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Armor Wars #1
Mecha Corps: A Novel of the Armor Wars
Matt Lowell is in hell-and there's no place he'd rather be. At a training camp on the backwater planet of Earth, he and his fellow cadets are learning to ride Mechas: biomechanicals sporting both incredible grace and devastating firepower. Their ultimate aim is to combat the pirates of the Corsair Confederacy, but before they survive a battle, they have to survive their training.
Because every time Lowell and his comrades "plug in" to their Mechas, their minds are slowly being twisted and broken by an unseen power that is neither man...nor machine.
Because every time Lowell and his comrades "plug in" to their Mechas, their minds are slowly being twisted and broken by an unseen power that is neither man...nor machine.
336 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 1, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
May 29, 2013
The tag line above the title of this book reads, "The few. The proud. The machines." Which is the last clever thing about this book.
This reads like a mash-up between bad anime and a so-so video game, with a main character who smells a lot like a Marty Stu. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php... Protagonist Matt has perfect recall, what he calls his "Perfect Record." He's the most naturally-gifted mecha pilot anyone has ever seen in the history of always and anywhere. Things don't always go perfectly for Matt, but he can do so many things so well that he's clearly a Chosen One.
The over-arching plot is one of genetically-engineered humans -- the HuMax -- trying to wipe out humanity for some reason. We never find out why, other than, "They hate humans." It's your standard plot, and the twist is the usual one of "we created the HuMax" blather. So,the only way humans can stand against the superior HuMax is to create biomechanical suits called mecha. Basically this is just anime stuff. Matt is the typical anime prodigy.
His dad was a secret researcher on a secret base doing secretive things, and kept drilling Matt about a series of photographs, which number at least 11,000. Photo number 10,956 is the key to finding the bad guy, because Matt's secret science dad had a photo out of Rayder's office. (Yes, the bad guy is actually named Rayder. I know, right?) So it turns out Rayder is the guy who killed Matt's dad right in front of Matt, of course, who, despite his overwhelming hatred of all humans, allows Matt to live, just so Matt can take revenge 20-some years later.
There's a lot of this and that and rather pedestrian battle scenes. Mecha can merge with other mecha to make Big Mecha which somehow makes them better, although I don't see how, since they have the same missiles and guns and now they're slower but with more armor. It's not really well thought out beyond "bigger is better." Mecha can also merge with other things, like spaceships, and take over their control systems. Nanotechnology, I guess.
To be honest, I stopped paying attention to the details.
I did keep wondering why, if the ultimate super-mecha our wunderkind gets to pilot (called a Demon), can merge with spaceships, why it didn't just merge with lesser mecha and incorporate them into its systems when it got damaged. Oh, yeah, that's where the video game aspects come in: when a mecha gets injured, even with a nuclear blast, it has to spend some downtime repairing itself. It's so obviously a video game mechanic that I laughed out loud the first time it happened. Not in delight.
I paused about 2/3 of the way through this to read John Scalzi's The Human Division, which was a mistake. Reading a better book by a superior writer made it painful to come back to this one. Mecha Corps is competently written in the sense that Patton can string together words in a decent-enough fashion, but it's really not all that interesting.
I think if you're 12, this book would be awesome.
This reads like a mash-up between bad anime and a so-so video game, with a main character who smells a lot like a Marty Stu. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php... Protagonist Matt has perfect recall, what he calls his "Perfect Record." He's the most naturally-gifted mecha pilot anyone has ever seen in the history of always and anywhere. Things don't always go perfectly for Matt, but he can do so many things so well that he's clearly a Chosen One.
The over-arching plot is one of genetically-engineered humans -- the HuMax -- trying to wipe out humanity for some reason. We never find out why, other than, "They hate humans." It's your standard plot, and the twist is the usual one of "we created the HuMax" blather. So,the only way humans can stand against the superior HuMax is to create biomechanical suits called mecha. Basically this is just anime stuff. Matt is the typical anime prodigy.
His dad was a secret researcher on a secret base doing secretive things, and kept drilling Matt about a series of photographs, which number at least 11,000. Photo number 10,956 is the key to finding the bad guy, because Matt's secret science dad had a photo out of Rayder's office. (Yes, the bad guy is actually named Rayder. I know, right?) So it turns out Rayder is the guy who killed Matt's dad right in front of Matt, of course, who, despite his overwhelming hatred of all humans, allows Matt to live, just so Matt can take revenge 20-some years later.
There's a lot of this and that and rather pedestrian battle scenes. Mecha can merge with other mecha to make Big Mecha which somehow makes them better, although I don't see how, since they have the same missiles and guns and now they're slower but with more armor. It's not really well thought out beyond "bigger is better." Mecha can also merge with other things, like spaceships, and take over their control systems. Nanotechnology, I guess.
