This is an outstanding military science fiction series. It’s almost one of the best I have read in a long time and I think I’ve stated that before. We’re back with the 157th Tank Regiment and specifically with Captain Mike Sandhurst and his Calvary Scout Troop. They are operation on an island called Paradise against what appears to be three Buzzer divisions. Right now, and strangely, everything is pretty quiet. The Buzzers aren’t doing anything but holding ground so that’s what Brigadier General Jeff Justice is doing also.
Yet, something very interesting has just came up. The Rhino’s have shown up on the beaches. They have several large ships that have just emerged with a contingent of crab-like infantry moving directly onto the beach. These crab things appear to be setting up some kind of security perimeter but aren’t shooting. So BG Justice orders his troops to hold their fire so he can find out what’s going on. One of the Rhino ship’s extends a gangplank and out walks a huge Rhino alien. He moves to the beach and stands there as if waiting for something. BG Justice thinks he must be wanting to talk so that’s better than fighting. He decides to go out and see what this huge alien wants. If there’s a possibility of the Rhino’s becoming allies with the humans, it might just start now.
So, Justice starts some very slow dialogue with the Rhino. He’s got Major Shawn Davies on his earbud helping with the translations. Things were going pretty well and they were building a workable translation program when something unexpected happened. That interruption was Admiral Waumbo, the Task Force Commander. He had just been chewed out by his boss, General Pegg who was very unhappy with the lack of anything really happening on Paradise. General Pegg ordered Admiral Waumbo to get the island cleared of Buzzers and standby for further actions. Admiral Waumbo was wanting to do that, but so far the Buzzers weren’t making a move out of their staging areas. So, he figured it was time to get his forces moving.
But, he managed to interrupt BG Justice just as he was talking to the Rhino. That alien had a strong dislike towards Admiral Waumbo, so much so, that he withdrew all his troops from the beach and that was the last they saw of them. BG Justice was understandably upset since he had almost secured an ally in the Rhinos, but now he didn’t know where they stood.
Still, Admiral Waumbo had to get his forces moving. They were going to start moving scouts much further forward trying to find out what the Buzzers were up to. When the Buzzers were not active, they always had some kind of electronic screen over their troop locations, so it was very difficult to tell what they were doing. So, this is where Captain Sandhurst and his counterpart, Captain Laura Hall of the 361st Tank Regiment were to coordinate their movements forward along the central spire of the island.
This is where a good order of battle diagram would come in hand so the read could easier follow the movement of all these units. Still, it appears that the 157th Tank Regiment and the 361st Tank Regiments will be going forward deployed on either side of the central ridge up the middle of the island. Now we’re going to find some intense combat with the Calvary Troop of the 361st getting caught too far forward and eventually encircled by the Buzzers. They are setting a trap hoping they can catch the 361st Regiment coming to rescue their Calvary unit which will get everyone destroyed.
Meanwhile, the Intelligence assets to the Task Force have identified some ancient ruins that have some kind of interest by the Rhinos and the Buzzers. They are told to stay away from these ruins until they can get teams of scientists into them to determine how they relate to these two alien species. One of the Intel teams will be lead by Commander Kathy Marsh, who happens to be in a very close relationship to Major Shawn Davies. Commander March is going to take a team forward to one of the ruin sites, but the weather over the island is getting increasingly ugly.
So, operations are taking place on the island as they should just before the weather really hits hard. This storm is unlike anything the humans have ever seen. They will have to hunker down and turn off all electronics which will make them blind until the storm passes in about three to four days! Eventually, they get through that only to find the Buzzers starting to stir.
Then one of Capt. Sandhurst’s ATLAS ground troops spots a huge flying alien circling a specific spot on the ridge-line. She asks if they can get some kind of UAV up to see what’s there. The Intel units take the lead and do send a UAV up. It spots something that is definitely not supposed to be there. Plans are then developed to destroy whatever it is and see if it has any effect on the Buzzers.
So, there’s going to be a lot of engagements in this book. Various units are going to come under attack but the author has some idea of how combat arms are supposed to work. He’s got air cover with two Air Wings operating on each side of the major island spire. They have aircraft that can secure the skies and help the ground troops as they should. Except on Air Wing has the wrong commander and that’s going to be a problem.
I really like that there are a lot of authentic sounding use of radios and communications throughout the book. Yeah, they have things that aren’t even developed right now, but most of it is stuff that should be coming in the future. Getting UAVs up to allow the ground forces to actually see the land they will fight and maneuver on is going to be a tremendous asset. Still, not everything works perfectly. The enemy doesn’t do what we want in most all cases and that can result in the deaths of troops that should have been protected. This book doesn’t shy away from that. We’re going to loose characters that have been around awhile so get prepared for that.
I don’t exactly know why this book was entitled “Fury of Heaven” since all the action takes place on the island of Paradise. But, that’s for the author to figure out. I’m really looking forward to book 6, “Against the Swarm”, which won’t be out until 8 September 2026! Wow! That’s almost a whole year away! Just gotta’ wait, I guess!
==[Note: As of 12/03/2023, this will not be published on Amazon since I have been banned from posting reviews for some unknown reason. Once the ban is lifted, assuming it does get lifted, I’ll go back and post this to Amazon.]==