The Red World War

Armored Warrior Panzerter, Book 1

By: T.E. Butcher

Narrated by: Rupert Chandler

Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

Mars. October 2135.

Captain Paul Reiter must prepare for war. His homeland, The Republic of Tharsis, stands on the brink of war with it's neighbor the Union of Mars. As a member of the republic's Provincial Watch, Reiter must prepare his soldiers for battle with an utterly ruthless enemy. Their weapon: Powerful Mecha known the system over as panzerters. He must leave behind his life as a teaching assistant to lead a rag-tag team of pilots in defense of their homeland.

However, things won't be easy for him. For across the border, Damian Blake musters an elite unit on the eve of battle. A veteran of the last war between the two powers, he members the bitter defeat the Union suffered better then most. With him are a Battalion of Mobile Assault Guards or MAGS, elite soldiers with the best training and equipment available supplemented by genetic engineering.

As the Union and Tharsis escalate tensions, peace becomes impossible after a diplomat is assassinated and neighboring countries choose sides. Little does either man know, but the ensuing conflict will become one of the largest in human history.

If you're a fan of Gundam, Band of Brothers, or Battletech, you'll enjoy this epic ride as humanity's second home experiences a global conflict.

©2021 Tyler Earl Butcher (P)2021 Tyler Earl Butcher

A book as exciting as enjoyable as 08th M.S. team!

I loved the audio book! The different characters, tactics, and mecha all combined together into an awesome story!

It’s not bad

The story is good so far but I can’t get over the fact that your narrator has about 3-4 ways to differentiate between all the characters (meaning a lot of the chat sets sound the same), that and the fact that he sounds way too much like Duffman from the Simpson and a Native American chieftain with way too much monotone

It not bad once you get over the narrator's voice.

Since I read half the book before getting the audio book I could follow it better. The book tends to jump between both sides during the same scene/actions. Some details are a bit of a stretch considering the previous war they reference is 2112 and the planet Mars is already terraformed. If you can get beyond listening to the deep "Boston" accent, the narration is not that bad. It actually lightens up towards the end and you can hear more distinct attempt at different voices.

Could not get past the narrator

Fighting Mecha is my thing and had read ads saying this book was chock full of military action. I just could not get past the narrator though. Not much inflection and a low grating voice. Had to give up 20 minutes in.

Start to finish

From the beginning, it held my interest and by the end I was craving more thankfully there is. I recommend this to any fans of Battletech, Titanfall, Gundam, Heavy Gear and mecha in general.

A good tale

As a huge mecha fan I thoroughly enjoyed this this tale of mechanized warfare in the near future. T.E. Butcher clearly puts great passion into his work! The only thing that brings this audiobook down is the narration. The constant mispronunciations and garbled emphasis on words was very jarring. The character voices vary between stilted to passable.

I don't hate this

A few comments on the recording. I wish the pronunciation of real location names was more consistent.
The Kennedy accent was incredibly cringe inducing.
Otherwise a solid audio performance if a bit flat.

Let me be clear this is not an awful story there is a great framework here. However there are some major flaws.
I don't know if perhaps this is abridged or something for the audio but there appears to be some kind of introduction missing.
This story throws you right into the action with little room for buildup or world building. You get bits and pieces with clear influence from a variety of sources, but there is a massive hole in explanation for the setting or why any of the action is happening.

I want to love this, I want it to be the best freaking story I've ever read it has a ton of elements I adore but I need something to flesh out the background and give me any kind of frame of reference for what is going on.

This would be awesome as a movie or TV show something visual where I can see what's happening but without more information it fails abysmally as a book.

hard to follow which characters perspective

good story but narration was hard to follow along with as most of his voices are similar

it was too much jumping from sense no continuity

the story did not make sense in a lt of ways and I served for many years in the 101 airborne the story jumped around too much