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The War Machines #1
War Machines
Librarian note: An alternative cover for this ASIN can be found here.
What if your body and mind weren't yours anymore, and everything that made you who you were was just something that could be deleted in an instant?
Aloysius Leigh is a former elite soldier turned high-tech thief. In the aftermath of a heist gone sideways, the technology he was meant to steal invades his body—and leaves him holding the bag for murder.
While the explosive technology seizes control of his body, Leigh must also do battle in the real world as he is hunted by the Russian mob, the FBI, and his former counterterrorist unit who would like nothing more than to get their hands on the dangerous machines swimming around inside of him and who definitely wouldn't care how.
Leigh is alone and running out of time in a war where his very body and mind are the prize. He is outmanned and outgunned—with no friends, no allies, and nowhere to turn.
In order to survive, Leigh must embrace the unthinkable.
Evolution means war.
What if your body and mind weren't yours anymore, and everything that made you who you were was just something that could be deleted in an instant?
Aloysius Leigh is a former elite soldier turned high-tech thief. In the aftermath of a heist gone sideways, the technology he was meant to steal invades his body—and leaves him holding the bag for murder.
While the explosive technology seizes control of his body, Leigh must also do battle in the real world as he is hunted by the Russian mob, the FBI, and his former counterterrorist unit who would like nothing more than to get their hands on the dangerous machines swimming around inside of him and who definitely wouldn't care how.
Leigh is alone and running out of time in a war where his very body and mind are the prize. He is outmanned and outgunned—with no friends, no allies, and nowhere to turn.
In order to survive, Leigh must embrace the unthinkable.
Evolution means war.
379 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 1, 2024
64 people are currently reading
20 people want to read
About the author
Gregory Peterson
4 books1 followerGregory Peterson is a SoCal native and graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned degrees in English and Chinese studies. After working as a firearm magazine editor In Los Angeles, he followed his dream of becoming a sci-fi author and never looked back. An avid surf and snow fiend, he also enjoys playing the guitar and sneaking out in the morning to pursue his lifelong obsession with picking up heavy things and putting them back down again. He lives in Colorado and you can @ him on Threads @6stringword.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 20, 2024
WOWZA
What started as a simple mission turned into a never ending battle for survival. This story had me on the edge of my seat, knuckles white until the end. Can’t wait for the next one.
What started as a simple mission turned into a never ending battle for survival. This story had me on the edge of my seat, knuckles white until the end. Can’t wait for the next one.
June 2, 2022
In this sci-fi thriller, Al Leigh is an ex-marine who ends up working as a high-tech thief for some unsavory people to raise money for his daughters medical care. One last assignment goes wrong and he ends up becoming technology itself. With practically everyone after him, it's a race for him to figure out who to trust and how to save himself and those he cares about.
I'm typically not an avid reader of first person books, but in this book it works really well and provides insight into Al's thoughts that we might not otherwise be privy to. Al is an imperfect person with a colorful backstory, a knowledge that he's sacrificing parts of his morality to save his daughter, and a snarky attitude that lightens an otherwise no win situation that he's gotten himself into. While slow to start, the book quickly became a page turner that continually had me wondering where he would end up next.
While the vivid and detailed descriptions of the location and surrounding made me feel like I was there - in places I've never actually been - at times it became a little too focused on the description and I found myself skipping paragraphs just to get to the main story. If you want to immerse yourself in the Pacific Northwest however, you might not skip them like I did.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves imperfect characters and science fiction (at least it's science fiction today?). Stephen King without the creepiness and misery? The Martian but with the main character definitely NOT being a boy scout? In any case, if you're interested in reading the first publication of a new and hopefully rising author, I highly recommend War Machines.
I'm typically not an avid reader of first person books, but in this book it works really well and provides insight into Al's thoughts that we might not otherwise be privy to. Al is an imperfect person with a colorful backstory, a knowledge that he's sacrificing parts of his morality to save his daughter, and a snarky attitude that lightens an otherwise no win situation that he's gotten himself into. While slow to start, the book quickly became a page turner that continually had me wondering where he would end up next.
While the vivid and detailed descriptions of the location and surrounding made me feel like I was there - in places I've never actually been - at times it became a little too focused on the description and I found myself skipping paragraphs just to get to the main story. If you want to immerse yourself in the Pacific Northwest however, you might not skip them like I did.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves imperfect characters and science fiction (at least it's science fiction today?). Stephen King without the creepiness and misery? The Martian but with the main character definitely NOT being a boy scout? In any case, if you're interested in reading the first publication of a new and hopefully rising author, I highly recommend War Machines.
June 27, 2023
Just okay
I have nothing against sci-fi including the improbable— that is part of its job. But when it’s set in the present, those parts that aren’t science fiction should bear some relationship to reality.
I’ll accept as appropriate to sci-fi the idea that nanotechnology can be used in the ways described here, even the parts that are on the face bizarre. It’s fiction.
However, the idea that an Army colonel commanding a unit of special forces would have the connections with Homeland Security to evacuate an entire neighborhood on his say so alone is ludicrous— and the more so in a liberal city like Portland. To avoid giving away the plot I won’t list all the other real-world impossibilities, but they’re there.
Mr. Peterson would do better to either place his science fiction in a realistic present or else on another world altogether, one where he creates the rules.
In its favor, War Machines is remarkably lacking in typographical and usage errors, unlike most self published first books.
I have nothing against sci-fi including the improbable— that is part of its job. But when it’s set in the present, those parts that aren’t science fiction should bear some relationship to reality.
I’ll accept as appropriate to sci-fi the idea that nanotechnology can be used in the ways described here, even the parts that are on the face bizarre. It’s fiction.
However, the idea that an Army colonel commanding a unit of special forces would have the connections with Homeland Security to evacuate an entire neighborhood on his say so alone is ludicrous— and the more so in a liberal city like Portland. To avoid giving away the plot I won’t list all the other real-world impossibilities, but they’re there.
Mr. Peterson would do better to either place his science fiction in a realistic present or else on another world altogether, one where he creates the rules.
In its favor, War Machines is remarkably lacking in typographical and usage errors, unlike most self published first books.
January 16, 2024
War Machines is an exciting debut novel that packs a punch. What would you do if a technology was placed in your body? Sci-fi is completely viable in the modern world and this story doesn't seem beyond the realm of possibility. I am always engaged when I don't know what will happen next. The pacing doesn't lag and the characters are believable.
June 27, 2025
great thrill ride of action
I could not put it down for long. I enjoyed the characters and the twists. The science was believable as well.
I could not put it down for long. I enjoyed the characters and the twists. The science was believable as well.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews