Anybody read the Downfall novel yet? If yes, what did you think? I had fun, gave it 4 out of 5 stars on Amazon, and put in this little review: "The book follows four viewpoint characters and their experiences in and around a military confrontation in the jungles of Paradiso. Action scenes alternate with character moments in a smooth weave, and while the story and writing are not exceptional, the characters are interestingly written, fun to follow along, and the combat action scenes are vivid and tense. I really enjoyed the book, despite minor niggles (Why do the Yujing troops insist on using bright orange armor in the jungle?) and would recommend it, if you wanted to get a feel of the military side of the Infinity setting, as it captures that pretty well."
I am waiting for when it is released on paperback next month. I am looking forward to reading it and will provide my spoiler free thoughts when I am finished.
I'm about 3/4 through on the ebook version and pleasantly surprised. The first half focussed on squad/platoon level dynamics as the conflict escalates further and further. The action sequences are well written and it shows that the author is knowledgeable about military procedure. Characters appear somewhat cliche at first but receive additional depth as the story goes along, with some unexpected angles and reveals at around the midpoint of the novel. I'm not going to into further detail at this point, but suffice to say that so far it reads like a solid first entry into the novel series and I'm looking forward to finishing it (hopefully) this week.
Hello All - I'm the author of Downfall and just wanted to say a sincere thank you for the balanced feedback you've provided here. As I just wrote on a similar thread on Facebook, the positive feedback is appreciated and encouraging, and the negative points are fair and constructive, so are things I can take away to try to make the next project even better. If there is anything I can answer specifically, please do fire questions away here or send me a message. Thanks again!
Hi Mark! Very nice to see you here and thanks for commenting. Congrulations on writing the very first novel of the Infinity universe and thank you for providing a very fun read. I also enjoyed your interview with Infinity Gamer very much. I'd have a question conerning the little niggle I mentioned: You mention the adapative color fabrics/material of armor of Kyle a few times in the book, but the Yujing troops don't seem to use anything like that in the story. They are consistently described as having the bright yellow/orange colored armor. From a military standpoint wearing these seems very counter-productive in a combat situation. Did you write it that way, to reference the iconic coloring of the Yujign minis more often?
That's a really good question, I'll try to give a long-winded, comprehensive answer! The smart fabric came in a later draft of the story; in the first draft, the vivid red of the hospitaller surcoat was just as problematic for camouflage as the Yujingyu orange and something I highlighted in the narrative. But, the overwhelming majority of existing artwork and official painted minis had hospitallers in the red, and Yu Jing tending to favour that rather colourful orange-yellow. I wrote it that way, but in a game system which has a detailed mechanic for camouflage this was a real problem to describe. However, the lore on the camo functions mentions working in several visual spectrums. So with that in mind, how does a soldier in the Infinity universe actually see their target? Colour, heat, infra-red...there could be a dozen different ways. I wasn't particularly happy with the concept of bright colours instead of camouflage, but as a writer you have to support the franchise and that is what all of the artwork depicted. There were other things which stood out to me - why do fusiliers wear body armour and no helmet? The head is the most vulnerable part of the body and in most cases with militaries, it is the first part to defend with armour, not the last. I also describe soldiers raising their weapons to firing positions, but in terms of the lore I was told this wasn't strictly necessary as the weapon highlights the target and its aiming point on the firer's lens - so weapons can be fired effectively from the hip. Yet, Infinity minis are posed with weapons at the shoulder and many have traditional sighting systems on top of the weapon, so I kept that in my story. My guess is that, just like the coloured armour, this is because it is visually spectacular - rule of cool stuff. Where does all this lead? Infinity isn't the first sci-fi setting to reduce or even ignore camouflage, it's a sort of trait of sci-fi. If it was my setting I'd put more camouflage in, but that's just a personal preference and I thought it was far more important to respect and support the existing system, which has these vivid colours worn by front line military personnel; Yu Jing more so than PanO. The smart fabric was mentioned in a late lore edit, so I went back and changed that for the hospitaller character; it didn't come up in the lore edits with the Yujingyu armour. Still, it's a very interesting point you make and if I write another book for Infinity, which is being discussed at the moment, I think it's absolutely vital to take away feedback and criticism, so that's a point I will definitely mention in the lore edits. Hope this answers your question, even if it is a very wordy and long-winded answer!
I like wordy and long-winded! ;) Thanks for that! The berets of the Fusilier was actually another thing that jumped out at me. "Who goes into a combat with a f**** beret ?" I was asking myself, having worn one myself in the military long ago. :D I read up a bit on it, and there seem to be some possible instances of it actually happening in the real world though.
Yeah, absolutely! British commandos and paratroopers - amongst soldiers from many other nations - wore berets in combat in the Second World War, but helmets were readily available so it was an individual choice to 'show one's colours' in an elite unit, rather than a compulsory thing. However, every mini and picture I've seen of a Fusilier has them in a beret, so I guess these poor fellows don't have a choice!
Btw, to add one of my highlights, I really liked your depiction of Beckmann and her emotional damage. Her outbursts were appropriately frightening. :)
I think it is funny that USAF are one of the only forces that have their line troopers wear helmets. I guess in Infinity you have to earn your helmet...
There was a helmeted Fusilier (ostensibly a Lieutenant sculpt) in the first ever PanO starter pack, which IIRC was the first Infinity product ever released and came with quick start rules in the box because the N1 book hadn't even been made yet! But it's long enough ago that you can probably call it non-canon.