To be honest, I stopped paying attention to the details.
I did keep wondering why, if the ultimate super-mecha our wunderkind gets to pilot (called a Demon), can merge with spaceships, why it didn't just merge with lesser mecha and incorporate them into its systems when it got damaged. Oh, yeah, that's where the video game aspects come in: when a mecha gets injured, even with a nuclear blast, it has to spend some downtime repairing itself. It's so obviously a video game mechanic that I laughed out loud the first time it happened. Not in delight.
I paused about 2/3 of the way through this to read John Scalzi's The Human Division, which was a mistake. Reading a better book by a superior writer made it painful to come back to this one. Mecha Corps is competently written in the sense that Patton can string together words in a decent-enough fashion, but it's really not all that interesting.
I think if you're 12, this book would be awesome.
July 12, 2013
Boy, where do I even start with this. This book is the kind of train wreck people in small towns talk about in hushed tones in the corner of a roadside pub. It's absolutely legendary. It's a brilliant pick-up for every aspiring writer who wants to see what you can get away with.
And it's entertaining.
The first act of Mecha Corps is interesting, it makes you hope for more. It sets up an interesting world. characters with potential and finally a love triangle that, even though I am not a fan of this particular plot element in most stories, actually carries the novel through act 2.
However, it is here that we already notice one thing: the author either seems to like his quasi-insertion persona too much or just doesn't know how to write decent complications. Even the most dire-looking scenes - for example the first look of another cadet dying in the cockpit of his mecha - never amount to much more than the equivalent of a shrug and maybe a few grim thoughts from other characters.
The second act, as I just wrote, is mostly supported by the love triangle. Here, we start seeing the cracks. The author seems to be trying to tell us that he really, really likes Neon Genesis Evangelion. Throughout the novel, elements we see include, but are not limited to: the "perfect" (NEVER use that to describe someone!) looking warrior girl/Asuka persona, biomechanical and psionically controlled mecha, a Geofront, an overarching "we created our own demons" plotline (I'll get to that later). Well, at least we don't get Shinji Ikari.
Yet, again, we are tempted with the potential this could have but that is never fully realised.
And now to the part that I have been wanting to write throughout the entire last third of the book: what on Earth happened? Something pushed the novel from a decent read into an abyss of awfulness. Did the editor suddenly perish? Were both author and editor high on mesh? We'll never know, but what we know is this:
1. Suddenly, editing errors appear everywhere. "It's" is not possessive. "Brown-red red" is not a color, but extremely redundant. The list goes on.
2. We are completely left without any sense of scale. After a battle that is described as if it left the entire enemy fleet with massive losses while the allied base comes out of it with a few dents and tears (and comparably minor losses), apparently it is decided to cancel the entire Mecha program that was elementary for that battle to end like that. Apparently destroying the entire enemy fleet while not even losing a single base counts as defeat now.
3. Strategy and tactics. This is particularly horrifying. The allied senator in charge argues that she has thousands of undefeatable mecha at her command, but can't use them because they don't know where to strike. Once they know where to strike, she figures it's better to just send in three particularly determined pilots with prototype units alone. WHY? Where is your bloody army?! Is this law of conservation of ninjitsu in practice?
4. Multiple major plotpoints are handwaved away. A major character's struggle to control the prototype unit despite his age and experience with other units, the entire romance subplot and much more. This goes throughout the entire book. The author is so desperate to get to a battle scene that he does not explore the possibilities that lie in-between!
5. Battle scenes: You only have so many words to describe a battle between giant robots. When your final battle takes up the entire last third of the book, things WILL get boring very quickly.
6. Finally, the greatest sin I can think of is treating your readers like they are dumb while patting yourself on the back. The author has the audacity to actually point out almost every time a piece of foreshadowing (well, more like a motive re-used in a different context) falls into place.
There is also the issue with a major "twist" (the Union having created the HuMax) unfortunately being essentially a cliché that SciFi writers seem to be obligated by sacred law to implement - which makes the "twist" not at all surprising (in fact, it would have been more surprising if the HuMax had NOT been a Union creation). Maybe I just didn't pay enough attention, but I had just assumed that things were this way from the beginning. Imagine my surprise when it was passed off as a big revelation in the end. Weird.
Final nitpicks:
The author repeatedly writes POV, but means FOV (things cannot "come into your point of view" unless you're poking yourself in the eye with them).
Disney Villain death. After pointing out two dozen times that the villain might not actually be dead, boy I WONDER what this plot is going to bring.
