Customer Reviews

Swords of Exodus: Dead Six, Book 2

Larry and Mike have pulled off a difficult feat and topped Dead Six. This installment in the series is a wonderful trill ride that never stops. The world-building is excellent and I am able to easily immerse myself in the world they create. The action is great and the characters are believable and interesting.
This is a must-read (but start with Dead Six first!).

I've been waiting for this book ever since I first finished Dead Six. If you haven't read Dead Six, go do so. Now. I'll wait.

Pretty badass, isn't it? Well, Swords of Exodus ratchets things up a notch.

It has been about a year since Dead Six came to a close. Lorenzo gets pulled out of retirement, first to rescue Valentine from a black site prison (where Val is getting his mind screwed with even more than usual), then to rescue his brother Bob from Sala Jihan, the Pale Man. Things do not go according to plan.

The action is, in places, even more intense than in Dead Six. There are full-bore, company-level assaults going on in this book. Both Larry and Mike know their weapons handling, and the tactics are depicted well. Mike's an EOD tech and a combat vet, and while Larry may not have been military, he's been immersed in the gun culture for a long, long, time, and has a lot of friends who have worn the green at some point.

The book is more than a series of firefights, of course. Val is, if anything, even more messed up than he was before, and is having a hard time finding a reason to keep living. Lorenzo is as bad-tempered as ever, and dealing with the fact that he's been out of the game for over a year, and is having to get his feet under him on the fly. A lot of consequences are also carrying over from events (and killings) in Dead Six.

The book is definitely a middle book of the trilogy. It ends on a hell of a cliffhanger, leaving me asking I've got to wait how long for Project Blue?

Larry has said before that he doesn't care for a lot of "thrillers" out there. I can't say I disagree with him; most of the mainstream thrillers today I find boring, and there's a reason I set out to write my own. Swords of Exodus definitely isn't a mainstream thriller. Neither Val nor Lorenzo fit the general cliche of the thriller hero, and things are definitely more intense and more unpredictable than your average action/spy novel on the shelves today.

There's also something else...there is the strong suggestion (though only a suggestion) that there's something...uncanny going on in the depths of Sala Jihan's fortress. As someone pointed out, this is in keeping with some of the classics of pulp action/adventure, such as the Fu Manchu stories, or The Shadow. Whether there is actually anything supernatural/unworldly involved...well, the official word from the authors is "neither confirm nor deny." So, see what you think when you read it.

I'll admit to being a fan of Larry's ever since Monster Hunter International. In fact, Jeff Stone's teammate Larry in the American Praetorians books is based (albeit superficially) on Larry Correia. Mike Kupari is coming along as Larry's equal, and has just signed for a solo writing project with Baen. They're both badass writers, and Swords of Exodus is a great example of what they can put out.

Just like everything else he writes, Larry Correia did an outstanding job on this one. I highly recommend it. I thought that this one was a little easier to follow then the first.

Most action/thrillers/shooting books will have a ratio of nine parts set up and one part action. Larry and Mike managed to tilt the ratio to 2/3 prep and 1/3 full frontal action.
I hate writing reviews because I don't want to give anything up, no spoilers. Larry and Mike manage to shove in your face that even when this is just a literary project, people (even heroes) get thirsty, hungry hurt, bleed and die painfully in real life. You'll finish reading this book and demand a vacation and disability.

Guns - Government Conspiracies - Guns - Criminal Syndicates - Guns - Betrayal - Guns - Family, Duty, Honor - Guns - Secret Societies - Guns - Supernatural Enemies - Need Bigger Guns

I should hint that there is quite a bit of firearm action in this book - be warned (smile)

I am actually sad that I appear to be the first customer to review this book. I have been waiting for this book and was pleased when it became available (after resisting the purchase of the book as an eARC from Baen).

In any case, this was a great book that continues the compelling story from the first book Dead Six. Set in a near future world that is more slightly more dark and desperate of our own, the two characters from Dead Six, Lorenzo and Valentine, return to deal with rogue government agencies, world spanning criminal syndicates, and whiffs (and more than whiffs) of supernatural evil.

If you have not read the first book, I highly recommend you do so. While this book stands alone, you will gain a lot of insight into the two main characters and their complexity. At first blush both seem to be "bad men doing bad things to other bad men" but there is much more to both of them, as each struggles with the demons of their past and try to find safety and sanity in a dark and violent world.

The book alternates viewpoints between Lorenzo and Valentine, continuing the style from the first book. We get some further glimpses into their history and background, including how Lorenzo crippled his father after his father killed his mother. We learn more about Lorenzo's adopted family and how he is devoted to those few people and friends that are his "family". And we also learn of his implacable need for vengeance against those that harm this family. We get glimpses of his work with the crime syndicate that he had been forced to work with yet again in the first book.

