Sacremon

Harmony War Series, Book 1

By: Michael Chatfield

Narrated by: Joel Richards

Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

Stay in Earth's slums or carve out a life in Earth's Military Forces. Two brothers make a choice that will change their lives forever.

Mark and his brother Tyler survived the slums with a gun in their hand and a blade in their sleeve. While it won't get them hired at a corporation, the Troopers are always looking for trained killers.

The EMF offers education, medical care, food, and real pay. They have a chance at a new life, one where they don't have to worry about a rival gang killing them in the street. With a 35-year EMF contract, the Victor brothers might have a new life, but it comes at a hefty cost.

Peace doesn't last, and the EMF doesn't care how many troopers die as long as they complete their mission.

©2016 Michael Chatfield (P)2018 Tantor

Who is the villain?

I enjoyed the story, but the author doesn’t spend any time reflecting upon the ethics of the characters. This seems to be a trend with the genre. Regardless it’s a fast paced story that is enjoyable.

Sign up and sign away 35 years of your life

This book is about making choices when all the options you have are basically crappy options. You can stay and live in squalor fighting to stay alive with the danger of starvation and gang violence looming over your head, or you can sign up and fight for thirty five years. Notta lotta options on the table as my grandmother would say. It's kind of like do you want to drown your baby or shoot it? Either way you go bad things are going to happen to you. Chatfield does that here with his characters, and you pity them right out of the gate. Pity them you should, for Chatfield has no qualms about killing characters off. While he isn't exatly at the level of GRRM it soon becomes apparent that no one is really safe. I appreciate that. In fact, I prefer it. Having characters that never die or suffer consequences is not only boring but it is unrealistic. My biggest complaint is that the battles and the blood seemed to be filtered for some reason. You would think that with a penchant for killing there would be a bit more blood and gore, but no. Chatfield pulls back on that aspect of warfare.

I first read Chatfield's Emerilia series, which is an amazing LITRPG series, is creative innovative and ground breaking. I highly suggest that you give him a shot there, because he kills it with the characters, settings, and action. Here there is a nice twist at the end, the characters are interesting, and the action is good but I do have say that the story is a little familiar. My one real complaint is POV shifting that goes on. One minute you are in third person, then next first person plural, then first person singular, then back to third. It was a touch dizzying, and I have to say that I prefer consistency in my stories. Pick one style POV and stick with it. That kept taking me out of the story so I had to pull a star for the frequency of it.


Joel Richards is a fun narrator. I felt that he did a fine job and was easy to listen to, his voice was not jarring or overwelming at all. Normally, I'd talk about pacing and voices, but I think he handled this like a pro. It was nice to see Chatfield use a different narrator to help diffentiate his two series. I liked Richards style a great deal. He helped keep the story cohesive when all the POV shifts were going down.

I'll be honest, this isn't a new story. It is one you've prbably seen a dozen times over the years if you like sci-fi, but that doesn't make it a bad book. The story, characters, and plot are all slick and well written and fun. I just had a bit of a hiccup with the POV stuff, otherwise the story is fantabulous and well worth your time. It packs a punch, carries a knife, and has an attitude like someone from a back alley waiting for someone to roll for the weekend. Don't miss out. Even though I did receive a promo code for this review it in no way influenced my considerations of the material, and in fact, inspired me to be more honest. Getting a code generally makes me harsher as a reviewer as I am more often concerned what someone like Me will decide based on my review.

If this review helped, please press the YES below. Thank you immensely!!!

Solid military scifi

Came from his Emerillia series, not disappointed, solid military scifi, ready to start book two
narrator did a fine job, no complaints

Plot twist

Great story and love the plot twist at the end! The Victor Brothers are aptly named!

great story so far

a great read, chatfield is slowly becoming one of my favorite authors. really love the game lit books but this series told a great story of the brothers thrown into hell.

Great start of a sci fi series

I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

I became a big fan of Michael Chatfield with his Emerilia series. This book takes you on a much different journey. This is a great sci fi story of two brothers in a distant future earth that is very distopian. The narration is pretty decent. He does a decent job of providing unique voices for the characters and he injects some emotion into them. He is not as dynamic as some others that I've heard, but he does a good job. All in all, I really quite enjoyed this book and am going to move on to book 2.

amazing

an absolutely fantastic refresher from what I have been reading and a great series In its own right

Ok story with great potential as the new books come out

Story was good. Character development could use some attention and it got a little repetitive but still great. The narrator could have brought the book to life, but was super monotone. He used the exact same unchanging pitch without intonation no matter what was occurring in the story. I think he did more to hurt the story then help it. I think I’ll be finishing this series the old fashioned way.

Solid story good characters

First reading this book, I seriously enjoyed this book and the characters. The only problem I had was when they returned home after quite a bit. Nothing in society had changed except people grew older and buildings got nicer. I'm not the most senior, but in 3 decades of living, the world and my town have changed drastically over that time, so meh on the part, but everything else was perfect. Read it.

Starts well but loses it in the fighting

Starts well with a good premise and interesting setting. The combat is to drawn out with seemingly endless ammunition. The author tried for some pathos.