I used to be a great proponent of the Military SF genre. I devoured the Sten series by Chris Bunch and Alan Cole, the Honor Harrington series by David Weber (although I gave up after a while as this went on soooo long). But after a while I drifted toward fantasy and then romance and then supernatural romance.
As a child I always loved the tales of the Greek gods, the Norse gods and all the other pantheons that weren’t Christian. It was fascinating to me and the stories were wonderful tales in and of themselves. These gods had distinctly human characteristics, which made them incredibly fun to read about, as these beings with incredible powers had the same foibles as us mere mortals, and the troubles they got into were exciting.
I think that is why this series caught my eye. It was military sf (well, sf in that it was alternate history rather than set in space) which I had strayed away from, but there were gods involved, which intrigued me. The series consists of 3 novels:
Book 1 – The Age of Ra
In the Age of Ra, the blurb states “The Ancient Egyptian gods have defeated all the other pantheons and claimed dominion over the earth, dividing it into warring factions, each under the aegis of a different deity. Lt. DavidWestwynter, a British soldier, stumbles into Freegypt, the only place to have remained independent of the gods’ influence. There, he encounters the followers of a humanist leader known as the Lightbringer, who has vowed to rid mankind of the shackles of divine oppression. As the world heads towards an apocalyptic battle, there is far more to this freedom fighter than it seems…”
Book 2 – The Age of Zeus
In Age of Zeus, the blurb states: “The Olympians appeared a decade ago, living incarnations of the Ancient Greek gods on a mission to bring permanent order and stability to the world. Resistance has proved futile, and now humankind isunder the jackboot of divine oppression. Then former London police officer Sam Akehurst receives an invitation too tempting to turn down, the chance to join a small band of geurilla rebels armed with high-tech weapons and battlesuits. Calling themselves the Titans, they square off against the Olympians and their ferocious mythological monsters in a war of attrition which not all of them will survive!”
Book 3 – The Age of Odin
In Age of Odin, the blurb states: “Gideon Dixon was a good solider but bad at everything else. Now the British Army doesn’t want him any more. So when he hears about the Valhalla Project it seems like a dream come true. They’re recruiting from service personnel for execellent pay with no questions asked to take part in unspecified combat operations. The last thing Gideon expects is to finding himself fighting alongside the gods of the ancient Norse pantheon. The world is in the grip of one of the worst winters it has ever known, and Ragnarok-the fabled final conflict of the Sagas-is looming.”
These books can be read in any order as they are all stand alone novels. Also, and this is a first for any trilogy I have ever read, each novel is a completely different alternate reality to the other.
Out of the three my favourite was The Age of Zeus, whether that is because of my fondness for the Greek pantheon or because the main character was female and therefore easier to relate to I am not sure, there was something about this book that I loved. It is a tale of revenge, of the underdog trying to triumph over unspeakable odds, and of the three novels, it was the alternate reality I found the most believable. It has its whimsical moments, with an Australian character thrown in for comic relief (although stereotype much? I’m sorry but I actually don’t know anyone who speaks in rhyming slang anymore unless they are over 70). It is from the point of view of a British woman, so it is not surprising that a lot of Britishisms (is that a word?) are sprinkled throughout the novel (and indeed through all three novels). I did find myself wondering what something meant every now and again and then thinking, not important to the story so I can’t be bothered looking it up.
This novel was the one with the most satisfying ending for me. The first novel, The Age of Ra, could have used a sequel I think as there were a lot of unresolved issues in my mind. The last novel, The Age of Odin, was the least satisfactory for me. It was the only one in which nobody really knew about the gods. In the other novels, the pantheons had taken over the world, where as in this one they were a secret. I thought perhaps the theme should have continued on with the third novel.
If I were to recommend this series I would say that fans of military sf will enjoy these books, all the main characters are ex-military or ex-cops so the style of writing is quite male oriented, even in The Age of Zeus where the main character is female. I think the style would appeal to a YA audience, although there is quite a lot of profanity in the third book (nothing a high school student hasn’t heard before but enough that a high school library probably wouldn’t stock the book).
You don’t have to read all three books to enjoy this series, so if you only want to pick one, pick The Age of Zeus. It is a fun read with a bit of a commentary on the way the world is and what it might take to set us all on the straight and narrow.
Enjoy
The Apathetic Reviewer 