3 out of 4 stars
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General Nick Angriff is a three-star general in command of a black ops team. The team has just finished a mission to kill a number of terrorist leaders when Nick receives news that his family has been murdered. He immediately hops a flight back home only to find that there is little evidence to go on. Terry Bettison is the special agent in charge of the investigation, but it doesn’t seem like he really wants to close this case. Only a few weeks after his family is killed, there is an attack on Nick himself. Once again Special Agent Bettison is not forthcoming with information about this attack.
In an effort to clear his head, Nick travels to Austria. While there he is summoned to meet with one of his commanders, a General Steeple. General Steeple tells him that the country is being run by our enemies. Everyone knows that it is a matter of time before the United States falls whether it be due to enemy infiltration or some type of natural disaster. Therefore, General Steeple has made plans to be able to resurrect the United States at the proper time. This plan is called Project Overtime.
Standing the Final Watch is a unique take on the end of the world scenario. While the world has not ended, the United States no longer exists. It was interesting to see how the author put his own spin on preparing for the end of what we have come to know as normal. I always enjoy seeing how other people picture the future. Due to the dystopian element, this book was classified as science fiction. I believe, however, that it would be more suited and enjoyed in the military thriller genre.
This book took me longer than usual to read. At only 244 pages, it’s not a long novel by any stretch of the imagination. I think the reason it took so long was because of the military nature of the wording and terminology. Here are a few sentences from the book as an example. “Field artillery is completely self-propelled, with two battalions of three batteries. Two of those batteries in each battalion are M109A6 Paladins, with the third being M270A1 MLRSs.”
I would also like to point out that this is book one in The Last Brigade series. As such, there is no nice, neat wrapping up of the plot. There are many questions left unanswered. Some will love this, as it will cause them to continue the series. However, I know many that do not enjoy endings like these, whether part of a series or not.
This novel was full of action, and there was hardly a dull moment. I enjoyed the author’s take on what happens when the United States falls apart. Therefore, I rate Standing the Final Watch a 3 out of 4 stars. I couldn’t give it a full 4 stars because of the tediousness of the military terminology in the novel as well as the cliff-hanger ending. I would recommend it to those that love a good military story but not necessarily to true science fiction fans.
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Standing The Final Watch
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