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Gears of War Aspho Fields Kindle Edition
As kids, the three of them were inseparable; as soldiers, they were torn apart. Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago fought alongside Dom’s elder brother Carlos at Aspho Fields in the epic battle that changed the course of the Pendulum Wars. There’ s a new war to fight now, a war for mankind’s very survival. But while the last human stronghold on Sera braces itself for another onslaught from the Locust Horde, ghosts come back to haunt Marcus and Dom. For Marcus–decorated war hero, convicted traitor–the return of an old comrade threatens to dredge up an agonizing secret he’s sworn to keep.
As the beleaguered Gears of the Coalition of Ordered Governments take a last stand to save mankind from extermination, the harrowing decisions made at Aspho Fields have to be re-lived and made again. Marcus and Dom can take anything the Locust Horde throws at them–but will their friendship survive the truth about Carlos Santiago?
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherRandom House Worlds
- Publication dateOctober 22, 2008
- File size650 KB
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Editorial Reviews
About the Author
David Colacci has been an actor and a director for over thirty years, and has worked as a narrator for over fifteen years. He has won AudioFile Earphones Awards, earned Audie nominations, and been included in Best of the Year lists by such publications as Publishers Weekly, AudioFile magazine, and Library Journal.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
I swear I thought the place was a museum when I walked in. I mean, it was huge, full of books and old paintings. And deserted, you know? That kind of dead silence that says just shut your mouth and feel the awe of history. And then Marcus’s mom came through the door like she hadn’t seen us, reading some papers she had in her hand, and she says, “Hi sweetheart, you brought some friends home? I’ll catch up with you later.” Then she was gone. I saw the look on Marcus’s face, and knew right then that the guy needed a brother a whole lot more than he needed a library.
(Carlos Santiago, describing his first visit to Marcus Fenix’s family mansion at the age of ten.)
Ephyra, present day–14 A.E.
Dom Santiago decided that there was one good thing about a phantom sniper blowing a Locust’s brains all over his face. It took his mind off worrying how many Locust were still around. His legs were shaking as he moved to the edge of the pit that had opened in the paving and aimed his rifle below, just in case the grubs had backup on the way. The shakes were just the aftershock of the adrenaline, but–
Liar. I nearly shit myself. The grub was choking the life out of me, a round missed my brain by inches. That’s fear. Forget the adrenaline.
No, it never stopped being terrifying. The day it did, he’d really be dead. In the tangle of broken pipes and cables below, nothing stirred beyond the clicking of settling soil and stones. Dom couldn’t feel anything under his boots now except the slight rocking movement of broken paving. The vibrations from deep in the planet had vanished for the time being, and the smell of chargrilled dog had been overwhelmed by shattered bowels and pulverized concrete.
“Hey, smart-ass,” Baird called to the empty street. “Nice shot. Now show yourself.”
“Better shout louder,” Cole said. “He could be a mile away.”
It was always hard to spot a sniper. But in this maze of destruction and shadows, there were a thousand places to lay up and wait for trade. Marcus squatted down and examined what was left of the Locust’s skull again. Then he looked up and gestured in the general direction of the south side of the street.
“No, a lot closer. The round went in near the top of the skull. High angle, and a lot of kinetic energy left.”
Dom looked where Marcus was pointing, trying to work out where the sniper would have had clear line of sight. Marcus backed slowly to the nearest wall and pressed his fingers to his earpiece. Dom listened in.
“Delta to Control, any sniper teams to the south of Embry? Any Gears at all?”
“Negative, Delta.” It was Lieutenant Stroud: Anya Stroud, still on duty after eighteen hours. The woman never seemed to sleep. If Delta Squad was awake–so was she. “Need one?”
“Not anymore.”
“Don’t leave me in suspense, Sergeant...”
“We’ve got a joker loose with an obsolete sniper rifle. He’s helpful now, but he might not stay that way.”
“Thanks for the heads- up. I’ll put out an advisory.”
Cole was still focused on the roofline. Baird lowered his Lancer and started walking again. “Let’s get out. Maybe they got a sudden dose of patriotism and realized they owe us, now the war’s nearly over.”
“Maybe,” Marcus said, “he was aiming at Dom and missed. And it’s not over.”
“Stranded never fire on us. They’re not that dumb.”
“Old rifle. Great shot.” Marcus reloaded, casual and apparently in no hurry. “So I’m curious.”
Baird didn’t look back as he picked his way over fallen masonry. “Plenty of Stranded are good shots. Doesn’t mean we have to go find them and enlist them.”
