Genre: Alternative/future
history
Description:
This novel is set in the same milieu as Larkin’s
debut novel Big Red which came out in 2019. I have not read that
book, but felt very little adrift not knowing its content. Blood Red Sand
stands satisfactorily alone. Apparently Blood Red Sand is a prequel, so
if you enjoy this you can move onwards (or backwards) to Big Red.
The premise is entirely military, and
definitely ‘out there’. There are space ships and habitat domes. There are
Panzers and Bren guns. It’s that sort of mashup. Bit of a Boy’s Own, then.
Perhaps worth mentioning that the few women in the book are well drawn and hold
their own with the men in the plot line, and the violence they are capable of.
Author:
Damien Larkin is an Irish science fiction
author and co-founder of the British and Irish Writing Community. He lives in Dublin. His first novel Big Red was longlisted
for the British Science Fiction Award for Best Novel.
Appraisal:
The last time I played video games was SSX
on the PS2. Out of touch much? C’est moi. I am absolutely not this book’s
target market, yet I enjoyed it a lot. It is well written. Characters are well drawn
and shown to the reader through their actions – of which there is masses. The
plot is one long battle, with well-explained skirmishes. The pages turn
briskly, and a couple of interesting surprises are set up to provide a frisson
when one is, perhaps, getting slightly tired of the blood-letting later on.
There is just enough humour to leaven the blood and gore. The body count is
enormous: it began to puzzle me from about half way where all the
reinforcements could possibly be coming from. It does not do to question that
sort of thing, nor the motives and morals of anybody in the book, too closely.
But the baddies (Nazis) are definitely worse than the goodies (Allies).
This book is very much for gamers. Especially
those who play first-person shooters. And who watch films about Nazism
continuing after WWII, eg Iron Sky, in which the defeated Nazis repair to the
Moon, with a view to building a space fleet to conquer the Earth. In this case
(the clue is in the title) the Nazis have made their way to Mars in the early
Fifties with a view to rebuilding the Reich and finally conquering the world
(mwahahaha). Thither they have been pursued by the Mars Expeditionary Force (and
others). The battle begins with space ships pounding away at each other but
quickly the fighting becomes hand to hand.
Larkin is good at the strategy and tactics
such a Force would employ, the kinds of weapons they might have available to
them (plus a twist), and descriptions of the battle. He bangs on a bit about
the weaponry (frequently name-checking it), and ditto about the bits of flesh
that used to be people getting spattered about by shells, grenades etc. But
hey, I guess that’s war. Don’t read this book when you’re eating is my advice.
Given the resurgence of fascism and
anti-Semitism in our world it is no bad thing to be reminded how vile both
political philosophies are. Although the Allies don’t come out of it smelling
of roses either: their mantra is “kill them all”. Nor, I suspect, will all
Jewish readers be entirely comfortable with the way they are portrayed.
It reminded me strongly of Starship Troopers
without the bugs.
Buy now
from: Amazon US Amazon UK
FYI:
Format/Typo
Issues:
No significant issues.
Rating: ****
Four Stars
Reviewed
by: Judi Moore
Approximate word count: 80-85,000 words
