Downfall

by Mark Barber

Sub Officer Kyle Hawkins is two days out of his training as a Knight Hospitaller when he is sent to the jungle planet of Paradiso. After four years of gruelling training as a warrior of the NeoVatican, criticised by his superiors for his liberal, pacifistic theological views, he volunteers for the Paradiso assignment in an attempt to prove his worth. However, after arriving he finds that it is little more than a simple security detail, attached to a platoon of Fusiliers of the PanOceanian Light Infantry, guarding a sleepy MagnaObra research facility not far from the border of Yujingyu territory known as Alpha Four Four. The platoon Hawkins works alongside is led by Lieutenant Priya Shankar, a driven, serious minded officer whose professionalism makes her popular with her seniors, but seemingly cold and unapproachable to the soldiers under her command. Experienced with peacekeeping, disaster relief operations and ceremonial guard duties, Shankar has done everything expected of a Fusilier officer - except actual combat.

Genres: Science Fiction

557 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 12, 2022

About the author

Mark Barber began writing for Osprey Publishing in 2008, with a focus on British military aviation in the two world wars. After this he worked as a historical consultant for Gaijin Entertainment's record breaking 'War Thunder' game, before a series of titles in support of various war games. These include five campaign books for Warlord Games' 'Bolt Action' and novels supporting 'Infinity' and 'Kings of War'.

Reviews

[Mechanokrat · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an entertaining book that nicely captures the Infinity setting.

The military stuff is solid. And even though the author goes out of their way to adapt it to Infinity (drones, hacking,...) it has this slight "been there, read it" feel of most mil fiction.

What I like most are the characters. 4 is a good number to keep track of. And while painted in broad strokes, they come with flaws and development. And get fleshed out nicely along the way.

Toss in some twists and politicing, and you get a book that turned out to be more layered than I had first expected.

[Jen · Rating 1 out of 5]

High Schoolers Go To War

Barber was in his element when writing tense action sequences spattered with with military jargon. Sadly, more than half the book was filled with tedious arguments between juvenile characters. The rich setting of the Infinity universe was wasted by limiting it to dropping various unit and gun names into the mess. Downfall fell down and wasted the opportunity to explore and expand on the background material.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good sample of Infinity’s setting and a good read

If you’re not familiar with the Infinity setting then this novel will give you a fair high end view of one of the more active locations and the forces in conflict. It’s a good piece of military fiction and a fun read.
If you are familiar with Infinity and it’s setting then you will get a deeper dive into the life of a fusilier and the PanO military as they clash with the forces of Yu Jing on Paradiso. The main characters are a fusilier lieutenant and her second in command, along with a Hospitaller fresh from training, and a Hexas agent with an unknown agenda.
The briefest synopsis is a quiet research station becomes the target of an escalating fight between their military defenders and the persistent military of their chief rival nation.
The book does a good job of casually presenting the setting with a good depiction of the ever present technology in peoples’ day to day life. It’s primary flaw is needing another pass by a copy editor to catch all the incorrect word use and tenses. If not for those the book would get that 5th star. I hope the next novel gets a better clean up before its release.

[Zach Booth · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s fine, if you play the tabletop game infinity you’ll be familiar with the basics of the universe. It’s mostly a ‘Grunts in combat’ military shooter with light sci-fi. Morality is a big theme throughout with some romantic additions to it. Entertaining but seemed drug out to me. Took me forever because I’d get bored and put it down for a while, then try again later.

[S H · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I was reading this book, I kept thinking "This author must have been in the military" because he really captures the drama that can ensue during a deployment that is supposed to be non-kinetic. The drama between Shankar and Beckmann, though absolutely petty at some points, was beyond realistic to me having seen similar drag-out fights on deployment between small unit leaders and attachments. I'd love to see more of Beckmann in future novels to really flush out her character.

The combat scenes really captured what I believe to be the absolute deadliness of warfare in the Infinity universe. From the tactics to the portrayal of how dire certain situations were, the author did a wonderful job capturing it all. Over all, fantastic read.

[Björn Söderström · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was entertaining enough and I enjoyed it. It gave life to my favourite game setting.

The characters came to life but the romantic sub-plot was a little bit on the nose.

If it wouldn’t have been for the juvenile sexism it would have gotten at least 3/5. I guess the sexism is in line with the main miniatures game. There were also some wierd stuff that didn’t gel with the setting. Specifically how the author handled the caseless ammunition.

Ultimately it was ok for a book based on a game setting but can’t compare to good sci-fi litterateur.

I was impressed by how well the author captured the feeling of the miniatures game. All combat felt like it could easily have been a game.

[Edwin Stallard · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a great read, bringing to life the infinity universe. I enjoyed reading about Panoceanian troops defending a research facility on Paradiso when combat unexpectedly happens. I am new to the infinity universe and it was good to read about the characters and units that I have miniatures of.

[Elliott · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was excited about reading a military spy thriller in this scifi universe that I was curious about. Infinity seems like a cool setting, with space for lots of fun espionage stories.

Instead it just gave me some pretty dry descriptions and jargon of base life. There was some glimmer of something interesting with the setup, but it was scant spice among boring description and dialogue. It does that thing that Warhammer books often do where it feels like he's just name-checking stuff from the games, like it has to fill a quota so we know what universe its in. Maybe Corvus Belli requested that, I don't know.

And then I got to page 47, where he spends what seems to be an entire page introducing a female character, a military officer, by her physical appearance alone. Once he started describing her "large, perfect breasts accentuated by her form-fitting cropped vest," it was clear to me this was not the book I was looking for. Done.

[sean luehmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book

Mark Barber did an amazing job fleshing out the Infinity universe. I look forward to seeing the story continue in the next book .

[Andrew Delacruz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nothing too special but a fun read

I couldn’t put this book down. Amazing setting. If you are a fan of Infinity this is a must read. Action is good. Lot of good battle scenes that play out surprisingly close to the game. Dialogue and relationship stuff is meh, but still enjoyable.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really like this book. Its a good old fashioned mil SF book about a small skirmish on the edge of human space. I love the Infinity universe now and this book is what got me into it. If you like small scale, 90s style action movies then you will love this. My only complaint is i think the book should have ended two pages earlier. Other then that I would love a sequel that follows these characters again sometime.