Reading Recap: Our First Civil War and The Guardian Covenant
December 12, 2023
As usual we’re starting off with a non-fiction book I’d like to recommend. Then we jump into one of my favorite new mech series in the last few years before ending with an update on my recent writing.
Our First Civil War
By H.W. Brands
My lovely wife got me this book last Christmas, which I finished a few months ago. I thoroughly enjoyed it-a huge portion of the text is made of excerpts from primary sources, and I always like hearing the words of people who lived through events. The author sets the stage well before the beginning of the Revolutionary War showing how Britain meandered its way into such a disastrous position in America. The emphasis on the relationship between common Patriots and Loyalists across the Americas was an interesting take.
My only real critique is that in some sections it became a general history of Benjamin Franklin and George Washington. I thought the majority of the Franklin sections were relevant, especially as many dealt with his relationship to his son William, who was a die-hard loyalist till the day he died (pardon the pun). For someone not well versed in Revolutionary War history the extensive passages about George Washington are probably helpful in keeping the narrative and timeline straight. But a lot of the general bits are features of most Revolutionary War histories already.
Overall I really enjoyed this book and recommend it to anyone with a passion for the Revolutionary War.
The Guardian Covenant
I’ve mentioned previously I’m a sucker for mech stories, and this series scratched that itch perfectly. Kevin Ikenberry and Chris Kennedy have put together an extraordinary tale of courage and struggle against overwhelming odds, and I love it.
Starting with The Last Stand, this series documents the fall of Earth to a horde of giant aliens called the Gimfa. Most recently Kevin released Volunteer Fury, the 4th book in the series. This book is the second to show how humans fight to defend their colony and adopted homeworld from the Gimfa and how they plan to strike back at the dangerous aliens.
I don’t want to give too much away, but I think this series is absolutely worth your time. I can’t wait to see what Kevin and Chris have coming in the future in this universe!
Writing Update
By the time this update comes out, I will have submitted three new short stories to open calls! Hopefully sometime in the new year I’ll have good news to share on these.
My day job has been nuts the past few months, so I’ve not gotten as much writing done as I’d like, but I am making steady progress. Through the end of November I am up to a total of about 64,000 words written against a goal of 100,000 by the end of the year. I’m not likely to get to that 100k this year, but this is significantly improved from last year where I only managed ~37k.
I have really benefited from having my writing group to encourage me and help with critiquing. The Alpha Mercs are awesome, and if you’re in search of something to read you should check out our website for links to their work. I get to read a lot of these ahead of time before publishing, and they are fantastic!
That is all for today. Thank you so much for reading!