Sixteenth Watch by Myke Cole

Title: Sixteenth Watch

Author: Myke Cole

Publisher: Angry Robot

Published Date: March 10th 2020

Length: 317 pages

Genre: Fiction, Science Fiction

Rating: 3 /5

The Coast Guard must prevent the first lunar war in history.
A lifelong Search-and-Rescuewoman, Coast Guard Captain Jane Oliver is ready for a peaceful retirement. But when tragedy strikes, Oliver loses her husband and her plans for the future, and finds herself thrust into a role she’s not prepared for. Suddenly at the helm of the Coast Guard’s elite SAR-1 lunar unit, Oliver is the only woman who can prevent the first lunar war in history, a conflict that will surely consume not only the moon, but earth as well.

+++++

This was my first ever Myke Cole and it was only after requesting this title that I realised that this author has quite the base as far as scifi genre is concerned. One of the pros of this book is that I learned a lot more about the Coast Guard and Navy of the USA than I ever thought I would know. (I am not an American, I wasn’t even interested in knowing more, if I am being honest.)

However despite that less than awesome tone, I did enjoy this book. Sixteenth Watch starts when US and China are trying to work together and not get in each other’s way on the Helium-3 on the moon. Things happen as the tensions get excessive between the countries and the Coast Guard Captain Jane Oliver is stuck in the middle of it all. Her job, essentially, is to avoid a war and the whole mess is being dealt with by the Navy (which is apparently a sign that there will definitely be a war?), things aren’t pretty, okay?

What I learned from this book is that the Coast Guard isn’t appreciated enough and the Navy might be a bit heavy-handed with them in general. I read that the author himself is a Coast Guard himself and it showed in the authenticity of the technicality, there was something impassioned about the way Cole tried to show us the positive sides of being a Coast Guard. However it sometimes felt a bit like self-insert fiction? It’s not a bad thing but it just seemed like wish-fulfillment at times. Oh, well.

Overall, I really enjoyed the action and the knowledge it gave me and would love to read more of this author’s books. If you like hard sci-fi and action packed scenes and if you want to appreciate the Coast Guard more than this is the book for you.