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I know it's impossible, but imagine, if you will, that there were no politics in the publishing world, no judgements of texts based on the author's idealogical views. If this world existed, a book like Brad R. Torgersen's The Chaplain's War would, I believe, be talked about as one of the freshest and most enjoyable new books in the science fiction genre.
Like I said, I know it's impossible.
And that's a damn shame.
Because Torgersen's book is great, great in the tradition of Heinlein, and Card. In fact, as I read it, the story reminded me of two specific works, Heinlein's Stormship Troopers, and Card's Ender's Game. It deserves to be in the same conversation, if you want my opinion. Those two before-mentioned stories came to mind as I read The Chaplain's War because they both deal with military units fighting an alien enemy in the future. Torgersen's aliens, of the three, comes closest to being a race with similar thoughts and emotions as humans. Torgersen also provides us a reluctant hero, a man thrown into impossible situations who ends up playing a critical role in the war between the species and the survival of mankind.
If you follow science fiction literature, especially novels written in the past few years, you know there's a war being waged. What's at stake is the very existence of the genre. It's too bad many will not read this story because of the name that graces its cover.
Like I said, it's a damn shame.
I hope, if you like reading classic science fiction, you'll read this book. Maybe you have no idea about the politics and the cultural war in which Torgersen is a soldier. And if you don't, consider yourself lucky because you get to read such stories without bias. This story deserves as much.
* Photo used without permission from: https://www.goodreads.com/book/photo/21412185-the-chaplain-s-war
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