Book Review – The Chaplain’s War by Brad R. Torgersen

I was absolutely taken in by the blurb for this book. An alien invasion stopped by their curiosity about humanity’s idea of religion. This pretty much has all the elements you need for me to pick up the book. Yet, sadly, there isn’t much in the way of addressing that main story element and it turns into a standard sci-fi story.

The first interaction with the main character, Harrison Barlow, establishes him as a weak character. He’s an assistant to the chaplain who died but has nothing of real value to offer. Even when he is confronted by a curious Mantis professor that essentially puts a halt to destroying humanity for the benefit of studying the religious values of humanity, Barlow is feckless and dour. Characterization of him being a stalwart maintainer of the chapel for anyone of any religion to find some quiet respite being trapped on a prison colony as POWs is lost in just how much he doesn’t offer to anything.

Barlow’s backstory of joining the military and coming to the place where we start out story does offer some character building as to why we should care but it just reveals more of how little he offers and how little religion, any religion, plays a part in the story. The jarring flashback isn’t earned at first and it was only the hope that the story would actually fulfill anything promised in the synopsis forced me to continue.

The alien professor seems to create an armistice after conducting some minor investigation with Barlow and a few Mormons but we see nothing at all that would be convincing in this matter. There is no great testing of any real religious values not even in the general. There is no great or even minor philosophical discussion. Barlow barely understands anything of any religion and even with the armistice does nothing to figure out anything – the one area where the alien enemies stops from wiping out all of humanity and he doesn’t even pick up a few pamphlets.

The military battles and sci-fi are fine and even the story, if was just a simple sci-fi story would have been fine. The meeting of a queen alien and an attempt to survive with the alien professor and another soldier puts Barlow in the middle of the story that could use that time to unpack anything that could eventually lead to peace. What happens? Any motivation to not wipe out all humanity happens to the queen just by happenstance. There is nothing here that should convince this alien threat to change or embrace general religious values. There is nothing that Barlow adds or any other character. He falls into success and falls into peace. He doesn’t change and he has no character growth. He the same, “I’m just an assistant to the chaplain” that he is at the end of the story that he was at the beginning. It’s only when he’s able to be pushed by almost literally the entire universe does he think the thing that saved the human race (and the story doesn’t say why) is important. The concept that “humanity is different from us mantis aliens” offers the same explanation value that is actually seen in the story over anything remotely religious.

I can’t make this point clear enough. There is nothing that the idea of religion (specific or general) adds to the events of the story. The main character is weak and boring. While the sci-fi and military aspects are fine the loss of potential available to such a great concept is almost a bait-and-switch of the author. If it isn’t then it’s an abject failure to provide what was claimed. Such a waste of a good concept.