"WEAPON SYSTEMS OFFLINE [next line] No weapons! The [enemy] could sit back and slice them to pieces!" - Thanks, I am perfectly able to read.
"They hadn't chosen their genes" - a failed attempt at establishing a theme, nearly 300 pages into a 320 page novel.
"It was pristine, untouched by the blast. [The enemy leader], [the hero] thought." - Of course, because bosses always have more HP. 10 pages later, the hero once again notices that the enemy leader is piloting that one. Consistency!
In-between the two mentions: "[Enemy leader] - or more likely one of his men - was back." If it's one of his men, and the guy you fought previously was the enemy leader, then technically he's not back, right?
Quicksilver is not a color, unless you ask a car manufacturer.
Conclusion:
This is a really easy read. My recommendation: read the first two thirds, then write the third yourself. No matter what your background and writing experience, you will probably do a much more satisfying job in tying up the plot threads and giving the characters some decent challenges.
This book would be great for the literary equivalent of a rifftrax performance. My Kindle copy has so many comments in it that basically are only sarcastic remarks and calling out plot points before they happen. It's almost performance art.
If you're a really hardcore Mecha and/or Anime fan, you'll probably get some value out of the references you'll find. If you are looking for compelling military SciFi, I'd recommend reading something else - Honor Harrington and the Ender series are both decent, so they say.
And it's entertaining.
The first act of Mecha Corps is interesting, it makes you hope for more. It sets up an interesting world. characters with potential and finally a love triangle that, even though I am not a fan of this particular plot element in most stories, actually carries the novel through act 2.
However, it is here that we already notice one thing: the author either seems to like his quasi-insertion persona too much or just doesn't know how to write decent complications. Even the most dire-looking scenes - for example the first look of another cadet dying in the cockpit of his mecha - never amount to much more than the equivalent of a shrug and maybe a few grim thoughts from other characters.
The second act, as I just wrote, is mostly supported by the love triangle. Here, we start seeing the cracks. The author seems to be trying to tell us that he really, really likes Neon Genesis Evangelion. Throughout the novel, elements we see include, but are not limited to: the "perfect" (NEVER use that to describe someone!) looking warrior girl/Asuka persona, biomechanical and psionically controlled mecha, a Geofront, an overarching "we created our own demons" plotline (I'll get to that later). Well, at least we don't get Shinji Ikari.
Yet, again, we are tempted with the potential this could have but that is never fully realised.
And now to the part that I have been wanting to write throughout the entire last third of the book: what on Earth happened? Something pushed the novel from a decent read into an abyss of awfulness. Did the editor suddenly perish? Were both author and editor high on mesh? We'll never know, but what we know is this:
1. Suddenly, editing errors appear everywhere. "It's" is not possessive. "Brown-red red" is not a color, but extremely redundant. The list goes on.
2. We are completely left without any sense of scale. After a battle that is described as if it left the entire enemy fleet with massive losses while the allied base comes out of it with a few dents and tears (and comparably minor losses), apparently it is decided to cancel the entire Mecha program that was elementary for that battle to end like that. Apparently destroying the entire enemy fleet while not even losing a single base counts as defeat now.
3. Strategy and tactics. This is particularly horrifying. The allied senator in charge argues that she has thousands of undefeatable mecha at her command, but can't use them because they don't know where to strike. Once they know where to strike, she figures it's better to just send in three particularly determined pilots with prototype units alone. WHY? Where is your bloody army?! Is this law of conservation of ninjitsu in practice?
4. Multiple major plotpoints are handwaved away. A major character's struggle to control the prototype unit despite his age and experience with other units, the entire romance subplot and much more. This goes throughout the entire book. The author is so desperate to get to a battle scene that he does not explore the possibilities that lie in-between!
5. Battle scenes: You only have so many words to describe a battle between giant robots. When your final battle takes up the entire last third of the book, things WILL get boring very quickly.
6. Finally, the greatest sin I can think of is treating your readers like they are dumb while patting yourself on the back. The author has the audacity to actually point out almost every time a piece of foreshadowing (well, more like a motive re-used in a different context) falls into place.
There is also the issue with a major "twist" (the Union having created the HuMax) unfortunately being essentially a cliché that SciFi writers seem to be obligated by sacred law to implement - which makes the "twist" not at all surprising (in fact, it would have been more surprising if the HuMax had NOT been a Union creation). Maybe I just didn't pay enough attention, but I had just assumed that things were this way from the beginning. Imagine my surprise when it was passed off as a big revelation in the end. Weird.
Final nitpicks:
The author repeatedly writes POV, but means FOV (things cannot "come into your point of view" unless you're poking yourself in the eye with them).
