Into the Storm – Good book from a Great author.

Into The Storm (The Malcontents, #1).
By Larry Correia.
My rating ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ out of 5 stars.

A knight of Cygnar follows a strict moral code. His integrity is beyond reproach. He holds himself to the highest standards whether dealing with friend or foe. And he values honor above all.

The year is 606 AR, and Cygnar has been sorely pressed by its enemies both at home and abroad. In Caspia, the conflict with the Protectorate is about to erupt into full war with the looming invasion of Sul. The Cygnaran military is desperate for soldiers with the skill, strength, and bravery to take up the devastating galvanic weaponry of the new Storm Division. In this climate, every soldier is valuable, even those fallen from the honor expected of a Storm Knight. A group of such men—thieves, drunkards, and worse—comprise the Sixth Platoon. All they need is someone to lead them.

Lieutenant Hugh Madigan, a peerless warrior knighted during the reign of deposed King Vinter IV, has spent years in obscurity, punished for his loyalty to the former king. Now he has been ordered back to the front and given command of the Sixth, his task to turn a platoon of miscreants into elite soldiers fit to be called Storm Knights. Time is short, and war is coming. One way or another, Lieutenant Madigan must lead his men into the storm . . .

Larry Correia one of my absolute favorite authors. He is easily on my top five list of authors. Not only is he a great author but he doesn’t pander to or take any shit from the woke screamers or CISGs (Common Internet Shit Gibbons) as he calls them when they start to throw their shit on his Facebook page. The latter usually ends up with said CISG being utterly trashed and Larry banned for 30 days since Facebook, or Facecrap as I prefer to call it, are part of the woke mob, cancel culture and fake news.

Anyway, about the book, it is a really good book. For me it does have a bit of uphill battle to fight since the genre of this book is not on the top of my favorite genres list. This book is essentially fantasy with a dose of steampunk. War is fought with swords, magic and steam powered battle mechs.

Still, fantasy and steampunk is not exactly at the bottom of my list either so…

What I personally liked most with this book was the characters though. These “thieves, drunkards, and worse” are absolutely great. The best character of them all is, not surprisingly, Madigan. He is bad-ass, competent and he does not take shit from anyone.

The book has a good solid story and there are plenty of action. This is essentially military fantasy so of course there are battles, plenty of battles. Actually, in the second half of the book it started to feel a bit overwhelming. In the first part of the book there was all the character introduction, team building and all that and I have to say that I liked that part of the book the most.

The second half of the book is actually quite gloomy and a bit sad. I really did not like some of the things that happened towards the end, especially when it comes to Madigan’s fate. It felt like the book hade both built up the Malcontents and torn them down again in the same book.

I wonder what the next book will be like? Given the rather gloomy ending with a lot of things simply shattered there are not really any clear and visible thread to pick up, at least not that I can see.

Bottom line is that this is a very good book though. For those more into the fantasy and steampunk genres than me when it comes to books it is probably a great book.