W.C. Bauers

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Title: Indomitable
Series: The Chronicles of Promise Paen #2
Author: W.C. Bauers
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 367
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Promise Paen has survived her jaunt on Montana. However, certain political elements with the Republic have painted her as rogue warhead, just waiting to go off.

In a training exercise with some green recruits, Promise continues the training mission even with 90% casualties. She wins the unwinnable scenario, due to some help from a highly placed General who is against the training mission on principle. Things go wrong right at the end and one of her subordinates is killed.

Promise and the General are both benched. The General takes the flak and Promise's career survives, but she is removed from commanding her platoon to being second in command. Her platoon heads to a hell world to relieve other soldiers guarding against in-system terrorists. But their codes have been compromised and as soon as Promise's forces land, their own mechanical weapons turn against them.

They barely survive and her platoon is folded into various other 'toons. The aforementioned General has been “demoted” but given command of the Special Forces and said General asks Promise to join. And that is how the book ends, with galactic war looming and Promise getting ready to go into a high action unit.

My Thoughts:

It has been two and half years since I read Unbreakable. Thankfully, I was able to slide right back into the universe. It helps that beyond Promise Paen, almost no one survived from the previous book to clutter up the storyline here. Everyone gets introduced.

This was some good writing and some good storytelling. If you like space military stories with some thoughts from the main character, then this is the series for you.

I, however, will be ending my time with this (ongoing I assume) series.

I do not like Promise Paen. She cannot read the most simplified political situation and shoots her mouth off. She does not accept orders from her superiors without whining and trying to go around said orders. She sees and talks with her dead mother and in this book, allows that to become such a distraction that she doesn't pay attention to her commanding officer. She allows her emotions to drive her decision making and as a leader of a military unit, that gets others involved.

I still gave this 3.5 stars because of the storyline and the writing but the above things about Promise Paen drive me crazy. Since she's the main character, I know it will continue. I'll not roll around in a bed of poison ivy.

★★★☆ ½… (mehr)

I received this copy from the publisher through Netgalley.com and that in no way has influenced my opinion in regards to this review. This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions.
Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.leafmarks.com by express permission of this reviewer. Title: Unbreakable Series: The Chronicles of Promise Pain Author: W.C. Bauer Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars Genre: SFF Pages: 399 Synopsis: Promise Paen joins the Republic's Space Marines to escape the bad memories from her home planet Montana. Now's she headed back to protect a place she'd rather forget about while her dead mother seems to be alive and well, in Promise's mind. My Thoughts: This was an ARC [Advanced Reading Copy], so the misspellings and such [fourty anyone?] will hopefully be fixed in the actual release. First. Bauer appears to have read and been greatly influenced by Mike Shepherd and his Kris Longknife series. Smart metal. By that name. A heroine who worries about not being a curvaceous sex kitten (though to be honest, this only happens once or twice, unlike every other chapter in Kris Longknife). The whole Brave Girl taking on Incredible Odds and Overcoming, Even if not Winning thing. Thankfully, Paen is a local girl who makes good, not an interstellar debutante with a drinking problem. Second, I'd REALLY like to find out more about the history of this universe. The little hints we're given tantalized me while giving me just enough for this story. But I want more. Thirdly, I removed and then added a star right at the introduction. I removed a star because he thanks Ronie Kendig [I have nothing personally against Mrs Kendig, I simply had a very bad experience with one of her books where expectations were taken out an airlock and hung, shot, drawn and quartered and then vaporized] and then added another because he appeared to be a Christian. It was a rollercoaster beginning. Finally, I did enjoy this. There is a lot of action, a lot of "we're outmanned, outgunned but we're going to make them choke on us" kind of attitude. A hint of shallow romance [which I'm FINE with. Save that stuff for the likes of Austen, who can write a GOOD romance] and 2 big space empires just waiting to go at it. As long as this series doesn't turn into the Series That Never Ends [ala Taylor Anderson or David Weber], I'll be looking forward to more by Mr. Bauer. "… (mehr)

This review was originally posted at www.areadingmachine.com

Unbreakable has a strong female protagonist, gritty fast paced action sequences and a killer setting for the whole shabang. It has echoes of Aliens with its intense female lead, sharp dialogue and hoo-ah marines that added the element of a fun and familiar friendly atmosphere. Plot wise Promise Paen is stuck between two empires on the brink of war and sent back to her home world as part of PR exercise to win the hearts and minds of her former people whilst also dealing with space pirates and an angry militia. It’s a personal story. Her crew and her charges and how she relates to them are given a nice weight and we see the bonds develop and change, especially as she moves up in rank. We see how their deaths affect Promise and how their failures and successes are hers as much as theirs. One of my favourite scenes involved her taking a group of militia through the basic instructions for the standard issue pulse rifles because of the attention to detail and innovations in the weaponry but also because of the reactions of the crowd and her people.

The action is visceral, the deaths, carnage and repercussions of battle are palpable and blood almost leaks through the pages, such is the atmosphere Bauer’s often achieves. The Mech suit combat is ridiculously well written and highly entertaining and shit it makes me want to tag into a giant armoured beast and let rip with some full auto. You cant just have action though.

The politics are quite complex and I did find myself re reading one or two sections but Bauers has created a detailed and realistic battlefield on land and in space, which means a few things. The battles in space, ship to ship, are bloody great. They have an old time Navy sort of feel but with more high tech weaponry which is a nice mix but does result in some short battles what with mega lasers being used to cut through entire ships in seconds. We get into the heads of the opposing captains and feel their struggles without getting caught up in the science but we also meet lots of people with military titles and full foreign names and we hear an absolute ton of acronyms which when overused can turns an otherwise cohesive paragraph into military babble. Not being overly familiar with military structure and rank, at times it was hard to know how much attention to give to these side characters as they are numerous, often appearing only for a scene or two and always in jeopardy of a quick death. With Tramper Pilot Rhaymond Garcias, Ensign X’atti Quartz, Staff Sergeant Moya Hhatan and many more all flying about it can get frenetic keeping track of who is who. I just tried to roll with the punches and not get too attached or involved with anyone who was not our Protagonist.

One thing I feel I should mention is that I think the prologue was a bit unnecessary. It does not add anything to what we already know from the back cover and seems as though it is there to draw us into the action in case we don’t have the patience to let the backstory unfold at it’s own pace. From it I got the impression her dead mother would be speaking to her constantly throughout the book which did not appeal to me, as it is she makes well times appearances and works nicely. For me the evidence is in the fact that I picked up this book and put it down three or four times because of the prologue and it was only when I was at the airport and had nothing else to do for an hour and got past the prologue that I was able to get really sucked in. So readers if you are not engaged in the prologue, skip to the first chapter. Don’t abandon the whole book as you will be doing yourself an injustice.

Anyone who likes a good mix of Science Fiction and Military will like this and if, unlike me, you have knowledge of rank and structure, I think you will really get a kick out of it. Great debut and a promising first book and a huge nod to the cover artist, as it’s definitely the sort of book I would pick up off the shelf.

… (mehr)