Unbreakable: A Novel (Chronicles of Promise Paen)

Unbreakable by W.C.Bauers

Unbreakable has a strong female protagonist, gritty fast paced action sequences and a killer setting for the whole shabang. It has echoes of Aliens with its intense female lead, sharp dialogue and hoo-ah marines that added the element of a fun and familiar friendly atmosphere. Plot wise Promise Paen is stuck between two empires on the brink of war and sent back to her home world as part of PR exercise to win the hearts and minds of her former people whilst also dealing with space pirates and an angry militia. It's a personal story. Her crew and her charges and how she relates to them are given a nice weight and we see the bonds develop and change, especially as she moves up in rank. We see how their deaths affect Promise and how their failures and successes are hers as much as theirs. One of my favourite scenes involved her taking a group of militia through the basic instructions for the standard issue pulse rifles because of the attention to detail and innovations in the weaponry but also because of the reactions of the crowd and her people.

The action is visceral, the deaths, carnage and repercussions of battle are palpable and blood almost leaks through the pages, such is the atmosphere Bauer's often achieves. The Mech suit combat is ridiculously well written and highly entertaining and s*** it makes me want to tag into a giant armoured beast and let rip with some full auto. You cant just have action though.

The politics are quite complex and I did find myself re reading one or two sections but Bauers has created a detailed and realistic battlefield on land and in space, which means a few things. The battles in space, ship to ship, are bloody great. They have an old time Navy sort of feel but with more high tech weaponry which is a nice mix but does result in some short battles what with mega lasers being used to cut through entire ships in seconds. We get into the heads of the opposing captains and feel their struggles without getting caught up in the science but we also meet lots of people with military titles and full foreign names and we hear an absolute ton of acronyms which when overused can turns an otherwise cohesive paragraph into military babble. Not being overly familiar with military structure and rank, at times it was hard to know how much attention to give to these side characters as they are numerous, often appearing only for a scene or two and always in jeopardy of a quick death. With Tramper Pilot Rhaymond Garcias, Ensign X'atti Quartz, Staff Sergeant Moya Hhatan and many more all flying about it can get frenetic keeping track of who is who. I just tried to roll with the punches and not get too attached or involved with anyone who was not our Protagonist.

One thing I feel I should mention is that I think the prologue was a bit unnecessary. It does not add anything to what we already know from the back cover and seems as though it is there to draw us into the action in case we don't have the patience to let the backstory unfold at it's own pace. From it, I got the impression he dead mother would be speaking to her constantly throughout the book which did not appeal to me, as it is she makes well times appearances and works nicely. For me the evidence is in the fact that I picked up this book and put it down three or four times because of the prologue and it was only when I was at the airport and had nothing else to do for an hour and got past the prologue that I was able to get really sucked in. So readers if you are not engaged in the prologue, skip to the first chapter. Don't abandon the whole book as you will be doing yourself an injustice.

Anyone who likes a good mix of Science Fiction and Military will like this and if, unlike me, you have knowledge of rank and structure, I think you will really get a kick out of it. Great debut and a promising first book and a huge nod to the cover artist, as it's definitely the sort of book I would pick up off the shelf.

The book starts off OK enough but the style/pacing of the writing threw me off. Just very.short.punchy.sentences that jump around. It was like reading an episode of gilmore girls but they jumped not only from topic to topic but to new settings very, very quickly. Forgivable enough just takes some getting used to is all.

I don't find the plot devices or characters as forgiving, however. Paen is a hardened marine that get's as giddy as a 16 year old school girl when an attractive male is around. The mother character that serves as her conscious is a very forced cowgirl.

What drove me absolutely bonkers that you saw coming a million miles away even though it made no sense was the destruction of the spaceship they're on halfway through the novel. To sum it up, the "good guys" spot an ambush of two warships and make an ambush of their own, destroying one ship and offering surrender to another ship. This ship, that is completely powered down and caught completely unawares still manages to severely disable the "good guys" ship.

Stranger things have happened, of course, however the author goes through lengths to establish that the "bad guys" have absolutely no chance of winning this fight at all. They are powered down, it takes time to power everything back up and by the time they power back up to attack they'd be dead. This is established in the book. Somehow, they still destroy the other ship albeit dying themselves.

