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A review by dc7
Special Forces - Mercenaries Part I by Aleksandr Voinov, Vashtan, Marquesate
1.0
DNF 76% - FROTHING AT THE MOUTH
The first half was mostly good, but then what followed was an utter BETRAYAL of the reader, the story, Dan, Vadim and their love.
Full review (as SPOILER FREE as possible) below plus instructions which parts you can read and still have a 4 star reading experience and which sections to skip if you don’t want your memories of Special Forces DEFILED.
I had been warned not to continue the SPECIAL FORCES series after SOLDIERS and now I know why.
REVIEW:
MERCENARIES I starts with some serious emotional gut punches. Katya does something truly awful and all my goodwill that was built towards her in SOLDIERS was squandered. Both Dan and Vadim acted in ways I didn’t like too much here, but it was all still understandable at this point. Some heart-breaking moments here. There were a couple of scenes where Vadim slipped into extremely amoral behaviour, one so graphically violent that I had to skim read it.
The pacing in MERCENARIES pt I is definitely slower than in book 1. Dan and Vadim get almost no page-time together in the first quarter. A lot of time is spent on the inner workings of SAS and how their recruitment process works, which I actually enjoyed. At some point I was getting impatient though: there was so much build-up and I was waiting for the emotionally gratifying payoff and it finally came around halfway through the book and it was incredibly good.
Dan and Vadim had some amazing moments and I was punching the air. At this point I didn’t understand why so many reviewers were so angry with Dan and Jean (a new character introduced in MERCENARIES pt I). They seemed OK so far. And then this book spit me in the face.
SECTIONS TO SKIP (aka The Ugly):
STOP at: 52%, page 321 in the PDF:
“Amazed that he held credit, that people were willing to reserve and book things just because he gave them numbers.”
Safely START again at: 55%, page 340 in the PDF:
“Vadim rapped his knuckles on Dan’s metal door.”
Why?
Because between these two points, I understood why other readers are so mad. One of our main characters expresses views on monogamy that I (and most readers) loath. What then follows is a sex scene between the wrong characters, doing something that is so intimate it should be reserved for Dan & Vadim only and it all happens at the worst possible point in the narrative.
I never thought I could be revolted by a male/male sex scene but it seems like there is a first for everything. This is an explicit scene between a main character and a side character and it felt so incredibly WRONG that I was feeling physically ill. I’m not exaggerating. My throat was constricting and I was about to vomit. Never thought that that would be my reaction to an explicit m/m scene. But that’s how wrong it felt. It utterly betrayed Dan, Vadim and their love. I had to skim it. Then it was followed by another awful scene that I skimmed as well. This is dragging their love through the dirt. I don’t mind authors breaking my heart, but this is UNACCEPTABLE.
Honestly, if the scene in the hotel in Kabul at the end of book 1 meant anything to you, SKIP this section! Seriously. Please.
I want to bleach my brain just so I can forget I read this.
You can safely continue after this section, but …
STOP reading all together at: 76%, page 463 in the PDF (when they get back to camp after Thailand):
“To no avail, even when he added a frustrated “woof!””
Honestly, put the book down at this point and do not continue. Not a sentence more. Accept this point as the happy ending and move on. Do not read any of the following books. What follows here is a disgusting excuse to write sex scenes between as many different characters as possible. A character is getting themselves a “harem”. Literally. They say that. Do I need to say more? It is a disgrace to the love between Dan and Vadim.
I do not have a problem with m/m/m stories and in fact I have read many good ones. This is not what this is. This is the assassination of a love story. I have never been this mad at a sequel. I rarely give out 1 star reviews but this book, as it stands, deserves it. I HATE where this goes. I have read my fair share of sequels I didn’t love (some Vampire Chronicle books were unnecessary; Twilight got worse with every book; etc.) but I have never felt so betrayed by a book. I am disgusted.
If you skip the section mentioned above and stop reading entirely when Vadim & Dan get back to camp after Thailand & Dubai, you can still have a good reading experience.
Many thanks to Moony Eliver, her review and her suggestion where to stop reading this book. Do read her review and the comment section attached to it.
Should you read MERCENARIES I at all?
If you follow instructions above, you will have a solid reading experience, but honestly, if you loved the scene in the hotel in Kabul as much as I did - NO. Do not continue. Make up your own happy ending.
Here’s my head-canon happy ending AKA what should have happened after SOLDIERS (but didn’t):
With the help of the Baroness, Vadim is broken out of the KGB prison. But he is still in the Soviet Union, in hiding. Unsure if he will ever see Dan again. But they are working on a plan. The Soviet Union is falling apart and they know it. So they come up with the idea for Vadim to escape via Berlin. Dan goes to West-Berlin, Vadim sneaks into East-Berlin. They have this grand escape plan but it all goes wrong. Then, of course, the Berlin wall comes down. Big celebration! Fireworks! Our heroes united! Hugs! Kisses! Rainbows & puppies! They go on to live happily in the UK, New Zealand … doesn’t matter, just somewhere nice. Of course they get bored and join the military again. As mercenaries. They go off into the world, have adventures, fight the bad guys and live that James Bond life. Fighting side by side. Forever in love. THE. BLOODY. END.
That’s my head-canon. Feel free to use it if you like it. Maybe one day, I’ll write a fanfiction like this. Heck, if you’re a writer, feel free to grab the idea and run with it. Anything but where this book goes.
