The 5 Novels That ELEVATE Women in Military Sci-Fi

 

Sharing another super positive review of my MilSF novel Bad Dog, which stands in illustrious company with the likes of Kameron Hurley.

Walking Robots with Wheels

This demo of the Unitree B2-W came up on YouTubewith the shot of the guy sitting astride the robot, and I thought wow! Why wow? Well, because there's a set of discussions that center around the usefulness of mecha.

These evolve around things like ground pressure, height and volume of vehicle that walks, and why oh why would you have walking mechs with wheels? It's that last discussion I'm addressing, with a shout out to my friend Roger who isn't convinced why you'd have legs if you've got wheels.

Mecha are specialized platforms. They'll be used where terrain makes the deployment of conventional wheeled or track vehicles difficult or impossible. There role will be to act as armoured support for infantry.

Think how gun Portée's were used by the SAS during WW2.

I'd had that thought too when when I was thinking out a plausible way for the introduction of purpose built mecha. They would start as field expedient platforms developed from exoskeletons that become big enough that you change from wearing the armour to a suit that's driven instead.

I'm thinking useful in urban environments wrecked by war, or traversing steep terrain where deploying anything other than  infantry is a real slog.

So, that's all for now. I've been remiss in posting stuff due to health issues, made worse by starting the new year with shingles.

Catch you all on the bounce.

A review of Bad Dog

I caught this on Zepp Jamieson's 's blog. Found through David Brin's blog that hosts very lively discussions on everything SF. Both are worth checking out if you're into science fiction. Anyways, here's a snip of the review. Click on the link for the full review.

I’ve mentioned Groundhog Day, Russian Doll and Haldeman in this review, but in the end, Bad Dog wound up reminding me of something far grander and more ambitious: The Expanse. The blurb on the cover promises that Bad Dog is only the first novel in a Gate Walkers series, and if Pollard’s first novel is the metric to go by, she’ll give The Expanse a run for its money.

I look forward to the next installment.

Do You Love Me?

 

 

Susan caught this and passed it onto me, knowing that I love what Boston Dynamics do. This is both a fun video, and for those of us into RealRobo a very exciting step towards walking robots and mechs.

It could also be a sign of the robot apocalypse, but I tend towards optimism and liking people, rather than the more common misanthropic pessimism that tends to pervade SF genre and fandom.

Second Half of the Year from Hell

I decided that this model of Object 295 needed some decals to make it pop.

Who would have thought a year ago that 2020 would be such a shambling wreck?

The last month or so has been getting on top of me. Dealing with people shouting in outrage at [insert description here] of whatever has pushed their emotional button.

Quite frankly, I no longer give a damn. Darwin will sort this out.

So, I've been quiet, taking the time to do things I enjoy, because that's usually the best strategy for dealing with emotions that are overwhelming one. Currently I'm painting combat armor suits. Practicing with my new wet palette different ways of making my miniatures look cool.

That's all for now. Stay safe, keep well.

Ferretti's Buster

When I wrote Bad Dog I had a vision of what the lead character's combat armor suit looked like. I have over the last seven years built models to acts as a guides for the cover art of my novels, which you've seen here.

But I'm not only a fan of science fiction, for as long as I can remember, I have enjoyed playing futuristic table top wargames like: BattleTech, Ogre/GEV, and Star Wars X-Wing.

So I dearly want to be able to play games in my own universe, and as my long term wargaming friends know I have a lot of 1/300th - 6mm armies. However, my stories feature small infantry unit tactics with support elements, and my go to scale is small, which makes the models hard to see.

So my original plan had been to go with Dream Pod 9s 1/144th - 10mm Heavy Gear range, because they're a nice size.

But, I've been frustrated trying to find the right models for power armor and combat androids. Lots of choice in 1/100th - 15mm, but nothing that quite tickles my fancy in the smaller scale, hence I've decided to go up a scale, using original large RAFM Heavy Gears.

Readers saw my take on Captain Tachikoma's Dog here.

