest sense of the word. 

Probably the only part about Ghost Hour that I didn't like is that it reminds me how much easier it is to find quality YA SF/F these days than it is to find quality regular SF/F. Outside of what Stephanie Meyers tried to pull (and yes, I tried reading Twilight. It was terrible. I gave it to my sister and she gave it to her daughter. And yes, Bella was a teen and it was YA. Some terribly angsty, sparkly vampire craptacular YA but still YA) I haven't seen a single YA Science Fiction or fantasy novel that I haven't enjoyed. I can't necessarily say the same of the adult samplings I've seen.

I have to mention the main villain, however briefly. I tend to be pretty sympathetic to people who are just doing their duty. I'm an American who thinks that Yamamoto Isoroku was a respectable guy. I still can't feel the slightest bit of sympathy for the antagonist of this one though. I won't say if anything happens to him but he deserves nothing but the worst. Still, it makes reading the book more fun if you really want to see the bad guy get his.

Overall, I don't really have much choice except to tell you to buy this book. I realized partway through Ghost Hour that it wasn't a sequel to the book I thought it was and now I have to go back and buy the first one in the series (when I got the email I thought this was the sequel to The Nellis Academy Incident. I guess that's why my mama always told me not to think. She says it always gets me in trouble.)I'm kind of bummed because I've spoiled part of it, but I'm really excited because there's more to read.

Well, and there's a preview of the sequel to Ghost Hour at the back of the book. I didn't read the preview. I never do. I am, however, looking forward to reading the whole book and find out how this ends.

Bottom Line: 4.75 out of 5 Crashed Dropships

Ghost Hour
Jennifer Brozek
Catalyst Games Lab, 2020

Ghost Hour is available 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.

Tim C. Taylor's The Midnight Sun

In just about every war in human history (or at least the wars that I'm aware of, which is not the same thing) there seems to be someone who turns their coat, not just for glory and riches or to better themselves some other way, but because they honestly believe that a win by the other side will benefit not them personally, but society as a whole. Tories (who considered themselves English patriots) against Revolutionaries (who considered themselves to be American patriots) both believed that they were fighting for what was best for the people living in the Thirteen Colonies. During the American Civil War there were people who lived in the North but fought for the South because they didn't think that the federal government should be telling people what to do and southerners who fought for the Union because they believed that preserving the country was important. There were six generals included in the latter group. It happens.

And that, my friends is the principle upon which Tim C. Taylor's The Midnight Sun revolves. Both sides of the conflict in the book (and it's a book about mercenaries, so saying that there is a fight involved isn't really a spoiler, right?) think that they're doing the right thing although what each side wants is the complete and utter opposite of what their opponents want. Taylor seems to have a solid grasp of human psychology as it relates to warfare. I'm thinking that he's probably done some reading on the subject at some time. Then again, I haven't so maybe I'm wrong. It's just that, viewed properly, both sides have logic on their side.

Speaking of psychology, Taylor seems to have a solid grasp on the dedication of soldiers/mercs and how far they're willing to go to complete their mission. I find it telling that a big chunk of the story revolves around deprivation and a fight against a better supplied enemy. There are your usual deserters and diehards when things get tough. Again though, it's a difference in psychology and belief that separates the two factions. Taylor really does get it.

Taylor's aliens are a lot of fun, too. I have to admit that when I first started hearing about the Four Horsemen Universe, I hadn't really thought that Tortantulas would be much fun as characters. I had this vision of them as basically just giant killing machines. I was wrong. Betty, the Tortantula in the book, is as real a person as any of the humans in The Midnight Sun. Now, she doesn't always "get" humans, but how would she? She's an alien spider being. The fact remains that she relates somewhat and her misinterpretations are the stuff of epic humor. The commander of the Midnight Suns merc unit is also an alien and she is interesting in a different way.

Of course, The Midnight Sun isn't a boring treatise on human psychology. It's a novel about a war in space. There's love. There's hate. There's frustration. But, most of all, there are explosions. Seriously. The key to any good war novel is the fighting and there is plenty of it. Let's face it. Fans of Military Science Fiction like it because they love a good dust up. It has to be well written and believable but it has to be there. And Taylor delivers in spades.

