Monday, August 9, 2010

REVIEW - Peace Warrior by Steven L Hawk



I purchased this book from Amazon after reading a post by the author on a forum.

Peace Warrior by Steven L Hawk
4 out of 5 stars 

From the moment I started reading this book, the author reeled me in.  You are immediately thrown inside the mind of Sgt. First Class Grant Justice while he is leading his men on a combat operation.  Unfortunately Sgt. Justice is savagely killed on the mission and his mangled body ends up in the frigid waters of a lake.  This scene sets up the premise for the rest of the story.  

Flash forward 600 years and the reader is propelled into a time when all the inhabitants on Earth are peaceful.  There are no wars, no fighting or even any bickering.  This utopian world is the perfect place for the savage and military race, the Minith, to invade and conquer.  The Minith rule with an iron fist and the humans are easily enslaved because aggression and violent tendencies have been bred out of them.

I found the chapters dealing with the Earth Peace Council dragged a bit.  Their names were complicated and dialogue was stilted, but as soon as Senior Scientist Tane Roland was introduced, I was eagerly turning the pages again.  I would have liked it if the author had let us see more into Tane's inner thoughts. He is an anomaly among the humans and it would have been great if his character had been fleshed out more.  I would have also liked more back story for the major prison characters.  A few fell flat for me.

Tane receives permission from the Council to awaken the newly improved bioengineered Grant Justice and from the moment Grant opens his eyes I was back under his spell.  Grant was given an impossible task, but relying on his 600 year old military experience might just save the planet. The author kept Grant true to his ideals and morals throughout the book and it clearly reflected the author's military experience.

Without giving the climax away, I can say that I couldn't stop reading.  Page after page flew by during the final chapters.  This is an impressive debut novel for this author and I look forward to reading more by him.

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