This new larger model represents Ferretti's Air Force Security Force Buster: CAS-C4P: Combat Armor System Dash C4 (Command, Control, Communication & Computer), Model P, which makes its first appearance in Ghost Dog.

These models have wet my appetite for making more 1/100th - 15mm scale mecha.

Cool Mech Pilot Control

YouBionic forearm I found on YouTube, as one does, which is just cool.

I deliberately left how the mecha in my novels are driven to avoid Zeerust (yesterday's vision of tomorrow), warning the link will take you to TVTropes, and you're at risk of losing hours of time browsing.

I know I just did.

Catch you all on the bounce.

Tachikoma's Command Dog

Outside of the drive to visualize the mecha that appear in my novels, I've also wanted to run wargames in my setting, which I guess is pretty nerdy when you think about it.

Though the word wargame is too strong a word for what is ultimately an activity that involves either pushing bits of cardboard or small models around a table, and throwing dice.

I have a largish collection of wargaming figures that I've bought over the years, and my friends know that I love to make my own designs. This involves me converting models to more closely represent a specific version, or more often than not, doing extensive kit-bashing to make what I want.

Above is my latest miniature, a model to represent Captain Tachikoma's new ride that will feature on the cover of Red Dogs: a Marine Corps CASE-2XC-Mod-2E.

I like to think of this as inspiration through model making.

Ghost Dog Hardcovers

As the above picture shows, the hardcover copies of Ghost Dog have arrived. I've done the Library of Congress registration and sent copies out to them, and my Beta readers.

As the Star Trek song says, "It's been a long road getting from there to here."

And this being real life and all, there have been some obstacles along the way that I couldn't foresee. But, while the learning curve has seemed steep, I've come a long way in understanding and being able to do the things necessary to bring a book out.

And I've had a lot of fun whilst doing so.

OK, not all of it has been fun, but seeing my books in print and the reviews of the first have all substantiated my belief that I can achieve my goal.

Gate Walkers Trilogy

All three books are available in ebook, paperback, and hardcover. The ebooks are all now $4.99, and if you buy a print copy at the same time there's a matchbook deal to get both together.

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Ghost Dog Available in Paperback

 

Paperback copies of Ghost Dog have arrived.

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Ghost Dog Print Pre-Order

Print editions available next week.

Amazon US isn't showing the ebook link, I don't know why, but I've queried them so hopefully this should be fixed soon. If US readers go to my author page the ebook link does appear there when you click on Ghost Dog.

Ghost Dog – Now Available

Story Summary

Newly promoted, Captain Tachikoma nows lead her team to another world. Now they must through a portal that only opens once every six months.

Her mission. Retrieve unimaginably advanced alien technology that could change the world. Keep her team alive with only one chance to return.

Nothing could prepare her for what waits on an alien planet.

This gripping addition to the Gate Walker series, humanity expands its exploration of the galaxy to reveal more secrets, in "Ghost Dog" Tachikoma needs all of her combat armor skills to get home.

“This story is great, with a very firm grasp of the Marine Corps lifestyle.”


– Sgt D. Barrow, USMC

"High concept, high calibre character-driven Mil-SF. Compulsively readable."

– Alex Stewart aka Sandy Mitchell author of the Ciaphas Cain series

More About The Author

Buy This Book

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Ghost Dog Cover Reveal

At last I'm getting to the point where the end is in sight. I've been doing the final copy edits on Ghost Dog and here's the cover sans typography. As you can see it's another great piece of artwork from Elartwyne Estole.

Meanwhile, I've been watching USMC shooting videos on YouTube. One of my Beta readers pointed out some procedural mistakes in how my main character was teaching another character to shoot. Since there's the right way, the wrong way, and the Marine Corps way, I'm revising the scene.

Hopefully, the electronic version of Ghost Dog will be up on Amazon by end of next week. 

Ghost Dog Cover Teaser Two

It has been a tough week for me, and the technical edits are still a work in progress on Ghost Dog, so here's another teaser for the cover.

