Blaine Lee Pardoe's Tides of Redemption
Just when you thought it was once again safe to eat sushi, Blaine Lee Pardoe releases another book in the Land & Sea universe. Yes, my friends, Tides of Redemption is finally here (even if I’m a few months late. The life of a book reviewer is a hard one spent slaving over a hot cell phone.) and it is no longer safe to go near the water.
And yes, I remember Jaws. The fact of the matter is that you actually had to go into the water to be in danger from Jaws. In The Tides of Redemption (and the rest of the Land & Sea universe) the fish come out of the water to kill the people. It is quite frankly horriblfying.
The books up to this point have all involved a humanity that is on its heels. No one knew what was coming (except the one guy who did and no one would listed to. Nope, totes doesn’t remind me of Pearl Harbor and I don’t know why you’re asking me about that.) until people started dying in job lot quantities and aliens emerged from the ocean and conquering the land.
In The Tides of Redemption the war is still not going all that well for humanity. Alien tech is less tech and more biology and we can’t figure out how to copy it, or even match it. They can inhabit ocean depths where we have no hope of being able to strike back. And they have interstellar travel, and we can’t figure out how they do it. We can’t even get eyes on one of their ships because they land in the ocean and immediately sink to depths where we can’t follow, only they don’t get crushed at that depth. Until, that is, the US Space Force manages to shoot down one of the alien ships and it crashes in Greenland.
The world of Tides of Redemption is the Earth, but the political situation is not one that a reader would be familiar with unless they had read the books. So when I say that the US and the UK both send military expeditions to Greenland to recon the downed ship, most people would probably expect things to be far friendlier than they end up being. Neither the US or the UK commanders seem to like each other much. It doesn’t help that the Americans never knew the Brits would be there, and they can’t agree on who the wrecked ship belongs to…
Yeah. It gets ugly. Of course, the Fish are still there and they still don’t like humans. Or are they? What’s in that ship? Is it a ship or a really big alien? Can it be repaired? How does it work? Is there a bridge? Where are the engines? Who put the bop in the bop shu bop shu bop?
Or sumfin’
And that’s just the first three chapters or so, I think. I wasn’t exactly taking notes. I never do. I’m lazy.
Pardoe has made a career out of writing about big, stompy robots and, while the ASHURs or Augmented Soft/Hard Unconventional Combat Rigs in the book (the Brits call them Sovereigns) are closer to power armor than the huge mecha that Pardoe has traditionally written about, but they seem more realistic because they’re smaller. It could be because I grew up on Iron Man, but a not much more than man sized suit of armor and weapons that just kicks ass seems easier to build and maintain.
The ASHURs of the Land & Sea are roughly the size of the Armored Personnel Units from The Matrix: Revolutions but are probably closer to a medium Battletech ‘Mech in terms of armor and weaponry. Lots of punch in not a lot of space. I like these things and I want one. I don’t particularly care which one. I do need it now though.\
But no story is solely about things. Pardoe gets that, and Tide of Redemption shows his basic understanding of human nature. Pardoe’s characters live and breathe. The commanders of the opposing human forces have a hate on for each other’s countries and it makes sense in context. His scientists just want to do their job free of interference from the military. The military wants to keep the scientists safe regardless of what the scientists want. The reporter wants a story. The camera man wants her to get one and he put his ass on the line to make it happen. And then there’s Marine Staff Sergeant Natalia Falto.
Fans who have read the earlier books will recognize Falto as the ballsiest Marine this side of Chesty Puller and they’ll know that she’s earned the Medal of Honor. Falto is a badass’s badass. She’s been capture and survived a horror that would make a Corregidor survivor cringe and she is, quite frankly, a mess. She’s not sure if she can go on this mission with a bunch of Army Rangers and ASHUR pilots. She’s not sure if she wants to. She’s not force to. But Falto is, in the end, a Marine and she goes because she has expertise the expedition needs.
A lot of Tides of Redemption is told from Falto’s point of view and I love that about it. Falto is a person who, despite the suffering she went through, is goal oriented and perhaps a little bit of a loose cannon. Don’t get me wrong. Falto will, and does, stand in the line of battle and do her job but she’s not as respecting of rank as perhaps a member of the military should be. She has a tendency to say things she shouldn’t at times when, well…
They work. She’s not sent along to fight, per se, sees sent as an advisor outside of the normal chain of command. That’s a good thing for her. Her comparative lack of rank compared to some of the commissioned officers doesn’t stop her from advising when she needs to, even if her input isn’t always appreciated the way it should be. I like this woman.
That’s not to say she’s the only hero in Tides of Redemption. There are plenty of heroics to go around. There is so much action in this book that its hard to keep up with. It’s always exciting and even when nothing seems to be wrong, something is probably wrong and our heroes don’t know it until it’s too late and they’re in it up to their waists.
Seriously, Pardoe has already announced that there will be a sequel and I can’t wait. If it’s as good as Tides of Redemption I’m going to lose my mind again. This thing deserves a Dragon Award. Fight me.
Bottom Line: 5.0 out of 5 Underground Tentacles
Tides of Redemption
Blaine Lee Pardoe
WarGate Nova, 2023
Tides of Redemption 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.