Disney Villain death. After pointing out two dozen times that the villain might not actually be dead, boy I WONDER what this plot is going to bring.
"WEAPON SYSTEMS OFFLINE [next line] No weapons! The [enemy] could sit back and slice them to pieces!" - Thanks, I am perfectly able to read.
"They hadn't chosen their genes" - a failed attempt at establishing a theme, nearly 300 pages into a 320 page novel.
"It was pristine, untouched by the blast. [The enemy leader], [the hero] thought." - Of course, because bosses always have more HP. 10 pages later, the hero once again notices that the enemy leader is piloting that one. Consistency!
In-between the two mentions: "[Enemy leader] - or more likely one of his men - was back." If it's one of his men, and the guy you fought previously was the enemy leader, then technically he's not back, right?
Quicksilver is not a color, unless you ask a car manufacturer.
Conclusion:
This is a really easy read. My recommendation: read the first two thirds, then write the third yourself. No matter what your background and writing experience, you will probably do a much more satisfying job in tying up the plot threads and giving the characters some decent challenges.
This book would be great for the literary equivalent of a rifftrax performance. My Kindle copy has so many comments in it that basically are only sarcastic remarks and calling out plot points before they happen. It's almost performance art.
If you're a really hardcore Mecha and/or Anime fan, you'll probably get some value out of the references you'll find. If you are looking for compelling military SciFi, I'd recommend reading something else - Honor Harrington and the Ender series are both decent, so they say.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 13, 2013
So I looked at this book last night and thought, "If I bother to finish this, that's at least an hour of my life that I will never get back."
I could give it two stars, because it wasn't as wretched as some others I've given one star, but the fact that I feel like I've wasted too much of my time on it already argues for one star. You can see how that debate worked out.
And since I've already wasted enough time on this book, I'll be (edit: try to be) brief (edit: and fail).
The main problem, from my perspective, is that the book is written in close third-person point of view, and the point-of-view character has no discernible capacity for self-reflection, which means he also has no capacity to observe and make interesting any of the other characters, either. And that's the fault of the author. Given a supposedly heroic-but-damaged protagonist (his widowed father was killed by a pirate right in front of him and he lives for revenge!!!) with this handicap, the author should have switched to multiple points of view. That would've given Patton more to work with than Matt's very limited palette of thoughts and feelings. This, by the way, is a character who's supposed to be one of "the best of the best of the best."
I'm assuming this author actually has the chops to build compelling characters. There are a few hints here and there, but the straitjacket of Matt's perceptions make it impossible to be completely sure.
Only slightly less critical is the plot-based stupidity of Matt's entire chain of command. Their debriefing procedures are non-existent, despite the fact that they *know* these Mecha things are addictive and have a history of causing psychological damage. It appears that for at least a couple of decades they've been letting this one guy (the mad scientist, er, excuse me, the pioneering military technologist) design and build these machines and put people in them and they don't really understand how any of it works. There are clear indications that something creepy is at work here, but nobody has looked into it that we know of. And neither does Mr. Perfect Recall (Matt), because it's really all about him and his revenge anyway.
Now, you can say "military necessity! Desperation! Bureaucracy!" to me, and I'll say, "Why write a book in which the main character is deliberately a hapless victim of this situation, rather than one who twigs to the fact that something's wrong and tries to figure it out?"
I think it's because the author had an idea about what the book was supposed to be like, and ruthlessly built a plot that did that, rather than one that made sense. Because seriously, just before I gave up on this book, the supposed protagonist was gloomily reflecting that he'd never be able to find the Corsair who killed his father, because he was in danger of being kicked out of the Mecha program, and he didn't want to go into Military Intelligence because then he'd never be able to find that guy!
Yup. This protagonist is no Miles Vorkosigan, I'm telling you.
Now there's a good idea - I should go re-read some of the Vorkosigan Saga, just to wash the taste of this thing out of my brain.
ETA: And I haven't even gone into the way the male gaze dominates this book. That's a whole other essay in itself.
I could give it two stars, because it wasn't as wretched as some others I've given one star, but the fact that I feel like I've wasted too much of my time on it already argues for one star. You can see how that debate worked out.
And since I've already wasted enough time on this book, I'll be (edit: try to be) brief (edit: and fail).
The main problem, from my perspective, is that the book is written in close third-person point of view, and the point-of-view character has no discernible capacity for self-reflection, which means he also has no capacity to observe and make interesting any of the other characters, either. And that's the fault of the author. Given a supposedly heroic-but-damaged protagonist (his widowed father was killed by a pirate right in front of him and he lives for revenge!!!) with this handicap, the author should have switched to multiple points of view. That would've given Patton more to work with than Matt's very limited palette of thoughts and feelings. This, by the way, is a character who's supposed to be one of "the best of the best of the best."