Baird had a point. As long as nobody was shooting at them, it wasn’t their problem. But if someone had a sniper rifle, Dom knew it was stolen. Obsolete or not, the things were scarce. A handful of factories struggled to produce spares, let alone crank out new weapons. Every operational piece of kit, from Ravens to Armadillos to assault rifles, was a losing battle between maintenance and decay. Like all Gears, Dom cannibalized parts from anything he could grab. Baird was a master at it.
“Yeah, we need to know,” Dom said. “Because if the rifle isn’t stolen, that means the owner’s one of us. A veteran.”
Baird paused to pick up something. When he held it closer to his face to examine it, Dom could see it was a servo part of some kind. “It’s old kit and they’re thieving scum.” Baird pocketed the servo.
“Because no Gear is going to hang around with street vermin if he’s capable of shooting.”
Again, the cocky little bastard was right. Dom wanted to see him proved wrong someday, if only to shut his mouth for a while. Yes, veteran Gears reenlisted after Emergence Day, even some really old guys, because there were two choices for any man worth a damn: fight with the COG forces, any way he could–or rot. The only excuse for not fighting the Locust was being dead.
“Every rifle counts,” Dom called after him. No, the war wasn’t over. “And every man.” He turned to Marcus and gestured toward the likely direction of fire. “Give me ten minutes.”
“You’ve got me curious, too,” Cole said, resting his Lancer against his shoulder. “I think I’ll join you.”
Marcus sighed. “Okay, but keep your comm channels open. Baird? Baird, get your ass back here.”
Half of this city block had been a bank’s headquarters, surrounded by snack and coffee shops that lived off the army of clerks. It was all derelict now. Dom could just about remember how it had looked before E- Day, the ranks of neatly wrapped sandwiches in the window displays, filled with the kind of delicacies nobody could get hold of now. Food in the army was . . . adequate, better than anything that Stranded had. But it wasn’t fun.
Dog. Damn, who’d eat a dog?
The glittering granite façade was just a shell now, with a few hardy plants rooted in cracks in the ashlars. Nothing much grew here. It didn’t get the chance. Dom and Cole edged inside the burned- out bank and looked up to see that there were no floors, and nowhere to hide. It was a big empty box. Everything that could be hauled away and reused–wood, metal, cable, pipes–had been scavenged long before.
“Well, shit,” Cole said cheerfully. “I had my fortune stashed here.”
Cole had been a pro thrashball star, a rich man in a world long gone. Wealth was measured in skills and barter now. He always treated his worthless millions as a big joke; he could find humor in just about any situation. But there was nothing much left to buy that a Gear needed. Dom decided that when life returned to normal–even after fourteen years, he had to think that it could–he’d follow Cole’s example and treat money as easy come, easy go. People were what mattered. You couldn’t replace them, and they didn’t earn interest. They just slipped away a day at a time, and you had to make the most of every precious moment.
When I find Maria, I won’t take a single minute for granted.
Dom scanned the interior and peered down into a deep crater where the polished marble counter had once been. Nothing moved, but he could see the old vaults, doors blown open. “Yeah, better cancel the order for that yacht.”
“Hey, Dom, you won’t find no snipers down there.” Cole shoved him in the shoulder. “Heads up.”
The back of the bank building was a sloping mound of rubble and debris, like scree that had tumbled down a mountainside. Above the ramp of brick, stone facing, and snapped joists, the rear wall rose like a cliff and the top row of empty window frames formed deep arches. Now that was a good position for a sniper–depending on what was behind the wall, of course. Dom slung his Lancer across his shoulders and scrambled up the slope for a better look.
“Nobody home, Dom.” Cole followed him. “Don’t you get enough exercise?”
“Just want a look- see from the top.” Dom grabbed at a rusted steel bar and hauled himself up the stumps of joists that jutted from the wall. His oversized boots weren’t ideal for climbing and he had to rely on his upper body strength more than momentum from his legs, so getting down again was going to be interesting. “Because he’d have to be at this height to get that shot in.”
Dom heaved himself onto a windowsill and stood with his hands braced against the stone uprights on either side. It was a big solid wall, built like a bastion, and thick enough for him to stand on comfortably even in a Gear’s boots. On the other side, adjacent buildings in various states of collapse provided crude stairs down to ground level. If anyone had been up here, he’d had a relatively easy route down.
“See anything?” Cole called.
“Usual shit.” Dom scanned one- eighty degrees. “Not exactly a postcard to send home. Unless you live in an even bigger cesspit.”
Below, the city still looked like a deserted battlefield, sterile and treeless. Smoke curled upward in thin wisps from domestic fires Dom couldn’t see. There was a visible demarcation between the parts of the city that stood on thick granite–the last COG stronghold–and the outlying areas where fissures and softer rock let the Locust tunnel in. The line lay between a recognizable city, buildings mostly in one piece, and a devastated hinterland. The line itself–well, that was the margin in which most Stranded seemed to live, the unsecured areas where they took their chances.
