Eric Fomley

A Good Read

Revisado: 01-22-15

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This story was a little bit new for me (as I am used to reading medieval fantasy) and at first I was a little apprehensive about picking it up. The idea of a military special forces squad filled with people who have magical abilities seemed to be a pretty cool premise to me but I wondered how it would fit in with many of the great fantasy books I’ve read. I am happy to report that it fits in remarkably well.

Oscar Britton is a sort of standard military man. He reflects many of the ideals of a stereotypical patriot and has a strong sense of conscience as he leads a team of special forces that take down magic users. The kicker that makes this story interesting is that Oscar wakes up one day only to find out he is latent with these magical abilities. Once he is captured by the team he once lead, he is given the choice to die or work for a secret operations base on another plane from Earth called the Source. Oscar, being the sort of guy who values living, accepts hoping to find some sort of comfort and purpose in this new position. What he finds is that working under the government’s thumb isn’t freedom at all.

The story takes off from here as Oscar again is leading a team of soldiers, this one filled with latents like he, and is sent on several ops that test his abilities and his conscience. I won’t give away any of the surprises that lurk here but what I will say is this story is filled with many twists and turns that kept those pages turning for me. Just when you think things can’t get any worse for our hero, it does. What results is a really compelling story that should be an easy read for any fantasy reader.

As far as writing goes this story is told well. Myke Cole balances the plot with Oscar’s conscience and makes several interesting theories on how people would perform in a world where people wake up with magical abilities that were never before thought possible. Reading this alternate world and the way people react to it was interesting and got me thinking about how I would react in similar circumstances. Myke doesn’t choke the reader with his own ideology of how America likes to run business, but he does bring several valid points into play as the story progresses leaving a very well thought view of how this alternate world would work realistically.

On top of the story and writing I also have to applaud the accuracy of the military descriptions. Some authors try to write about something they don’t know much about or haven’t researched well but this isn’t the case with Myke Cole. Myke has obvious military experience and the story really benefits from a point of view that understands the inter-workings of the government and military as a whole. I enjoyed reading this novel because of this and I felt it added deeply to my experience that the author really knew what he was talking about with the non-fictional stuff and worked it in wonderfully with the fictional aspects.

Overall I think this novel would be worth a read for any number of fantasy fans and even military fiction readers as well. The story is well realized and the author has a very vivid imagination. As I said before I was a little apprehensive about picking this novel up but I was not disappointed. I have really enjoyed by time with Oscar Britton and I hope to revisit him soon in the sequel.

My Rating: 8/10

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