Actually, this is the first time we really get to see CASPer versus CASPer combat and I love it. Don't get me wrong. I'm perfectly okay with CASPers going heads up with Oogar or Tortantulas or whatever but in a lot of ways, the CASPer is the most interesting war materiel in the entire series. It's humanity's great equalizer but it's more than that. They're mini-mecha and they're modular and can do all kinds of crazy stuff. It's like watching a young Mike Tyson fight himself. I loved it.

And not all of the combat is ground based. A pretty good chunk of it takes place in space. Not all of it is standard fare either. Taylor takes an angle on space tactics that I've never quite seen before and I love it. I don't want to go too far here and get into spoiler territory but be prepared to see fighting in zero gee in a new and interesting way. I had a lot of fun with that. I like when an author takes a new and interesting look into something we've all seen before and makes it fresh.

Something that often gets left out of war stories is the nature of the deprivation experience by troops fighting in sub-optimal conditions. On an alien planet it would be worse in many ways. Taylor shows that clearly here. The Midnight Sun is not Rambo. Things run out. Weapons needs to be reloaded. Parasites do their thing. Life sucks on every level. Just when things look like they're going to get better they get worse. People get wounded. Others get killed. Some of what these troops go through would make an Army Ranger want to give up but they embrace the suck and continue on mission.

Oh, and keep your head on a swivel. You think you know what's coming next but you're probably going to be wrong more than you're right. I'm reminded of the first time I read Game of Thrones. I had the whole series figured out in the first fifty pages. By like page one-fifty my pick for the Iron Throne got decapitated. Then I figured it out again. This time it took a couple of books for my pick to get greased. I mean, Taylor is not that ruthless with his main characters but don't take anything for granted. Things can turn on a dime.

This is the first book in the Four Horsemen Universe that isn't about the actual Four Horsemen companies. I'm okay with that because it's a good book and it advances the overall plot of the series as well. I suppose I should get used to it because there are others later in the series. I'm looking forward to them. I'm really looking forward to the book about Bjorn's Berserkers. I'll keep reading. I have to know how this war ends.

Bottom Line: 4.5 out of 5 Rotten Worms

The Midnight Sun
Tim C. Taylor
Seventh Seal Press, 2018

The Midnight Sun is available for purchase at the following link:

A Fiery Sunset by Mark Wandrey and Chris Kennedy

(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:

The Importance of Communication - A Short Story by Jim McCoy

(Author's Note: Once upon a time, I met a girl. Her name was Stephanie, and she was sweet and nice and cute and smart and totally the type of woman I needed to stay away from because I knew if I didn't I'd fall in love with her. I mean, not only was she all of the above, but she didn't like to dance! I freaking hate dance floors...

Anyway, that was just a bit over four years ago. I tried to act like I wasn't actively pursuing a relationship with her from the second I first contacted her, but I'm pretty sure I failed miserably. See, the awesome part about dating a smart girl is that they can carry on an interesting conversation and they can analyze a situation and help you see things with a point of view that you've never realized existed. They can understand what you're saying when you talk about things that maybe some other girls wouldn't. Having a smart chick is awesome. Of course, the down side of having a smart girl around is that she can undoubtedly interpret things in an intelligent manner and when you try to pretend that you're okay with just being friends when you first meet and you really want to pursue a relationship from the time you first said "Hello" she's bright enough to see through your bullshit. It's a trade-off to be sure, but it's one that I'm definitely glad I made.

Steph has been with me through a lot, too. Life has not always been easy the last four years and I use reading and this blog the same way some people use drugs. I mean that literally. Sinking into someone else's reality is a way of escaping my own. Reading and writing are not what's kept me sane though. My Stephanie is.

We live six hundred miles apart and yet she's there for me every time I need her. She's closer to me than anyone I know, even with all of the physical distance between us. There is no one I can count on more than my girl and it means a lot. Lord knows there were times when I wouldn't have blamed her for leaving, but she didn't.

This is my two hundredth blog post. Tomorrow is the four year anniversary of the day I started this blog. This is a short story that I actually finished when I'm in the habit of never finishing my fiction.  Today is, of course, Valentine's Day. I'm celebrating. Because of all of the above,  I'm dedicating this post to my rock, my love, my Stephanie. I wuvs you honey. Here's hoping for a lot more than four more years. Smewches!)

