Outrider
by
Mark Wales
Publication date: 25th June 2024
Genre: Thriller / Military / Dystopian
Pages: 368
RRP: $34.99AU (paperback)
Source: Courtesy of the publisher
Review: Outrider
Australia has a new hero! Jack Dunne - Soldier, Father, Survivor.
I will start this review with a little insight into the author, Mark Wales. Mark is a former troop commander with the SAS and 2 x survivor contestant and 1 x winner of Survivor Australia. Great credentials to be writing a book that entails warfare and the fight to survive.
Outrider is a highly imaginative and gripping story featuring a dystopian Australia. It's 2034, Victoria and parts of SA, NT & WA have been invaded by the Chinese Communist Party. Jack Dunne is an Outrider, one of three highly trained operatives, and the Resistance's only hope of curtailing the Chinese invasion of the Hill. The Hill is an outposting in Victoria with Resistance fighters warding off the CCP's further invasion into Australia.
I found Outrider to be a powerful and haunting tale of a future Australia where a civil war has broken out between the resistance and those supporting the CCP.
The fighting scenes are quite graphic, so not for the squeamish. Wales' writing is very technical, he knows his weapons, and there are lots of initials, acronyms and armory details which may be a bit confusing if you haven't read military thrillers before.
Wales pulls on his experience as a former troop commander with the SAS to deliver a tense and atmospheric thriller rich in strategic military scenarios and weapons beyond my comprehension.
I raced through the last third of the book - that's what I want - fast paced and tense - edge of your seat stuff.
I would have liked more on what the Chinese were doing in Australia and how they breached our defenses.
An underlying theme of a loving father / son relationship was a nice sideline to the blood and gore.
After reading Mark's fictional debut 'Outrider' I am keen to read his memoir 'Survivor: life in the SAS published in 2021.
Recommended for readers of Tom Clancy.
My rating 4 / 5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
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