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Combat-K #1
War Machine
In a time of post-Singularity and FTL travel, the Helix War has raged across galaxies. Ex-soldier Keenan now works as a private investigator on a planet at the peaceful fringes of the Quad-Gal. Following the brutal death of his family he’s run up hefty debts, gained a bad reputation and become a heavy drinker. When a prince from the Jervai Province offers him a case on a dangerous colony world in exchange for clues that may lead him to his family’s murderer, he accepts the job without hesitation. However, to have any chance of success he must gather together his old military unit, a group who swore they’d never work together again...
“Non-stop blood-and-guts action thriller.” - SciFi.com
“Hard-hitting, galaxy-spanning, no-holds-barred, old-fashioned action adventure.” - The Guardian
“Non-stop blood-and-guts action thriller.” - SciFi.com
“Hard-hitting, galaxy-spanning, no-holds-barred, old-fashioned action adventure.” - The Guardian
404 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2007
16 people are currently reading
200 people want to read
About the author
Andy Remic
51 books182 followersAndy Remic lives in Lincoln, UK, although his heart and viking soul belong to the Scottish mountains. Married with two children, Andy has a variety of esoteric and sometimes contrasting loves, including sword fighting, climbing, mountain biking, kick-boxing, Ducati motorcycles and retro-gaming. He recently wrote the computer version of his novel Biohell for the 48K Spectrum, in which many people are still stuck. He writes in both SF and fantasy fields, and is sometimes accused of literature. Current novels include: Spiral, Quake, Warhead, War Machine, Biohell, Hardcore and the upcoming Cloneworld, Theme Planet and TOX for Solaris Books, and the Kell’s Legend trilogy, Kell’s Legend, Soul Stealers and Vampire Warlords for Angry Robot Books.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
October 13, 2009
The story was interesting, but the execution was sloppy, and his willingness to throw in absurd and bizarre names for people, places and things was distracting. One of the main characters was named Franco Haggis. I kid you not, and that wasn't the worst, by any means.
Also, his editor should have talked him into rewriting the final chapter, which read like his word processor was on bad drugs. When the author tells the reader that something CAN'T be done by a robot, and then the little robot sidekick does it anyway in the last chapter...that part read like he had written himself into a corner, and hoped the readers didn't notice the characters escaping through a hole in the plot.
The main characters are all quite insane, and know it, but the difficulty is that the reader then has no idea what they can and will do. Two of the three did things that I would have sworn were totally out of character as I was reading the book, and in both cases it affected the story.
The little robot, which could be seriously damaged by a human fist, but not sabotaged by a high-tech unstoppable assassin, was like an R2-D2 from the planet Krypton. Truly amazing, as gadgets go...but as part of the plot, an annoying little McGuffin that could do anything that the particular chapter required.
If you want military SF, and have run out of books by Gordon Dickson, David Weber, David Drake, Tanya Huff, Steve White, Fred Saberhagen, Keith Laumer, John Scalzi and John Ringo, then go ahead and give this a try.
Also, his editor should have talked him into rewriting the final chapter, which read like his word processor was on bad drugs. When the author tells the reader that something CAN'T be done by a robot, and then the little robot sidekick does it anyway in the last chapter...that part read like he had written himself into a corner, and hoped the readers didn't notice the characters escaping through a hole in the plot.
The main characters are all quite insane, and know it, but the difficulty is that the reader then has no idea what they can and will do. Two of the three did things that I would have sworn were totally out of character as I was reading the book, and in both cases it affected the story.
The little robot, which could be seriously damaged by a human fist, but not sabotaged by a high-tech unstoppable assassin, was like an R2-D2 from the planet Krypton. Truly amazing, as gadgets go...but as part of the plot, an annoying little McGuffin that could do anything that the particular chapter required.
If you want military SF, and have run out of books by Gordon Dickson, David Weber, David Drake, Tanya Huff, Steve White, Fred Saberhagen, Keith Laumer, John Scalzi and John Ringo, then go ahead and give this a try.
