Doomsday recon is a military portal fantasy by Ryan Williamson and Jason Anspach.
Featuring a platoon of cavalry scout stationed in 1989 Noriega’s Panama when during a routine patrol in a storm they suddenly face a horde of decidedly not-human enemies.
After defeating the first wave they have to admit the evidence : they’re not in panama anymore.
From there they’ll have to recon their new environment and soon find themselves in conflict with the various creatures inhabiting the place, but also finding allies in the local tribes (human or not).
Because as we soon find they are not the first humans to be transported here by the very real Aztec god ruling this land
This is a very well-written book and the authors are good at conveying the feeling of a small unit lost in a strange world inspired by pre-Columbian south america.
It is action-packed from start to end and never lags in place for too long but where it really shine is in the characterization. Nephi Bennett and his platoon buddies are not some kind of indestructible spec-ops operators but rather a “normal” unit who behave in a believable way and have to deal with the fact that they are stuck here for the foreseeable future without supply or additional munitions.
The other very enjoyable aspect of this novel is in the secondary characters they encounter. Both the members of the human amazon woman tribe or a certain locale female who slowly end up feeling like an integral part of the unit despite her very alien way of thinking.
Eps is really the most endearing character I’ve read about in an action-oriented book recently.
You can find the first here on Amazon
and here the equally awesome cover of the next Death or Glory