Customer Reviews

War Machine (Combat-K Novels)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

While billed as a Military SciFi novel, this testosterone-filled action adventure is more of a revenge quest than anything else. Swift plotting, bloody action, and interesting characters (especially the lovable and funny, insane mad-bomber, Franco) overcomes any flaws (lots of anachronisms in this far flung future). The slam-bang, cliff-hanging ending has me craving the sequel. Excellent!

When Keenan, a former soldier, is asked to steal the Fractured Emerald, he immediately says no. But when he realizes that the Emerald has the power to see into the past, Keenan changes his mind in hopes of tracking down the killer of his wife and children. On his quest for revenge, he reassembles his former Combat-K squad, breaking Franco out of a psych ward and Pippa out of a prison. But with relationships strained among them, can they settle their differences in order to complete their mission?

War Machine is a dark and violent, military science fiction novel. When reading the back stories of each character, I knew immediately that this one wouldn't have a bright and happy ending. Each member of Combat K has a brutal and violent past, full of regrets. Giving some levity to otherwise grim situations was Franco the psychotic, explosives expert of the group.

Not for the squeamish, this is tale of revenge and dealing with personal demons. I'm a fan of a few military science fiction series, so I jumped at the chance to read this one. And though this is much darker than the ones I'm used to, the action and adventure never stop, making this a difficult one to put down.

I'll start with positive statements; it is not the worst science fiction I have ever read, and Andy Remic should be applauded for trying to bring the fantastic edge back into science fiction. That said, this book is juvenile. Quite literally suitable only for adolescents. Within a few chapters, it becomes clear that the author's only knowledge of the military and how it works or what the people in it are like comes entirely from action movies and science fiction television drama. It's all personal drama, hasty plans/attacks, and "witty" back and forth commentary. Two of the three characters are non-functional human beings, more to the point, they're detriments on every mission they do, and the author actually has to contrive reasons to keep them together within his own story. David Drake, William C. Dietz, Thomas Harlan, David Sherman & Dan Cragg, and others produce hard hitting military science fiction. Andy Remic produces what a teenager who watches too many movies and too much television would think is cool, hard hitting action.

To sum up: if you think movies like "Commando" and "Delta Force" are top end military movies, you will like this author's work. If you like actual military science fiction, can think and actually want to read something good, avoid this junk.

If you're considering buying this book, I would recommend against that. Borrow it from a friend or get it from the library unfortunately this really was not a good book. The three main characters aren't very interesting, and the over all plot feels just like a D&D quest module I played back in eighth grade.

The book has a pretty good opening but from there it just goes down hill. The characters, regardless of the danger they're in, will always have a deus ex machina moment that saves them. They were supposed to be a special ops team but didn't not feel like the author did any sort of research into military group dynamics. Authors like Eric Flint, John Ringo and David Webber have the military SF down to a science.

The over all writing seemed amateurish like a horny high school kid wrote it. Even though the characters are on this revenge soaked quest, and are being hunted--they still constantly stop to have sex, or think about it, or talk about it. There's nothing wrong with putting sex scenes in a book, but when you shoehorn them in they serve no purpose other than to bring the assumption that the author is a very lonely man. Added to that the writing seemed very amateurish. An example, from the book, "...I do not want to end up dead because, I am Mr. Max!" another example of the poor writing is the author uses the same words to describe things. He's a huge fan of the word, "Umbilical" . If one of the characters reached out to another it would be referred to as an umbilical, a bridge would be described as an umbilical. It just got old. I understand it's science fiction but if you're going for a military scfi story I feel you need to anchor the story with more solid science and military feel. Having a sword made from a single molecule is just not going to work for me.

The big reveals were easy to figure out so the end of the book, when they were revealed it just didn't matter. On top of that the ending of the book was completely and utterly unsatisfying.

This is a high-paced, high-action Military SciFi novel set in the very far future, which covers the exploits of a trio of "Combat K Soldiers" (kind of like a Fireteam of three US Marines).

It is at times extremely funny, and at times wildly unbelievable - most every chapter ends with a "how can they escape?" Flash Gordon type cliff-hanger.

My favorite scene involves one of the trio's plan for escaping from a Lunatic Asylum, where he has been locked up for his "murderous exploits"... basically, it involves providing an "overdose" of chocolate to a wildly insane "chocoholic"... I laughed out loud for more than the 3 pages in which this scene unfolds.

