Synopsis: Across the country and in every nation, people are waking up
with magical talents. Untrained and panicked, they summon storms, raise the
dead, and set everything they touch ablaze.
Army officer Oscar Britton sees the worst of it. A
lieutenant attached to the military's Supernatural Operations Corps, his
mission is to bring order to a world gone mad. Then he abruptly manifests a
rare and prohibited magical power, transforming him overnight from government
agent to public enemy number one. The SOC knows how to handle this kind of situation: hunt him
down--and take him out. Driven into an underground shadow world, Britton is
about to learn that magic has changed all the rules he's ever known, and that
his life isn't the only thing he's fighting for. (from the online description)
Review: Sent in an alternative world, where the Great Awakening has caused rare humans to manifest magic abilities, Oscar Britton is a regular solider, serving as part of a strike team charged with hunting down and subduing "Selfers", or people who manifest powers that refuse to turn themselves over to the US government. But when he manifests a forbidden magic, he turns from hunter into hunted.
This is a new genre to me - Military Fantasy. It has a def. X-Men feel to it (although the powers are so wide-spread, being that they all fall within a narrow set of schools) but with a clear Military setting. Indeed, the whole thing is set on a Military Base. The author's extensive background in the military gives this an authenticity not often found in Military Books.
My qualm with the story is that is lags a bit in the middle. Britton's flip-floppy between sides gets old after a while. But this seems realistic for someone in his place and the action is certainly there. The ending was excellent, and I will def. be reading the rest of the series.
Bookmarks: 3.5 of 5
Awards: Compton Cook Award, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-937007-24-9
Year Published: 2012
Date Finished: 1-2-2019
Pages: 398
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