Lieutenant Junior Grade Jim McCoy sat at the communications console on the bridge of the UES George Washington, a United Earth battlecruiser . He had dark hair and a headset on that would have looked familiar to any person in a twenty-first century call center. He was talking into a console mounted microphone while typing things rapidly into a tablet with a keyboard. “Right, so Sarn't Major Joshua Chamberlain is going to be ok? Dr. Vinogradov has managed to regenerate both his skin and his lungs after the explosion. You know, engineers were never the sharpest knives in the drawer. He was the one in charge, so why was he standing at the highest spot when everything went to shit?”

McCoy cocked his head and smiled. “I hear you. He's an important guy, but how in the hell did the whole team manage to blow themselves up simultaneously during a training exercise?” McCoy nodded. “Yes dear, I get that it's a dangerous job, but damn. Oh, and isn't that the last one?”

Jim's smile got even bigger. It wasn't every day one got to talk to his girlfriend while on duty, even if he had to do it on laser to prevent his emissions from being detected while on what basically amounted to ambush duty. “So how are you?” He paused to listen. “How was your day?” He paused again, briefly. “Did anything exciting happen?” He chuckled. “You always say that. One day, you're going to get caught up in a massive ball of excitement though. I have foreseen it.”

Lieutenant Junior Grade Stephanie Sounders sat a nearly identical communications console on bridge of the nearby hospital ship, the UES Karl Marx. Her short, curly hair was a sandy color. Her smile was heart-melting and her button nose and ears in the shape of sea-shells just made her that much more beautiful. Her glasses were wire rimmed and fit well under her own headset. “I see,” she said in a voice that was sexy without trying to be, “You have foreseen it. Can you tell me precisely how that happened, oh boyfriend of mine?” Steph let out one of her trademark cute little giggles. “I see.” Souders face showed a brief look of confusion. What the hell? Wait one.”

Souders took a look at the display in front of her. “It's confirmed. Weird.” She turned toward her commanding officer“Captain Mao,” she said, “Something's between us and the Washington, sir.”

Mao left his command chair, “Define something, Lieutenant. What is it and how long has it been there?” said the balding, middle aged Asian man in the fancy uniform.

Souders shook her head. “I'm not sure what it was sir. I only know it happened because my panel notified me of a brief interruption of my comms laser with the Washington. I wouldn't have mentioned it, but with us being so far out...”

Mao nodded. “We're also along the likeliest course into the system for an invader. You did the right thing. Shields up, red alert. Lieutenant Lenin give me an active scan of the entire neighborhood. Souders, inform the Washington. Make sure they saw it.”

Ensign Flrtp of the Inngrit Empire dreadnought Mhsgah looked up from his tactical display toward his own captain. His wings fluttered with concern across his four foot tall ant like carapace as he began to speak in his language of hisses and clicks. “Captain, something lased the hull.”

Captain Flrtq looked back at the ensign. “Any damage?”

Flrtp shook his head. “None sir. It was far too weak to make an effective weapon. It appeared to be something more along the lines of a communications las... Sir, WE'RE BEING SCANNED!”

McCoy looked up from his console, his smile turning to a frown, “Sir, the Marx reports that our comms laser was interrupted. I never detected it, but dammit, Lieutenant Souders is good. If she says that...”

“HOLY SHIT!!!” Lieutenant George Patton came up out of his seat, still staring at his screen. “The Marx just went active on scanners. I don't know how they got this far, but we're in the middle of an Inngrit battle group. I've got at least four Dreadnoughts and screening elements.”

Captain JP Jones took charge. “Shields u...” The bridge lurched and a loud boom was heard. Klaxons sounded as Jones nearly fell out of his seat. “...p, Red Alert. REPORT!”

Lt. Patton kept his eyes glued to his station. “We took a hit from a maser sir. We're venting atmo on Decks Two through Five. Casualty reports are still coming in. We've lost two missile tubes and the tactical array, sir. Shields were undamaged as they weren't up yet.”

Captain Jones looked up. “Great. We can shoot but we can't aim. We also have no way to control the space based planetary defenses. I need ideas about how to complete our mission.”

Lt. McCoy looked up. “Sir, I have an incoming message from the Marx.” The ship lurched again and the ensign at the damage control station went into a bulkhead and left a bloody spot as his body hit the deck.

Lt. Souders looked up from her station. “Tactical says the Washington's tactical array was hit. But this WILL work, sir. If our targeting radar can localize a single crewman floating in the black well enough to hit them with a tractor beam, it can certainly localize a dreadnought. Send me the information and I can tight-beam it over to the Washington. After that, they should be able to run it through the targeting computer and generate their own firing solutions.”