November 12, 2018
Hard to read. Poorly written and very sexist.
October 13, 2020
A decent story ruined by poor writing. The characters were interesting, if a little 2-dimensional, and the story kept me reading, but immersion is vital to enjoying a story, and the author's poor world-building, implausible physics and weak style kept pushing me out of the story.
The topper, though, was the ending. I'm going to paraphrase it, but it's still a spoiler:
That is a horrible ending. It's worse than a cliff-hanger. It's worse than "And then they woke up." It's the worst ending I've ever read. (And I read a lot!) . It made me want to throw my reader across the room! Wading through the author's implausible planets and impossible physics* only to get an ending like that made the entire book a waste of time.
_____
*Yes, I realize it's Action-Adventure Sci-FI, not Hard Sci-Fi, but it IS Sci-Fi, and you have to get at least the basic science right, even in an Action-Adventure story, or it's crappy Sci-Fi.
The topper, though, was the ending. I'm going to paraphrase it, but it's still a spoiler:
That is a horrible ending. It's worse than a cliff-hanger. It's worse than "And then they woke up." It's the worst ending I've ever read. (And I read a lot!) . It made me want to throw my reader across the room! Wading through the author's implausible planets and impossible physics* only to get an ending like that made the entire book a waste of time.
_____
*Yes, I realize it's Action-Adventure Sci-FI, not Hard Sci-Fi, but it IS Sci-Fi, and you have to get at least the basic science right, even in an Action-Adventure story, or it's crappy Sci-Fi.
March 21, 2017
Insane action. Explosions. Fights. Alien monsters. Killer robot dogs. Varied settings.
This book has it all. And it is what is it is. Remic isn't trying to do anything deep and meaningful, characters who have musings over life, meaning to existence and so on, or a overly complicated Gaiman like book. It is a straight up combat science fiction. Tough characters in tough situations.
Yes, the characters aren't all that deep, but they have personalities and banter and a weird friendship.
It is very fast paced, but you do not get bored, or start to skim read it just to get to the end.
The action scenes are well described and there are some brutal and hard hitting sections on the book.
An easy read and sometimes you need to read a book like this.
This book has it all. And it is what is it is. Remic isn't trying to do anything deep and meaningful, characters who have musings over life, meaning to existence and so on, or a overly complicated Gaiman like book. It is a straight up combat science fiction. Tough characters in tough situations.
Yes, the characters aren't all that deep, but they have personalities and banter and a weird friendship.
It is very fast paced, but you do not get bored, or start to skim read it just to get to the end.
The action scenes are well described and there are some brutal and hard hitting sections on the book.
An easy read and sometimes you need to read a book like this.
February 20, 2023
Gag! "...words tickling his ear...the tension of her steel-coiled body pressing against his...", one of the milder passages right in the middle of a firefight? Again, gag! Sorry not much for Harlequin Romances, although of course there is an audience out there somewhere for those I'm sure. Still wish they wouldn't list garbage like this under the heading of "...rock-hard military science fiction." It is neither 'rock-hard' nor is it really science fiction. Why authors of this ilk think the liberal and random application of adverbs and adjectives interspaced with sexual nuance at nearly every stroke of the pen somehow associates their name with good writing is beyond me. Gag!
August 27, 2021
Not good. The writing was so bad that I couldn't get through hardly any of this book. It felt like some of the book was written by one person and then the next chapter would be completely different like it was written by another person. The story had some promise but the poor writing just destroyed any hope that this book could be even mediocre, let alone good. Unfortunately I paid for this book and I am annoyed that I am DNF-ing it at 16%. 1 out of 5 stars, I highly recommend that read something else, anything else over reading this book.
March 12, 2025
so bad it’s not good
So wanted to like this and the so bad it’s good reviews made me keep going but 54% left I just couldn’t face it any longer. A clearly African type character being called juju?? Really. writing style is all over the place and characters frequently say things that just don’t fit cheesy dialogue too much talk about one dimension or emotional backstory. Yes the action scenes are okay but overall I have to say this is the worst book. I’ve tried to read and quite a long time.
