Guest Review: Death or Glory

Goodreads Review by Joanne Budzien. 

Bottom Line Upfront

This novel is in my top 10 of 125 books read this year and the only book that I have reread in the same year in decades. Death or Glory is an excellent book in the grand scheme of things while being the weakest member of the Doomsday Recon trilogy. This review is written after my second reading of Death and Gloryin about a month. Both times I read the whole book in under 24h. This is not put-your-whole-life-on-hold compelling, but it’s a definite postpone-weekend-chores-and-I-can-stay-up-a-little-too-late-and-get-up-a-little-too-early enjoyable ride.

25-year-old me would have loved the detailed action sequences punctuated by occasional licking of wounds before being dropped again into the action. This is a rattling good story that works; the blending of genre styles is solid.

Middle-aged me loves the feelings created by the literary aspects of this novel. I care about these characters and the enduring human questions that show up. However, at no point is this A Very Special Episode of 1980s television. There’s no academic discourse on Humanistic Themes of Duty, Responsibility, Honor, and Love. We’re just laughing and crying along with Bennett for the sheer tragedy when no good choices exist and yet making no choice is probably the worst option.

This is the middle book of a trilogy, yet it has none of the typical middle book problems. Instead, I’m rating three stars for a reason I never would have expected: too much excellent character development in a blended genre context which results in the main character splitting into 3 distinct characters that isn’t part of the planned storyline and keeps jarring me out of the moment.

I personally would have preferred most character development for Bennett be the literary character with little/no personality development in the military and fantasy genres. All the other characters develop as coherent characters across the genres through the action and reflecting on the action. Only Bennett is this tripartite entity, but that’s a problem for the main character narrating in first person. Perhaps that disconnect would have been less had I been spreading the reading over a week so I wouldn’t have memories of “but only 10 pages ago…”

5 Star Aspects

• Every scene works. The battle narrations focus down to the urgent needs. There’s no thinking about socks, discomfort, or anything irrelevant. Other things become relevant in the licking wounds phase and then there’s the realism of how trench foot is not just a historical artifact.
• Scenes are an effective blend of genres: military, fantasy, and literary
• Realistic dialogue: each character has a unique voice without resulting to the fakey misspelled accents. Word choice, tone, terseness, and other stylistic choices make the characters individual people who have their own motivations, backgrounds, emotions, and needs.
• Compelling pace of action, downtime, reflection, planning, and character interactions.
• Real stakes: there are no guard rails here; any character can die at any moment because we keep racking up the losses for the characters we know, just like in Doomsday Recon.
• Using magic/juice/mojo takes a toll. Yes, a person can run the first marathon or even do an iron man with training. But at some point, you’ve run the battery out even with the best training as the action does not let up. Folks die because not only couldn’t the airstrike be called, but the healing was not available at the time they needed it.
• The different cultures are truly different. Characters are true to their cultures in their actions and deeds. This is not the surface diversity related to clothes and food, this is visceral knowledge of what constitutes right/wrong and constrains what thoughts are even available.
• The realistic characters from 1989 use pop culture references as those of us do in real life with our fond memories of the 1980s. This is not “lookie, I’m being clever. See how clever I am”; this is how my friends sound with editing out of the ums, ers, and ahs.
• The women are real characters who become broskis who happen to be women. Not men wearing women bodies. Not Super Duper Uper Plucky Girls Who Are Better Than the Men. Unique individuals who have valuable skills to the mission and are fully part of the team.

Why Only 3 Stars?

Williamson is a master of the craft and each scene is fantastic. Born in Battle (book 3) flows seamlessly from Death and Glory. The events that should scar the characters in Death and Glory do and that remains important in Born in Battle (one of the top 5 books I’ve read this year and outstanding compared to all the books I’ve ever read in my life).

The excellent scenes in Death or Glory, though, feel like they come from 3 different novels going through the same timeline with a genre blend chosen to have maximum effectiveness for storytelling purposes. This is one coherent story blending across different genres that become less distinct as the novel progresses.

