Is This MilSF or Portal Fantasy?
Just one this week.
Review: The Runes of Engagement by Tobias S. Buckell and David Klecha
So, this is military portal fantasy clearly written by D&D people. Except subverted. Meaning the D&D world is subverted. Wood elves have camouflage skins and ents are assholes (knotholes?).
It’s a fairly short book and has little depth to it. It’s a typical quest fantasy. Get the elven princess where she needs to be. Semper fi!
Yeah, it’s a marine book, and it’s very rah rah marines…one of the authors is a marine reservist, but I also think they may have been thinking of classic space marine fiction.
The bad guys are corporate mercs, because of course they are.
They also have fun with trolls in New York City just in the backstory. The characters are only sketched – this is a plot-based quest story – but they’re sketched well.
It’s a bit too milSF to be my kind of thing, but it’s fun and would likely appeal to the wargamers as well as D&D people and milSF fans. And at least they aren’t talking about range and elevation ;).