Dead Sky by Weston Ochse
I would like to thank Penelope from Rebellion for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review
Publisher – Rebellion
Published – Out Now
Price – £5.99 Kindle eBook £8.99 paperback
Six months later. Back in the real world, the surviving members of the Tactical Support Team or TST are trying to adjust, but it’s not easy. Boy Scout has multiple entities hitching a ride in his mind, and at least one of them is desperate to get control. The drink and drugs help, while he tries researching online to find out something about the White. Lore is doing her own considerable research about Zoroastrianism, to see if she can figure out a way to free Boy Scout. McQueen is hell bent on protecting them both…Dervishes are looking for them…With enemies all around the TST are about to face their toughest mission yet.
I found the first instalment on this series Burning Sky a much more engaging military horror series than I originally expected. A refreshingly human rather than ultra-macho team plunged into a Jacob’s Ladder style nightmare trip in Afghanistan that involved ancient demons; multiple realities and a diverse team of highly trained combat specialists trying to survive. The first book plunged the team into danger and not all survived so I was intrigued in which direction this series would go in next. It’s again a nice surprise that the novel goes in a slightly different even more satisfactory direction with some great character moments combined with a huge amount of narrative pace powering the story.
The good news is that some of the Tactical Support team escaped the shootouts at the end of the first novel. Their leader the thoughtful but driven Boy Scout; the studious and extremely capable Lore aka Preacher’s Daughter and their grounded and dry-witted heart of the team McQueen. But they are while not broken are certainly bruised and for Boy Scout he’s taken a force within himself from the mysterious spirit world known as the White; one that seeks to use him for his own ends. The rogue Dervishes from Afghanistan the team first fled though want it back. Hidden in a US monastery the team are trying to work out what’s happened and how Boy Scout can be freed of his uninvited guests. Soon the TST find themselves involved with a mysterious hidden division of the military that knows about the supernatural; the renegade dervishes; a mysterious psychic and a former nun who was possessed. Boy Scout will find the US can be just as unsafe as any war zone and his team begin to fear they can no longer be entirely sure he is himself either.
Reading this novel, I was reminded of how when Richard Donner wanted to film Superman his key word for the film was verisimilitude – the ability to make something appear real. A man in a cape flying and an insane billionaire trying to take over the world shouldn’t feel real…well ok certainly the first part… but the performances, the music and the look of the movie made us believe a man can fly. Ochse has all these slightly strange horror and sf ideas all being thrown at the TST and yet despite how outlandish the concepts can initially sound the novel hits with a straight bat. This is achieved by making the TST again a capable intelligent trio who take each revelation calmly, assess it and try to work out how to get around it. That’s what the military are trained to do. They may point out the weirdness of their situation , but they are still objective and that helps the reader immersed in this world.
I’ve met a few people in the military and that calm attitude and the way they talk about the forces feels real – I am not military but if I am feeling that this is what the military would try to do then it’s easier for me to be sold on the whole plot. The only drawback is that there are a few conversations that feel like pure infodumps of key information rather than a more organic sharing of information. They’re not dull facts but they do feel like they clang for my attention sometimes. Sometimes it’s very clear we are being told an important plot point! Happily, as with the first book Ochse has a great ability to mix this up with fluid action scenes or particularly more in this novel mysterious visits into the spirit world known as the White where Boy Scout has to engage the forces and entities within or can play with reality itself. This makes the reader start to slightly doubt if the reality we are reading in a chapter is actually reality and that keeps the novel’s tension flowing.
The other element I loved is the actual characters within the TST. We have a more centralised trio this time and that gives Ochse time to flesh out the dynamics. Boy Scout is still our lead character – a man who could have been an English teacher but decided to enrol in the forces; extremely competent but also keenly are of humanity’s ability to do evil. He’s tortured and while assured in his role as a leader is also traumatised by what happened to his team. I like that instead of an ultra -macho lead as I’ve seen in some military fiction, he feels refreshingly human. Added to this the double act of Preacher’s Daughter and McQueen. Both competent but not above taking the mickey out of each other. They feel like a family – bickering; able to discuss a mutual love of Buffy the Vampire Slayer but also still clearly having deep respect, trust and platonic love for each other. I was impressed that Ochse gives us a very competent female lead who pulls her team up on sexism and we also have a gay man in McQueen who also is happy to avoid any stereotypical behaviour. Having three very likeable leads again helps me get invested as I really care for these character’s survival and the final chapters really do raise hearts in mouth when lives are once again on the line.
My one issue is that the finale feels almost to be setting up a further story (yes my issue is I wanted more stories!), but this is currently being heralded as the end of the duology. I was really enjoying the world that Ochse had painted and it feels like there perhaps may be even more road in this team and particularly the idea that the military have a paranormal division. Ochse hints perhaps this can be explored more so we will see. The novel strongly reminded me of James Rollins Sigma Force novels; another series with a great knack for creating a very real, yet also slightly fantastical environment that is mixed with competent military characters. This book gave me that similar feeling of immersion and merging of the genres. If you’re looking for a fast-paced unusual military fantasy thriller then the TST books may be right up your street. Looking forward to what Ochse does next.