The first half was mostly good, but then what followed was an utter BETRAYAL of the reader, the story, Dan, Vadim and their love.
Full review (as SPOILER FREE as possible) below plus instructions which parts you can read and still have a 4 star reading experience and which sections to skip if you don’t want your memories of Special Forces DEFILED.
I had been warned not to continue the SPECIAL FORCES series after SOLDIERS and now I know why.
REVIEW:
MERCENARIES I starts with some serious emotional gut punches. Katya does something truly awful and all my goodwill that was built towards her in SOLDIERS was squandered. Both Dan and Vadim acted in ways I didn’t like too much here, but it was all still understandable at this point. Some heart-breaking moments here. There were a couple of scenes where Vadim slipped into extremely amoral behaviour, one so graphically violent that I had to skim read it.
The pacing in MERCENARIES pt I is definitely slower than in book 1. Dan and Vadim get almost no page-time together in the first quarter. A lot of time is spent on the inner workings of SAS and how their recruitment process works, which I actually enjoyed. At some point I was getting impatient though: there was so much build-up and I was waiting for the emotionally gratifying payoff and it finally came around halfway through the book and it was incredibly good.
Dan and Vadim had some amazing moments and I was punching the air. At this point I didn’t understand why so many reviewers were so angry with Dan and Jean (a new character introduced in MERCENARIES pt I). They seemed OK so far. And then this book spit me in the face.
SECTIONS TO SKIP (aka The Ugly):
STOP at: 52%, page 321 in the PDF:
“Amazed that he held credit, that people were willing to reserve and book things just because he gave them numbers.”
Safely START again at: 55%, page 340 in the PDF:
“Vadim rapped his knuckles on Dan’s metal door.”
Why?
Because between these two points, I understood why other readers are so mad. One of our main characters expresses views on monogamy that I (and most readers) loath. What then follows is a sex scene between the wrong characters, doing something that is so intimate it should be reserved for Dan & Vadim only and it all happens at the worst possible point in the narrative.
I never thought I could be revolted by a male/male sex scene but it seems like there is a first for everything. This is an explicit scene between a main character and a side character and it felt so incredibly WRONG that I was feeling physically ill. I’m not exaggerating. My throat was constricting and I was about to vomit. Never thought that that would be my reaction to an explicit m/m scene. But that’s how wrong it felt. It utterly betrayed Dan, Vadim and their love. I had to skim it. Then it was followed by another awful scene that I skimmed as well. This is dragging their love through the dirt. I don’t mind authors breaking my heart, but this is UNACCEPTABLE.
Honestly, if the scene in the hotel in Kabul at the end of book 1 meant anything to you, SKIP this section! Seriously. Please.
I want to bleach my brain just so I can forget I read this.
You can safely continue after this section, but …
STOP reading all together at: 76%, page 463 in the PDF (when they get back to camp after Thailand):
“To no avail, even when he added a frustrated “woof!””
Honestly, put the book down at this point and do not continue. Not a sentence more. Accept this point as the happy ending and move on. Do not read any of the following books. What follows here is a disgusting excuse to write sex scenes between as many different characters as possible. A character is getting themselves a “harem”. Literally. They say that. Do I need to say more? It is a disgrace to the love between Dan and Vadim.
I do not have a problem with m/m/m stories and in fact I have read many good ones. This is not what this is. This is the assassination of a love story. I have never been this mad at a sequel. I rarely give out 1 star reviews but this book, as it stands, deserves it. I HATE where this goes. I have read my fair share of sequels I didn’t love (some Vampire Chronicle books were unnecessary; Twilight got worse with every book; etc.) but I have never felt so betrayed by a book. I am disgusted.
If you skip the section mentioned above and stop reading entirely when Vadim & Dan get back to camp after Thailand & Dubai, you can still have a good reading experience.
Many thanks to Moony Eliver, her review and her suggestion where to stop reading this book. Do read her review and the comment section attached to it.
Should you read MERCENARIES I at all?
If you follow instructions above, you will have a solid reading experience, but honestly, if you loved the scene in the hotel in Kabul as much as I did - NO. Do not continue. Make up your own happy ending.
Here’s my head-canon happy ending AKA what should have happened after SOLDIERS (but didn’t):
With the help of the Baroness, Vadim is broken out of the KGB prison. But he is still in the Soviet Union, in hiding. Unsure if he will ever see Dan again. But they are working on a plan. The Soviet Union is falling apart and they know it. So they come up with the idea for Vadim to escape via Berlin. Dan goes to West-Berlin, Vadim sneaks into East-Berlin. They have this grand escape plan but it all goes wrong. Then, of course, the Berlin wall comes down. Big celebration! Fireworks! Our heroes united! Hugs! Kisses! Rainbows & puppies! They go on to live happily in the UK, New Zealand … doesn’t matter, just somewhere nice. Of course they get bored and join the military again. As mercenaries. They go off into the world, have adventures, fight the bad guys and live that James Bond life. Fighting side by side. Forever in love. THE. BLOODY. END.
That’s my head-canon. Feel free to use it if you like it. Maybe one day, I’ll write a fanfiction like this. Heck, if you’re a writer, feel free to grab the idea and run with it. Anything but where this book goes.