Yaël Sion does not begin Brothers alone.
After surviving Fall of the Third Temple through isolation and learning the hard lesson of teamwork in Pipehitters, Yaël starts Book Three where operators are supposed to be safest: back among her own, working alongside Alpha Team, finally home in a professional sense. She is still the sharpest tip of what remains of the world’s special operations spear, but now she is sharp with others, not despite them.
And then the floor drops out.
Everything that made Yaël effective gets stripped away like a Trident ripped off a uniform. She finds herself fighting for her life without the tools, structure, and advantages she has relied on since page one of the series.
This battlefield does not care about her résumé.
Brothers forces Yaël into unfamiliar terrain, not just physically, but emotionally. This is no longer a story about surviving by being harder, faster, or meaner than everyone else. It is about what happens when an operator who has finally accepted the team is suddenly cut loose from it.
Not by ego. Not by choice. By circumstance.
For anyone who has worn a uniform, this book hits close to home. It understands the contract service members make: doing the dirty jobs so others don’t have to, swallowing discomfort because complaining solves nothing, embracing the suck because that is what keeps the wheels turning. Fuchs drags that truth through the mud and lets it sit there, ugly and undeniable.
This book is visceral and often uncomfortable. It does not rush past fear, doubt, or loss. It lets them linger long enough to hurt. Fuchs does not do fairytales. If you want a fairytale, I’ll let your mom know so she can read you one.
This is not a gentle lesson Yaël needs to learn this time, but a hard truth, and we have to grin and take it right alongside her.
That discomfort is the point.
Suck it up, Buttercup, because that is real. That is life. And that is Yaël’s journey in this story.
Thankfully, for us readers, there’s also a damn grid square of mayhem and debauchery as payoff. Fuchs brings it home with one of his classic, over-the-damn-top, us-against-the-spud-munchin’ world sequences. Rockets. Mortars. Unbelievable, yet hauntingly plausible scenes.
Already have an account? Sign In
Two ways to continue to read this article.
Subscribe
$1.99
every 4 weeks
- Unlimited access to all articles
- Support independent journalism
- Ad-free reading experience
Subscribe Now
Recurring Monthly. Cancel Anytime.
All in all, Brothers is a roller coaster. You’re flying for the heavens one sentence and crashing to the ground the next.
Like any operator, you don’t start your training with a real-world mission, and if you’re an ARISEN fan, you’re not starting your obsession with the series here. This is not a book for beginners. This is a book for those of us who love these characters, would go back to back with them if they asked us to, and know their one-liners before they say them.
This book is not for the faint of heart.
This book is for Brothers.
COMMENTS