Book Review: Seal Team 666 by Weston Ochse

SEAL Team 666 (SEAL Team 666 #1)

by Weston Ochse

Hardcover, 310 pages Published November 27th 2012 by Thomas Dunne Books

I was over due to read a book by Weston Ochse who I have met briefly twice (World Horror in Portland) and the Midian Unmade signing here in San Diego. I wanted to read this book first even though I had his first Bram Stoker award winning novel Scarecrow Gods on the TBR. The author himself a vet and a retired military intelligence officer, who also is a horror writer was one person probably on planet earth who could write this novel and that is enough to get my interest. I believe some of this series was written in country but I could be wrong about that.

I admit the first time I saw this title I rolled my eyes a little. This title either works for you or it, not unlike the guitar player in Mad Max Fury Road. Are you going to go with it or not? This is a novel about a unit of Navy SEALS who travel the world taking care of supernatural threats, so come on you have suspend disbelief a bit. If you like military science fiction or horror you can't go wrong. Ochse could be accused of a little to much focus on the military nitty-gritty but fuck that. That realism is what makes this book stand out.

Anybody can write monsters and mythology but only one person can combine it all. As much detail is given to the tactical stuff, the history and mythology of the monsters is always there and explored with care.

The story of Jack Walker who is drafted in to SEAL team 666 a month before his graduation was clearly on the team's radar. He has a military background and a supernatural one. Walker is a great character, and Oshse handles the introduction and characterization of the team with skill. He clearly loves the genre but you get the sense that he knows a few of these characters.

Of course I love that the team is based here in San Diego, across the bay in Coronado island. There is also a cool moment with a cave under imperial beach. The Seal TEAM chases monsters across the globe, and I wondered if sometimes it wasn't a bit much. It worked for me, but hopefully the future books take on one monster at a time.

I am hooked, and really, really want to read Ochse's military sci-fi novels now. Now the word is that The Rock AKA Dwayne Johnson is attached to film project based on this novel, and they have done several screenplays. Fingers crossed as great of novel as it is -I could in the right hands make a badass movie.