Doomsday Recon: Guest Review

Goodreads review by Joanne Budzien

Rating: 4/5-Stars 

Bottom line upfront

This is an excellent military fiction book in an alternate reality setting. It’s one of the top 5 non-classic books I’ve read this year. I strongly recommend if you like the military book genre and are looking for a great action story that has sassy suicidal cat-gremlins (don’t call them kitties), interdimensional demons (they can’t be gods because there is only one god), and good people who just want to go home (although probably not buying a farm first because we all know how that turns out). About halfway through this book, the second and third books in the series were ordered so I can read them next weekend.

Perspective on Why 4 Stars

Doomsday Recon arrived on Friday and I was finished by Saturday evening. I changed some of my Saturday plans so I could spend the afternoon reading this book. However, the first time I read Shōgun, I missed sleep and had to set timers to remember to eat and take bathroom breaks. Doomsday Recon is a page turner, but not a put-your-life-on-hold, total immersion experience.

Of the 108 books I’ve finished this year, Doomsday Recon is the only one that made me create a GoodReads account to tell folks to read this book. I didn’t do that for There is No Antimemetics Division or Theft of Fire. However, Doomsday Recon is not War and Peace, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Gone with the Wind, or any of the other classics I’ve read this year. Doomsday Recon is a good summer read if you want action that includes soldiers doing their best in weird circumstances that include god-like interdimensional beings, sassy suicidal cat-gremlins (who are sure they are not kitties), and Sugar Skull Gals.

Doomsday Recon is a Military Fiction Book and Follows the Norms of that Genre

Doomsday Recon is not fantasy, despite WarGate Books billing it as military fantasy. The setting does have magic and entities from Central American mythology. However, this is Brad-Thor-like military action dealing with different rules of engagement in a hostile country, not LOTR/WoT/McCaffrey in any of her worlds.

The story is told in the first person by U.S. Cav Trooper Nephi Bennett. Bennett’s unexamined assumptions about how the world works are a combination of US military and Latter-day Saints (Mormon) views. Following the norms of military fiction, neither the military nor LDS views are explained in detail because the audience is expected to know that basic background. We start the book as a military group solving a problem using military techniques. As the supernatural comes up, the religious techniques that are brought to bear are the LDS mindset augmented by other allies acquired along the way.

Bennett believes in The Mission and knows to his bones that you protect your people no matter the cost while doing what you can for the innocents who shouldn’t be in the war zone, but sometimes the battle doesn’t remain restricted to clear combatants who signed up for that engagement. Home is the ultimate goal, but sometimes today’s mission is survival. 

Doomsday Recon is pro-military without being jingoistic. Bennett and his team are doing the necessary things in tough situations. One could write a college essay on the themes of belonging, home, and the nature of reality in Doomsday Recon, but this is not a book that started with the authors saying, let’s write a book using the academic framework of XYZ to explore theme A. Instead, we get to follow along as a captive becomes one of Bennett’s us, despite being a female mythical creature who keeps insisting that the next action ought to be letting her die with honor by being tortured to death by Bennett’s squad. In the book, it works because it’s no different from any of the other teasing of the surfer guy or the X-men comic book lover.

Bennett is a man in the style that would be recognizable from World War II literature: a true man has responsibilities to protect and serve, even when that’s unpleasant or downright horrible. When the squad picks up two female characters (one human and one not), those new additions are peer allies. We’re getting Vasquez and Ripley from Aliens as solid contributors to the team, not Katniss or Violet Sorengail who are somehow super-duper-uper better than everyone else.

Following the norms of military fiction, the squad is going task to task. This isn’t a grand quest in which they will single handedly change the world, although the whole effort together might result in that change if Bennett’s team does their part well enough. We follow along skirmish by skirmish, sometimes with betrayal or espionage, sometimes with poor/no communication from leadership, and sometimes with “crap, who is in charge because the regs do not cover this situation!”

Observations for Potential Readers

Doomsday Recon does not have a D&D-like group of about 5 folks who are journeying together and becoming friends along the way. This is a military fiction book in which Bennett is the main character and all bets are off on secondary characters. Recurring characters exist and it’s clear who is one of Bennett’s us and who is grudgingly accepted as part of relevant community. Death is frequent and, most of the time, Bennett and the crew suck it up and move on because The Mission waits for no man.

Bennett does acquire an in-country love interest and the romance proceeds as it realistically would with a good Mormon boy who is courting for a wife while cognizant of military implications. Folks who are looking for a romantasy-style subplot will not find it here.

Religion is increasingly important as the plot progresses. At all times, the presentation is respectful, although some dialogue involves the natural interactions of “sure, infidel who is an ally, but cannot be a true friend because of being so wrong about this basic fact of reality.” Science works as we expect, but who is guiding strategy behind the scenes of the world including how the portals work to move folks out of our world into this alternate world that does have working magic and spirits relies on religion, not just military might and rank.

Occasionally, the book takes a slight detour into philosophy that doesn’t seem to fit because it’s not as pervasive as Heinlein, Pasternak, or Rand. The idea of a box in which to temporarily store one’s humanity to be able carry on with current task scould work. However, as done here, it’s not fleshed out enough to be satisfying philosophy. I would have preferred more or eliminating it completely. The small tastes are distracting and interrupt the flow for no discernible benefit.

This is an excellent military fiction book in an alternate universe that includes magic and god-like beings. This is likely not the book for you if you want more typical fantasy of a gutsy group of misfits against the world, romance with will they/won’t they leading to explicit details, or a literary experience that takes an academic or timeless exploration of the themes of war, home, and the place of religion in navigating reality.

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Doomsday Recon (book 1 of 3) is available on Amazon, Audible, and other online retailers.