All in all, I wasn't very happy with the writing. Nothing is consistent and it is all contrived to thrust Paen into her role rather than coming about organically. It reads like a 16 year old's day dream of greatness

A somewhat typical space marines novel -- difficult circumstances, clever strategy, and good guys and gals to root for, many of whom die. That said, ... The lead character's interactions with her mother and her romance novel moments drag the story down -- my experience is limited but it seems to me that women actually are much more mature, self-aware, and skeptical about attraction than men are. Also be warned there is a religious thread throughout the novel -- that's not a criticism, just a fact. Finally, and what pulls this down from a possible four star review, is the large number of errors of the "site" for "sight" and "their" for "there" type, each one a jarring dissonance. Proof reading may be dead with publishers, but the author needs to find someone, if not himself, to catch this stuff. It's frankly just sloppy.

A lot of stolen ideas and hardware names throughout this book. A bit too much religion and (at this point) a fantasy element marring this space opera. OK to read if you can get it at the library or as a gift from a relative who has no clue. That being said we will try the next book to see what the author can do with this.

Great sci-fi read. Some have likened it to part Starship Trooper, which I have not read, but this reminded me a bit of Halo (any of them) as far as the military them only set in a dystopian Earth and the focus on the female lead in a way reminds me of Riddick. Really good book, I look forward to the sequel in this planned series, "The Chronicles of Promise Paen".

Rocked. Can't wait for the next one!

I really enjoyed this book. It hits all the sci fi military must haves, which could just make it cliche, but the author does well to make it all work. I am a huge fan of (current generation small arms) archaic weapons in military future sci fi, so that hooked me when I read to preview. I was glad to find the book turned out to be pretty good. The military is very much based on the US Navy and Marine Corps, which after sixteen years of service, I am familiar with both. The author doesn't religiously stick to accuracy, but makes it his own where needed and it doesn't distract even the veteran in me. It is familiar enough to make me feel I already know it, but with enough twist and difference to keep it interesting and fresh.

The Republic of Aligned Worlds Marine Corps (RAWMC) is very much a mix of our current day USMC with some Starship Troopers mech suit action going. The lead character is a strong, mostly competent female lead, which I enjoy. Too often it seems female leads are drowning in self doubt in these type of stories, that isn't the case here. They deploy to a fringe world planet called Montana, which is what you'd get if you made an entire planet out of the state of Montana. The population are hard core, independent, gun toting, gun loving, constitutionalists.

The planet is in a buffer area that is also wanted by the galaxy's other superpower the Empire of Lusitania, which is strongly modeled on the British Empire. There are equal parts politics, space battles, ground battles and interesting characters. There isn't much to dislike if military sci fi appeals to you.

I do have a few grips though. The RAW MC constantly give a better equipped and manned opponent verbal chances to surrender, and it costs them every time. There is also a chapter were the author keeps referring to the Sailors on the Republic ships and 'Navys' as in 'the Marines and Navys'. He later fixes that and refers from them from then out to Sailors, but it really grated on my nerves. The book takes a lot of proven elements from other stories and worlds, but does well in making it work. My biggest let down though is the ending. It not only feels rushed, but leaves out what I'd think important closure. I won't go into it as to not create a spoiler, but the ended really need more between 'climactic battle' and 'epilogue'.

Lt. Paen is a great character in the mold of David Weber's 'Alicia DeVries' from "In Fury Born". A woman who finds she has met her true calling as a soldier and is extremely competent in every assignment she is tasked with. Writing is very fluid and author brings his characters to life with great backgrounds and believable growth. Battle scenes are extremely well done and author is not afraid to kill some main characters to move the plot, instead of making everyone invulnerable. Looking forward to the next book in this series.

W. C. Bauers is clearly trying to do what David Weber did, except with an orphaned marine and an attempt to fail the reverse Bechdel test. Like On Basalisk Station, this is a decent book that heralds a potentially good series.

W. C. Bauers is an excellent story teller! Unbreakable hits all of my enjoyable read points: a likeable protagonist and excellent character development all around; plot development full of action, tense battles, realistic political motivations, and unexpected twists; interesting techno details without so much that only a determined geek would not resort to skimming; and - best of all - smooth writing that supports visualization of a well-created universe! This book is a complete package, and I am hoping that the Chronicles of Promise Paen will continue in Book 2 very soon!