Pound of Flesh

A War's Edge Standalone

De: Ryan W. Aslesen

Narrado por: Roger Wayne

The mission is simple: escort Dr. Nadir and her team of aid workers through insurgent-held territory to a remote village on Idun-3.

Veteran Lieutenant Ralph Hague and his platoon have completed far more dangerous assignments fulfilling the Berserker’s contract with Biodyne Industries.

When an army of radical cultists, the Immortals, arrive in search of Biodyne’s research on a life-extending drug, Hague and his troops are redirected into the heart of a war-torn planet to rescue Biodyne personnel and their data from a secret research facility called Outpost 16. There he witnesses horrors that shock him to his very core. Surrounded by hostile forces, he must choose between his duty and his conscience. Barely escaping the outpost, Hague’s platoon and the civilians in his charge trek through the deadly jungle, pursued by fanatical Immortal troops and local insurgents hell-bent on killing them.

Outgunned and outmanned, Hague must outwit his enemies to escape. Even his superior training and extensive experience might not save him. The Immortal leader won’t leave without his Holy Writ—and he will annihilate every Berserker on Idun-3 to get it.

The mission has changed. Hague’s only objective is survival.

Pound of Flesh is a thrilling stand-alone novel set in the gritty War's Edge universe. Intended for mature listeners.

©2022 Ryan W. Aslesen (P)2023 Podium Audio

Another awesome installment

Thanks Ryan and Roger. Outstanding writing and narration! I’ve truly enjoyed y’all’s work and look forward to more.

Another great one. Please write more.

I don’t think the author has written a single book that I didn’t enjoy. Please write more.
You the reader spread the word so he can make a living and write more.
The narrator takes these books and brings them alive. 100% props to him. You are awesome.

Solid, but a bit trope-y

This book has a stereotypical structure of "evil corporation is being eviller still", which gets a bit tedious, but the action is varied and well managed. And the climactic action is both engrossing and satisfying.

The protagonist is doesn't have a lot of individuality, being mostly a vehicle for revealing the plot, but there's nothing wrong with that portrayal. The action is typically unflinching (reminiscent of Pournelle's "Falkenberg's Legion" or Drake's "Hammers Slammers), and it feels believable and compelling. There's really not much of a setting (other than bad corporation is bad), but that doesn't harm the story particularly.

That said, there's a comment in the denouement from one of the characters that the Berserkers' legal team hasn't been doing its job very well, which was my thought in this story. It's precisely the job of a corporate contract legal team to make sure that errors like the one that this book relies on for its structure never happen.

This is one of the better War's Edge: Berserkers novels. If you want ugly SF military fiction, this book should satisfy. Recommended.

Reads as if written by AI

Stereotype characters speaking cliche dialogue with juvenile, cookiecutter emotions from a bygone, simplistic era. Could have been written by an early AI program.