Captain Mao looked thoughtful. “How quickly will they be able to generate solutions?”

Souders shrugged. “A lot quicker than they can get a replacement ship out here from orbit, Sir.”

Mao nodded. “Do it.”

Ensign Flrtp looked at his tactical console. “GOOD HIT! The battlecruiser's tactical array has been destroyed. They have no way to target us with the planetary defenses. Our plan worked, sir. Our EMCON was perfect. They never spotted us with our drives off, coasting. We caught them flat-footed, sir.”

Captain Flrtq clacked his pincers together. “Good. When we seize Earth, the queen will surely decide to mate with the drones from our clan. If we get lucky, the next queen could be from our clan. They know we're here. Begin accelerating toward the planet.” The ship bucked and the captain bent nearly in half.

Flrtp dropped to all sixes. “Sir, the humans are returning fire. That missile just reduced our forward shields to thirty percent.”

Flrtq shook his head. “How? They have no way to control their weapons.”

Back on the Washington, Lt. McCoy watched his ship coming apart around him. The bridge was in shambles. The ship was buffeted like a schooner in a storm. Sparks flew from consoles. A small fire broke out near the engineering panel. It was lit up in various shades of red and orange fading to yellow. A panel at the next station over blew out in an electrical frenzy and lit McCoy's shoulder board on fire. “I DO NOT HAVE TIME FOR THIS!!” he screamed, throwing it onto the deck and stomping out the flames.

The captain looked at him. “Can you keep the feed going? We're doing a good job of slowing them down.”

The look of determination and rage on McCoy's face would have scared Satan himself into retreat. “Sir, you keep me in line of sight of my St... The Marx sir, and we'll beat these fucking bugs.” McCoy gave an evil smile and touched his right headphone. “YES!!”

Captain Jones turned toward McCoy “Report.”

McCoy looked down at his station again. “Sir, I haven't had the bandwidth to get through to Command. It wasn't meant to be a tactical array too. BUT STEPH DID!!! That was Admiral Halsey, sir. They're plotting microjumps and should be in range of the enemy fleet in less than two minutes.”

Jones's eyes blazed. “Can the Marx hold out that long?”

In space, the battle was on. Millions of projectiles flew from tens of thousands of stealthed platforms toward the Inngrit fleet. Unmanned weapons exploded. Ships came apart. Others were crippled and turned away from the fight, seeking the shelter provided their comrades. But the fleet kept coming. The screening elements were taking a pounding. Cruisers and destroyers were consumed in fireballs of destruction. That was their job. At the center of the fleet though, stood the dreadnoughts and they were mostly untouched. Inside his ship, the Inngrit commander watched his tactical display, satisfied. Things were going according to plan. Two lone human ships stood at the center of the maelstrom taking a pounding. It was gutsy, but they had no chance.

Lieutenant Souders wiped away the blood trickling from her right nostril and kept at her job with her ship dying around her. She could hear damage control losing its battle to keep the Marx alive. No one was giving up, but there wasn't much they could do. Suddenly, her face lit up. “Sir, the fleet is jumping! Sir?” Souders turned around when her captain didn't respond. She didn't see him.

Back in Earth orbit, Admiral William Halsey smiled grimly. The United Earth Fleet had so far kept its new micro-jumping technology secret. It sucked to expose it, but this was an attack on Earth itself. He looked to his own communications officer, Lieutenant (SG) Lewis Puller “Message to the fleet. Prepare for immediate contact after jumping. Jump five seconds from my mark. Good luck, and good hunting. Mark.”

Five seconds later, in a near simultaneous transition, millions of tons mass death waiting to happen winked out of existence and appeared to the rear of the bug formation. The fury of the fleet's crews knew no bounds. Crippled Inngrit ships that had fallen to the rear were swatted out of existence to clear firing lanes. Ships fired every weapon they could as fast as they could. Missiles swarmed like angry bees whose hive had been violated. Earth's ships poured it on from an unexpected direction and slapped away a much thinner screen.

Back on the Marx, Lt. Souders was working hard, furiously pushing buttons on her console. She felt her forehead wrinkle in concentration. It was working despite the pounding her ship was taking. If she could keep it going for just a few more minutes...

“LIEUTENANT SOUDERS!!!!” came a voice from behind her. It was Ensign Trotsky.

Souders felt her heartbeat, “Not now.”