I'm assuming this author actually has the chops to build compelling characters. There are a few hints here and there, but the straitjacket of Matt's perceptions make it impossible to be completely sure.
Only slightly less critical is the plot-based stupidity of Matt's entire chain of command. Their debriefing procedures are non-existent, despite the fact that they *know* these Mecha things are addictive and have a history of causing psychological damage. It appears that for at least a couple of decades they've been letting this one guy (the mad scientist, er, excuse me, the pioneering military technologist) design and build these machines and put people in them and they don't really understand how any of it works. There are clear indications that something creepy is at work here, but nobody has looked into it that we know of. And neither does Mr. Perfect Recall (Matt), because it's really all about him and his revenge anyway.
Now, you can say "military necessity! Desperation! Bureaucracy!" to me, and I'll say, "Why write a book in which the main character is deliberately a hapless victim of this situation, rather than one who twigs to the fact that something's wrong and tries to figure it out?"
I think it's because the author had an idea about what the book was supposed to be like, and ruthlessly built a plot that did that, rather than one that made sense. Because seriously, just before I gave up on this book, the supposed protagonist was gloomily reflecting that he'd never be able to find the Corsair who killed his father, because he was in danger of being kicked out of the Mecha program, and he didn't want to go into Military Intelligence because then he'd never be able to find that guy!
Yup. This protagonist is no Miles Vorkosigan, I'm telling you.
Now there's a good idea - I should go re-read some of the Vorkosigan Saga, just to wash the taste of this thing out of my brain.
ETA: And I haven't even gone into the way the male gaze dominates this book. That's a whole other essay in itself.
July 8, 2013
I had a hard time categorizing my feelings toward this book. I tend to read hard science fiction, and I enjoy military science fiction, as well. However, this book didn't quite fit either one. I had to get past my hard scifi prejudice (what is "bio-metallic", anyways?), because it's clearly not meant to be that sort of book. But then I had to get past my military scifi mindset, too, when the military structure and tactics make so little sense and are so flat.
Finally I realized what this book reminds me of: This is what one of those mindless science fiction action movies with an incoherent plot would look like if it was in book form (I'm thinking Predator, although that's not quite it... maybe Battlefield Earth (the movie, which was so much inferior to the book) or Alien versus Predator). Breathlessly fast-paced and depending on special effects to cover up the fact that there really was very little plot and very few innovative ideas. A quick read, but not really worth it, to my mind.
Finally I realized what this book reminds me of: This is what one of those mindless science fiction action movies with an incoherent plot would look like if it was in book form (I'm thinking Predator, although that's not quite it... maybe Battlefield Earth (the movie, which was so much inferior to the book) or Alien versus Predator). Breathlessly fast-paced and depending on special effects to cover up the fact that there really was very little plot and very few innovative ideas. A quick read, but not really worth it, to my mind.
October 16, 2018
I wish I could've given it a 3.5. It's a decent action story, but the sci fi part is a bit lacking in realism. Also marks off for the unnecessary love dramatics.
July 20, 2016
This book started out interesting enough. You have a world where faster than light ships are made out of asteroids and you have robotic suits of armor powered by an addictive control system. The first half of the book deals with the main character's training in the use of mech. The main character, Matt, is a prodigy when it comes to integrating with machinery and is further helped by his photographic memory. The book seemed all ready to fall into that cheesy but fun category as long as it didn't take itself too seriously. But then it did. The last half of the book is where everything falls apart.
From the moment the mech were introduced into the story I was oddly reminded of the Evas from Neon Genesis Evangelion and then later, Voltron. There are a lot of mecha anime similarities in this book and while I like anime and have a warm fondness for anime with giant robots, a lot of the elements seemed thrown together for the coolness factor rather than making any sort of actual sense. You have somewhat alive machinery that's controlled with the pilot's mind, that can transform, repair itself, fuse with other machinery, and fuse with other members of its team to make a larger and more powerful version of itself.
At times I felt like I should have a bingo card.
When you have so many fantastical elements thrown together like that the realism begins to fall apart and it becomes harder to maintain suspension of disbelief. While I managed to hold onto it, there were times when I was sorely pressed to keep my grip on it in the last quarter of the book. Even most anime will use only one, possibly two, completely fantastical elements like those listed above and the better ones impose limits or drawbacks upon the technology.
