Some times things that shouldn’t make me nostalgic do. I mean, I’ve never lived on a farm. I’ve never lived near an Indian reservation. I’ve certainly never gotten to pilot a magically powered mecha that I dug out of a pond on my grandpa’s land. But when I opened up Graham Bradley’s Fossil Force I was hit with a wave of nostalgia so hard it almost knocked me over. It was really cool.
I think it’s because of the easy camaraderie of the kids in the book and the way they conduct themselves. These are kids who want to do things and just do them. Remember when you wanted to >insert activity here< with your friends and you just jumped on your bike and went and did it? That’s what these kids do. Don’t get me wrong. They’re good kids. They go to school and do their homework or whatever. But they still have that ability that I miss: The one where you could get your nearest and dearest together on less than an hour’s notice and be off and away doing what you wanted while the old people went to work and agonized over whatever it was today.
And these kids do the right thing wherever possible. I like them for that. They don’t always do precisely what they should do, and main character Patrick makes at least one questionable decision, but even when they screw up it’s with good intentions. He also faces the consequences of his foolish action and I enjoyed seeing that. Bradley keeps his characters on the straightish and more-or-less narrow throughout the book. There is no goofy nihilism here. Things aren’t always what they should be, but the core group of the story tries to make them right.
And there’s a lot of good things Patrick and friends can do. Fossil Force is a book full of good guys and bad guys and at least two guys I wasn’t sure of through most of the book, even though one of the guys is a girl. Or sumfin’. Yes, I am making this up as I go along. What I’m saying is that the tension is real, the stakes are high and you don’t have to be a kid to enjoy this story. I mean, I’m not a kid (although I’ve been called one) and I loved it. But that brings up an interesting point.
Fossil Force is listed as a children’s book. Amazon has it at eight years and up, although I might think it’s closer to a book for ten year olds, but that might depend on the kid. I was reading the newspaper at eight, so I could’ve handled it at that age but I’m guessing most kids would need a bit more seasoning. Regardless of all of that though, it’s a good read. It’s just more of an “I love this book because it was fun,” book as opposed to a “my professor assigned me this crap so I have to read it” type tome.
Bradley’s world building was top notch. He Heinleins in his details to the point where you feel like you’ve ridden your bike down the road with Patrick. He hides the fact that he’s doing it so well that you don’t even know that you’ve been told what the world is like though. Bradley avoids all of the typical problems (like the dreaded infodump) that plague lesser authors. His world feels lived in, not ethnographed. The story benefits from that and so did I as a reader.
I really enjoyed the world building part of Fossil Force for another reason: I’m working on my own novel set in a world much like our own and, although it feels nothing like Bradley’s, I feel like I learned a lot by re-reading certain passages and trying to figure out what he did to make parts of it work so well. I mention this not to say that this is a teaching novel or whatever (and definitely not as an excuse to mention that my paid subscribers can read my book right here at Jimbo’s before it comes out) but to point out that dude is a master worldbuilder. I’m not saying I’m jealous. I’m just saying my eyes just turned green and looked directly toward Bradley.
And there is very obviously more to the Fossil Force world than what we see in just this first introductory novel. Bradley hints at something deeper and, a purpose to the mecha used by Fossil Force that leads to another whole world. The fact that we haven’t really seen that yet has me both bummed out and excited for the next novel.
Listen, I never said that last sentence made sense. I just said it was true. It’s emotional. It’s not designed to be logical. So just lift your eyebrow, say “Fascinating” and move on, Mr. Spock.
And there is a next novel coming. I read about that somewhere. I’m geeked. Like, I know enough about Fossil Force to know that I don’t know enough, but I’m not really sure what all there is that I don’t know yet. It’s like standing next to a place with a shovel while you’re watching someone else scrape off the concrete so you can get to the dirt and start digging. Like, I want to read more but there’s just no more to read. Somebody needs to buy Graham Bradley a jackhammer. GET THROUGH THAT CONCRETE GUY! Jimbo needs to feed his reading addiction.
Fossil Force is part of a movement by Raconteur Press to release content to get boys interested in reading. Seeing as I have written about the need for such books before I am duty bound to thank them for doing so. You can read my take on the situation here. And, while I’m a fan of good speculative fiction regardless of who publishes it, I have to hand it to them. They’re being the change that I want to see in the world. So thank you, Raconteur Press for doing what is necessary. The last thing the world needs is a bunch of illiterate men.
So yeah, buy yourself a copy. But Christmas is coming and that boy you want to see reading instead of getting in trouble deserves a copy of Fossil Force as well. I’m just sayin’.
Bottom Line: 5.0 out of 5 Mysterious Masks
Fossil Force
Graham Bradley
Raconteur Press, 2025
Fossil Force is available for a 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.
Outstanding! I'm so glad you liked it!
Sold!