I don’t know if these Rangers will ever get out of the Ruins! It sure doesn’t seem like their ordeal is going to end anytime soon and I’m getting tired. I can’t imagine how these guys feel after going into one terrible battle after another. Oh, I know they probably have periods of time in which they are resting and recovering and for this coming battle, they did have to take a pretty long boat trip, I think. But, now the mission is on and everyone has something to do.
The Rangers have been lost in the future 10,000 years from now! Yeah, if you’ve read this series up to this point, you’ll know all about how they got into their current mess; and what a mess it is. The future world (Earth) has turned into a copy of Dungeons and Dragons© mixed up with Warhammer 40000©. They are fighting creatures I don’t even want to think about. Our main character is telling the story or it’s an “official” record of the actions of the Ranger detachment he found himself with when thrust into the far, far future, by mistake, I should add.
Their current mission is to take and hold the city of Sûstagul. That city is currently known as the stronghold of the Saur, a lizard-like horde of two-legged freaks that are the army of Sût the Undying himself. They are going to give the city away freely, no, nothing comes free in this weird future world. Every Ranger alive will swear to that and even Talker himself has earned his Ranger Tab! Talker is a linguist so he comes in real important during those times Captain Knife-hand needs to understand the locals. And if it’s not the Captain needing translating, then it’s the Sergeant Major (smaj), so Talker is one busy guys most times and especially during this mission. You see, he’s got himself in a leadership role as Assistant Team Leader for the weapons squad. So now he’s doubly nervous not really about the fighting, but about taking care of his men.
So, this mission consist of several objectives: Operation Stranglehold, Deal with the Sisters of Death, the attack on the market to smoke Ur-Yag, a very violent magical wizard, and the take down of Sanctuary of Pan. Even though the Ranger detachment is sorely lacking in manpower, they have enough leadership to assign some quality Rangers to each objective. Meanwhile, Captain Knife Hand and a few HQ troops were protecting the Gates of Death so the Accadion Legions could arrive by boat and help secure the city. The smaj and a few troops were also involved guarding and holding the Gates of Eternity. So, yeah, a lot is going on in this book and it’s all told from the troops own stories to Talker after all the action has been settled and done. Right there you know that most of the Rangers made it out alive to tell their stories, most, but not all.
Fighting all these freaks must be something. I’m not sure how the Rangers keep their sanity. They have to deal with magic and and all sorts of sorcerer’s stuff that just ain’t natural. I mean, when you kill somebody, they should stay dead, but not here in the Ruin. Still, Talker has lived to tell the story as told to him by several outstanding Rangers who just figure they are doing their jobs. They have the luxury of getting resupplied by FOB Hawthorne and the Forge so they don’t usually run out of ammo and explosives which they use in abundance.
Now they have the city, if they can hold it, then they need to make plans to take down the guy whom I’m guessing is Sût the Undying or it could be someone else. Either way, I don’t thing this series will end until the Rangers have killed anyone and everyone giving them grief in this god-for-saken place. Book 7, “Never Shall I Fail” looks to become available o/a 1 Dec 2022. I think I’ll read it.