So wanted to like this and the so bad it’s good reviews made me keep going but 54% left I just couldn’t face it any longer. A clearly African type character being called juju?? Really. writing style is all over the place and characters frequently say things that just don’t fit cheesy dialogue too much talk about one dimension or emotional backstory. Yes the action scenes are okay but overall I have to say this is the worst book. I’ve tried to read and quite a long time.
December 25, 2014
Not, I have to say, terribly impressed.
I was enthusiastically searching for a bit of battle/sci-fi/space opera reading and I thought this might serve. I did finish it, but I had to resort to skim reading a few times to do it.
First point of contention I will mention is the... let us call them tributes and hope they were intentional.
Cam, the garrulous, opinionated comic relief. All Hail C3PO of Star Wars.
The ex-military specialist team. The leader’s first action when reforming is to break the insane dude out of a maximum security mental hospital. Any guesses? Surely I am not the only person who remembers the 80’s TV show A-Team?
The City. A planet that has become one huge, rollicking city... where have I heard that one before?
Another less than joyous thing about this book is that the author vacillates between exceptionally floral, adjective ridden writing and a blunt clipped style of writing. This is a time honoured tactic of setting scenes and creating individual personalities. Unfortunately the individuals seem to slip from one manner of speech to another; basically the styles are not used consistently enough to do anything but cause confusion.
The plot builders are incredibly predictable. Perhaps it is just that I read a LOT, and have read a LOT of sci-fi over the years but all the things that should have been a bit of a shock I saw coming miles away. So this is a spoiler alert; not that you really need one as the book does such a great job of telegraphing its coming moves all on its own.
And in a final rant; what is his thing with kids? I am meant to believe that a hardened killer goes gooey the second you show her some sprogs? Alien sprogs at that? And just about every character, no matter who they are seems reverent of kids.
Except paedophiles, which seem to be the author’s version of the devil and whom he definitely does not like. I found it an unlikely element to use to bond alien species and cultures. Even here on Earth, different cultures do not agree on child sex and over the last one hundred years the attitudes to children’s place in society have changed so dramatically within a single society that I find it difficult to accept hate of paedophiles as the one common denominator of all alien cultures. Just saying.
Maybe Andy is a dad and he really loves his kids, but this level of kid devotion is kind of out of place in the style of novel I thought I was getting out of the library.
I did finish it... or wait... did I? Was that really an ending or merely a unsubtle way of saying 'get the fuck out there and buy my next book'. I decline.
I was enthusiastically searching for a bit of battle/sci-fi/space opera reading and I thought this might serve. I did finish it, but I had to resort to skim reading a few times to do it.
First point of contention I will mention is the... let us call them tributes and hope they were intentional.
Cam, the garrulous, opinionated comic relief. All Hail C3PO of Star Wars.
The ex-military specialist team. The leader’s first action when reforming is to break the insane dude out of a maximum security mental hospital. Any guesses? Surely I am not the only person who remembers the 80’s TV show A-Team?
The City. A planet that has become one huge, rollicking city... where have I heard that one before?
Another less than joyous thing about this book is that the author vacillates between exceptionally floral, adjective ridden writing and a blunt clipped style of writing. This is a time honoured tactic of setting scenes and creating individual personalities. Unfortunately the individuals seem to slip from one manner of speech to another; basically the styles are not used consistently enough to do anything but cause confusion.
The plot builders are incredibly predictable. Perhaps it is just that I read a LOT, and have read a LOT of sci-fi over the years but all the things that should have been a bit of a shock I saw coming miles away. So this is a spoiler alert; not that you really need one as the book does such a great job of telegraphing its coming moves all on its own.
And in a final rant; what is his thing with kids? I am meant to believe that a hardened killer goes gooey the second you show her some sprogs? Alien sprogs at that? And just about every character, no matter who they are seems reverent of kids.
