Into the Storm: Book One of The Malcontents

First, 4 stars is over rating. This has more typos, grammar errors than I would expect for anything over .99. Story is short about 100+ pages of character development and 'platoon, weapons' description, explanation. Could guess accurately but took away from enjoying. This from a game? Wish I would have known to get appropriate background. With characters, quite a few interesting ones but only few developed.

I am a Cornwell , Gemmel fan reader. Ryan has caught my attention and Angus is a drop after last book w Little Johns situation and the world all being good w it. Some magic is OK, too much and it's pixie crap. This story follows 'real' people who have 'real world' type skills in a world where magic exists. The story is entertaining, you can follow plot easily wo having too many viewpoint and angles to distract, follow. Hate those.

Looking for ass kicking females tearing apart seasoned warriors? Nope, not here. Not pixie land. Not a sexist or racist . Just worked, trained, lived with a lot of 18-22 men for over 34+ in a very physically demanding environments. I got a good feel for real. No 16 - 18 yr old phenoms fufilling destiny and kicking butt because they practiced a lot w wooden swords. There's steam punk here but guess what? No porn, near porn! Can't say I rember anyone's sexual orientation nor did we have apprriate minorities.

What u get is a decent coming of age type story that's credible, character wise and lots of action -- some of that may not be too credible but it was fun. Have read some other books by this author and believe this to be his best. Really a 3 star and he could have done so much better.

Papa Pat Rambles has additional material.
I THOUGHT I was going to get a quick read, and then goodnight, with this book, because it only shows seven chapters in the Table of Contents. This is an artifact of reading e-Books. Unless you look at file size, and can do the conversion in your head, you have NO idea of length! Yes, there are only seven chapters, and only three of those are substantive, but these are some LONG chapters! They are so long that I got aggravated a couple of time with my reader. I'd accidently bump a control, and find myself at the top of the page, and then I have to swipe down for a minute to get back to where I left off. That's a function of big fingers, though, and should not be taken as a criticism of the book or my reader.
The setting is best described in terms of weaponry, since there isn't any period in our timeline in which these customs exist. Fighting is done with swords, spears, and other sharp, pointy things. The king can afford the latest technology, so he has knights armed with lightning swords. And the mechanized element is represented by the warjack, an iron monstrosity, powered by coal, operating on verbal orders. And there are magical elements around, as well. A man can still get his brains dashed out by a rock, though.
The commanding officer is one Lieutenant Madigan, who was disgraced and nearly executed for his actions in the last palace coup. Not being a whiner, he does NOT offer the defense that the atrocity that brought him low was actually the work of someone else; he is of the opinion that command takes responsibility.
Being at the top of everyone's scut list, he gets the very worst jobs that are available. In this case, he is ordered to form up the Sixth Platoon, consisting of the cast-offs of every other outfit, and turn them into a fighting unit.

Dirty Dozen, right?

But, training works, as it always does. He has a hard time bringing his troops into play, because nobody trusts them, and there is a good bit of personal animosity running around.
Lots of good fighting and blowing stuff up.

Sometime ago, Humble Bundle had a fantastic bundle for sale. For a measly $25 you basically got all the core rule books for the Warmachine tabletop game. In addition, you also got most, if not all of the fiction set in the Warmachine universe. I knew absolutely nothing about Warmachine, but when I saw that Larry Correia had written three of the books as well as contributed a few short stories to the universe, I was sold. You simply can't go wrong with Larry Correia.

Into the Storm takes place in the Iron Kingdoms setting. That said, no background knowledge of the Iron Kingdoms is necessary to fully enjoy this book. The author has done a fantastic job of easing the newbie reader into the Iron Kingdoms. In addition, the book features a glossary that is very helpful.

The story begins just before the Kingom of Cynar's invasion of its enemy, the Protectorate of Menoth. We have Madigan, a washed up Cynarian Officer, who is given the humiliating task of putting together a platoon of criminals an officers fit for service. Once invasion begins, things don't go as planned and crap happens. Suffice it to say that the story itself is pure fun in the vein of a summer blockbuster. Larry Correia is the master of action-packed novels, and Into the Storm has him at the top of his game. Lightning swords fry soldiers from the inside out, alchemical concoctions explode and vicious warjacks pummel everything into fine paste. If you like your action loud, bloody and well-written, then you'll find plenty of it here.

Correia has also created some awesome and diverse characters, giving the reader plenty of people to root for in the midst of the slaughter. Madigan is everyone's lovable rogue who will stop at nothing to achieve victory. Cleasby is the bumbling academic who would rather be out admiring historical monuments instead of crushing heads. Acosta is the so-good-he's-scary swordsman that just does whatever he wants. There are plenty more where they came from and each character is lovingly crafted, with their own ambitions and motivations. Correia really has a gift of creating characters you just can't help but care for. He makes it look so easy.

