The Bookwyrm's Review of Smokepit Fairytales by Tripp Ainsworth

Release Date: November 11, 2017

Publisher: Self-Published

 Length: 480 Pages

Genre: Military Fiction/Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Amazon Link

I am always looking for new things to review on here. Coming across Smokepit Fairytales one day on Instagram, I was immediately intrigued by the idea that it would take the author's combat and stateside experiences in the Marine Corps and mix them with both sci-fi and fantasy elements. I was curious how much of the combat arms experience and attitude would come out in the story, and definitely found out.

PLOT SUMMARY

An adventure tale for our times, the author combines real world events and supernatural elements in the style of a classical epic to tell a sometimes snarky, sometimes uproarious, and very poignant modern tale. Meet Hank Allensworth and Wilson Evans in a modern reflection of the Epic of Gilgamesh. An epic bromance between a Marine and his corpsman running around Oceanside, California . Degenerate Lance Corporals who have recently returned from Afghanistan, spending most of their time drunk at The Purple Church. One night while they're out drinking they are called back to base and the battalion is put on stand by because during the conflict with ISIS, the Islamic Republic of Iran decided to end the proxy war and get involved themselves. Soon after, Hank and Doc go with the regiment to keep the Iranians from crossing the Euphrates. The war kicks off and the Marines push across Iraq and into Iran. Hank and Doc both are wounded and sent home. The rest of the story they deal with survivor's guilt, alcoholism, PTSD, covering up for a murder, and trying to manage deteriorating love lives. I don't know if I could say there's any deeper meaning than gratuitous sex and violence, but I can guarantee you that if you've spent more than three days in an infantry battalion you will love this book.

MY THOUGHTS

This story has so many elements, but I'll discuss the one that speaks loudest to me first, and that's the view of military life. I am an army veteran, my sister is a navy veteran, and we grew up near Camp Pendleton in Southern California where the stateside part of the story takes place, so I have pretty good idea how accurate this element of the story is. And it is completely accurate, more than a lot of serious military fiction I've read. It deals with the terror and insanity of combat, and the camaraderie and sense of fighting, not so much for some grand ideal, but for the person fighting on either side of you. It really gets the absurdities of military life, especially when not deployed, and showcases quite well the difference between trigger pullers and button polishers and paper pushers. 

It also really nails what life for stateside Marines is like. The various interpersonal drama with civilians in the area, between their dating lives and just interacting with civilians in general. The town of Oceanside, California is in a lot of ways designed to separate marines from their money, and we get to see this in many ways throughout the story. It just rings so true.

As I mentioned earlier, there are sci-fi and fantasy elements as well. Without going into too much detail, the sci-fi elements bear a lot of resemblance to the movie District 9, although the new "visitors" aren't prawn like humanoids, looking much more human-like, and not here to take over or do anything evil, but just live normal lives. The fantasy elements are a bit more subtle, as you see them happening, but they aren't really overt. It's not until towards the end of the book that we see that an ancient bit of mythology may not have been such a myth after all, and Hank and Doc have been drawn into something that might have world shaking consequences.

That brings us to the characters, which is another area this book truly shines in. Hank is a combat photographer, so he ends up attached to combat units on deployment and for the most part, and acts as a rifleman while not doing his specific job. His friend Wilson Evans, called Doc, is a Navy Corpman, medics who are attached to Marine combat units. These characters are so true to life, you can just tell the author wrote what he knew. This also includes the secondary characters, who remind me so much of people I knew in the military, both good and bad. Their love interests are quite interesting as well, with surprising character development, especially dealing with Marines who may very well have PTSD, or, as Hank puts it, "you mean the best time in our lives". As crazy and over the top as some of the characters may seem at times, I have seen some of these exact things, and sometimes worse, and that's without off planet visitors. It may be my bias showing, but these are some of the best characters in fiction I've ever read.

CONCLUSION

While I loved this book to death, I'll be honest that it won't be for everyone. There is a lot of gross and dark humor throughout, and it is decidedly not PC. While not intentionally offensive, there are some aspect of the military, and the Marines in particular, that will rub some people the wrong way. That being said, this is easily one of the top five books I've read in the last five years. Any veteran will understand and appreciate what the author put into writing this book, and should enjoy it.  I think that anyone looking for an action packed sci fi/fantasy mashup with dark humor throughout should find something to enjoy. It's unlike anything I've ever read before that wasn't non- fiction in the military parts. I highly recommend checking this one out, and can't wait to see what happens in the next book.

Rating: 10/10 Stars