Newly promoted Sergeant Wiggins doesn't have any time for celebrations.
The squad's latest assignment takes then to the Canadian Yukon, into the middle of a winter storm and to a town overrun by ancient enemies of man, back now to wreak havoc in the snow.
I'm a Scottish writer, now living in Canada, with more than thirty novels published in the genre press and over 300 short story credits in thirteen countries.
My work has appeared in a number of professional anthologies and I have recent short story sales to NATURE Futures and Galaxy's Edge. When I'm not writing I play guitar, drink beer and dream of fortune and glory.
I love an outing with the S-Squad! It's always a huge amount of fun - great banter, different countries, oh and friggin monsters!
The story made reference to the "Siberia" operation, which would probably give the reader a bit of background on "yon beasties" but i haven't read that one (yet!). I don't think it's necessary but would maybe recommend before diving into this one (or not, the choice is yours)
The S-Squad travel to northern Canada in Operation Yukon, which is something of a follow-up to the earlier Operation Siberia. Still a (reasonably) enjoyable read, but the biggest problem I had with this is that the narration has moved to newly-promoted Sergeant Wiggins' perspective, and the storytelling has most definitely placed him as the main character: he now gets the attention from the girls and comes up with the majority of the plans, making poor old Captain Banks, the series' original protagonist, feel somewhat redundant. Although Wiggo is clearly Mr. Meikle's favourite character, he has definitely never been mine (I find him quite annoying and, although his personality has somewhat changed due to his new responsibilities, he’s still not a character I can bring myself to like). This change in style for the series made Operation Yukon my least favourite so far. Hopefully back to normal in the next instalment, which I’m off to start now!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
William Meikle’s Operation: Yukon is the 11th book in his wonderful S-Squad series. These are fun military-versus-monsters tales with a squad of Scottish lads who get a reputation for being monster magnets. I urge you to read the whole series, because it’s just so delightful.
This entry is a little different: Wiggins (Wiggo) has been recently promoted to Sergeant, and this tale is told in a first-person point of view narrated by him. (Before we were largely focused on the captain.) He has a new corporal to deal with, and that corporal doesn’t seem entirely ideal for the unit. Their unique experience with monsters gets them sent to Canada to look into a joint Canadian/UK research team that’s gone silent. They don’t even make it as far as the research station, though, when they find some dire wolves that look awfully familiar from their trip to Siberia. And the town they come across has become a hunting ground.
The critters the squad is going up against are tough and formidable. There are also some interesting characters about, my favorite being Sheriff Sue. It’s fun to see Wiggo teach the new guy a few lessons, but of course there’s more depth to the corporal than that as well. It’s a relatively quick read, but there’s still room for triumphs and heartbreak, strategy and tactics, cigarettes and coffee.
Content note: slurs (the new corporal doesn’t think very highly of gay or Black soldiers, which is a pity seeing as how they’re on his team–but don’t worry, Wiggo isn’t about to let him disrespect his squaddies). Also there is monstrous-animal-harm and -death.
Fans of this series be excited, this novel gets the series back on track. More action, more monsters, more character development, more everything good about the series. The last book sucked, to keep it simple. But this one course corrected and fixed it.
The squad is back and better than ever. I liked the 1st person narration better than the previous 3rd person. The author spent more time describing people, places, and events but didn't lose the energy or frantic pace. The squad faces off against enemies connected to the Siberia operation and I'll be damned if the author didn't throw in a surprise that I wasn't expecting. This book was probably the best of the series so far. Hopefully the author continues on this track and we can move on from the disastrous North Sea book.
From the very first book this series has grabbed me I couldn’t wait to start it and I hated to end it I drug them out as long as I could but alas I came to the end of the series. It had great story lines call monsters and great characters. I hated to have the series come to an end and I hope that there will be more eventually. Because this book what is a set of books that I would actually buy and put on my library shelf. The camaraderie in it what is what I think made the book the best.
In my opinion, it's a jerk move to get to the 11th book in a series and then jump from 3rd to 1st person narration. I've never been a huge fan of Wiggo and I was pretty irritated to realise he was going to be narrating the whole book. That said, the story was fine. Not one of the best ones but far from bad. Sheriff Sue is neat and I'd like to see her back, though given that there are only 2 more books to go and neither is anywhere near Canada, I'm not very hopeful.
Mr. Meikle throws a curve it the latest S-Squad story. It was interesting to see the narration switch to the perspective of the newly-appointed Sergeant Wiggins. Can't tell if the author did it intentionally or not but it felt like the narrator was intentionally writing in an exaggerated hardboiled manner, almost like you'd imagine a first-time author might do.
S Squad are back in action and this time Sergeant 'Wiggo' Wiggins takes centre stage. Newly promoted Wiggo, steps to the front and the story is told totally from his point of view. Good fast moving story, as the events from Siberia hit Canada and the team are up against another experiment gone wrong.
Love all the S squad books. Read them all. Re-read them too. Great fun and strong characters, well developed since book 1. Highly recommended. Hope there's another!
I love this series of books by Willie Meikle. There is a down to earth realism and grittiness at the heart of the supernatural, weird and downright mad stories that make up the S-Squad tales. Monsters, werewolves and tough as f**k Scotsmen. What's not to love.
It is taken from Wiggo's POV, and for some reason was harder to get through. Still a good book. Didn't help that I read them all, one right after another, until I was finished. Good read. I recommend!
Good fun read….series is entertaining….original take on inventive crypto’s….soldiers versus beasts ….unending potential….series is nothing to take too seriously or critically.
I gave this book a high rating because I couldn't put it down. I enjoyed and liked the characters, even the big, bad wolves. Thanks to Mr. Noelle for a few hours of excitement wrapped in a good book.
The Eleventh Book in the series, this was an interesting read seeing the return of not an old friend, but of an old foe. It also features is probably the series darkest moment, and with everything that has happened in previous and future books that is saying something.
Another great S-Squad adventure! Always an enjoyable read and I look forward to Book 12. Thank you, Mr. Meikle!! (maybe Sheriff Sue should join the S-Squad)
Would've preferred a more independent novel, as opposed to attached to a previous Operation (Siberia). Most of the other Operation series only referenced previous Operations, were never really directly tied to any one specific one. This one felt too connected. Sheriff was awesome! Wish it was lengthier as well ... felt hurried, almost like it wasn't finished in time and it needed a fast ending.