This last week I've spent time working through The Bureau, which is weird. I'm re-reading my unfinished first novel with the intention of finishing what I started. Heinlein's rules of writing; finish what you start. Having written three other novels in the meantime, I can truly say it’s like reading another authors work.

I'm also evaluating a writing technique that was brought to my attention on this blog, called deep third POV. I'm still mulling it over. It could be the best thing since sliced bread, or just another tool to be used as and when.

Serendipitously, I began reading Dare to be a Great Writer by Leonard Bishop. And guess what, I found him discussing the pros and cons of using deep third POV, except he addresses under the title: the false limitations on first person narrators.

So, I learnt something new.

At the weekend I met up with some friends. The son of one of them was a song writer, and we had an interesting discussion on writing, comparing song writing process to novel writing. One thing that came out of it was that it made me think about grammar.

Grammar is the glue, not the work. The work is made of words that convey meaning, and grammar is just the glue that holds the story telling together. That may not be the worlds best metaphor, and probably only means something if you're at the stage where your ready for it.

And another observation from talking about how to write a novel.

The advice a beginner needs to hear is not the same as someone who has written a few novels, and is again not the same as a professional author who makes a living at writing.

My insight in all this comes from is the fact that as a former cognitive behavioural therapist my job was rooted in learning theory. Therapy is how do you get people to change habits that aren't working for them.

But like a lot of things in life, knowing something has to change is not the same as knowing what or how to change.

Ghost Dog Cover Teaser

And here's a sketch to tease while you all wait for Ghost Dog to arrive. Copy edits are done, and I'm just waiting back on my Beta reader's technical edits (so far one omission found, a couple of technical edits, and no doubt more to come).

This week has been another one occupied by copy editing. This time on Mission Two, and it's taking me longer to do as I'm thinking about how I want to market the series, and how many episodes I want to write.

But the good news is that after some hard reflection on my failings, I'm still managing to produce new words in what some people might describe as difficult circumstances. I shall take that as a win.

However, half of my day today was taken with a hospital visit, which left me exhausted. I also have a series of blood tests to go to over the next three and a bit months too. So, onwards because words don't write themselves.

Magnetic Anomaly Project

I was talking with one of my readers about the things that got left out of my Bad Dog novel and its sequel Strike Dog. Things like risk mitigation etc. Also, why planet One-Nine-Six was chosen, and what about alien pathogens?

I had in an earlier draft of Strike Dog a whole chapter on atmosphere analysis and the reason for choosing to go to One-Nine-Six. While I imagine I could've found a way to make the chapter more interesting, the main problem was that it had people telling other people what they already knew. In short, classic info dump.

So it had to go.

Besides Tachikoma is a Marine, and there remains a few lines that refers to the outcome of all the discussions where she says,

"After weeks of arguments over which of the three worlds to go to, One-Nine-Six won. Mostly on the basis that a desert environment would be easier to drive out onto. That, and the fact that we could retrieve our robot teams that had either broken down, gotten lost, or fallen into a hole."

Which I judged as being all she would care about the things discussed in said meeting.

Anyway, meetings implies some sort of hierarchical structure. Here's what I wrote for my series bible:

The Magnetic Anomaly Project is the name I've given to the organization that discovers two alien pillars beneath a mountain in the Cascades. By the second book MAP has morphed into MAPCOM, a unified combatant command as a subsidiary of the North American Confederation Special Operations Command.

The organization for MAP was inspired by NASAs The Mars Science Laboratory.  So like them, I have five groups as follows:

Organic Geochemistry & Bio-Signatures 
Inorganic Geochemistry & Mineralogy
Atmosphere & Environment
Geology
Mathematics & Physics

As part of the backstory I created the Strategic Science Operations Team consists of the five following people, one of whom goes onto play a larger part in the storyline.

Dr. Carlyle: Organic Geochemistry & Bio-Signatures
Dr. John Cameron: Inorganic Geochemistry & Mineralogy
Dr. Carpenter: Atmosphere & Environment
Dr. Samantha Emmerich: Geology (alpha science team leader)
Dr. Linda Scott: Mathematics & Physics

At the end of the first three novels  I still have a lot of story to tell.