By far the worst problem this book suffers from is the lack of character depth. It's less noticeable in the beginning because Matt's single-minded focus on getting into the corps is understandable while he's going through the tryouts. There's also all the world building to distract you with shiny objects. But once the characters get a breather, it becomes glaringly obvious that Matt has no depth to him. He wants revenge on the man who killed his father, and that is the sum and total of his character. The author makes a halfhearted attempt at a love triangle, but there is no connection other than that of teammates between them and the love interest, Michelle, has even less character development than Matt. The love rival may as well have been a cardboard cutout.
This is a shame because there are interesting elements that are hinted at, but ignored. We never really get to see any of the main characters introspect or really see how things effect them. Teammates die during training and the events are treated as insignificant because none of the characters really react to it.
One minor, but really irritating problem, was everyone in command ended up holding the idiot ball at the end of the book. Either that or the author suddenly forgot what military ranks mean. Matt's rank is that of a cadet, but for some reason he ends up giving orders to the ship's pilots and the sargent in charge of the mechs.
This book has a lot of problems, but it makes a good distraction if you're just looking for something you can pick up and put down to pass the time. If you go into this book trying to take it seriously, you will probably not enjoy it.
From the moment the mech were introduced into the story I was oddly reminded of the Evas from Neon Genesis Evangelion and then later, Voltron. There are a lot of mecha anime similarities in this book and while I like anime and have a warm fondness for anime with giant robots, a lot of the elements seemed thrown together for the coolness factor rather than making any sort of actual sense. You have somewhat alive machinery that's controlled with the pilot's mind, that can transform, repair itself, fuse with other machinery, and fuse with other members of its team to make a larger and more powerful version of itself.
At times I felt like I should have a bingo card.
When you have so many fantastical elements thrown together like that the realism begins to fall apart and it becomes harder to maintain suspension of disbelief. While I managed to hold onto it, there were times when I was sorely pressed to keep my grip on it in the last quarter of the book. Even most anime will use only one, possibly two, completely fantastical elements like those listed above and the better ones impose limits or drawbacks upon the technology.
By far the worst problem this book suffers from is the lack of character depth. It's less noticeable in the beginning because Matt's single-minded focus on getting into the corps is understandable while he's going through the tryouts. There's also all the world building to distract you with shiny objects. But once the characters get a breather, it becomes glaringly obvious that Matt has no depth to him. He wants revenge on the man who killed his father, and that is the sum and total of his character. The author makes a halfhearted attempt at a love triangle, but there is no connection other than that of teammates between them and the love interest, Michelle, has even less character development than Matt. The love rival may as well have been a cardboard cutout.
This is a shame because there are interesting elements that are hinted at, but ignored. We never really get to see any of the main characters introspect or really see how things effect them. Teammates die during training and the events are treated as insignificant because none of the characters really react to it.
One minor, but really irritating problem, was everyone in command ended up holding the idiot ball at the end of the book. Either that or the author suddenly forgot what military ranks mean. Matt's rank is that of a cadet, but for some reason he ends up giving orders to the ship's pilots and the sargent in charge of the mechs.
This book has a lot of problems, but it makes a good distraction if you're just looking for something you can pick up and put down to pass the time. If you go into this book trying to take it seriously, you will probably not enjoy it.
February 9, 2016
Bookworm Speaks!
Mecha Corps: A Novel of the Iron Wars
by Brett Patton
Acquired: Barnes and Nobel Booksellers
Series: Armor Wars
Mass Market Paperback: 336 Pages
Publisher: Roc
Language: English
****
The Story: Matt Lowell is in hell-and there's no place he'd rather be. At a training camp on the backwater planet of Earth, he and his fellow cadets are learning to ride Mechas: biomechanicals sporting both incredible grace and devastating firepower. Their ultimate aim is to combat the pirates of the Corsair Confederacy, but before they survive a battle, they have to survive their training.
Because every time Lowell and his comrades "plug in" to their Mechas, their minds are slowly being twisted and broken by an unseen power that is neither man...nor machine.
The Review: This book has been described as Robert A. Heinlein meets Neon Genesis Evangelion and Bookworm has to agree with that assessment. This book starts off in a very promising military sci-fi action in the vein of Starship Troopers and other classical fiction.
A little bit of backstory: Evangelion is an Japanese animation or anime/manga that is considered by many to a groundbreaking series that deconstructs a lot of the Mech tropes that have long been a mainstay of anime. However, Evangelion has been described as a very confusing franchise and this book falls into the same trap while trying to do something different.
The influence of anime very high both in the mech sections as well as a bit of characterization. The mechs are not like what one would expect in a westernized novel, especially one about the military. They are technological but there is a great deal of organic matter. It is frequently remarked that the mechs feel alive. This is a dead ringer for several influential anime.
Matt is good character but he is good in the way Johnnie Rico is in Starship Troopers, in that he is more of an audience surrogate. We see his backstory and it is an interesting one, he motivation being revenge for the death of his father.
