Review: Havoc Brigade by Neal Marshall Stevens/John Bosco

A war torn world, nation fighting nation in seemingly unending war. Until one nation created the answer to conventional warfare, heavily armed and armored augmentation suits. The Havoc Brigade. Trained and armed, they so outclass the enemy that a years long war is over in a single sorte. How will the world react to this new shift in the balance of power, and how will soldiers react when they aren’t considered necessary any longer.

This is the world in the new graphic novel “Havoc Brigade” by Neal Marshall Stevens and illustrated by John Bosco, published by Studio 407 in October 2012.

Stevens tells a compelling story of soldiers, orders and the lengths one will go to in order to complete the mission. Backed up by the incredible art of Bosco, Neal’s story flows forward towards its conclusion and to be honest while I thought I knew where things were going, I was pleasantly surprised by the end of the story.

A great story on its own Havoc Brigade wouldn't have been nearly as enjoyable without the detailed and realistic world rendered by the pen of John Bosco. From the characters to the locations, all are wonderfully detailed and have just the right feel of realism for Stevens tale. The story would have fallen flat without the suits, one of the hardest things to do is create realistic looking hardware and maintaining its look through a story like this, Bosco manages this with clean lines and amazing color.

I’ve long been a fan of graphic novels, the telling of tales in the mixed medium of image and written word allows for an experience that can’t quite be achieved any other way. I was exceedingly pleased with Havoc Brigade, which I received as a reviewer copy. This is one that is going on my to buy list. I’m definitely going to keep an eye out for other books by Stevens or Bosco.

I would highly recommend the novel to lovers of Science Fiction and Military SF.