Ghost Dog Teaser

This is a picture I took after seeing the sketch for the cover of Ghost Dog. It features Captain Tachikoma's CASE-2XC-Mod 2 Dog standing back-to-back with Master Sergeant Ferretti's Air Force security Buster CAS-C4P.

Just a tease.

I've just received back the copy edit of Ghost Dog and my plan for the week is to go through and review all the edits. Once done, I'll send it off to my specialist Beta reader, because no matter how good my research is, a real US Marine knows the gribbly details far better than me.

Health wise, things are improving, slowly.

Realistically, I'm faced with taking medication for more than a year. Therefore, I'm pretty sure that before the treatment ends, there will be days when it will feel like two-steps-forward and one-step-back. Other than that, things are good.

Reviews of Bad Dog

The latest review of Bad Dog up on Amazon from a 20 year Navy veteran has prompted me to post it here. I felt honoured to have had this man take the time and effort to write something about my work. Thank you sir.

Good sci-fi read with one foot planted solidly in the real world

Ok, I'm not a professional book reviewer. If you are looking for a critique on the art of writing, move along. I'm just a reader, and a retired military member and all of my thoughts start from there.

Truthfully, it is a pretty good story. I think it reads a bit like a short story, which I can appreciate. Don't get me wrong, I like a good Lord of the Rings style epic as much as the next guy, but now and again I like something shorter and to the point. This book scratched that itch. I found it pretty compelling from start to finish, and I can't wait for the next book to come out in print (I think it is already out in electronic format, but I like paper). I love a good near-future story where things are just different enough to make your imagination kick into gear, but not so foreign that I'm sitting around thinking "What's a flingledorp and why on Earth is this one attached to the hangwopper of a flogtrud?" Look, I want to follow the story without too much confusion. Pollard succeeded for me. I'm a 20 year veteran of the Navy and I'll say that about 99% of all the jargon, personalities, and events feel dead on which really added to my enjoyment and the believability of the story. For those of you with less military experience, Pollard does include a nice glossary in the back of the book so you don't get lost in all the TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms... military loves them).

I don't know if I have any downsides to relay, but I'm pretty easy to please. I'm hoping there is more to come soon.

And here are three more reviews...

No gung-ho and serious SF Military reading

This the author first novel and I got totally absorbed from the first page to the end.

This is SF Military but don't expect finding super-uber soldiers or extraterrestrial advanced enemies fighting each other in remote galaxies, no "Starship Troopers" rehearsal at all. On the contrary, set in in the last quarter of the XXI century, the book provides a glimpse of what could be a very realistic progressive evolution of modern tactical warfare and weapons... in a geopolitical context that will also be familiar to the reader, where a reconfigured US (called "Confederated States" but not yet explained in the book what happened) is challenged by an increasingly assertive China in a remote region in Afghanistan.

The book focuses in a Marine recon unit and the pace of the action is truly good.

The atmosphere is very realistic thanks to the extensive and thorough(full) military research undertaken by the author that you can follow in her personal blog.

After I finished reading the novel, I really eager for more. Luckily a second part is very close to publication.

I can strongly recommend the book and if the sequels are as good as the initial work, I can see Ashley Pollard becoming a reference in this writing genre.

 

Excellent book. A fresh view on near future power armor warfare

Excellent book. A fresh view on near future power armor warfare. I felt that I was reading a good story and not the writer's opinions on how they live their own life, which is hard to find these days in any genre.

Ambushed!

This book caught me pleasantly by surprise. I had settled into the near-future military action and begun to suspect that powered suits were the extent of the Science Fiction, but then it took off in a totally unexpected direction which I won't spoil for you. I ended up thoroughly gripped and unable to put it down until I knew how it played out. I love SF and it's great to find a new writer with ideas as well as genuinely good writing. I look forward to more.

Strike Dog: Proof of Print

My printed copies have arrived.

Available to buy here:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Amazon CA

Amazon AU

Amazon DE

Amazon FR