Book Review: Into the Guns by William C. Dietz

This review was first published by Booklist on October 13, 2016.

Into the Guns begins a new near-future military sf series from Dietz. In 2018, several meteors strike the earth and decimate civilization, and the American government is left in turmoil. Members of the armed forces are left stranded without command. The southern states secede from the union, a second Civil War looms, and a new president struggles to rebuild. The plot’s not very original, but it works. Dietz’s depictions of military operations and hardware are detailed. That alone is a major appeal factor. He delights in throwing around military jargon, although he’s inconsistent about defining some of the terms for readers unfamiliar with the argot. Unfortunately, characters are sketches more than fully rendered. Yet this will be a worthy purchase, given Dietz’s many fans.