“AI Warfare Imagined”: A Review of Arcfire of Antiquity (Book 1, The Incursion Chronicles) by Eric N. Lard

 

(4 Horsemen Publications, 2024). ISBN: 979-8-8232-0432-3

In August of 2022, I was asked to review Eric N. Lard’s Dawn of the Construct, which uses narratives in a trio of timelines to give us a fantasy/sci-fi hybrid that evokes Tolkien, Dungeons and Dragons, and George R.R. Martin. Drawing its three heroes together over time and space, it also reminded me of Stephen King’s second book in the high-fantasy/sci-fi series The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three.

Another innovative element that struck me in Dawn of the Construct is that all of the heroes were struggling with doubt. Lard continues this theme in Arcfire of Antiquity with Captain Cadian Galas. Arcfire of Antiquity begins a different series, which resides predominantly in the sci-fi genre, although elements of fantasy are also threaded through.

Cadian Galas, who reminds me a little of Ripley in Aliens, has lost everything precious in her life—her family and hometown (as we watch unfold in the prologue, or Chapter 00) due to a massive attack from off-world invaders. There is the welcome familiarity in the aftermath of all of the family-oriented sci-fi tropes of community devastation, loss, revenge, and overcoming insurmountable odds. We then jump ahead to a once-helpless child now sheathed in a gigantic battle bot, sent on a mission to serve as no less than the salvation of her planet.

Through strategically situated flashbacks, we witness the arc that propelled a war orphan to the rank of captain—one who has earned a reputation for a level of courage that often bleeds into recklessness and borderline selfishness. If you like space marines and the edgy interactions of the military life, including the sarcasm and boundless camaraderie that the relentless sarcasm masks (I think again of Aliens), this is sufficient reason alone for you to read this book. Lard incorporated the U.S. military in twenty-first-century Afghanistan in Dawn of the Construct and his facility with the authenticity of the military life is impressive (I make this assessment based on my knowing many veterans from the twenty-first-century wars in the Middle East and others).

Arcfire of Antiquity is expectedly tech-heavy. Some elements (like battle bots, drones, and mech suits) will be familiar, but what I love about this book is that it bases much of its tech on the growing phenomena of artificial intelligence (AI). Knowing that the military—as well as Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, the CIA, and defense contractors—have invested heavily in AI for not only weaponry, campaign planning and logistics, but also real-time battlefield tactics, this is an area important for sci-fi authors to explore. The use of AI in an otherwise solitary situation also gives the reader plenty to think about as Galas bounces back and forth between long periods of solitude (compellingly written) and interacting with various levels of AI as her desperate mission unfolds. Watching what starts as a purely technical chatbot as it tries to develop, through its interactions with Galas, into something a bit more human (and mostly failing), adds color and at times some humor to the second half of the second act of the book.

Lard also takes a cue from blockbuster sci-fi franchises by adding additional comic relief in the form of an awkward alien companion.

Captain Galas, while battling dark forces as she attempts to locate (in time to save her world from annihilation by a far superior enemy) the ancient tech that gives the novel its name, is also reconciling her betrayal of her former lover, with an unfulfilled pact begging to be fulfilled amidst the considerable carnage and soul-crushing stakes of her mission.

Add in some surprising and illuminating reveals in the crucial moments of Act 3, when the stakes are at their highest, and Lard succeeds in delivering another tension-filled, highly realistic (yet fantastical) story of a hero fighting for their life and the lives of many others.

I mentioned some fantasy elements threaded throughout the narrative. The secret location Galas is seeking is architecturally and sacred geometrically situated well within the realms of high fantasy, which makes the interaction with it through technology a bit like a wizard using magic… which recalls master sci-fi writer Arthur C. Clarke’s third law that any sufficiently advanced technology will be interpreted as magic.

The Big Bads in the story also have a high fantasy appearance and dark wizard energy, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

With his two sci-fi/fantasy hybrid series off to an impressive start, I believe we have a lot to look forward to from author Eric N. Lard.

 

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