Review of Standing Alone, a BattleTech Novel

Mini-review #4
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.

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.

The Lost Fleet (Beyond The Frontier) Invincible Review

Mini-review #3
This is the third 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.

Wow, you can tell from the long title of the blog post that this is a long series of books by Jack Campell.  Invincible is the second book in the Beyond the Frontier story arc for this series and it continues to ratchet up the old suspense while providing the fleet level, spaceship engagements that the fans of this series love.  The Lost Fleet series was the primary story arc that played out in the first six books and I won't go into detail as I don't want to spoil it, but you have political intrigue, alien mysteries, a vast and powerful opposing force, and a very long running battle to return home.

In the original story arc, "Black Jack" Geary is revived from cryosleep to find a much changed world.  A century of warfare has passed since he was frozen.  There have been massive casualties in the long running war between the Alliance ("the good guys") and the corporate Syndics.   This has decimated the fleet officer corps and the fleets on both sides now operate with far simpler tactics.  Being a reluctant, legendary hero, with mastery of old school fleet tactics, he becomes the ranking fleet officer that leads the fleet back home in a long journey through enemy space.  Much like Xenophon and the March of the 10,000.  In the second story arc he has been sent out on a one way mission into alien space to find out more about the Enigmas.  Why?  I'll leave that up to you to find out as it is core to the second story arc.

This is a recommended read for folk who like military SF fleet actions. Nothing revolutionary here, but it is a well told story and an enjoyable read.  After 8 books I'm enjoying this series more than the Destroyermen series (review #1) as it doesn't shift multiple battlefronts and focuses on a single fleet.  I read this on a copy borrowed from the public library as the current ebook pricing scheme by the publishers is insane right now for a copy.  I will not pay more than the price of a paperback book for a work of ebook fiction - period.

Does it have a cast of characters listing? 
No.  But it has a cast of ships/squadrons listing!  I found the number characters manageable, but lost track of the ships.

What is the scope / scale of the story? 
This series of books has a great deal of starship combat but on the fleet level.  Descriptions of combat are gritty with many explosions.  The sheer firepower involved in fleet actions means the battles are over relatively quickly, but there are several of them in each book.  

Does it have likeable characters?
Yes. Black Jack Geary, the fleet commander, develops mainly in the first few books, but he proves to have the mettle of legend.  The man fights his destiny to the end.  The romance angle doesn't really work for me, but it is a minor part of the story.

Does it have an entertaining storyline?
Yes. Many battles, searches for answers, scavenging for parts, supplies, and resources.  There are enough plot twists and surprises to keep it fresh.  In the current novel, Invincible, you meet aliens along with their tactics and ships.

How is the internal consistency / plausibility?
Good world building for an alternate future after a century of non-stop attritional warfare between two large human space factions.  One is a confederation while the other is a megacorporation.  Most of the story happens in the fleet but enough happens to give an idea of what the bigger picture is.

What cool bonus features are there? 
Superbattleships.  More aliens than you can shake a stick at.  Feels like it is setting up for a big political finale when the fleet reaches home.