We learn more about Valentine's service in the military and why, though given an honorable discharge, was not wanted back. We experience his first encounter with The Calm when he finds his mother murdered. We get some more hints that there is something more to Valentine beyond his being a superb mercenary soldier and that "something" may be of great importance in the future.

As to the main story, it begins with Valentine in the clutches of a rogue government conspiracy, being psychologically tortured for what he supposedly knows. Lorenzo is approached by the mysterious Exodus organization, who want to rescue Valentine (for services past rendered) and need Lorenzo and his crew's skills to have any chance. Lorenzo, not a fan of Valentine, has no real desire to do so until he learns that his adopted brother, the FBI agent seeking to expose this corrupt government operation, has disappeared after leaving clues that point to Valentine's importance.

Later, the two men continue to help Exodus (for different reasons and motivations) as Exodus seeks to shut down a criminal haven in a lawless region of Asia, ruled by a warlord with reputed supernatural powers. Lorenzo's past in the form of his former criminal syndicate (damaged but not destroyed by the events in book one) complicates matters but also provides a possible opportunity for success for Exodus...

Where book one left us with Valentine captured and possibly dead (thankfully not), the second book ends with Lorenzo captured and most likely dead. The future looks grim as Exodus has aroused the wrath of the Pale Man (the supernatural warlord) and the government continues to hunt Valentine and fears what he may know.

This was a great read and lots of realistic action from authors that know how to tell a story but to keep it grounded in the reality of combat and human ability. The characters continue to develop and each continues to search for some redemption and and meaning to their life. I want more! I am comforted with the last line of the book as Valentine promises (his enemies) "this isn't over" --

So, read this book, enjoy it, and post more great reviews!

Larry Correia and Mike Kupari have produced a sequel to their 2011 work, Dead Six, and it’s a roller coaster from start to finish.

Swords of Exodus opens a few months after the close of Dead Six. Lorenzo, the master thief and assassin, has retired to what he hopes is comfortable obscurity, and Valentine, the soldier of fortune, is rotting in a government torture chamber after being snatched at the end of the first book. After the events of Dead Six, the criminal world has fragmented, and an exquisitely evil man has taken over a criminal territory in the border region of Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Russia, and China, and Lorenzo and Valentine reluctantly join forces to help Exodus wipe him and his slave army out. I won’t give things away, but the action starts early in the book and doesn’t stop until the very end. We also get some more back story on Val and Lorenzo, which fills in the characters quite nicely.

Like I said, this is a rollercoaster ride of a good yarn. You get a few pages of quiet, followed by 10 pages of action, followed by more quiet. The second half of the book is pretty much action to the very end. The book ends with two cliffhangers, which already has me convinced that I will be buying the inevitable third book. Honestly, I had to put the book down and stop from crying out when I read the last sentence. I just wanted the story to continue.

One distraction in the book’s writing is what I call “brand dropping”. Rather than “I pulled out my pistol and shot him twice in the head.”, at a few points in the story you read “I pulled out my STI 9mm with the six-inch SilenceCo suppressor on it and put two Hornady TAP bullets into his brain.” Both read well, but the authors put such references in just often enough for me to notice, but not enough to irritate.

The first book set up the universe the story lives in, which is a “decade after this one” kind of place where the world has fractured and chaos makes live lucrative for people like Lorenzo and Valentine. The second book fills in some of the gaps on this world, but that leaves a lot more room for character development. The characters of Lorenzo, Valentine, and Ling fleshed out quite nicely through the course of Swords.

One thing I like about both books is that I would feel comfortable lending them to my teenage daughter. Yes, there’s quite a bit of blood and violence in them, but it’s not gratuitous, and while there is implied sex on a couple of occasions, it’s done tastefully and the story shifts away from it before it becomes too graphic.

If you’re looking for a great book to curl up with for a couple of evenings, and you like action thrillers, I think you’ll enjoy this one.

The second book in a series and it ends with a bang that will have you wanting the third book right away! These guys know their stuff and know how to keep the reader interested and wanting more.

I love Larry Correia; every book of his I read I end up wishing was 500 pages longer. My only disappointment was that it ended, as so much of his work does, on a virtual cliff hanger.

Damn straight this story moved fast plenty of action and suspense, but Damn I hate cliff hangers.
I am resigned to the fact that I am just going have to wait.
Bring on the next story!

I like dead 6 but I love this one more the story just gets better. I want the next one now. I hope the authors can write faster.