Trotsky's voice went up two octaves. He was obviously desperate. “Ma'am, the other officers are all dead. YOU'RE IN COMMAND!!”

Souders shook her head. “I don't have time to be in command. I'm keeping us all alive. Just keep me in line of sight of the Washington and find a way to keep the ship from breaking up.”

Trosky nodded. “That sounds like in command to me. You heard her helm.”

Souders felt the ship heel, hard. She stopped pushing buttons on her console. “What the hell?”

Trotsky looked panicked. “That was the targeting radar ma'am.”

Souders turned around. “Get us the HELL OUT OF HERE helm!”

Ensign Ho responded. “What heading ma'am?”

Souders felt her face turn red with frustration. “Away from the Bugs!” She turned back to the comms station.

Lt. McCoy looked up from his comms station on the Washington. “Sir, I just got word from the Marx. Their targeting computer is down. We won't be getting any more data. They're leaving.”

Captain Jones looked up. “So are we. Helm do your best to match velocity, but keep us between the Marx and the Bugs. They're a hospital ship. Comms, inform Admiral Halsey that he needs someone to take over here. We've done as much as we can.”

Aboard his flagship, the Inngrit admiral hissed in approval. The humans' static defenses had fallen silent! The way forward was clear and the enemy ships were behind him. “Increase acceleration. The planet is ours!”

Admiral Halsey stood on his flag bridge waiting for the next thing to go wrong. It was that kind of day.

“Sir,” came the word from Ensign Ray Spruance at tactical, “the defensive ring has fallen silent. The

enemy has increased acceleration toward Earth.”

“I can confirm sir,” said Lt. Puller, “the Marx has lost its targeting computer. Neither ship can aim. Both are leaving.”

Admiral Halsey nodded. “It's the right move. Comms, inform the Hornet to Execute Option X-ray. Then inform our reserves in orbit to get ready. All units, continue to pour it on.”

Halsey looked toward his own tactical display. Ten seconds later, two battlecruisers and their screen of five light cruisers and ten destroyers winked out of existence, only to reappear seconds later, right where the Washington and the Marx had been only shortly before.

Spruance spoke up. “Sir, the Hornet has resumed fire control over the platforms. Fire is resuming and the bugs are walking right into it. The dreadnoughts will be in range in five seconds, sir.”

A voice came from the comms station. “Admiral, the reserve fleet awaits your orders.”

Halsey smiled. “Inform the assault fleet to focus all weapons fire on those dreadnoughts. Defense system fire remain focused on the screen. Don't give them time to do their job. It's time to end this threat.. As for the reserve fleet, I don't think we're going to need them. Have them dispatch a few ships to protect the Marx and the Washington. Those crews have earned it. Have the rest of the fleet remain on standby, just in case.”

With their targeting and tactical arrays missing, neither Souders nor McCoy got to see what happened next. Military historians, however, would talk for centuries about the battle, using terms like “overkill” and “unnecessary levels of violence” when they referenced the First Battle of Earthspace. The bugs had been caught unaware by the micro-jumping capability of the humans and hadn't been prepared for an attack from behind. Had either of them known that, they wouldn't have cared. What they did care about was their world, their duty, and each other. The multitude of dead bugs behind them were merely a byproduct of what they had been trained to do.

Back in Earth orbit after the end of the battle, Lieutenant (SG) McCoy sat at his communications console watching repair crews swarm all over the bridge. He smiled. “It's true,” he thought, “There truly is no more exciting feeling than to be shot at... and missed.”

Captain Jones sidled over. “That was some damn good work by both yourself and your girlfriend. I don't know if you heard. She took command of her ship and saved the lives of her whole crew. She'll probably get a command of her own pretty soon. I'll do my best to see that you come out of this decorated as well.”

McCoy gave a huge smile. “Yes sir, she did. I hope she does get a command. She's earned it. It was her plan that saved the planet, sir. I just followed it.”

Jones shrugged. “You did a damn fine job doing it. Stay with that woman. She's going places.”

McCoy nodded. “Oh, I intend to sir. Now, if only I could talk her out of going to my favorite steakhouse for dinner tomorrow.”

Jones looked confused. “Why would you want to talk her out of going to your favorite steakhouse, Lieutenant?”

McCoy shook his head. “She always gets the chicken, sir.”

Jones was horrified. “She gets chicken at a steakhouse? Is she a communist?”

McCoy chuckled. "Apparently so, sir."

