Mecha Samurai Empire by Peter Tieryas

The Man in the High Castle meets Pacific Rim in this action-packed alternate history novel from the award-winning author of United States of Japan. Germany and Japan won WWII and control the U.S., and a young man has one dream: to become a mecha pilot. Makoto Fujimoto grew up in California, but with a difference--his California is part of the United States of Japan. After Germany and Japan won WWII, the United States fell under their control. Growing up in this world, Mac plays portical games, haphazardly studies for the Imperial Exam, and dreams of becoming a mecha pilot. Only problem: Mac's grades are terrible. His only hope is to pass the military exam and get into the prestigious mecha pilot training program at Berkeley Military Academy. When his friend Hideki's plan to game the test goes horribly wrong, Mac washes out of the military exam too. Perhaps he can achieve his dream by becoming a civilian pilot. But with tensions rising between the United States of Japan and Nazi Germany and rumors of collaborators and traitors abounding, Mac will have to stay alive long enough first...

Follows all of the contours of a shonen manga, but pulls no punches in its depictions of violence. It was incredibly fast-paced and action-packed. Felt a little thin in places, but overall, I had a lot of fun with this one.

What if the Axis truly won?????? The world would have been a darker, bloodier and more technologically advance.........

World War II was the bloodiest and most heinous time in the short span of human history, two of the world's best(technology and strategy, sadly racist)tried and almost succeeded in conquering the whole world, honestly reading all the battles, Germany's blitzkrieg tactics, Japan's fierceness(kamikaze), it was a wonder the Allies won, there were significant events that pave the way for both countries defeat(for me), the bombing of Pearl Harbour(galvanized the US into entering the War, Japan now had an opponent in the sea, where they were the master)and Russia's winter(completely stopped Germany's plan to control the whole of Europe)........even with all of these D-Day was still the most important hour of all......

Reading both books(United States of Japan was the first volume), I remember again and again all of those mentioned above, truly the human race is the most fearsome opponent of itself, imagine thinking of ways to kill en masse just because you are not German or Japanese, the author portrayed both people in their most sadistic and racist glory, every beginning until the middle point of the book, we see the awfulness of our race, and you might think it gets old, but no it enhances the story, and teaches you how lucky our reality is compared to the books.........

Enough of the gloom and doom, the first book was a trial of writing(I guess to introduce Mr. Tieryas' universe and style of writing), We see the start of both Empires, the budding technology, and eventually those against them, the first book was a bit slow moving, a lot of first(I guess), breaking ideas, the second book, it deals with the surety of both Empires, of course you can never, ever have two Alphas as they say, the one or the other will have an itch that it cannot scratch, until both empires collide, this was the basis of the second book, the itch to be the only Empire remaining, technology becomes more advance(warfare), sadly humanity suffers more, I only wish the characters introduced in the first book continued to the second one, the pacing is still the same but we now have more meat to the bone, the fights are better, more intense........I can say the first book was the stone age of this universe, the second one, the modern age.......and boy the third book(alrready started)the space age..........narration is more fluid, characters are better or more diabolical......

This review is based on an ARC given to me for free by the publisher Ace via Netgalley. The book is slated for release on September 18, 2018.

If there is one thing that Mecha Samurai Empire shares with United States of Japan, though, it???s the themes of the story. Both novels are about seeing the truth through the smokescreen of propaganda, and about taking action against an oppressive regime. The difference comes from the perspectives of the characters involved. In United States of Japan, the characters are government employees who realise that the system they serve is utterly broken, and in order for that system to change they need to take action. They also have an external opponent in the form of a terrorist group called the George Washingtons, but that enemy does not play as significant a role as the enemy within, so to speak.

In Mecha Samurai Empire, it???s different in that it is about a group of young people who realise that they face not only the threat of an outside enemy, that their own government might be an enemy as well. In a way, they are fighting a war on two fronts ??? and in doing so, many of them will die for a government that does not really care for them anyway. This is something Mac and his friends realise, and then try to change in their own way. Whether or not they succeed is uncertain, because by the end of the novel it is clear that this is only the beginning, and that things are only just getting started.