Book Reviews and More: On Tiber's Edge - Declan Finn

On Tiber's Edge

Land & Sea Season 2 Book 1

Declan Finn

WarGate Nova Books

ISBN 9798889221302

ISBN 9798889221296

ASIN B0FWRDFFN1

On Tiber's Edge - Declan Finn - Land & Seas Season 2 Book 1

This is the 53rd volume I have read from Declan Finn’s masterful pen, not counting contributions to anthologies. I read most in under a year after first discovering his works. I read them at the pace of about a book a week. This is the first of what I believe is a new series set in someone else’s universe. I have not read any of the previous 10 Land&Sea Books, and this one stands up on it’s own. But it is also good enough I am now eyeing the first season.

The description of this volume states:

“Welcome to Chicago!

When African Pope Julius III inherited the Throne of Peter, he expected to go to ecclesiastical war with China or Jihadis. Literal war with aliens was not on his bingo card. With humanity at stake, calling for a crusade is only rational.

When the city of Chicago is abandoned to support the East Coast, three people pick up the Crusade. Samuel Weston used to be a spy. Zofia Zelazowska is the only officer of the Guard left behind. And Opus Dei priest James Pham is has his own bureaucrats to battle.

With hostile gangs, Mafia and corrupt politicians in their way, this trinity must build an army of God before the army of darkness emerges from the depths and destroy them all.”

The volume is broken into seven cycles, which vary from 1 chapter to 5 chapters in length. Often Finn’s chapters have titles and give you a bit of a feel for what is coming next or at least it lets you guess, this volume does not have titles either for the Cycles or the Chapters. It has been a while since I have read about Mech Warriors. My fiction reading tends to go in cycles and it has been a while since something like this has really caught my attention. But being written by Finn and very obviously having battles in it; it was a sure to jump to the top of my reading list when it released. Unfortunately it released while we were in the middle of moving house, and a very very busy season at work. So I did not get around to cracking the digital cover until Change Freeze began at work.

This is the first volume in a well-established work not by the original author. It will have a dedicated following because of the series and because of the new author. As mentioned I have not read any of the previous volumes. But these books are based on the Role Playing Game (RPG) created by Brent Evans. So there is a third group that might be attracted to this story. And I guarantee it is one that will not let the reader down. The Land&Sea Books have thoughts of ratings and hundreds of reviews both on Goodreads and Amazon. At the time of writing this review this specific volume has 23 ratings and 4 reviews on Goodreads for an average of 4.65 Stars, and on Amazon 37 ratings and 4.5 star average and it has not even been out 2 months. But back to the story at hand.

Having read all of Finn’s books except the out of print Pius Series, I came with some pretty high expectations. And this story hits the ground running right from the start. From Father Camillo Guareschi’s encounter with the alien crabs in the Po Valley in Italy we know it is about to hit the fan. We jump from there to Sam Weston in Chicago. Sam is a spy who has spent a lot of time behind the Iron Curtain, and here he is benched or should we say beached just as something comes up out of the sea threatening all of humanity. We know Sam is a little peculiar right from our introduction. And when he intervenes in a mugging of a priest in a rough neighbourhood in Chicago we know something great is coming. After that intervention Sam joins Father Pham for a mean with Vincenzo Torrio, and if you had immediate thoughts of Chicago mob boss you are not that far off. Next we meet Harold Adams aka The Hammer who runs a large crew and controls a large section of Chicago. And finally we encounter, Lieutenant Colonel Zofia Zelazowska, who has been left in charge of the military in Chicago, but only after anything of imminent value has been stripped from the armouries. And I cannot fail to mention Pope Julie III about him we are informed:

“To say that Pope Julius III was an imposing figure would be to understate it. In the evenings, he spent his free time in prayer, on his knees. But in the morning, he would wake at five and say three hours of prayer—while he exercised. This turned the two-meter-tall African Pontiff from an imposing figure to a threatening one. Papal tailors spent a lot of time trying to cut his white robes so that he wouldn’t be quite so intimidating. But when his shoulders were the size of American footballs, it was difficult to hide. He had come to the Papacy with the intention of waging war against the world on behalf of the Kingdom of Heaven, which is why he picked the name of the Renaissance warrior-pope.”

And the Pope’s XO: Auxiliary Bishop Xavier O’Brien that we are told:

“Despite being an American from Marquette—some of the few Jesuits to avoid being defrocked—he had easily fit into the ebbs and flows of Papal bureaucracy. He had held his position by being devious, knowing when to act on Italian time, and when to work on American time.”

I seldom highlight when reading fiction but these quotes really caught my attention:

“You understand. Let’s just say that a previous cardinal, Francis George, said, ‘I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison, and his successor will die a martyr in the public square. His successor will pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization, as the Church has done so often in human history.’ If Bowser does die in prison, I will not be at all surprised.”

““Good morning. Today, the Catholic Church and the Apostolic See would like to address the current battle against the aliens who have attacked us from the oceans. Before we do this, we must reclaim our moral credibility. The Church has had to apologize for the Crusades, despite them being a defensive measure against a jihadi war machine. We had to apologize for not doing enough in World War II, despite doing more than anyone else. We have to apologize for pedophiles, despite keeping records of every complaint and not disappearing the paperwork like so many others do.”

And the events on September 1st 2039 in the second cycle are so fitting.

Humanity is at war, a war that is not going well. The Aliens – The Fish, for they have emerged from the sea, are attacking around the globe. And They are very effective and the learn very quickly. Chicago is far enough far enough inland they have time to prepare. And though politicians are saying there is nothing to fear, the Catholic Church, and other band together to try and prepare. And they have a mastermind, a huge resource pool, and people who believe in the cause. Those elements combine might just give them a chance and if not Sam Weston still has a something up his sleeves!

Finn is a master of writing battle scenes, whether large orchestrated conflicts or personal one on one or one on many actions. He has a flare for throwing prayers and biblical passages into the mix as the fight goes on. In this volume we have great examples of that from Weston and even from His Holiness.

Declan has already proved he is a master of the novel and shorter form fiction, in this one he proves again his versatility in writing an excellent work in someone else’s, make that two other creators universe. I was using adaptive technology to listen to this while driving one night and my son caught a snippet when he entered the car. He immediately wanted the volume on his own Kindle.

This is an excellent volume. It leaves you wanting more and Finn has confirmed he does not know how many volumes he will write in this series but there will be at least one more. It was strong enough to stand on its own, but it left me wanting to explore the original series.

An alien race attacks, a Holy Crusade and a bored spy make for an amazing story!

For fans of Military Science Fiction this is an excellent offering! I can easily recommend this book for reader from teens on up. It is way better than a lot of what I read in my teens. An excellent offering I hope will be the beginning of a long series. Well done Declan, well done!

Note: This book is part of a series of reviews: 2025 Catholic Reading Plan!

Books by Declan Finn:

Love At First Bite Series:

Short Stories:

Blood Stained Cliffs of Dover

Bad Date

Mad Dog Moon

…

Novels:

Honor at Stake

Demons Are Forever

(Murphy's Law of Vampires)