Hit and Fade

So we’re thrown back to the world of the Forgotten ruin a few weeks after the end of Book 1, and this time instead of a great horde of orcs trying to cut, stab, and otherwise disembowel our team of time-travelling US Army Rangers, it’s an unending horde of the undead. Just about every kind of walking dead creature you can imagine from every book, film, or game makes an appearance here, and the Rangers promptly blow them to pieces. The Rangers are still stuck in this far-flung fantasy future and are still kicking the crap out of everything that means to hurt them in clever and highly entertaining way. This book was a lot of fun.

The story is simple. A shambling sea of undead is slowly making its way towards the fortress the Rangers fought so hard to capture in Book 1, and the Rangers must find a way of wiping out said ocean of rotting flesh before it crashed over their new home. It’s a simple story and doesn’t get a lot deeper than that. As ever, there is non-stop action written brilliantly by Anspach and Cole, and it isn’t just the pacing that makes this action the novel’s best (and primary) feature, but it’s also the ingenious ways in which modern military technology, tactics, and mindsets get applied to the fantasy setting and this adversary in particular. The contrast between some of the Rangers who can just accept the insanity of this universe and those that are still struggling to fit the madness into some point of reference is a brilliant narrative device which wonderfully allows us to maintain our suspension of disbelief at the crazy concept upon which this entire story is built. The Rangers have been thrown into the future, but it’s a future full of magic and every kind of fantasy race and creature you can think of. Yes, that’s an insane concept, but it remains entirely believable because the characters living it also think it’s an insane concept. It just works.

Now there isn’t a whole lot to write for this review because, frankly, there isn’t a whole lot to the novel beyond the constant threat of danger and the equally constant counter argument of bullets and explosives that the Rangers reply with. We get a bit more of a glimpse into the person our leading man Talker is and a smattering of glancing character development for the others immediately surrounding him, but this book feels very much like the characters are there purely as a vector for the action. Now don’t get me wrong, the action that is then delivered upon that vector is awesome, but the premise of this fantasy world that was established in Book 1 is begging for fleshing out in greater detail than a few expansive exposition dumps from the Ranger’s friendly wizard. There is so much more that I wanted to know about this world that I was really hoping would be coming after being set up (at least in passing) in Book 1, but it never really materialised. Just lots of fun and lots of boom. I don’t blame the authors for this as the book is simply being what it sets out to be, which is a fun new background for awesome action, but I just wish it was more, wish that it would unlock some of that tantalising story potential that it keeps tickling us with instead of brushing it aside in favour of another massive action scene.

I enjoyed the book because it is exactly the sort of story that the short-sighted caveman side of my brain really enjoys, but if I am going to stick with the series, the other side of my brain—the character-development, rich-story arcs, excitable lore nerd side—is going to need some placating very soon. 

As for narration, Christopher Ryan Grant does another great job. Here he throws a good range of raspy undead voice our way in a manner that would leave my throat raw in the attempt. Great job.

Score: 4.25 stars

Like the way I write a review? Then you might like the way I write a novel. Link to Book 1 in the Blood and Balance series below, or for more info on my book series click HERE.

Buy 'The Sage's Lot (Blood and Balance, Book 1)' here!