Standing Together by MJ Dougherty

Standing Together is the sequel to Standing Alone. The War for British Independence from the European Federation rages on. The Euros still occupy the southern half of England but the valiant fighting of the Brits has convinced the Americans to join their cause. But are the British dumping their Euro overlords only to be annexed by the US? The Nordic League offers Lady Elizabeth Sinclaire another option: League Protectorate. Meanwhile, "Shotgun" Mike Halsey runs a special operations unit answerable only to Sinclaire. And when she can drink enough whisky (or even whiskey) to drown out her guilt, she'll send him out on another suicide mission because she has no other choice.

Once again, Dougherty provides a story that's heavy on the action—even more than the first book—and bound to please military sci-fi fans. Heck, even if you like contemporary military stories or you're a World War II buff, you'll like this story. Even though meks—that tank with arms and legs on the book's cover—figure prominently in most of the battles, the tech talk is not far enough out there to alienate these audiences. There's still enough dogfights, naval battles, and infantry action to go around. Dougherty, a military history buff and defense analyst, knows his stuff. I would not be surprised if he ran war games in his basement just to validate the battles that appear in the book.

There isn't any new character development for Halsley or Sinclaire. They're the same blokes they were in the first book. Some minor characters who survived the first book make appearances and receive some more time in the spotlight. The good guys fight valiantly; the bad guys twirl their mustaches. There's little time for introspection or reflection. People are dying after all. One exception is an interesting exchange between Halsley and the Napoleonic General Lavelle during a ceasefire that stirs the sub-plot regarding Halsley's past. Dougherty also offers glimpses into the political machinations of the day; stuff that makes Halliburton's foray in Iraq seem like a picnic. But these serve more as hints of what's to come in future installments of the series.

One unfortunate move that was made was the inclusion of a Forward and Introduction. While the Forward contained some interesting information about military philosophy, I think it could've been left out or saved for an "Afterward". It delays the reader from getting into the action, which starts in the Prologue. The Introduction all but summarizes the events that took place in Standing Alone. While adding another delay for readers, it might also discourage them from picking up a copy of that book, which would be a shame.

Yes, my skepticism regarding an ascendent European Federation still stands, but it was easy enough to set aside and just enjoy Standing Together for what it is: good military fiction.

Standing Together is available from Amazon.

Standing Alone by MJ Dougherty

Mike Halsey is a former Mek (that machine on the cover) pilot. He survives an ambush in Thailand and eventually makes his way back to England where he joins Britain's struggle for independence from the European Federation.

Before I review the book, I need to provide a bit of background. Standing Alone is a novel intended to put a face on Armageddon: 2089, a role playing game (RPG) from Mongoose Publishing. Novels based on RPGs and video games are fairly common. Authors are hired to write novels to enhance the gaming experience. Such is the role of Mr. Dougherty here. What is unusual in this case is that this game has been defunct for several years. While the book was written when the game was still viable, it wasn't published until September of last year. Rumor has it that the setting is going to be re-released with a different rule set.

When the game was conceived, the European Union's star was on the rise. Its economic success suggested that political sovereignty would soon follow. The game was born out of the British reaction against that move. In the game (which the book is faithful to), the European Federation has risen to ascendancy and is now the most powerful nation in the world. The USA is still faithful to the "cowboy diplomacy" philosophy of the George W. Bush administration even after 80 years. China? No direct mention here (must be part of the Tiger Combine briefly talked about in the Introduction). As time tends to be merciless to the predictions of science fiction writers, history has taken a different course. The Great Recession has sent corporations and governments to the brink of bankruptcy (bailouts for everyone!). The EU is struggling to survive as an economic entity. For the foreseeable future, the likelihood of a political union in Europe is now small.

Putting that aside (as it isn't the author's fault), I can say that Mr. Dougherty has given us a good military sci-fi story.

Mr. Dougherty has written several non-fiction books that cover military history and current day armaments and is a martial arts instructor. Without question, this story has a solid technical footing. Sometimes a term will come along that will leave the layman scratching his head, but by no means is this just a weapons catalog with narrative verse. However, I'm not sure I needed to know what weapon everyone was carrying in non-combat scenes.

Dougherty gives his main characters depth. Mike Halsey is a skilled soldier and Mek pilot but he's not without issues. His mother walked out on him and his father. In turn, his father later died in a plane crash (a heroic ditch into the sea to spare civilians). It's clear he has abandonment issues and avoids getting too close to people. He distrusts authority but believes in the cause of a Free Britain.

Elizabeth Sinclaire is the de facto leader of the Free Britain government in hiding. Having survived a harrowing attack by a European raid on the then intact government, she's had to order people on suicide missions just to keep hope alive. Her conscience has taken a beating and she doubts that any of it will do any good in the long run. As her command decisions weigh on her soul, she takes it out on her liver.

There were a lot of secondary and minor characters. While some received sufficient coverage to become memorable, some others tended to blur together. Two of the better drawn characters were Palmer, Halsey's Mek pilot rival, and General Lavalle. Palmer's personality served as nice contrast to Halsey's generally dour disposition while General Lavalle spent his time scheming such that one can't wait for his comeuppance.

