Magnificent Bastards

A War's Edge: Berserkers Standalone

De: Ryan W. Aslesen

Narrado por: Roger Wayne

Desol… Most Berserkers have never heard of the tiny planetoid, a barren and inhospitable wasteland on the edge of the outer rim.

The platoon of tankers stationed there wished they'd never seen the place. Hostile miners resent the Berserkers' presence, and the bored troopers have nothing to do but drink and fight.

Corporal Jake Murray is one of the best gravtank commanders in the Berserkers, but he's also an undisciplined, unrepentant troublemaker. Banished to Desol for insubordination, Murray finds himself surrounded by a host of similar malcontents and burnouts, counting down the final days of their contract. Desperate for action, Corporal Murray just wants to get in his tank and kill something, only there's nothing to shoot.

That all changes when workers at a remote drill site fail to report in. Sent to investigate, Murray and his comrades find themselves pitted against a horrific enemy the likes none of them have ever encountered. Facing a gigantic swarm of alien creatures that threaten to annihilate the entire settlement, the mercenaries find themselves fighting for more than just credits.

Part of the Berserkers series, Magnificent Bastards is a thrilling standalone novel set in the gritty War's Edge universe. Intended for mature listeners.

©2023 Ryan W. Aslesen (P)2024 Podium Audio

non-stop action

Great fun and nearly non-stop action. Carnage plasma bolts tank action it's all there. and in space! highly recommended if you just need a carnage filled action novel.

Another great story

(Spoiler warning!!!!!!)








Why couldn’t they take the drop ships to the other side of the planet?!? Other than that great story as always

Interesting and different

A PMC soldier with, let’s call them “authority issues” is sent to a backwater world and joins a unit that seems not to have much important to do. I’m hesitant to say much about the plot, but as might be expected, things become more complicated. The resolution of that plot was not what I expected, but it worked well given the circumstances.

The characters were not the usual sort in a military fiction piece, but they rang true to my experiences with junior enlisted personnel. The antagonist characters were rather cliched – not incompetent military commanders, the other cliché.

The setting was drawn fairly well, though it wasn’t fascinatingly weird, being pretty much an inhospitable, cold ball of rock with very limited atmosphere. From our limited understanding of the types of planets to be found in the universe, that’s entirely reasonable.

I didn’t love this book, but I respect what the author did with it. If you’re looking for something out of the ordinary in military SF, this might be a good choice.