Oh man! There's an old, obsolete Fusilier mini with a helmet! No time to lose, to eBay! I'm not even joking, I've really got to try to find that mini now! As for earning helmets, you never know! Towards the end of the First World War, German fighter pilots were only given parachutes once they'd proved themselves in combat. Even then, most chose not to fly with them because they were uncomfortable to sit on. Wow... Uthoroc - to reply to that earlier post; Beckmann was a tricky character to write. Somebody posted on FB that the characters in Downfall are a mixture of the almost cartoon-like, and then some who are grounded in realism and I think that's a fair comment. Shankar and Cochrane, as fusiliers, were written with the intention of being gritty, and hopefully as believable as possible in the setting. Conversely, Hawkins and Beckmann were written pretty much as action movie characters. The idea behind that was replicating game mechanics - fusiliers don't cost nearly as many points as hospitallers and hexas, and then add on that most situations would involve spending a tonne of activations on a high-cost, hard-hitting model like a hospitaller and hexa rather than a fusilier, and that was my thoughts behind Hawkins and Beckmann having their high-octane killing sprees in the actions scenes, compared to the more ground, ARO driven Shankar and Cochrane. Trying my best to steer clear of spoilers, Beckmann was harder to write because of the mental trauma in her past. This isn't supposed to be a deep dive into the tragic intricacies of mental health ailments and it is supposed to be a fun novel to support a wargame, but her behaviour and temperament does have some grounding in some guidance and advice in writing the character that I had from somebody who worked for several years as a mental health nurse. The tricky part was trying to write that with sympathy and respect to those who have to deal with these issues for real, but also keeping the mood up and remembering the aim is to support a fun, fast, action-packed wargame. A really fun and interesting character to write, but a difficult one!
I just finished the novel. I quite liked it. The combat was very exciting and it was nice to see the different perspectives of the four characters. It was also nice to see your interpretation of such rules like Frenzy, WIP 12, and the like. Thank you for the clarification about Hawkins and Beckmann basically being action movie heroes as that addresses one of my concerns. The major other one was that I never felt I understood Shankar and could not truly connect with her. I have one gameplay question for @wafu_vasco, which may be considered a light spoiler: Spoiler: The Future of PanO So was the smoke grenades in PanO artistic license or a sign of things to come? I thoroughly enjoyed Downfall and I hope to see more of your work in the future exploring the Infinity Universe.
The celestial guards would like to have a Word with you. These guys and girls all wear their helmets.
Thorakitai and Order Sarges too, though I guess the lid-less Croziers have supplanted Sarge as the MO line infantry. Dakini and Unidrons don't have helmets but they do have metal heads!
Brokenwolf: Thanks very much for your post and the kind words, I do try to read every bit of feedback I can find so I can learn from each project and try to make the next one an improvement. To attempt to answer the spoiler question... yep, I'll take a self hit on that one! A few people have mentioned this flaw and you're all entirely correct, it did slip through the cracks. I can only think that as a newcomer to Infinity, I was aware that smoke existed in game, and I'm also aware of the huge importance of its battlefield use which continues to this day. As I was trying to address other issues that came up in the various edits, I'm afraid this one slipped through the cracks. It's certainly one for me to take away to do better with on my next project. So, in answer, it's not a sign of things to come and as one individual wrote on Facebook, don't worry about PanO using smoke in the future - so much of the stuff got used in the final battle in Downfall that PanO don't have any smoke left! In fact, maybe Downfall IS the reason PanO don't have smoke...
No worries about the smoke! It made me raise an eyebrow, but nothing more! But would you be willing to talk more Shankar and her motivations? It felt like she was going through a mid-life crisis and I would love to know more about her background and why.
Sincere apologies about the late response, I've been getting error messages every time I've tried to log on for several days now. Anyhow, to answer... Every novel I've written has had the aim of an ensemble cast. I always liked stories where there were a handful of very different characters so that different readers would hopefully gravitate to at least one of them, even if they didn't necessarily like some of the others. With that in mind, I attempted to write this story with four different characters, but importantly all with their vices and flaws. All four of them have things they struggle with as well as strengths, and Shankar was no exception. And, like the other three, a lot more of her previous life was planned out and conceptualised even though it never made it to the story, as that helped to try to keep the characters consistent in their actions. Shankar is basically an intelligent but underconfident youth who finds some confidence after success in the military. Consistently overshadowed by her peers in childhood and university, despite tirelessly giving 100% effort, she finally finds that hard work is rewarded in the Fusiliers and consequently she is selected for promotion to captain. The problem she faces is that she has been promoted based on the successes earlier in her career, and that has been in peacekeeping operations, HQ administrative jobs... but not as a front line platoon commander under fire - something absolutely vital for an infantry officer in times of war. Consequently, this story sees Shankar forcing herself to be somebody she isn't - outspoken, confident, decisive - and sometimes ignoring the advice of her platoon sergeant, a soldier with more experience but with conflicting moral values. In a nutshell, that was the idea. I've received a bit of feedback on the characters from readers, and whilst Shankar undoubtedly makes some huge mistakes she is also brave considering her lack of combat experience and tireless in her efforts to do her job well. However, of the four characters, I've found the feedback to indicate that she was the least popular with readers, which is not necessarily a problem in itself as one of the four has to be the least popular and I was adamant in wanting them all to make mistakes and have flaws - but the feedback has still given me plenty to think about so that I can try to improve and make the next project better! Hope this answers the question!
Thank you for the background on Shankar. I read her as older (Late 20s early/Early 30s), not as a young (which probably comes from some internal assumptions, like her fiancé being a doctor and the average age of a US Army Captain). With that context, some of her choices make more sense (like her jealousy and pettiness).
I finished it a bit ago, nice fun read. Could always use more ALEPH, but that's true of everything in life I suppose.