It should come as no surprise that action is heavy in Standing Alone. In the opening chapter, Halsey's Mek unit is ambushed in Thailand. Dougherty provides a heavily detailed account of the battle, which goes to underscore Halsey's skill as a Mek pilot. Similar levels of detail are provided in subsequent battles and chases in the book. But in all cases the action is there to support the plot, rather than being the plot.

Unfortunately there were many typos in the PDF copy of the book I received. It wasn't a case of American English vs. the Queen's English. I've read enough work by British authors to know the difference. No, it looks like the publisher, Mongoose Publishing, was remiss in its responsibility to edit, or at the very least proofread, Mr. Dougherty's work before publishing it. Either that or the editor needs to be sacked.

One recommendation I'd make would be to get rid of the Introduction. The information contained therein would've been better served if brought out during the story. Instead, all it does is delay and clutter the reader's mind. We don't need to know the background before we read this book. This is a story about Mike Halsey's role in the fight for British Independence. We can pick that other stuff up later.

In summary, Standing Alone is an action-packed story for military sci-fi aficionados. Dougherty provides expert level of detail with his combat scenes and gives us realistic characters we can root for. It's too bad that Mongoose neglected its responsibility for editorial support and thus left Mr. Dougherty standing alone.

UPDATE - May 2013: I'm pleased to report that Standing Alone has a new publisher: Antimony Sun. This small press understands the responsibilities of a publisher and has proofread and edited Mr. Dougherty's work. I no longer have any reservations about recommending this work.

Standing Alone is available for the Kindle and in other formats via Smashwords.

Peace Warrior by Stephen Hawk

Reviewed by Bob Five Thousand for The New Podler Review of Books

Ok, let me start this out with a bit of a disclaimer: I know practically nothing about Military SciFi. My one and only real exposure to the genre is Heinlein’s Starship Troopers. An argument could possibly be made for some of Catherine Asaro’s material, but that’s about it. Point being, I’m hardly an expert here. And with that, we’re off...

The book weighs in at 258 pages and is written in a simple, straight-forward manner. Making for a very quick read. It took me a grand total of around 8 hours to get through the whole thing.

The book is so simply written in fact, that if it wasn’t for the violent content, I’d recommend it as fairly easy reading for the pre-teen set. This isn’t a criticism by the way, merely an observation.

For those looking for a quick -n- dirty review, here it is: It’s not terrible. It’s a first novel from a guy who probably has no previous writing experience. If you take that into account going into it, then you can sit back and enjoy a fun read.

If you’re still with me at this point, I’ll dig into it a little more.

Briefly, the story takes place in the relatively distant future. After a long history of warfare, humanity has forsaken violence of any kind and for any reason. This is the state of affairs when the Minith arrive and enslave the people of Earth. The Earthlings find the main character, a soldier from some 600 years in the past, frozen in ice and revive him. It’s his job to free humanity from the tyranny of the alien invaders.

It’s definitely a bit on the amateurish side. You’ll find some grammatical errors as you read through it and there’s more than a few bits of awkwardly unnecessary dialog, for the sake of explaining things that shouldn’t really need explaining. The end is fairly predictable and the characters can be a bit cliché.

There’s not a lot of depth given to most of the people in the story, but given the fact that the book is more about the war than the people, that might not be such a big deal.

The "Death Scene" (you’ll know it when you read it) is needlessly long, drawn out and graphic. It’s definitely out of place when compared to the relatively quick flow of the rest of the story.

The author’s description of death itself is actually really well done. It’s probably one of the most creative bits of the book.

I also liked how he handled the evolution of mankind as a species. The changes were minor, but nicely documented in the narrative and seemed reasonable for the amount of time that had passed.

If you’re reading the book for its military aspects, you (probably) won’t be disappointed. Or at least I wasn’t, speaking as someone with no military experience what-so-ever. The author is a former soldier himself and the battle scenes move along nicely without anything obviously impossible happening.

I have only one real complaint and I’ll admit right off that I’m being nit-picky here. I read a lot of Science Fiction and Fantasy. I’m a particularly big fan of the early pulp stuff, where the authors were really just making crap up that sounded cool, with almost no thought as to whether or not it made any real sense. I say this to illustrate that I’m very comfortable with the whole idea of “suspension of disbelief” for the sake of a good story.

Now on to my complaint. One of the central structures of the story is “Violent’s Prison”. It’s also one of the grammatical errors I mentioned earlier, but that’s sorta besides the point. :-)

This is where all of the folks are sent, who just can’t seem to learn how to live peacefully with their fellow humans. If you act with violence towards another human, you get sent to prison. All well and good so far. Except for one thing: The book beats you over the head repeatedly with the fact that violence is abhorred by the bulk of humanity. There is no army, no police force, no body of any kind that exists to enforce the law or protect the populace. People get physically ill at the thought of violence towards another person. There are no weapons at all, except those on display in museums. See where I’m going with this yet?

These people reject violence to the point where an alien can shoot a man’s family right in front of him and he won’t do anything about it (there actually is a scene where this happens).

So who is subduing the criminals and taking them to jail?

Well, there you have it. Overall, if you’ve got a couple of bucks to spare and you’re looking for some light reading, this wouldn’t be a bad choice. It won’t ever win any awards, but it’s fun. Which is good enough for me.

Peace Warrior is available in several formats, the links for which can be found on the author's website.