Except paedophiles, which seem to be the author’s version of the devil and whom he definitely does not like. I found it an unlikely element to use to bond alien species and cultures. Even here on Earth, different cultures do not agree on child sex and over the last one hundred years the attitudes to children’s place in society have changed so dramatically within a single society that I find it difficult to accept hate of paedophiles as the one common denominator of all alien cultures. Just saying.
Maybe Andy is a dad and he really loves his kids, but this level of kid devotion is kind of out of place in the style of novel I thought I was getting out of the library.
I did finish it... or wait... did I? Was that really an ending or merely a unsubtle way of saying 'get the fuck out there and buy my next book'. I decline.
August 15, 2012
Andy Remic is the Two-Face of action-centric science fiction. One minute, he's barraging me with seemingly endless melodrama and atrociously bad dialogue. The next, his characters are chewing through great scenery in some shockingly decent action scenes. He's a bit of a guilty pleasure, especially since I'll read just about any jumped-up military/action science fiction I can get my hands on. But on a technical level, his novel War Machine just doesn't pass muster.
It's one thing to say your characters are badasses, as the seemingly elite and mysterious Combat K are supposed to be. Well, it's a bit hard to be a badass character when you're stopping to mope and talk about your feelings every five minutes. The three members of Combat K have an embarassing case of diarrhea of the mouth when it comes to the touchy-feely. And when they're not talking about their emotions for each other, they're often spouting off ludicrously bad jokes and tough-guy machismo bullshit. If the emo talk had been left on the cutting room floor, the grunty surliness and terrible jokes could have been almost forgivable. As it is, I think I nearly broke my eyeballs (again) from rolling them.
It's too bad, too, because there are some merits to War Machine. The action scenes growl along with a nice level of intensity. I am severely annoyed at the liberal sprinkling of the cliffhanger chapter endings, which inevitably have characters facing "certain" death only to have something miraculous occur to save them, yet again. Seriously, it's worse than Dan Brown's chapter endings and beginnings. Yeah. It's that bad.
Still, those action elements, save for that one annoyance, are good. You can practically hear the explosions and the gunfire. The technology in the novel, while not exactly inspired, is covered in breezy strokes, with an intriguing backstory to the development of mankind and its spread to the stars. Remic includes a lot of modern products and companies as imagined thosuands of years down the line, which is interesting - but it's also a bit jarring, because he rarely mentions product names or companies that would have existed beyond today and before the events of the story. In several thousands of years, perhaps even dozens, there haven't been any new companies? And British accents are apparently the norm? That's an amateurish oversight, a glaring one among the otherwise neat backdrop of an intriguing galaxy.
And despite all these complaints and the low score, I find myself kind of enjoying Remic's work. There's nothing the mind can really grab onto and chew, but it's an easily digestible book with some promise. For most, that's probably not going to be enough.
It's one thing to say your characters are badasses, as the seemingly elite and mysterious Combat K are supposed to be. Well, it's a bit hard to be a badass character when you're stopping to mope and talk about your feelings every five minutes. The three members of Combat K have an embarassing case of diarrhea of the mouth when it comes to the touchy-feely. And when they're not talking about their emotions for each other, they're often spouting off ludicrously bad jokes and tough-guy machismo bullshit. If the emo talk had been left on the cutting room floor, the grunty surliness and terrible jokes could have been almost forgivable. As it is, I think I nearly broke my eyeballs (again) from rolling them.
It's too bad, too, because there are some merits to War Machine. The action scenes growl along with a nice level of intensity. I am severely annoyed at the liberal sprinkling of the cliffhanger chapter endings, which inevitably have characters facing "certain" death only to have something miraculous occur to save them, yet again. Seriously, it's worse than Dan Brown's chapter endings and beginnings. Yeah. It's that bad.
