The Forge

From Rust, Book 1

De: Daniel James Clark

Narrado por: Kevin Kenerly

Best friends Zak Lockwood and Mark Alder are training to pilot massive war machines at the United Entities Mechanized Warfare Academy.

They've just finished work on restoring their own mech when The Harbingers of The Fall, an organization bent on rendering society to ashes, forces them into conflict overnight. Zak, Mark, and a close-knit group of other cadets must figure out their place in a generational conflict that threatens to tear the world apart. As they fight through cities and race across the desert with nothing but their training mechs, their friendship and love are tested through vicious patterns of violence and loss. Questions arise about whether or not a system that causes this much pain is worth preserving at all.

©2023 Daniel James Clark (P)2023 Podium Audio

desert-mech-punk

excellent world building and character development. the steady pacing is a feature (not a bug) of what can sometimes be the monotony of academic life but also life in the desert right until the end when a flash flood literally and metaphorically wraps up book 1. can't wait to start book 2.

Really Great Book

Thoroughly enjoyed this. The story is a slow build of tension and really has a fantastic climax at the end. Can't wait to hear the next 2!!!!

Outstanding high-tech Sci-Fi!

What an incredibly complex and entertaining story! It’s amazing that this is the author’s first full length novel. I can’t wait for part two to come out.
In Daniel James Clark’s high-tech science-fiction novel, The Forge (From Rust Book 1), we meet two best friends Mark Alder and Zak Lockwood, cadettes at the United Entities Mechanized Warfare Academy. With one year before they graduate, the training base is attacked by the rebel force, The Harbingers of The Fall. In the blink of an eye, our two heroes are thrust into actual combat and must use the incomplete training they have to not only defend themselves and their fellow cadettes but mount an offensive counter-attack to defend the nearby communities in the destructive path of the enemy.
The story is fast paced, but not so fast that character development was ignored. By the end of the book you are completely invested in the lives of not only Mark and Zak, but in the tragic life of the their rebel prisoner.
Daniel Clark is able to capture the true horror, suffering, and heartbreak of warfare, including the consequences to not only innocent civilians, but to all individuals engaged in actual combat. As I was reading this story, my mind kept going back to those suffering due to the current conflicts in the Ukraine and Israel.