If you like your military sci-fi or fantasy then you will know that you will find, within any army, a regiment/squadron etc where the... undesirables end up. You know the ones I mean. The guy who punched out his commanding officer, the guy who got busted down to private and contrived to get himself busted down even further, the maverick who constantly put his comrades in danger. Oh yes, not forgetting the guy who is completely insane but is the best fighter pilot around (so long as he’s had the proper medication!) Whether it’s the Bridgeburners, Wraith Squadron or the Last Chancers (amongst many others) every army has its dumping ground for soldiers who are expendable. These are the guys who will always be first into the meat grinder. The 86ers are one such group...
In the galaxy spanning war between the Norts and Southers (first seen in ‘Rogue Trooper’) the Acoma System is home to a large scale Souther mining operation as well being strategically important to the war effort in general. The 86th Air Support Reconnaissance Squadron protects the supply routes with its roster of pilots who are drop outs and freaks (and Nort defectors). There’s a lot more going on in the Citadel (the Souther base of operations) however as at least three separate factions operate under a cloud of espionage to advance their own agendas. That’s before you take into account the alien Varr who are as inscrutable as they are deadly. All it can take is the arrival of one new person to blow everything out of the water. Just imagine what will happen if that person is a genetic infantryman...
The big issue that I had with ‘Rogue Trooper’ was the episodic ‘defeat the villain of the week’ nature of the stories. There was some attempt to unify separate tales under one all encompassing plot arc but the overall impression I got was that these stories were individual affairs best suited to a weekly format rather than collected together. ‘The 86ers’ is an entirely different affair with a storyline that flows seamlessly from one episode to the next with multiple plotlines that come and go but dovetail very nicely. The timeline jumps around a lot (with lots of introductory pieces set months or years in the past) and this can be disconcerting to start off with but doesn’t take long to get used to.
There is lot to get your head around in ‘The 86ers’ and I was happily taken along for a ride featuring plenty of double and triple crossing (and murder!) in an oppressive and claustrophobic asteroid base. Everything ties in very nicely by the end but ‘The 86ers’ is also very obviously the opening shot in an ongoing series so don’t expect to have all your questions answered! (You’re not left hanging too much; all the important questions get answered...)
It’s not all cloak and dagger stuff though as there are plenty of space combat sequences that get the blood pumping and look suitably impressive on the page (almost film like both in terms of the action and the background it’s set against) . Characterisation is sacrificed for plot and spectacle but Flight Leader Hunter’s mentally scarred character offers some interesting insights into what the war is doing to the people fighting in it...
The artwork on display is consistently good throughout, as far as I’m concerned, but I found myself wishing that they’d stuck with Karl Richardson for the whole book instead of switching to Paul J. Holby partway through. It’s not that I didn’t like Holby’s work but Richardson’s art really stood out on the page for me and I wondered if the story would have been better served by having consistent artwork throughout...
This is a relatively minor niggle though as ‘The 86ers’ was a thoroughly enjoyable ride that I got a lot out of. I’m looking forward to seeing what the future holds for Rafe and the rest of the 86th.
Eight and Three Quarters out of Ten
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