Review of Mecha Corps - A Novel of the Armor Wars

Mini-review #8
This is 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.
 
When I was publishing my own stories for Exocrisis I went browsing through the Amazon bookstore to see what other mecha fiction had been published.  One of the ones that popped up quickly was Mecha Corps: A Novel of the Armor Wars by Brett Patton.    Mecha Corps does a great deal of future world building and introduces the very powerful and amazing biomechs that are piloted by the Union against all enemies.

By Leondz / Flickr

The story is about  Matt Lowell who has qualified to join the elite Mecha Corp as a mecha pilot.  He arrives on Earth to begin his training and things take off from there.  There isn't much of a boot camp, but there is a brutal qualification to become a pilot. Pilots "mesh" with their mechas by plugging in and becoming integrated with them for sensation and control.  You can feel pain as a pilot when your incredibly tough, armoured body is hit.  Meshing itself isn't easy and has its own dangers as you get high on it from the sensations of incredible power.  The mechas are very agile with the ability to merge with other devices to fly or even other mecha to enhance their abilities.  Weapons capability seems to be extremely powerful as they can fight battleships in space and heavy armour on the ground.

The main enemy of the Union is the Corsairs, an elusive faction that preys on Union worlds.  They don't have biomecha, but they have plenty of other weapons.  Matt was orphaned by a Corsair raid and he has dedicated his life to killing a particular Corsair to avenge his father's death.  A new type of mecha called demons are introduced later and they become a central pivot for both character and plot development later.  This relatively recent book now has a sequel which doesn't seem to be available as an ebook at the time of writing for Canadians (go figure with these publishers).

This book is a good read for mecha fans as it is entertaining, but not deep on military tactics.  If you like the super robot genre you'll like it even more, but you might not like it so much if you're into serious military SF.

Does it have a cast of characters listing? 
No.  

What is the scope / scale of the story? 
Small unit operations, but there are are some epic battles with swarms of ships and mechas involved.

Does it have likeable characters?
Yes and no.  Matt is a character who has some unusual genetic modifications as he seems to be an unnaturally gifted mecha pilot (this is a pretty standard trope in Japanese mecha).  He is primarily driven by revenge and basically goes berserk at one point with the mesh high.  Of course he gets another chance.  I can't say I like this character as he felt stock to me and he does dumb things and gets away with it again and again.  Like another novel I read, I found the female love interest (something that doesn't seem to develop much despite a meshing of minds) more interesting.  Also has a mad scientist type character called Dr. Roth, the inventor of the biomecha.  I'm still wondering what motivates him, something that the sequel might answer.

Does it have an entertaining storyline?
Yes.  There is plenty of action.  Story line develops nicely as the Corsairs step up their raids on the Union.  Nice climactic battle.  Plenty of plot twists based on the protagonist's past.  Some of the twists and character development didn't seem to work quite right as they just seemed kind of forced to me.

How is the internal consistency / plausibility?
Yes. The world building is pretty good and contained to the displacement drive ships, the decayed remnants of Old Earth, and some cool set piece locations.   The mecha are well described and almost too powerful, but you can kill them with battleship or tons of firepower.  Mechas have a destructive contact fusion attack, an anti-matter zap gun, swarming missile attacks, etc.  The demon mechas later are extremely powerful, but this just means you have to ramp up the opposition.  Kind of reminds me of the super robot genre of anime and manga (I note Evangelion in the author's bio).  All of the cadet pilots become mecha captains without any real military training other than on piloting mechas, but Luke Skywalker becomes a rebel leader without any training either so it must be okay :) 

What cool bonus features are there?
Gigantic displacement drive ships to jump between the stars.  These ships carry powerful battleships and cruisers inside them (the battlerider concept from Traveller).  Demon mechas - the ultimate mecha that isn't anime?  Meshing to control the mechas is pretty cool too, but the addictive nature of it seems to be understated. There are some neat story locations to enjoy but I can't give those away.