As I've mentioned plenty of times before, Correia is the master of pacing, slowing things things down just enough to catch your breath before kicking it back into high gear. The plot is constantly moving forward and even includes a couple of minor twists to keep things fresh.

Despite my high praise, I do have a quibble. There are moments in the novel where things are sped up and months pass by with a page of summary. I can understand why the author chose to do it, but it was still very jarring to be taken out of the lives of Madigan and the rest like that. Again, a minor quibble that doesn't takeaway from all the positives I've mentioned.

Ultimately, Into the Storm, is an overwhelmingly fun novel that anyone interested in fantasy and steampunk can get into. You don't need to be into the tabletop game to really enjoy the book.

4.5 out of 5 Stars

It's weird, because I know Correia has written some great stuff, but this was terrible. The writing is so bad it's distracting. There is something to wince at every few pages. I have - more than once - gleefully read some of the worst passages out loud for the amusement of friends. It's the kind of thing that, if you got it at a critiquing circle, would make your heart sink because you'd have to think: my god, where to even start?

If you ever want to give an example of what it looks like if you ignore that maxim "show, don't tell", this is it. Or lengthy descriptions of objects or people that aren't relevant. Or action scenes that can be so detailed they're clunky, but still not make any actual sense. It's worth recommending as an object lesson in what not to do.

I really should put in some examples (at the risk of going too long). Here's a brief scene:

"He stepped back, avoiding the clumsy lunge of a man with a dagger, then used the superior reach of his sword to counterattack low, striking for the leg. Flesh parted until the sword removed a chunk of bone."

See what I mean? It's weirdly ponderous, but doesn't really make much sense. Did dagger guy just keep on a-lunging until he was far enough away for the "superior reach" of the sword to matter? What the hell just happened? "Flesh parted until..." makes it sound like it's in super slomo AND on a super close-up, and "removed a chunk of bone".... I'm struggling to work out what the swing was supposed to look like. Cut into the bone, sure. Break it, fine. Smash, crush, crumple, whatever. But remove a chunk? With one blow? And we "removed" it? Where did it go?

The very next paragraph:
"The second man had a banded club. ... with a flick of the wrist Madigan deflected the club to the side and then sliced through the bandit's throat on the backswing. ... (the) bandit realised his life was pouring down his shirt".

Ok, so this particular sword is a big heavy thing with a rounded, blunt end. We've deflected a club with a "flick of the wrist". Ok, weird, but ok. But then on the backswing (can you have a backswing from a flick of the wrist? Don't you need to SWING to have a backswing?), we've "sliced through his throat". What does that look like? It'd sort of make sense if he cut the head right off the feller. But no, his throat is slit, and his head is still on. It'd make sense if the sword had a sharp tip, but it doesn't. So what happened? Some kind of awkward "swing" that turns into a sideways slicing motion? .. I dunno. I genuinely can't work out what was supposed to have happened.

It's like the author thinks "backswing" sounds cool, but doesn't actually know what it means.

There's a lot of that in this book.

Complete disclosure: I play the wargame this story is based on (Warmachine) and Stormblades are the first unit I bought and painted.

I was immensely excited when this book was announced. Larry Correia had recently popped up on my radar for both his earlier Skull Island Expeditions book, Instruments of War, as well as his confrontational and often hilarious social media presence. Coupled with my deep love of the Cygnaran Storm Knights, I was certain that I would enjoy the hell out of this book.

In one of those rare instances where experience exceeds anticipation, this book was everything I could have hoped for. The first act of the book introduces you to the Sixth Platoon of the 42nd Storm Knight Division. Misfits through and through, they are brought together by a disgraced knight who is given another shot at a command of his own. This portion reads like all of the best "putting the band back together" sequences rolled into one. Except this one includes a magic lighting robot so mean and unruly that he was left to rust in an abandoned train car.

The pacing is great, the characters are familiar but unique, and the action sequences are truly masterful. I heartily recommend this book to any fans of the Iron Kingdoms RPG or the Hordes and Warmachine tabletop miniature games.

One warning: If you are a miniature gamer, you will be planning on creating your own version of these characters for tabletop play midway through the first act. Resist the urge to start immediately and follow the tale until the end.

Correia does an homage to the Dirty Dozen in this fantasy novel, which has bullets as well as flaming swords, fighting robots and some magic. Great stuff, one of his best books. Terrific characters and villain with Fa st-paced action. I finished it in just over a day, almost a call-in-sick book so that I could finish it. Very happy a sequel is now available.