Seven Soldiers: War of the Worlds

by Clark Wilkins

A REVIEW

Military weaponry, tactics and protocols highlight sci-fi non-stop battle thriller

In September 19, 1961, Betty and Barney Hill claimed they were abducted by aliens on a rural road in New Hampshire. After being taken aboard a spaceship they were subjected to a number of examinations including tissue samples, then released unharmed. The Hills informed the authorities and under hypnosis divulged the details of the events including the alien’s home star of Zeta Retiucli. This event was sufficiently genuine to be investigated by the FBI, CIA and Air Force.

Fast forward three hundred years.

The Interplanetary Defense Force (IDF) is in full retreat. They arrived on the planet to put down a rebellion and in their first encounter have taken a vicious beating. Who is this unknown enemy that turns their own weapons against them? An enemy they have yet to even see.

Their only chance is to regroup but how can they do that when the enemy is picking them off as they fall back. Once the army has withdrawn across a dam, they might have a chance but only if they can hold the dam and stop the advance. They need volunteers to make this stand. Seven soldiers step up for what is most likely a suicide mission.

Not only must they keep the enemy at bay, but the beautiful Dr. Nirawon Kaiser demands they capture one of the enemy to discover possible physiological vulnerabilities.

The battle ensues and Kaiser gets her wish only to discover an astounding link between the capabilities of the enemy and a UFO incident three centuries ago.

Once again, author Clark Wilkins excels in detailed research, this time into weaponry and military tactics and protocols. It’s well worth the read as an entertaining education into these specific areas. Seven Soldiers: War of Worlds is well structured with rising tension building to an unexpected climax.

Characterization is thin and stereotypical though thorough enough to carry the plot from one detailed description of weapons, their deployment and tactical strategy to another.

In previous works, Wilkins has cleverly blended fact with fiction adding an extra level of authenticity. However, in Seven Soldiers: War of Worlds, since the suggested link introduced by the actual Zeta Retiucli prologue doesn’t manifest itself until some three hundred years in the future the technique fails to invoke that sense of eerie intrigue.

On my latest dive into my pile of Ace Doubles I came up with a pair of novels about which I had mixed feelings. Keith Laumer's Worlds of the Imperium is one that I have long wanted to read, as it's considered an early classic of alternate history. I've never been a fan of Laumer's work, though, and while there were elements of the story I enjoyed (in which an American from our world is kidnapped by another timeline in order to fight his dictatorial double on another world), it never felt like it lived up to its reputation.

Reputation also was a factor in how I judged Marion Zimmer Bradley's Seven From the Stars. While it seems as though the books of her Avalon series were everywhere when I was growing up this was the first of her novels that I've read. It's a more conventional sci-fi tale written early in Bradley's career in which seven human-looking aliens crash land in Texas, where they're forced to find ways to survive. This premise alone offers enormous possibilities, yet Bradley layers it with the efforts of an undercover observer to rescue them and the looming threat of an amorphous Big Bad. It felt like a case of too much plot getting in the way of a good story, and while I try not to hold an author's early work against them, given Bradley's horrifying personal actions I doubt I'll seek out any more of her novels.

by Jeremy Bates

The first book of Bates' Scariest Places on Earth series. Though the stories are fictional, they are all set in real places that are creepy or scary in some way.

Suicide Forest is just outside of Tokyo, Japan and is actually called Aokigahara Forest, but commonly known as Suicide Forest because it's a place where people go to die. Bodies are often found hanging from trees. There are stories about restless spirits haunting the forest, as you would expect in such a place.

A group of friends decide to explore the forest when weather reports divert them from their original plan of climbing Mount Fuji. They end up camping there, after running into some other people doing the same thing. They encounter natural hazards in the forest in their quest to find morbid evidence of the forest's reputation and there is some antagonism between Ethan and his girlfriend's male friend, John Scott, who came along results in typical male posturing and competition.

When they find the abandoned belongings of a woman, mysterious screams are heard in the night and one of their companions is found hanging dead from a tree in the morning, the situation quickly turns into one of survival in a massive forest where they are lost and running out of supplies.

The book is very well written and scary to the point that I had to stop after a few chapters at a time. Horror enthusiasts will love it! The foreign setting and concerns over whether the authorities would respond in the way those in the characters' own countries would lends a sense of immediacy and disorientation in an already engrossing story.

The explanation for what was happening is close enough to plausible to make a good story as well, but one question was left unanswered and I'm docking half a star for that. Otherwise this is an easy 5 star read.

5 Worlds Book 3: The Red Maze by Mark Siegel, Xanthe Bouma, Matt Rockefeller, & Boya Sun is the continuation of the series that I started back in December 2018. [Reviews for Book 1 and Book 2] It's such a fun read but because it's a collaborative project there's a long break in between publishing dates. Therefore, if you're waiting for the next book in the series you're going to be waiting until later this year for it.

This anthology had a nice mix of genres.  I liked the introduction at the beginning of each and the end note by the author.  The best for me were- Escape From Yorktown and Ol' St Nick.