Their choice. Not ours.
It wasn’t the view Dom was used to from the crew bay of a King Raven chopper. It was static, deceptively peaceful, not racing and rolling beneath him in a sequence of disjointed images. He had a few moments to think. Even after ten years, he found himself trying to visualize where Maria might be now. Then he began wondering how they’d ever rebuild Sera, and the idea was so overwhelming that he did the sensible thing and just thought about how he was going to get through the next few hours alive.
“Dom, stand there much longer, and somebody’s going to shoot your ass off for the hell of it,” Cole called. “Let’s commandeer a vehicle and cover some ground.”
Dom wasn’t so sure the sniper had gone far. It was hard to move fast across terrain like this. You had to crawl, climb, burrow, duck. And that made it perfect to hide in. Whoever he was–Dom was sure he’d hang around.
“He’ll be back.” Dom tried not to think about the drop below. He just turned around and jumped, relying on the give in the loose rock and the thick soles of his boots to cushion the impact. It still shook him to his teeth. “He’s making a point. Not sure what, but...”
But Marcus had news to take his mind off the sniper. “Move it, guys. Echo’s got grubs surfacing three klicks west. Means they might still be moving along the Sovereign Boulevard fissure. We can get there before anyone gets a Raven airborne.”
Marcus’s voice rarely varied from a weary monotone. Even when he had to shout, all he did was turn up the volume. There was seldom any trace of anger or urgency, although Dom knew damn well that it was all still battened down, and there certainly wasn’t any hint of triumph now.
“Numbers?” Dom asked.
“A dozen.”
“But that means they’re thinning out,” Baird said. He fancied himself as the resident Locust expert, and he was. “Looks like we did it. We bombed the shit out of them.”
Dom prodded Baird in the chest as he passed him, friendly but pointed. “You mean Marcus did it. He’s the one who shoved the Lightmass down their grub throats.”
“Well, maybe Hoffman will hand him back his medals after all . . .”
“Knock it off.” Marcus turned and jogged in the direction of Sovereign. Most patrols were on foot, out of necessity; APCs were in ever shorter supply. “The stragglers could still outnumber us. Do a head count.”
Dom prided himself on hanging in there, just like his dad, just like his brother Carlos. You didn’t lose heart. You didn’t lose hope. Resilience, Carlos called it; a man had to be resilient, and not crumble at the first setback. But after fourteen years of fighting, there were only a few million humans left, and Dom was ready to grab at any prospect of the nightmare coming to an end.
No, it’ll be a different kind of nightmare. Restarting civilization from scratch. But it beats thinking every day will be your last.
The only thing that bothered Dom about dying now was that it would end his hunt for Maria.
“Right behind you,” he said, and ran after Marcus.
Product details
- ASIN : B001IZC3NS
- Publisher : Random House Worlds (October 22, 2008)
- Publication date : October 22, 2008
- Language : English
- File size : 650 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 402 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #57,093 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #46 in Movie Tie-In Fiction
- #449 in Space Marine Science Fiction eBooks
- #578 in Exploration Science Fiction
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
![Karen Traviss](https://cdn.statically.io/img/m.media-amazon.com/images/S/amzn-author-media-prod/46it64b5pcmlb9sdcrflgfiaao._SY600_.jpg)
Karen Traviss is the author of a dozen New York Times bestsellers, and her critically-acclaimed Wess’har books have been finalists five times for the Campbell and Philip K. Dick awards. She also writes thrillers, comics, and games with military and political themes. A former defence correspondent, TV journalist, and spin doctor (okay, nobody's perfect) she lives in Wiltshire, England. She expects to be remembered for her devotion to brewing sake and fermenting anything that stands still long enough to be stuffed in a jar.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the storyline captivating and interesting. They also describe the book as very well written and hard to put down. Readers appreciate the depth of the characters and the good details. They say the book complements the games very nicely. Opinions are mixed on the pacing, with some finding it fast-paced and entertaining, while others say the timelines jump around a lot.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the storyline captivating, interesting, and filled with emotion. They also say the action is top notch and delighting.
"...detail and hopefully more books will follow because this is one of the greatest stories and there is so much more they could write into more books...." Read more
"...have the time/energy for reading, this is a must buy, it is such a good story in addition to the game and provides a lot of information that you wo..." Read more
"...novels (and, I believe, of the third game) offers a great way to have narrative consistency throughout for the entire series...." Read more
"This book gives you the best before story you can have...." Read more
Customers find the book very well written and awesome. They also say the author is great.