Individually, each novel is at least four stars as we follow main character Sergeant Nephi Bennett through this part of his life:

• In the military fiction novel, Sergeant Bennett is really coming into his own while leading his squad. We see glimpses of the husband/consort who follows orders as his part of the team effort. 4 stars.
• In the 5-star literary novel, Nephi wrestles with identity, honor, and trade-offs for the greater good as a man on the path to being a philosopher-king. This is the novel that Doctor Zhivago wanted to be. Doctor Zhivago ended up with some dry lectures to tell instead of show. Death or Glory shows the painful conversations between folks who are having an emotional human-to-human moment that matters, yet also is part of an ongoing relationship between broskis who are equally comfortable giving each other a hard time and being the ride-or-die bestie.
• As the chosen one in a fantasy setting, Ben-Ette experiences growing pains with his increasing powers and wrestles with what it means to be separate while still needing to belong to something larger. 4 stars.

The collection of genres works as the styles lend themselves to different aspects of the story and world. It is rare to wish for less character development, especially when the writing is this beautiful, but that was my wish for most of the novel as the three Bennetts increasingly diverged.

Yes, the Sergeant needs that mentoring lecture to improve his leadership skills. Nephi of ~20 pages ago who has been immersed in deep thoughts does not. Embracing the zen, Ben-ette shouldn’t have even noticed such a problem in the mixed sex team.

Every character in Death and Glory has a unique voice. Attribution to speaker is mostly unnecessary. Therefore, the well-developed Bennetts three take me out of the story too frequently because it feels like 3 characters, not one person who code switches appropriately in context. The other characters develop seamlessly, but not Bennett. This isn’t the Russian novel situation of having one character with multiple titles, nicknames, and a patronymic: this is three characters. A credit to the writing abilities of Williamson, but really annoying in the moment.

Tasteful Rape and Torture

Before I write about the rape and torture itself, I want to mention that this book has realistic military men so there’s locker room talk and this is now a mixed sex squad. However, the talk among the squad is tasteful (for lack of a better word). That feels a little strange to write, yet that’s the vibe.

Double/single entendres abound showing frustrated, healthy young adults maintaining discipline or giving the newlywed a hard time. It’s “Hand Solo” level of explicit, fun and not personal (well, ok, personal when giving the newlywed a hard time).

For example, to avoid hypothermia, Bennett ends up naked and sharing a blanket with Tears (healthy female warrior). Healthy adult male reaction occurs in the morning and the description is evocative while never making me feel like I’m in a male body. It feels like I’m in that scene with the first-person male narrator (Bennett is newly married and this is not his wife) and yet everything is conveyed through dialogue suitable for a general audience even though experienced adult me is laughing/cringing.

In real life, I have a policy of “we can joke all you like as long as your penis does not become my problem”. This book hits the appropriate level of we all know what’s what, yet it’s a layer of joking abstraction. A given penis is only the owner’s problem… until the rape and torture scenes.

I was surprised on reread to discover these scenes were only 15 pages. They stuck in my head as being longer because the book time covered is days. The emotions are real. We’re there in first person with Bennett watching them rape Dance in brutal ways that could kill her and can only pray that Dance has been mercifully unconscious as quickly as possible as long as possible during those days.

The magic is not an option.

Looking away is not an option.

Bennett is still too young to have learned to emotionally detach or consciously dissociate in any of the genres. Bennett cares and everything hits hard. Yet Williamson gives us the feelings without almost no details of the bodies involved. It’s all emotion and very, very effective.

The aftermath of those days continues through the rest of Death or Glory and well into Born in Battle. This is not a one-line motivation for revenge. This is the reality of what happens when everyone goes home after the funeral, life has to go on, and yet there’s a major piece missing every hour of every single day for an indefinite period. This is the reality of acquiring a disability that won’t get better and life is forever changed, even though “you look fine!”.

Flashes of normalcy start appearing within pages, but they are flashes. However, sometimes those flashes are enough because it’s clear that Dance still remains a person to the squad. She is not lesser; she is not pitiable; she is not Other. It’s not clear what internally Dance will manage nor Bennett, yet still people. Changed, but people.

Why You Should Read

If you like no-holds-barred action, Death or Glory has it.

If you like the frission of no guard rails so anyone could die, become disabled, or be turned evil at any moment, Death or Glory has it.

If you sometimes want to be up at 0300 musing on how hard life can be, Death or Glory has that as well. Born in Battle has more of that 0300ness and you should continue on to Born in Battle once you’ve finished Death or Glory. You might want to plan so you don’t sleep between the books to get the full effect.

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Death or Glory is available in print and eBook on Amazon or from your favorite online bookseller, and on Audible (performed by Mark Boyett).