(Copyright 2019 by Jim McCoy. Don't steal my shit or I will sue you to the ends of the Earth.)

Announcing a New Fan Experience

Just a few days ago, Chris Kennedy, owner of Chris Kennedy Publishing and author of several novels announced that there would be a new fan organization coming down the road. It is to be set up by some fans, led by the fearless and indomitable Tom Coonradt. It will be open and free and inclusive. It will exist "in an effort to enhance the Fan experience , allow access through a medium for members to interact with authos." (that's a quote from Tom himself) I'm excited. There is nothing quite like being with fellow fans and being able to talk about what I do and what I like with someone else who gets the references. (Seriously, my ex-wife is a civilian who works for the Department of Defense. She told me she had to take a class in Acquisition. I looked at her and said, "What are you, a Ferengi?" I can still hear the silence of her response echoing in my soul.)

As such, it is now my honor and duty to inform all of you that

The Mercenary Guild: The Official Four Horsemen Universe Fan Club

is now forming.

Oh, and did you catch that part about "duty?" Guess who got picked to run their Public Affairs Officer, with a Guild rank of Major? That would be me, your ever-loving friendly neighborhood blogger. So yes, you may now refer to me as Major Jimbo. (Although I have often been referred to as a major something else as well, but that's beside the point.)  The man who brought you reviews of books like Cartwright's Cavaliers,  Asbaran Solutions and A Fistful of Credits now gets to write for the official fan club. It's fitting too, because I am, indeed a fan. I'm also excited.

Look, I am, and will remain, a member of The Royal Manticoran Navy: The Official Honor Harrington Fan Association. I love the books and the people I've met through that group. They're awesome and I plan doing some stuff for that group later today. I'm really excited about where the Mercenary Guild is going though, and I'm really happy to get a chance to get the chance to say that I was part of the thing since the beginning.

Seriously, I really do mean the beginning.

I've been told that recruiting will start at Fantasci in Durham, North Carolina from March 22-24, 2019. I'm sad to say that I won't be there because life, but I know that both the club and the Four Horsemen authors will be out full force. I hear tell that there will be some serious cosplaying going on and I can't wait to see some pics. Oh, and I'm an officer, so I can order someone to send me some pics. Or sumfin'. I dunno. I'll  probably have to be and plead, but I WILL see some pics if it kills me. Plus, I'll need them for the Mercenary Guild blog so some kind individual will see to it that I get some. I hope. Especially since there will be both a dinner and a meet and greet with the authors.

I'm really geeked on a personal level too. I once listened to a broadcast on a local sports radio station. (Bear with me here. I know we're not all fans of the sportsball.) They were interviewing the announcer for the Detroit Lions. After the interview was over, the talk show host remarked, "Can you imagine how cool it would be to be the official voice of a sports team? It was a good point. I don't have to imagine anymore. I'm the official voice of The Mercenary Guild.

The difference being that we're going to be much better at what we do than the Lions. I'm certain of it. We've got a good staff in place already and when we get things all worked out you're going to love what you see.

I don't have a whole lot of details to share with you guys, because we're still working a lot of them out. I'm pretty sure we got something worked out last night, but it wasn't my bailiwick and I didn't get to see the details anyway, so I can't really share them with you. What I can tell you is that we're working hard to make this enjoyable.

What I can also tell you is that we're doing things the right way. We're paying attention to the differences in universes here. The Mercenary Guild is already showing signs of featuring the feel of free-wheeling mercenary units. It's not going to be a one size fits all kind of thing and I love that. Merc units are not units in the regular military and it's already starting to look like the individual chapters will have the ability to design their unit to give it their own personal twist. This is going to be a club where you can really be you.

So fire it up mercs! Lemme see your war face! Or maybe that should be your party face because no-one celebrates a big win like a gang of mercs. And believe me, this is going to be one hundred percent, pure, unadulterated win. I just can't wait to see how it all turns out.

Who's coming with me?

Chris Kennedy's Asbaran Solutions

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:

David Weber's Uncompromising Honor

(First, the disclaimer: I am a member of The Royal Manticoran Navy, which is the official fan club of David Weber in general and The Honorverse in particular. My judgement may be a bit skewed here. Then again, when isn't it?)