"...it is well worth the time to read and a great story...." Read more
"...Also the author does a very good job making the words on the page convey the sense of emotion that she wanted you to feel...." Read more
"...many scenes where they are very vivid to me because it was well written in my opinion, it tells you what the characters are feeling and you get to..." Read more
"...Karen Traviss is an excellent writer and I really didn't want to see an end to the series...." Read more
Customers appreciate the depth of the characters in the book.
"...some of the questions raised in Gears 1 and 2 and it goes into depth with the characters...." Read more
"...will love about this book is that the book helps you understand more about the main characters...." Read more
"...to me because it was well written in my opinion, it tells you what the characters are feeling and you get to be inside these characters shoes...." Read more
"...Author Karen Traviss does a commendable job building out the characters and deepening the overall mythos of the “Gears” world – one would be well..." Read more
Customers find the book has good details, answers any questions they have from playing the games, and is interesting. They also say it's a must-buy for Gears fans.
"...i also thought the author described things with great detail for example when she described the locust getting chainsawed it made you feel as if you..." Read more
"...buy, it is such a good story in addition to the game and provides a lot of information that you won't see in the game." Read more
"...The book does fill in the gaps and adds more depth to which in turn creates a better understanding of the game characters...." Read more
"...Good length and details. a must buy for an Gears fan. Definitely start with this book if you are new to the books." Read more
Customers find the book content complements the games very nicely.
"This book was awesome i am a huge GoW fan and the book complements the games very nicely. it explains allot about every aspect of the games...." Read more
"...way Karen Traviss writes and the book was wonderful and it gave life to the video game that I love...." Read more
"The games are my favourite and the book is just as good, but I have an Xbox one now so they need to make gears of war for Xbox one PLEASE" Read more
"Awesome Book For Gamers and Non-Gamers..." Read more
Customers find the book series great and the ebook is what they would expect.
"This is an inresting book I have a hard time putting it down. It tell the tail of Dom one of the lead characters, of the popular game series...." Read more
"great series of book and i love the games" Read more
"...Not far in the story, but the ebook is what you would expect." Read more
Customers are mixed about the pacing. Some find it fast paced, while others say the timelines jump around a lot. They also say the plot gets very slow and hard to follow.
"Wasn't quite sure what to expect for $1 but, the book came in really fast and its in amazing condition!..." Read more
"The Book is great just like the video games. However, the book switches times a lot going from the past, present, and future...." Read more
"...masterfully took the Gears of War story and turned it into fast paced plot that built the characters into real people and filled in a lot of the..." Read more
"OK, pretty great back story for the games, the timelines jump around a lot so if you haven't played through in awhile you may get lost." Read more
Customers find the book difficult to read and hard to follow.
"...However, I did find the book difficult to read despite being a fan of the franchise...." Read more
"...2”, in order to get the full scope of the story - but struggles to fully draw the reader in on an EMOTIONAL level: for all of the book’s well-..." Read more
"i never finished this book due to the plot got very slow and hard to follow" Read more
Reviews with images
![GEARS ⚙️ What an amazing book 📚](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/common/transparent-pixel._V192234675_.gif)
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Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
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Me myself, I picked the book up today by accident and wasn't disappointed.
What I like about it is it answers some of the questions raised in Gears 1 and 2 and it goes into depth with the characters.
The games are good fun and good story, but reading this book, is like reading the book to the lord of the rings.
You get so many good details, and the story describes many things the game doesn't bother with.
Normally I would say that a book wouldn't be required to a game, but in the case of Gears it's a different story.
Also as the story progresses from the first to the second game, this is a untold story, which can only be read.
My favorite thing about this book is Dom Santiago.
In the game I didn't really care for Dom, I focused my attention on Marcus and his story, Cole and his jokes, Baird and his wise comment, but overlooked Dom's personality.
However the book gives us such a good background story of Dom Santiago that the game fails to deliver.
The Maria Scene in Gears 2 is the best adaptation of the love he has for his wife, but the rest of the Dom scenes in the game is quite obsolete, compared to the book.
Also the friendship between the four Gears really fits to the slogan of Gears 3 "Brothers to the end."
If you love the game and have the time/energy for reading, this is a must buy, it is such a good story in addition to the game and provides a lot of information that you won't see in the game.
In the end i would have to say that this book is a five out of five. because it does everything a book should dom it emerses you into the world. its a five out of five because of the fact that to gears of war players it helps you understand why the characters are so close, and for people who have never played the game and are on the fence about it. It is a great way to get introduced into the franchies you get to know the characters you will be seeing and characters that will be seen later in the game. this book is muct read for anyone who enjoys a good book. i hope this review was helpful, and i hope everyone that buys or reads this book loves it as much as i do.
I highly recommend this story for GoW gamers.
Gene
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