One of the positives of the character though is how there is a love triangle and a tentative romance between Matt and the female lead, but they do not end up in a bed together. Bookworm was expecting them to consummate almost through the entire final third. The fact that they didn’t is a welcome break from expectations. It is good to break expectations because ending up in bed is almost a mainstay of popular fiction. Breaking cliches is great way to surprise the reader.
As one can see though, that is not enough to salvage the third act, as Bookworm can’t remember exactly the female lead’s name. Several other characters fall through the gaps as well.
There are great deal of gaps when recalling this book, which is not a good sign on the quality of the text. Some parts work well but they make the flaws look even worse by contrast.
The setting is too good. Bookworm remembers passages about Earth but very few about the characters. It makes sense that Earth would become a backwater in the future. Everyone who matters has rocketed off to the shiny new colonies, leaving the homeworld behind.
Final Verdict: This series has a lot of potential and the author does deserve credit for trying to pay homage to two very influential areas of sci-fi, all the while blending them into something unique. The story is what pulls the thing through but unfortunately the execution falls flat while trying to combine the wrong things and ends up a bit of a mess.
Will Bookworm read the next volumes in the series? Perhaps one day, probably not soon.
Three out of Five Stars
thecultureworm.blogspot.com
Mecha Corps: A Novel of the Iron Wars
by Brett Patton
Acquired: Barnes and Nobel Booksellers
Series: Armor Wars
Mass Market Paperback: 336 Pages
Publisher: Roc
Language: English
****
The Story: Matt Lowell is in hell-and there's no place he'd rather be. At a training camp on the backwater planet of Earth, he and his fellow cadets are learning to ride Mechas: biomechanicals sporting both incredible grace and devastating firepower. Their ultimate aim is to combat the pirates of the Corsair Confederacy, but before they survive a battle, they have to survive their training.
Because every time Lowell and his comrades "plug in" to their Mechas, their minds are slowly being twisted and broken by an unseen power that is neither man...nor machine.
The Review: This book has been described as Robert A. Heinlein meets Neon Genesis Evangelion and Bookworm has to agree with that assessment. This book starts off in a very promising military sci-fi action in the vein of Starship Troopers and other classical fiction.
A little bit of backstory: Evangelion is an Japanese animation or anime/manga that is considered by many to a groundbreaking series that deconstructs a lot of the Mech tropes that have long been a mainstay of anime. However, Evangelion has been described as a very confusing franchise and this book falls into the same trap while trying to do something different.
The influence of anime very high both in the mech sections as well as a bit of characterization. The mechs are not like what one would expect in a westernized novel, especially one about the military. They are technological but there is a great deal of organic matter. It is frequently remarked that the mechs feel alive. This is a dead ringer for several influential anime.
Matt is good character but he is good in the way Johnnie Rico is in Starship Troopers, in that he is more of an audience surrogate. We see his backstory and it is an interesting one, he motivation being revenge for the death of his father.
One of the positives of the character though is how there is a love triangle and a tentative romance between Matt and the female lead, but they do not end up in a bed together. Bookworm was expecting them to consummate almost through the entire final third. The fact that they didn’t is a welcome break from expectations. It is good to break expectations because ending up in bed is almost a mainstay of popular fiction. Breaking cliches is great way to surprise the reader.
As one can see though, that is not enough to salvage the third act, as Bookworm can’t remember exactly the female lead’s name. Several other characters fall through the gaps as well.
There are great deal of gaps when recalling this book, which is not a good sign on the quality of the text. Some parts work well but they make the flaws look even worse by contrast.
The setting is too good. Bookworm remembers passages about Earth but very few about the characters. It makes sense that Earth would become a backwater in the future. Everyone who matters has rocketed off to the shiny new colonies, leaving the homeworld behind.
Final Verdict: This series has a lot of potential and the author does deserve credit for trying to pay homage to two very influential areas of sci-fi, all the while blending them into something unique. The story is what pulls the thing through but unfortunately the execution falls flat while trying to combine the wrong things and ends up a bit of a mess.
Will Bookworm read the next volumes in the series? Perhaps one day, probably not soon.
Three out of Five Stars
thecultureworm.blogspot.com
April 16, 2014
Mecha Corps was a fun military-mecha run into a sci-fi future. I could best sum it up as a cross between Starship Troopers and Evangelion/Transformers. I plowed through this book in a couple days and I found it engaging.
Matt Lowell was recruited into the most elite and secret military organization in the galaxy, the Mecha Corps. Pilots of super secret mecha technology, they are the most potent weapons in the Universal Union. Matt has to prove himself worthy of joining the Corps, and then hopes to avenge the death of his father once he has done that.
Overall I found this to be a very fun book and I look forward to reading the sequel, Mecha Rogue. If I had one complaint, I felt the denouement at the end was a little lackluster. After a couple hundred pages of hard action and need for revenge, it was a little unsatisfying.
Overall, 4/5 stars for an original book that has some really interesting mech ideas and technology set in a not-too heavy military scifi military environment. Good stuff!
Matt Lowell was recruited into the most elite and secret military organization in the galaxy, the Mecha Corps. Pilots of super secret mecha technology, they are the most potent weapons in the Universal Union. Matt has to prove himself worthy of joining the Corps, and then hopes to avenge the death of his father once he has done that.
Overall I found this to be a very fun book and I look forward to reading the sequel, Mecha Rogue. If I had one complaint, I felt the denouement at the end was a little lackluster. After a couple hundred pages of hard action and need for revenge, it was a little unsatisfying.
Overall, 4/5 stars for an original book that has some really interesting mech ideas and technology set in a not-too heavy military scifi military environment. Good stuff!
February 10, 2017
annoying and unlikable protagonists. each killer weapon and super weapon gets exceeded by the next as we keep leveling up. more video game than novel. yuck.
December 27, 2012
This book makes me sad. It has the potential to be good. The concept of Mesh and Merging with a biomechanical mecha being an addictive high? That could be mined to create some really powerful moments. The hints that the Demon mecha has its own intelligence and personality that it forces on the pilots? That could be interesting as well. But, instead, everything was abandoned for action. And during the action sequences, big chunks are left out so as to leave you unsure what the hell just happened.
Don't read this book. Even coming from someone who is forgiving of the use of tropes and standardized storyline, it is just crap with a few good ideas sprinkled in.
Don't read this book. Even coming from someone who is forgiving of the use of tropes and standardized storyline, it is just crap with a few good ideas sprinkled in.
November 23, 2012
A scant ten pages in, it became clear that Brett Patton was going to shoot himself in the foot at every available opportunity. I finished it on principle, and the only enjoyment I got out of it were a handful of "so bad it's comical" moments.
The characters had the combined depth of a teaspoon. We all know total originality is a myth by now, but that doesn't make it okay that there was so little to distingusih Matt Lowell from Luke Skywalker, Kyle Peterov from Draco Malfoy, or Dr. Roth from every mad scientist ever written.
The characters had the combined depth of a teaspoon. We all know total originality is a myth by now, but that doesn't make it okay that there was so little to distingusih Matt Lowell from Luke Skywalker, Kyle Peterov from Draco Malfoy, or Dr. Roth from every mad scientist ever written.
February 4, 2012
I picked this book up from an understocked Barnes and Noble (I really miss Borders) because I needed a book to read that evening. I was expecting a cheap read, but was pleasantly surprised by how interesting this story was. Normally "mecha" means "suck", but not in this case. I'd be interested to see more from this author.
January 23, 2013
Basically a novelization of a Robotech cartoon. Characters are fairly flimsy but the tech is neat and since I think that's basically the point of a novel like this it does it job. It tries to throw in some meaning with the factions Union/HuMax/Pirates and there relationships and it does make the novel readable at least.
Good for what it is.
Good for what it is.
September 8, 2014
I really enjoyed the book. It's one of the few books that truly focuses on Mechs, and that right there made me happy. As I read the book, it definately felt the author was influenced by Mecha anime. Which was indeed the case when I read up more about the author.
It was fun, and filled a niche genre of mecha fiction which I would like to see more of!
It was fun, and filled a niche genre of mecha fiction which I would like to see more of!
January 2, 2013
Interesting, but not great. Reminds me a bit of Robert Heinlein. Although the book has a complete ending rather than a cliffhanger, you don't lose track of this being the first in a continuing series. I would prefer to have a bit more of a complete plot/adventure for this one story.
May 9, 2017
This is a really, really cool mech-warrior book!
The only bad thing about it is that the story is so compressed. Fast-paced does not have to mean "I write it in 10 pages instead of 100". The story in this book could easily have been expanded to three full books, all very exciting and captivating.
The only bad thing about it is that the story is so compressed. Fast-paced does not have to mean "I write it in 10 pages instead of 100". The story in this book could easily have been expanded to three full books, all very exciting and captivating.
January 24, 2013
There was some action, but the characters didn't really pull me into the story. I will try to finish it some other time.
September 11, 2013
Pretty entertaining for some mindless reading. The story draws you along but is somewhat predictable
June 12, 2012
Some of the wildest mechanical armor sci-fi I have ever read.
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