Still, those action elements, save for that one annoyance, are good. You can practically hear the explosions and the gunfire. The technology in the novel, while not exactly inspired, is covered in breezy strokes, with an intriguing backstory to the development of mankind and its spread to the stars. Remic includes a lot of modern products and companies as imagined thosuands of years down the line, which is interesting - but it's also a bit jarring, because he rarely mentions product names or companies that would have existed beyond today and before the events of the story. In several thousands of years, perhaps even dozens, there haven't been any new companies? And British accents are apparently the norm? That's an amateurish oversight, a glaring one among the otherwise neat backdrop of an intriguing galaxy.
And despite all these complaints and the low score, I find myself kind of enjoying Remic's work. There's nothing the mind can really grab onto and chew, but it's an easily digestible book with some promise. For most, that's probably not going to be enough.
August 22, 2011
Unfortunately this really was not a good book. The three main characters aren't very interesting, and the over all plot feels just like a D&D quest module I played back in eighth grade.
The book has a pretty good opening but from there it just goes down hill. The characters, regardless of the danger they're in, will always have a deus ex machina moment that saves them. They were supposed to be a special ops team but didn't not feel like the author did any sort of research into military group dynamics. Authors like Eric Flint, John Ringo and David Weber have the military SF down to a science.
The over all writing seemed amateurish like a horny high school kid wrote it. Even though the characters are on this revenge soaked quest, and are being hunted—they still constantly stop to have sex, or think about it, or talk about it. There's nothing wrong with putting sex scenes in a book, but when you shoehorn them in they serve no purpose other than to bring the assumption that the author is a very lonely man. Added to that the writing seemed very amateurish. An example, from the book, "…I do not want to end up dead because, I am Mr. Max!" another example of the poor writing is the author uses the same words to describe things. He's a huge fan of the word, "Umbilical" . If one of the characters reached out to another it would be referred to as an umbilical, a bridge would be described as an umbilical. It just got old. I understand it's science fiction but if you're going for a military scfi story I feel you need to anchor the story with more solid science and military feel. Having a sword made from a single molecule is just not going to work for me.
The big reveals were easy to figure out so the end of the book, when they were revealed it just didn't matter. On top of that the ending of the book was completely and utterly unsatisfying.
The book has a pretty good opening but from there it just goes down hill. The characters, regardless of the danger they're in, will always have a deus ex machina moment that saves them. They were supposed to be a special ops team but didn't not feel like the author did any sort of research into military group dynamics. Authors like Eric Flint, John Ringo and David Weber have the military SF down to a science.
The over all writing seemed amateurish like a horny high school kid wrote it. Even though the characters are on this revenge soaked quest, and are being hunted—they still constantly stop to have sex, or think about it, or talk about it. There's nothing wrong with putting sex scenes in a book, but when you shoehorn them in they serve no purpose other than to bring the assumption that the author is a very lonely man. Added to that the writing seemed very amateurish. An example, from the book, "…I do not want to end up dead because, I am Mr. Max!" another example of the poor writing is the author uses the same words to describe things. He's a huge fan of the word, "Umbilical" . If one of the characters reached out to another it would be referred to as an umbilical, a bridge would be described as an umbilical. It just got old. I understand it's science fiction but if you're going for a military scfi story I feel you need to anchor the story with more solid science and military feel. Having a sword made from a single molecule is just not going to work for me.
The big reveals were easy to figure out so the end of the book, when they were revealed it just didn't matter. On top of that the ending of the book was completely and utterly unsatisfying.
February 27, 2009
This is the high octane summer blockbuster action movie version of sci-fi. Aliens, Total Recall, Commando, and Predator all rolled up into one well-paced package. The novel follows Keenan and his Combat-K squad on a quest to recover an item that may lead him to discover the individual that killed his family. The quest is only a backdrop for an exploration of the bonds between the members of the Combat-K squad, the politics and other forces that are moving them, and the mysterious history of the Combat-K Universe. The novel is full of unique characters, from the dry witted security bot Cam to the bat-shit crazy Franco (think Murdoch from the A-Team but violent and slightly more delusional), and big action set pieces that keep what is familiar ground remain interesting.
