The Bookwyrm's Review of Tier 1000 by Jason Anpach and Doc Spears

 

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Synopsis

Ragnar Beck only wanted one thing out of a life—the chance to soldier.

In a war for the survival of the last continent untouched by the invader, Beck finally gets his shot to prove he’s a combat warrior. As the battle unfolds and the only choice is to fight to the bitter end, he performs like the soldier he was raised to be, leaving no enemy standing on the last battleground he’ll ever see. Or is it?

Resurrected into an afterlife where he must prove his worth to join the ranks of an ultra-elite tasked with becoming the greatest warriors to ever exist, he asks himself the only question a real soldier can—who’s gonna stop me?

Beck's struggle to make the grade is as important as his quest to discover who he fights for and why. Part mystery, part alternate history, all action thriller, Tier 1000 is the story of a determined warfighter and the battlefields from the past to the far-flung future that forge him into the Ultimate soldier.

Review

Sometimes, there are just writers that write stories that hook you every time. The kind of writer that can cross genres and series and still write stories that will enthrall you every time. Jason Anspach is one of those writers for me. His work on the Galaxy's Edge series of sci-fi books with Nick Cole are modern masterpieces. His work on various other series, whether solo, with Nick or with other co-writers has never let me down and it's always been top notch work. And that brings us to Tier 1000, the newest work by Jason, this time with Doc Spears, another collaborator from the Galaxy's Edge series. It is not a play on any of their other work, but a whole new universe to explore.

This universe has some fantastic world building. Taking some fairly standard tropes from sci-fi, it turns them on their head by crossing them with a whole new look at various cosmologies from Earth's mythology. You can tell a lot of research was involved to set the ground work, but then imagination went wild to help create their own universe out of the ground they started with. This isn't some well trodden path, but blazes it's own trail across a genre mashup of ancient cosmologies, creating a story setting you just immerse yourself in throughout.

This brings us to the characters. Since the premise is soldiers from throughout time brought together to form an elite military unit, the authors had a lot of latitude in crafting an interesting mashup of characters. We start with the main character, Ragnar Beck, a soldier from the NorthAm Army, the successor to the US Army about 25 years from now. A young man from a family of soldiers, he has grown up with stories from his father and grandfather about what the Army used to be about, not the hollow, social experiment mess that it currently is. Warfighting is not seen as something to train for, which, when the Lotus Empire, basically China and its conquered Asian vassals, invade the Western Hemisphere in Panama, soldier's like Beck, who have finally trained as the threat loomed, end up fighting to the bitter end, and this hard core determination is what defines Beck. He is honorable and determined in a time those are not considered important traits. Joining the Ultimates requires just these attributes, that never say die attitude, and Beck is a prime example of what makes them the best.

The supporting cast is such an excellent mix of characters. There are soldiers like Will, a WW1 era soldier who helps Ragnar adjust to his new life, and Magnus, a viking warrior who adapts well to modern tech and is a friend and mentor to Beck as well. The rest of Beck's Ultimates companions are soldiers from various eras, and are a mixed bag of histories and attitudes. These secondary characters fit so well, creating an excellent support structure to Beck, and discovering their backstories just adds more layers to the story. 

The antagonists are interesting. They range from beings of cosmic power levels to turncoats in the ranks of the Ultimates, with a much more personal effect on Beck and his companions. They all get decent character arcs, and have some really interesting effects on the story arcs of the other characters. They really make effective foils for the more heroic characters like Beck and his fellow Ultimates, and you really can't stop turning pages to see what damage they cause and how they will be stopped.

While the idea of soldiers from various eras fighting together is not new, Tier 1000 takes it into some new directions. The scope of the story was much larger than I expected, and the characters were just such a good fit. You really become invested in the story and the characters, and there are some character deaths that are just a gut punch, because like in real world combat, sometimes the most careful planning and execution still can't keep bad things from happening to good soldiers. This is easily one of my top ten favorite reads of 2021, and I heartily recommend it.