The World's Most Awesome Girlfriend (TM) hit me up on Facebook Messenger one day to ask if there were any Baen books out that I hadn't had a chance to buy and/or review yet that I wanted. This was a couple of weeks before Christmas. Now, being The World's Most Awesome GF, she's usually really good at figuring out what to buy without my input, but I was happy to provide it this time. I immediately replied "Latest Honor Harrington" because I had just woken up and could not for the life of me remember what the title was before having sucked down any caffeine. About twenty minutes later I looked it up and remembered that it was Uncompromising Honor.

I'm glad I did too, because this was a really good book. It seemed to have a manufacturing defect though. Once I picked it up it wouldn't let go of my hand. Seriously. It's almost like this inanimate object didn't understand that I have responsibilities I need to attend to and that I had to get moving out the door and off to work. Maybe Baen should have named it Uncompromising Attention Whore instead of Uncompromising Honor. I mean, it just wouldn't leave me alone.

Now, to be fair, this one did start off a bit slower than I probably would have preferred. It takes a moment to get up to speed. David Weber's book, particularly in his Honorverse and Safehold series, do tend to be a bit on the talky side. Usually that's a good thing because it's how Weber keeps us informed on what's going on with his massive and far flung universes. This time though, I'm wondering if an action sequence at the beginning of the book wouldn't have spiced things up a bit and drawn the reader in a bit sooner.

That's not to say there's no action in the book. I remember one particular passage that lasted for a good chunk of the book and had my eyes glued to the pages. It was definitely an action sequence and a bit gut wrenching. I loved it though and not just because it was an awesome action scene. Weber did something in that passage. He is simply the best at it, bar none.

Something that a lot of authors of military science fiction, and both other forms of military science fiction and non-fiction forget is that militaries have histories and traditions that go farther back than just the people they're writing about. When Hal Moore was ordered to form an air cavalry unit to fight in the Vietnam War he asked for the same designation that the Cavalry unit that fought at the Little Big Horn had. Thus was the Seventh Cavalry reformed. They damn near go wiped out like their namesake too, but that's a subject of its own book and movie. My point is that these traditions do exist. They're real and the memory of what has gone before is a source of inspiration for the current generation. Weber gets that and he weaves it so well into his narrative that the story wouldn't work without it. Weber was once a history major at the graduate level and he has obviously done some serious research into the way that real militaries work.

Like pretty much every other Honorverse novel, Uncompromising Honor is a war story. In war people die. Something else Weber does very well is exposing us to the sense of loss of those left behind. A lot of authors of fiction will show the reactions of the rest of the unit when a warrior passes. Any work of military history includes at least one table of casualty figures. What often gets left out is the cost to non-combatants, at least in a non-financial sense. Weber gets that and he makes sure to let us see the other side of the conflict.

I, of course, am a huge fan of the strong female protagonist, and Honor Harrington will kick your ass. That's if she decides not to shoot, nuke or drop a kinetic energy weapon on it. I hear that she's pretty good with a laserhead too, and that's not just a weird 80s insult for nerds. She's more than that though. Honor is both a mother and a warrior. She has to deal with the problems faced with many of members of the US Military have to deal with in the real world, planet Earth, circa 2019. Don't misunderstand what I'm saying. She still has the edge that she's always had. There's just so much more to her now. I wish I could force all of the people who talk down about "military fiction and its cardboard heroes" to sit down and read Uncompromising Honor. They might actually learn something.

The only truly bad part of my experience in reading this book comes from my own stupidity. See, when I have a book made in honest to God Dead Tree Format, I have a tendency to flip to the end and find out how many pages are in the thing. I've done this since probably the first time I read a book that had chapters. THIS time though, I noticed that there was an afterword. Now, the whole point of an afterword is that you're supposed to read it AFTER you read the book. I know this. I'm college educated. I read it anyway. I am -officially- a dipshit for reading the afterword first.What I'm saying here is that if you buy the book (and you should buy the book) you should not read the afterword first because there's stuff in there that you don't want to know about until after you read the dadgum book.

Uncompromising Honor is, I think, the 25646464654654654564465456th book in the series. I may be exaggerating slightly. At any rate, the Honorverse is a huge series with multiple complex relationships and you really need to start it at the beginning, with On Basilisk Station.  You'll thank me.

Bottom Line:  4.5 out of 5 Laser Heads

On Basilisk Station
David Weber
Baen Books, 2018


Uncompromising Honor is available for purchase at the following link:



And, since I mentioned them, We Were Soldiers Once... and Young and  We Were Soldiers are available at the following links as well: