Well that is an extremely long title for a blog entry, sorry for that. Not really though.
I stumbled on the Undying Mercenaries series by chance, or by the magic of suggestion algorithms on amazon and audible. I enjoy the series, they are good popcorn books. They are fast paced with cool tech and interesting characters. Well I say interesting characters, but I mainly mean one Mr. James McGill. If you read one of the books you have read them all so far. Larson is almost painting by numbers at this point. Every book has followed the same formula. I mean, look at the titles for the books in the series: Steel World, Dust World, Tech World, Machine World, and up next Death World. If it isn't broke why fix it? The third book, Tech World, was a bit of disappointment to me, this one was at least as good as the first two.
The biggest change in this book is James McGill grew as a character a small bit. He found out about some major life events that affect him, and he had to do a little bit of introspection. I think Machine World does a good job showcasing his moral compass. He has always had one, it's a little warped, but his heart is usually in the right place. He actually refrained from sleeping with a girl on moral grounds in this book! I really like McGill as a character. He is a complicated simple character. Does that make any sense? Probably not, but read the books and it will. However Larson could stop beating us over the head with the fact he is more complex than on the surface. Every single female he comes in contact with in this books notes on the fact he is more complicated than they first thought. Larson writes McGill well enough that we don't have to be told he is more complicated than meets the eye. While I am on a rantJ. I could also do without adding in an event in every book that forces him to escape permanent death. I know it makes the books exciting, but they are exciting without trying to shoehorn an impossible scenario for him to escape from. I thought machine world may not have one, but sure enough it did. McGill finds a way to escape permanent death once again.
Ok rant done. Those are the problems with Machine world and the series, but they are still fun. I don't think they are meant to be inspiring literature. I am going to take them for what they are, great action science fiction pieces, with a fun main character. Death World is already out in Kindle form, but the audio version has yet to be released. I will probably wait for the audio version. The narrator, Mark Boyett, for this series is great! He really brings to life all the characters, and you lose yourself in his telling. If you enjoy audiobooks, his narration alone is worth listing to the first book. I may have not continued on with the series after Tech World without his narration.
If you are a science fiction fan, who likes fast paced action and interesting tech pick up this series. Just don't expect mind blowing introspection and deep character development. McGill is a fun main character, but not one who grows much through the series. I hope to see a bit more growth, and a cut-down of the one quota per book permanent death scenario. Probably won't happen with a title like Death World.
My Rating: Better than the last one (will buy the next one)
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