Unbreakable: A Novel

Written by W. C. Bauers

Narrated by Andi Arndt

The colonists of the planet Montana are accustomed to being ignored. Situated in the buffer zone between two rival human empires, their world is a backwater: remote, provincial, independently minded. Even as a provisional member of the Republic of Aligned Worlds, Montana merits little consideration—until it becomes the flashpoint in an impending interstellar war.

When pirate raids threaten to destabilize the region, the RAW deploys its mechanized armored infantry to deal with the situation. Leading the assault is Marine Corps Lieutenant and Montanan expatriate Promise Paen of Victor Company. Years earlier, Promise was driven to join the Marines after her father was killed by such a raid. Payback is sweet, but it comes at a tremendous and devastating cost. And Promise is in no way happy to be back on her birthworld, not even when she is hailed as a hero by the planet's populace, including its colorful president. Making matters even worse: Promise is persistently haunted by the voice of her dead mother.

Meanwhile, the RAW's most bitter rival, the Lusitanian Empire, has been watching events unfold in the Montana system with interest. Their forces have been awaiting the right moment to gain a beachhead in Republic territory, and with Promise's Marines decimated, they believe the time to strike is now.

Unbreakable by W.C. Bauers is character-driven military science fiction featuring a female marine caught between two empires.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio
• Release date: Jan 13, 2015
• ISBN: 9781427262127

W. C. Bauers

W. C. Bauers is a boy-dad, speaker, believer, bibliophile, and author of children's books and science fiction. Bauers' first novel, UNBREAKABLE, was an Amazon and B&N, Science Fiction & Fantasy Best Book-of-the-Month pick. His second, INDOMITABLE, was a B&N, i09, and Kirkus Best of the Month Pick. Bauers lives in the Rocky Mountains with his three sons.

Reviews for Unbreakable

[gsb68 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A very good first book in the Starship Troopers tradition. It has the feeling of early Honor Harrington with a similar hyper-capable but emotionally stunted female protagonist. Except the focus here is boots on the ground instead of soaring through the stars.

Fans of David Webber, Elizabeth Moon, and early John Ringo will find a lot to like here.

[stefferoo · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Every once in a while I’ll get this hankering for some military sci-fi, so Unbreakable couldn’t have come along at a better time. Teasing the prospect of large scale ship-to-ship battles, space marines in mech suits, and action dialed up to eleven, W.C. Bauers’ debut also features a kick-ass female lead who’ll prove to be the bane of space pirates and the Republic’s enemies everywhere.Meet Promise T. Paen (yep, that’s her real name), the novel’s protagonist who grew up on an outer rim colonial planet called Montana caught between the Republic of Aligned Worlds and the Lusitanian Empire. Montana is also a hotbed for pirates, and when Promise witnesses her father killed in a raid, the young orphan decides to enlist in the RAW Marine Corps and leave her old life behind forever.Promise is happy enough killing lots and lots of pirates in the RAW-MC, but when Montana’s capital and spaceport comes under attack by the marauders, she finds herself ordered back home to head up the counterstrike. After neutralizing the threat, Promise is promoted and, to her chagrin, showered with accolades and labeled a local hero by Montana’s vivacious president Anne Buckmeister. However, quietly watching behind the scenes are the Lusitanians, who decide to take advantage of the weakened Marine forces to launch their own attack to seize the planet. Happily, despite being filled to the brim with plenty of detailed and sometimes very graphic battle scenes, Unbreakable isn’t all just violent action and no substance. There’s depth to Bauer’s world and characters, achieved through occasional breathers in the narrative. Some of these little breaks end up being lulls in the story I had to struggle to push through, but for the most part there are more ups than downs. Sci-fi tech and weapon enthusiasts for one will no doubt geek out over descriptions of the RAW-MC’s impressive arsenal. Some of these sections can be lengthy, and yet I didn’t see them as overly obtrusive. The ins-and-outs of pulse guns and armor suits are as much a part of Promise’s life as everything else, not to mention it’s the little details that serve to bring a level of authenticity to this futuristic version of the Corps. There’s also room for levity in the form of social gatherings with Montana’s colonists, outlining the quirks of this backwater planet’s culture. And on the other side of the coin, there are the quiet moments of grief as Promise and her company honor their fallen. I really thought I’d be getting nothing but gung-ho soldiers showing off their nifty military toys, but there’s actually a lot more feeling here than I was expecting.When it comes to characters we don’t get too much insight into anyone else in the story, but that’s because Promise takes center stage and she’s also the most developed. I wasn’t initially all that impressed by her, but what eventually won me over was the fantastic dialogue, which ended up being my favorite aspect of Unbreakable. I learned more about Promise and her comrades through their passionate and snappy banter than anywhere else.Perhaps the only major criticism I have is the matter pertaining to the main character’s mother, who now and then appears in front of Promise as a specter that only she can see, or speaks to her as a voice in her head. Whether Sandra Paen is a true ghost or just a hallucination of her daughter’s, that’s unexplained and never really made clear. The description of Promise being “persistently haunted” makes this particular plot point sound more mysterious and significant than it really is, and I’m a little disappointed that it wasn’t explored further.Still, Unbreakable was a book that intrigued and entertained me. All told, I believe this is a rousing military sci-fi debut that will make fans of the genre quite happy.