Mike Kupari

Excellent action packed and violent pseudo-military novel. Lots of violence, lots of guns, lots of bad guys getting their just desserts. Actually, it is one of the best, non-moralizing, trashy action books I've read in a long while. There is no deep dark plot, not much nuance, and not much cheesy romance...

The story is told from 2 different points of view (Lorenzo and Valentine) and, surprisingly, they are different enough that they really do feel like different characters (perhaps each show more author wrote one of the main characters?) ... neither are quite bad enough that you dislike them, but they are not the typical "good guys" either.

The romantic components are relatively well done (i.e. not cheesy or over done). The bad guys (one set of them anyway) are pretty extreme, but hey, it isn't meant to be true-to-life. For its genre, it is not as sexist or gun-porny as some, and there is not much "judgement" regarding who is a bad guy and who is not, though there is a steady theme of anti-terrorist and American military "black ops" secrecy throughout the novel. show less

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot. wordpress.leafmarks.com & Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission. Title: Dead Six Series: Dead Six Author: Larry Correia & Mike Kupari Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars Genre: SFF Pages: 725 Format: show more Kindle digital edition Synopsis: Michael Valentine, former marine and mercenary extraordinaire, has burnt out. Trying to live a "normal life" as a security guard, Valentine is going out of his mind. One day a former team mate offers him a job of a lifetime. Making money hand over fist for the United States Government while bringing the War on Terror to the terrorists in places they thought were safe. Lorenzo. Con man, thief and hitman. He thought his family safe. Big Eddie convinced him otherwise. Of course, Big Eddie promises they'll be safe if Lorenzo does just one, teensy weensy impossible, job. Lorenzo and Valentine are on a collision course. Women get involved, things slightly Cthulhu'ic are involved and backstabbing and betrayals are the keywords of the day. Will Valentine and Lorenzo kill each other or save each other? My Thoughts: Wow! Just wow! Valentine and Lorenzo are apparently on two different paths when suddenly they're on a collision course. Then suddenly they're reluctant allies. Now that sounds like a whiplash ride, but considering this book is over 700 pages long, the process was gradual and realistic. Having the dual viewpoints, essentially telling 2 stories, worked. Each POV was prefaced by which character it was and the location, and that was very helpful. There was a group called Exodus that played a very brief part. They seemed to be some sort of super vigilante group that was driven by the need for Justice against those who could never be brought to Justice by ordinary means. There was another group called Majestic, which was more referred to than anything else. I am assuming they will both play bigger roles in the next book. There is an object of power, human sacrifice and a heavy unearthly feeling in parts. That is why I gave this the paranormal tag, even though it was pretty strictly a gun fest. The violence level was pretty high definitely earned the ultra-violence tag. Brains, blood and body parts blown all over the place. High calibre weapons do a lot of damage and neither author shied from describing such carnage. Correia is known for his gun porn. Apparently, Kupari was right behind him, egging him on and adding his own. Thankfully, it didn't overwhelm any part of the story and it sounded like what a soldier would think/talk in these kinds of situations. I don't enjoy gun porn for the record. I know this doesn't really tell why I liked this so much, but I stayed up until almost 11pm two nights in a row reading this because I just couldn't put it down. I think that speaks volumes in and of itself. I am really looking forward to the sequel, Swords of Exodus. " show less

3 stars with a major asterisk

At the core this is a Heinlein juvie circa mid 50’s [definitely pre- New Wave]. It reads well. I enjoyed it. The end sets up a sequel and I may buy it. That said there were some real problems. Issue is how much these problems matter to each reader. 1. This is golden age space opera and the tropes clank. Doesn’t bother me a lot [I’m in my 60’s] but it may bother people quite a bit as the only updates are a tad more sex [which seems inserted just to say it show more was there than per se story appropriate] and more realistic [less implausible] ground combat. 2. There’s no real main story line. There are five POV characters whose vignettes overlap. They are each interesting in their own way but none dominates. 3. There’s too much story. A number of the scenes seem rushed as the party has to get to the next encounter. In my opinion several could have been edited out to allow better development of the rest. 4. The world building is barely beyond paper mache. Granted that golden age space opera was story and character driven, this is still bare bones. It works as long as you don’t think too much but I was mentally sanding down sticky points all the way through. Now perhaps some or all of these quibbles don’t matter to you. As a straight entertainment read it’s a 4.5 so if that’s your bag grab it. Otherwise I’d be cautious in suggesting it. It is not bad but the flaws do detract. show less

I got this book immediately after finishing the first book in the series, and, as soon as I finished it, I looked to see if there was a third book I could buy.

It is a very good, action-packed and mostly realistic pseudo-military novel. If you've read the first book, this is nearly as good, though it does have some scenes that just brush on the supernatural (well, there is nothing supernatural in it, but some of the events are just a bit beyond believable, and, while we aren't given any show more concrete examples of supernatural actions, we are led to believe such actions did occur "off-screen").

It still focuses on the same two main characters and there are a few more side-kicks than in book one. The point of view also switched between them a bit more frequently than in book one. There were a couple occasions where it was difficult to tell which of the characters (Lorenzo or Valentine) we were following. There is also a bit more political - anti-terrorist - rhetoric in this book. It didn't quite go over the top, but... there were probably a few too many comments regarding the evilness of terrorists (yes, of course, terrorism is bad, but in an action novel I don't really want to feel like I'm being lectured on the subject).

All in all, I quite enjoyed it. Even the ending seemed fitting, and I hope they do a third book in the series - I'd buy it if they did. show less