This is the fourth of a series of short reviews for military SF and mecha SF. You will not see a review of something I don't like as it isn't worth writing about in that case, but I will tell you what works for me and what doesn't about the stories I did like. When I was writing my Exocrisis Blue stories and trying to find places to post about it or reviews of other mecha SF I was unable to find any, so I'm creating my own hub. Now onto the review. For the master list of reviews, click here.
This is a novel by MJ Dougherty that appears to be influenced by the BattleTech / MechWarrior war games for mecha combat. It is set in an alternate Earth of 2086 where nations and megacorporations battle it out to rule the planet. I'm not a mech war gamer myself, but the novel is a pretty easy read as long as you know what a mech is. I was looking for a medium length read with big robots that wasn't part of some massively large overarching story and this book delivered that experience.
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| Challenger Tank in Canada Defence Images / Flickr |
The hero, "Shotgun Mike," is a mercenary that has fallen on hard times after a mission in Southeast Asia went terribly wrong. Back at home in the United Kingdom, he joints the Royalists who fight for British sovereignty after the country is invaded by the European Federation. The Federation is basically run by big megacorporations and they've conquered half of Britain.
Only the Royal Navy keeps the northern part of Britain free from invasion, so a land war is being fought on a north south axis. The Royalists are terribly outmatched by the invaders who have all the good mechs and resources. However, they have put up a good fight with their few mechs, some factories to make more, and lots of volunteers (aka cannonfodder).
There is plenty of mech vs. mech combat and guerrilla style combat against mechs which you can imagine really doesn't go too well for the guerrillas. Big mechs with laser cannon, lots of rockets, and big guns duel in a big ballet of destruction.
Does it have a cast of characters listing?
No.
What is the scope / scale of the story?
Starts small with a mech duel and ends up with plenty of small engagements within a master storyline. The princess is a hands-on type of leader so you get to see the story get set up first hand.
Does it have likeable characters?
Yes. The main character was okay, but I did like the princess who was leading the resistance. There were engaging characters, but I found the more interesting ones tended to be the women pilots and bureaucrats. Half of the male characters were villains or traitors and were not as interesting as they were just driven by greed or power.
Does it have an entertaining storyline?
Yes.The story stays centered on Mike and all of missions he goes on. There are training missions, spy missions, defence missions, and let's hijack a mech for fun too!
How is the internal consistency / plausibility?
Typical world building with different megacorporations running the show. I'd have to say there was nothing too different, but the corporate culture thing doesn't particularly translate well to national government even for the bad guys. The economics for this is not particularly good as these mechs are expensive and so is war, so what is the payoff from invasion for the shareholders? Aren't corporations kind of risk adverse to this kind of thing? Also, the hold the line scenario in Britain doesn't play too well with me as Saddam Hussein tried that in the Gulf War and he got majorly flanked by superior maneuver forces. Mechs are a pretty superior maneuver force even on a narrow frontage like Britain.
What cool bonus features are there?
There's mech factories, mechs of course, an aircraft carrier and a drunken princess.
