Declan Finn's On Tiber's Edge: Land &Sea Season 2
A Book Review
If you’ve followed my blog for any length of time (and I’d like to say thank you to both of my longtime readers) you know that I review a lot of Declan Finn and a lot of Land & Sea. It should therefore surprise precisely zero people that I have recently obtained a copy of Declan Finn’s On Tiber’s Edge: Land & Sea Season 2. Of even less surprise, perhaps, should be the fact that I loved it. I don’t do serial reviews of things that suck. I’m not that much of a glutton for punishment.
And trust me, the only thing that sucks about On Tiber’s Edge is the vacuum pulling the money out of your pocket to pay for the book. It’s that good. I mean, the book is that good. You could probably get by with a relatively weak vacuum. I guess I wasn’t all that surprised here but, being a book in one of my favorite series written by one of my favorite authors, it had a lot to live up to. I’m actually kind of relieved that it did. I’d hate life if I had to sit around and whine because I was disappointed.
And a whining Jimbo is a big ball of patheticness is an image that you’re likely to be stuck with for the rest of your life. Some things you just can’t unsee. Trust me. The world is a better place when I’m not whining.
But there’s no reason to whine this time because Finn knows his stuff. I should’ve known that. Actually, I did know that. That’s why I picked On Tiber’s Edge up in the first place. Believe me, I’m not short of stuff to read. I had to check this thing out.
Before I really get started though, I’ll drop the standard Declansclaimer: Finn is a devout Catholic. So are a lot of his characters. If religious imagery and/or prayer are things you find to be offensive, there are other things to read. As for me, while I take my dose of the Opiate of the Masses with a more Protestant flavor, I’m happy to read about Christians doing Christian things for Christian Reasons.
On Tiber’s Edge is named after the river that runs through Rome. Finn’s Pope, Julius III is a warrior Pope. That’s what the world needs with the Fish invading and so it makes sense from a religious point of view. God would, of course, send a warrior to defend his people. And this Pope declares a Crusade against the aliens who are attacking his planet. Of course, Julius III does not fit the mold of the kindly father confessor that many expect of the Pope. This is a man who does what’s necessary. He’s a good man without necessarily being a nice one. I approve.
Word of the Crusade eventually spreads to Chicago, Illinois, USA and we take up the story from there. Why Chicago? Why not? Chicago is a cool town with lots and lots of lakefront to defend from amphibious aliens. It’s also got a street grid that can be a bit confusing and an elevated train system that Finn has a ton of fun with.
Finn seems to have a much better grasp on the geography of Chicago then he does of Detroit, which appears briefly early in the book. I have this vision of Finn sitting in front of his computer with an old school Rand McNally Road Atlas and his phone open to Google Maps double checking himself as he’s writing On Tiber’s Edge. There is at least a ninety-five percent chance that none of that ever happened, but from what I can remember given my own experiences in Chicago, he’s got the city down cold.
Finn’s characters are, as usual, gritty and realistic. They know what needs to happen and they focus on making it so. At least the heroes of the story do. Finn also includes the occasional behind covering politician and a realistic look at the majority of the population of Chicago, many of which leave either before the Fish hit the city or shortly thereafter. This makes sense. The only people who belong in a war zone are the trigger pullers. And make no mistake about it, both Chicago and Rome become war zones fairly early in On Tiber’s Edge.
And that’s the best part about On Tiber’s Edge. Finn’s mind is almost as twisted as mine, and he has a penchant for finding ways to kill things that borders on the psychopathic. While I’ll grant you that the weapons used in this book are a little less comical than the Super Soakers loaded with holy water of his St Tommy NYPD novels, they’re no less deadly. They’re actually more deadly. Although, let’s face it, a lot of the reason I enjoyed some of action sequences so much is because the guys who raise the hell are guys just like me; gamers, people with an interest in science, people who like to use their ability to think to solve problems from a decent distance away and kill the enemy in new and interesting ways. I don’t want to spoil too much here, but go in with your head on a swivel and be ready for anything.
Land & Sea is, of course, an ongoing series with nine books before this (I’ve only read eight of them, but I’m planning to fix that soonish) and only God knows how many more to go. If you’re a Finn fan who only wants to read the book he wrote, you could probably get away with reading On Tiber’s Edge as a standalone. I don’t recommend doing that, because this is an awesome series. I’m just saying that it would work. Finn puts enough into the tome that you could follow it if you came in cold. All of the characters are brand new and there is a brief history-ish type thing of the war included in the beginning. That’s enough to make it followable.
I also hear rumors that Finn may be working on another book in the Land & Sea series. If true, I’m looking forward to it. If not, I’m going to whine piteously. Someone call Declan. Tell him to get to work. No one wants that.
Bottom Line: 5.0 out of 5 Kablamification Processes
On Tiber’s Edge
Declan Finn
Wargate Books, 2025
On Tiber’s Edge is available for purchase at the following link. If you click the link and buy literally anything from Amazon, I get a small percentage at no additional cost to you.