Scan barcode
A review by batrock
The Runes of Engagement by Tobias S. Buckell, Dave Klecha
2.0
Sometimes a cover, a title, and a concept are all you need. Then you're better off not actually having a book. The Runes of Engagement is a 250 page slog about a US Marine detachment stranded behind enemy lines in a fantasy world. The unit has a few minor skirmishes and a goal that is much bigger than it comes across on the page. That's it.
We're told that, historically, a group of trolls managed to level the Empire State Building without ever being able to conceive of how that was possible. The final confrontation is on a scale so large that we're told not to worry about it, and we don't; Klecha and Buckell, given their setting, reduce the resolution to a near literal "a wizard did it", and ask us to be happy.
At the end, it feels like not much has happened; we're supposed to believe that this is because is a micro story about one single group of soldiers in a larger story, but if we were ever supposed to get a taste of the world or war they're fighting in, the flavour is elusive. Description and characterisation are perfunctory, and the prose is liberally peppered with references that boil down to readers recognising names. That so many of the fantasy denizens are less than cardboard cut outs is supposed to be a knowing wink at the audience, but it feels more like a cop out.
Part of The Runes of Engagement comes down to your fondness for the Military Industrial Complex and your feelings about the legitimacy of, at a random example, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Maybe you served, and this captures the sense of camaraderie you had with your fellow Marines. Maybe you can overlay your own experiences in, say, a TTRPG group, onto the squad.
If you can't relate, there's not much to recommend here. The Runes of Engagement is warmed over pablum that reinforces the oorah patriotism of US interventionism lost on most outside that mindset. It comes across as more contemptuous than affectionate, but your mileage may vary: politics aside, The Runes of Engagement's greatest sin is its consistent dullness.
We're told that, historically, a group of trolls managed to level the Empire State Building without ever being able to conceive of how that was possible. The final confrontation is on a scale so large that we're told not to worry about it, and we don't; Klecha and Buckell, given their setting, reduce the resolution to a near literal "a wizard did it", and ask us to be happy.
At the end, it feels like not much has happened; we're supposed to believe that this is because is a micro story about one single group of soldiers in a larger story, but if we were ever supposed to get a taste of the world or war they're fighting in, the flavour is elusive. Description and characterisation are perfunctory, and the prose is liberally peppered with references that boil down to readers recognising names. That so many of the fantasy denizens are less than cardboard cut outs is supposed to be a knowing wink at the audience, but it feels more like a cop out.
Part of The Runes of Engagement comes down to your fondness for the Military Industrial Complex and your feelings about the legitimacy of, at a random example, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Maybe you served, and this captures the sense of camaraderie you had with your fellow Marines. Maybe you can overlay your own experiences in, say, a TTRPG group, onto the squad.
If you can't relate, there's not much to recommend here. The Runes of Engagement is warmed over pablum that reinforces the oorah patriotism of US interventionism lost on most outside that mindset. It comes across as more contemptuous than affectionate, but your mileage may vary: politics aside, The Runes of Engagement's greatest sin is its consistent dullness.