However, as we literally approach "The Black Hole" at the end of the book, the action becomes more and more unbelievable, and the reader is left hanging, just like at the end of an entire Flash Gordon series.

Characters well developed and likable. The technology is interesting and the fast paced action will keep you reading late into the night. It is dark novel filled with death and sexual images so not for the kiddos. Science fantasy minded folk will enjoy, reminds me a little of Dan Abnett's work.

"War Machine" (and the Combat-K series) are advertised as 'rock-hard military science fiction.' Well, I don't know about that. There's not a whole bunch of military in the book. The three protagonists - Keenan, Pippa and Franco - used to make up a Combat-K military unit. But they haven't been in that unit for a long time.

In this book they really get together for a treasure-hunting quest. And that was okay with me. The three are all majorly messed up for one reason or another and play off each other well.

I especially liked their visit to The City (actually an entire planet). And I liked Cam, the Security PopBot. I liked the messed up characters, especially Franco, who has only one thing on his mind and it's not military-related. The aliens were nasty or fun, or both.

Was this book great literature? No. Is it highbrow reading? No. Did I enjoy reading it? Yes. I can definitely think the author likes to play video games and there are parts of this book that I think would make a great video game.

It reminded me in some ways of Sven Tveskoeg in the David Gunn Death's Head series. Gunn's books are raunchier but still space opera.

Worst book I've ever read. Remic has obviously spent 'way too much time playing video games, and has never seen a real battlefield (yes, I have, on many occasions). "Trash" describes this book very well.

I was given "War Machine" as a gift, so I felt obligated to read it. If that obligation hadn't been present, I doubt I would have finished it. The plot, involving a trio of characters, Keenan, Pippa, and Franco, who were once part of a military Black Ops unit called "Combat K," is your basic sci-fi quest, of the "go find this object and take it to a specified place to save a) the Universe, and b) your own skins" variety. A lot of imagination is brought to bear creating the various societies, worlds, organizations, and people in the story, and the dialogue at times is extraordinarily clever and witty. But there are more loose threads in the plot than you'd find in your average tailor's shop, as characters and organizations come and go for no apparent reason but to motivate or propel the three main characters toward the next stop on their quest, and the writing is VERY uneven. There is one stretch in the middle that I actually thought might have been written by someone other than Remic, the tone and style is so pronouncedly different. The last third of the book is the biggest disappointment, as Keenan, Pippa, and Franco, who individually and collectively have issues with themselves, each other, and the Universe in general, recover something/someone called the Fractured Emerald, and transport it/her to a distant, forbidden planet where all is to be revealed and the day saved for truth, justice and the whatever-the-heck-it-is way. The problem is that this passage reads like the Dungeon Master's narrative from an old 80's-vintage D&D game, as the protagonists must defeat traps, villains, and evil creatures to reach their goal--and it feels tired and contrived, as if what measure of originality was displayed earlier in the book had been all the author possessed. (In fact, come to think of it, back in the 80's I played in more interesting D&D games.) Running through the entire story is a murder mystery, the solution of which is so transparently obvious that I found myself wondering how a character of such allegedly superior intelligence couldn't see it.

In the end, I forced myself to finish reading "War Machine" out of principle, rather than finish it out of desire. There is VERY GOOD military sci-fi out there--for example, check out John Scalzi's "Old Man's War" series for a truly first-class milspecSF ride. Just don't expect to find it in "War Machine." This machine is broken beyond repair.

War Machine is not just miliporn, it is poorly written miliporn. The character's are on dimensional and the plot is non existant beyond go there, get that. The premise is of a super elite squad of normal humans who will "do what it takes to win". The author's attempt at character is the protagnoist leader who is grieving over the loss of his wife and children, and his determination to "get their killer".

Now any reader with half a brain will figure out the killer 80 pages in, just like any reader who has had any real relationships and actually has kids will not believe the ending. That aspect of the book alone makes this reviewer believe that it was actually written by a 13year old boy, who needs to have his closet checked and his babes w/ guns mags taken away. Or better yet, maybe his he-men with big guns mags. No matter what this work is the fevered dream of someone who has real weapons-phallic power issues.

The work, and I can't be gentle about this, stinks. It is written for people who dream of being profiled in Soldier of Fortune and don't understand why women don't date them. This is a chickenhawk's form of miliporn, totally unrealistic and aburd. David Drake is a literary giant next to Remic and that is a crying shame.