I’m not all about the post-nuclear apocalypse. Sometimes, reading alternative examinations of humanity’s end is refreshing, and even a little inspiring. Although I’m not a big fan of ‘aliens take over the Earth, oh no run – they so powerful and we so weak (but we still win in end, yes we do)’, I decided to give author M. R. Forbes’ book “Man of War” a try. What the hell, I had an Amazon gift voucher, I went a little bananas.

So, what’s it like?

“Man of War” is not the post-apocalyptic sci-fi cliche I thought it would be.

First, what is “Man of War” about?

“Man of War” takes place over 50 years after the end of the world. Aliens – the Dread – arrived in force and started dominating the planet. Any and all retaliation was totally futile, as even our advanced weaponry of the sci-fi future was totally hopeless against their superior armour. In the end, humanity fled on its remaining starship and buggered off to some other place in order to hide, rebuild and repopulate (bow-chica-bow-wow).

Now, this story could go one of two ways: Either it would become the cliche humans vs. superior aliens battle extraordinaire that I was expecting, or it would be a freaky-deaky inter-species porno about repopulating a civilisation through some hot, alien exchanges. Weirdly enough, it became a bit of both.

The story follows two perspectives. One is a captain and star pilot who lives with the human colony in outer space, and the other is a guerilla fighter back on Earth. Through alternating chapters, we follow the tale of a crumbling society, a losing battle and – ultimately – the potential turn of events that humanity needs.

What’s this about … freaky-deaky alien exchanges?

I’m not going to ruin this bit because it’s a big part of the Dread storyline, but there are some inter-species things going on in “Man of War” that I didn’t expect. It’s by no means 50 Shades of Alien, so totally SFW, but there’s some interesting concepts behind the antagonists in this book, which brought back fond memories of “Battlestar Galactica”, actually. I’m exaggerating when I use the word ‘freaky-deaky’, but hey, I need your attention so I can feel good at night.

Impressions on the story

This book definitely surprised me. Perhaps I just went in with standards too low, but I enjoyed it far more than anticipated. Rather than some regurgitated cliche about humans battling a superior enemy (who hasn’t read that story before?), what you get is a unique look on a tired post-apocalyptic genre – reminiscent of “Defiance” and the aforementioned “Battlestar Galactica”.

I must admit, there’s a B-story love triangle between two of the characters back on Earth that seems pretty out of place. It’s not that you can’t expect humans to fall in love with each other when there’s almost no hope left at all and everything you know and treasure is burned to ash, but the way this story is shoehorned into the plot took me out of it a little bit. I found myself wanting to skip ahead a few paragraphs till it passed, kinda like the feeling of blood rush when you stand up too fast. It’s there, it’s happening, but it’ll pass if you let it.

However, the plot balances out with plenty of cool things. I like that humanity isn’t modern society, but rather an advanced civilisation with interstellar travel. The fact that we are so advanced but still totally hopeless lends a bit of excitement to the book, and I greatly appreciated it. In addition, the Dread themselves seem like there’s a lot to their backstory, which isn’t fully explored yet but is set up quite nicely for future tales.

Should you buy this book?

Listen, you’re not going to have your brain explode all over the walls after reading “Man of War”. It’s by no means a groundbreaking work of art, and it’s not going to reshape mankind as we know it.

THAT SAID, it’s really entertaining for a few hours and I don’t regret spending a few dollars to pick it up. I actually really appreciate when books try less to impress me with their metaphors and artistic representations of man’s inhumanity to man, but instead focus on telling me a compelling, interesting and exciting story that I can picture as a movie in my head. Sometimes, ya just wanna see a few aliens get shot.

If you want a good read for a few hours that’ll distract you from your troubles and help you wind down, pick up “Man of War”. Certainly, I’ll be picking up the next one in the series – and that should say it all about my overall opinion.

Overall, I hereby give this book a rating of One Plasma Rifle and a Freaky Alien Threesome out of 10.

Duncan P. Pacey’s reviews might be full of self-entitled crap, but sometimes he puts out a funny. Want to see more? Check out his Facebook and Twitter pages!