Since days of Robotech I was into gigantic pilotable machines. Games from Battletech universe, and later fiction work from the same, were always great thrill and adventure. But there is something sexy, if you wish, about Japanese mecha designs (take a look for example at those awesome Japanese designs of Battletech machines, pure joy). So, when it comes to Gundam I was not aware of the actual story and lore, I took it to be one of those big robots kicking it off works, i thought it was only about giant robot battles. Until I saw anime Gundam Hathaway and it blew my my mind - yes, there was weird love story involved but everything about the mobile suits was as realistic as it was possible. They run out of ammo, have technical difficulties, can be struck on sensitive equipment and thus disabled or destroyed, pilots get captured or killed. When you look at that scene where Hathaway's squad attacks the city, it looks and feels very realistic, with full on destruction, defenses and casualties.

So I decided to see what does manga set in this universe has to offer (considering that manga is either based on the anime or vice versa). And man, this is some truly interesting military SF.

Novel starts with the Earth Federation entering the debris of Side 4 colony. Area is full of weird particle discharges [after colony was destroyed] that space lightnings (and, yes, there is thunder :) ) are messing up with the scanners, thus creating perfect ambush kill zone. Within this debris lies in wait Zeon's Living Dead Division, weird outfit of amputees (yup, you read it right), heavily wounded soldiers from previous battles now operating mobile suits, tasked with ambushing the federation forces using mines and snipers. The very grim story, forces battling it within remnants of the colony, grudges made due to life lost in combat, politics behind combat and military on both sides ready to use experimental technology and their own soldiers as lab rats to test it in the field.

I liked how both sides use the environment to sneak up onto the enemy, and are always trying to detect the opposition and deploy heaviest weapons available. There are no second places here.

Of course there are classical exaggerations (if you take giant robots as normal thing :)) like federation's top pilot being obsessed with jazz and Zeon's veteran pilot listening to pirated radio station music coming from somewhere in the debris. But again, this is manga, it is not meant to be too serious or grim, at least not whole the time.

Excellent book, highly , highly recommended. ( )