I can’t say I was a big fan of the ending but the entirety of War Machine, from its breakneck action to surprising plot twists certainly made it an enjoyable read. I still prefer the more epic scale of Space Opera but this novel does the down and dirty damned fine.
I can’t say I was a big fan of the ending but the entirety of War Machine, from its breakneck action to surprising plot twists certainly made it an enjoyable read. I still prefer the more epic scale of Space Opera but this novel does the down and dirty damned fine.
August 11, 2016
It's full of action, excitement, and just a little bit of sex. That being said, it's a somewhat decent read, with the action being good, and the language being decent, but not much of anything else. Cookie-cutter characters, military hardware sometimes bordering on the ridiculous (RPN = win!), and a plot that my disbelief suspenders held up for all of 2 seconds before snapping. Despite that, and the fact that it's going into the discard bag, I have another one somewhere in the stack and I fully intend to read it. (Note: have read the sequel since then. It was notably worse.)
*RPN = "Rocket-Propelled Nuke". Yes, with a shoulder launcher. Yes, it's a good thing - anyone using it is too *dumb* to reproduce afterwards.
*RPN = "Rocket-Propelled Nuke". Yes, with a shoulder launcher. Yes, it's a good thing - anyone using it is too *dumb* to reproduce afterwards.
May 28, 2013
I wasn't expecting much from this book and it didn't disappoint. Actually, thats not right. Let me rephrase that. I really, really enjoyed This author's clockwork vampire trilogy and was hoping for more of the same. I didn't get it here. It had action, sex, humor and military terminology and acronyms mixed together in interplanetary hi adventure, but it got bogged down with just too much mind boggling descriptions of action and hi tech stuff. It was good for a quick beach/ pool read despite the paperbacks thickness. I finished it in two days, though I did find myself skipping/ flipping through multiple pages at a time, to get to the next interesting bit. 2 stars only. Buy it used.
July 23, 2012
Well the book had an interesting idea plot and it started out pretty good, but a lot of the plot lines were predictable after a while, I won't speak more about them so as not to give away any spoilers but, after reading the book, which is over 600 pages long, and getting to the end I was just like...okay..really? So I don't think I'll be reading any more of them unless I'm very bored or in need of a large book to keep me occupied.
May 22, 2015
If I was reading this book online"," I would expect to find hyperlinks to game websites. There is a lot of action in this novel. Keenan is an ex-soldier mourning the murders of his wife and daughters. Seeking revenge"," he accepts a contract to steal the Fractured Emerald"," an artifact which could tell him the identity of the killer. But to succeed"," he must reconstitute his old Combat-K squad.Reads like a game"," and one is surely in the offing. There are sequels.
August 18, 2012
To be honest, wasn't that good or really what I was looking for. The author is very good at cliffhangers, but overuses them, literally almost every chapter ends with a cliffhanger. Overall the characters are not that believable and have scenes where their personality seems to abruptly change for no apparent reason. But I gave it 2 stars cause it does a bring a fantasy element back into sci-fi
December 20, 2013
So, this was a fun, quick read. Some of it was silly, but it made sense in the story and setting. As long as you don't take it that seriously, its fairly good.
Not really sure about the character interactions at the end, especially when the big reveal happened. Oh well.
Not really sure about the character interactions at the end, especially when the big reveal happened. Oh well.
July 10, 2015
I generally like military scifi. A good action scene can really carry the story. But there does have to be a story. This book had a few decent (not great) action scenes, but the story as all over the place and made no sense.
February 2, 2009
This book is susprising, very susprising. With all of the twists and turns..........and the final boom in the end leaves you on the edge of your seat
December 11, 2011
Meh - nothing to write home about. Parts of it were okay, but the ending, if you can call it one lacked any kind of resolution. More like a "to be continued". Thre reader has to assume the ending.
September 11, 2012
Great action from beginning to end. The end was really crazy but left a smile on my face. Check it out its a ball buster of a ride of bullets, blood some sex and a lot of dead aliens!!
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews