Trial by Fire

The Guardians #2

by Richard Austin

Out of the ashes comes America's fighting best. The Guardians, an elite four-man survival team trained to hair-trigger tautness, have been entrusted with freedom's last the top-secret Blueprint for Renewal.Having safely delivered the President across a thousand mile hell run from ravaged Washington to the impregnable midwestern fortress called Heartland-the Guardians are ready for step scour the four corners of a country gone mad and secure the high-tech experts needed to put the Blueprint into operation!But this time, even the Guardians' awesome combat skills and devastating personal weaponry may not be enough...

Genres: Post Apocalyptic, Action

231 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 1, 1985

About the author

Richard Austin is a pseudonym of Victor Milán

Reviews

[Wayne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read book 15 a few years ago and liked it some what. I found more volumes in the series since, thought the time was right and started in with book #2. Was a little let down to tell the truth. Although we get references from "Mad Max." "The Road Warrior." And lesser known Post Apocalyptic film, "Battle Truck", we never get that sort of full tilt action. This is standard action fair that just happens to take place after World War III.

The Guardians are a four piece unit that is entrusted to help put America back together again. They set out to find "The Blueprint For Renewal", experts with the knowledge to get things going again. They are up against The New Dispensation, a religious cult that takes what they can and kills all they see.

This could of turned into some crazy mad action fun, but peters out with way to much talk. The book was a hefty, for this kind of book anyway, 231 pages. It could of been slimmed down for better excitement.

[Paperbackbooks86 · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Guardians: Trial by Fire suffered the same problems as the first book. For whatever reason, the author puts way more than needs to be, in every chapter. He tends to over detail every event, object and story, to the point where it becomes so disjointed and confusing. Numerous times I had to go back and reread paragraphs, just to make sure I was understanding exactly what was going on, or I found myself drifting off from boredom. I know we are not supposed to judge books by their covers, but I have to assume that the next two books will follow this annoying flaw, before the whole spectrum changes in book five.

I come to this conclusion simply due to the cover art. The first four books have the same feel. White cover, with the four Guardians on the front. However; on book five and moving forward, the covers look like 80's action movie posters and seem to go in the direction of other 1980's war novels. Pure speculation and guess work, but what I think happened, Richard Austin originally wanted to write a serious men military series similar to a Tom Clancy series, and tried to fluff up his novels with long explanations and descriptions to read more than what they were.

By book four, people just wanted pure WW3 action and the series was changed. Again, this is all guess work on my part, and the reason I'm going to keep reading the series in order. In fact, I bought book #5 first at a flea market, and read the first chapter, and said, ok I will start at book #1, and from chapter 1 of book 1 and book 5 I could see a difference. So time will tell.

With all that being said, the book is great. It would be an easy 5 stars and one of my favorite men's action novels! The characters are all likeable, and I really enjoy the post apocalyptic storyline in this book. I never give spoilers away in my reviews, but this was a cool twist that I have yet to read in the post WW3 books.

Trial by Fire is a MUCH better book than it's predecessor, and I'm glad I didn't give up on the series. However; the unnecessary word salad is enough to make me take a break on the series before I jump into book 3.