Outrider by Mark Wales

Publisher's Synopsis

Jack Dunne will do anything to save his son.

A violent civil war. An unstoppable enemy. One road to freedom.

In the wake of a global conflict, foreign forces occupy part of Australia, quashing all but a few pockets of local resistance. The tense stalemate ends in 2034, when Jack Dunne reignites the war.

Dunne is an Outrider, one of the last elite special operations soldiers in the Resistance. As the enemy prepare to eliminate the freedom fighters once and for all, he is tasked with his final mission.

If Dunne and his eleven-year-old son achieve the impossible, and survive, they'll secure their future across the border in Free Australia.

But the road to victory will be bloody.

My Review of Outrider by Mark Wales

Outrider takes us to a dystopian Australia, invaded and war ravaged, the local population rounded up and herded into gulags. It’s up to Jack Dunne and his fellow resistance fighters to come up with a workable road to restoring national security. 

This is a fast-paced action thriller that provides the ultimate in literary escapism. You pretty much know the destination going in (winners, losers, survivors, etc.), so this is a story that’s all about the journey and the excitement generated along the way.

It’s 2034 and Australia has been invaded by foreign forces, namely China, the country is split between those who’ve joined with the invaders and those who’ve chosen to fight. The result is an increasing threat of all out war with the Resistance digging in and choosing to fight at an outpost known as The Hill. For those that are interested, The Hill is somewhere in Victoria’s Dandenongs.

Among the local resistance fighters were a group of elite special ops soldiers, known as Outriders. They were trained to be the best of the best. Jack Dunne is the last of the Outriders and his specialist skills means that he’s been given the task of carrying out one last important mission.

Jack, accompanied by his 11 year old son Harry, runs a vicious gauntlet of enemies determined to catch and kill as he makes his way west from Victoria into South Australia to pick up a crucial asset who had been dropped off by submarine off the coast. Stalking him are motivated squads of guards with orders to kill on sight. The ensuing mission involves high-octane chases, tense stand-offs and graphically described contact with the enemy.

While Jack Dunne is a killing machine, attempts are made to give him a caring human side. His main motivation for his actions is the protection and welfare of his son. But he continues to mourn his wife, seeking retribution for her death at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party. We’re given brief moments of access inside his head on the rare occasions when he’s not fighting, giving him a small level of substance. But, ultimately, the interest lies in his actions rather than his motives.

The clipped sentences favoured by Wales ensures the pace is high and they help reflect the urgency of the action taking place in Victoria. The tight dialogue and the rapid deployment ensures that the plot unfolds in an unrelenting fashion.

Author Mark Wales appeared in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and there’s definitely a similar feel to Outrider, particularly the ravaged landscape in which it’s set. You also get a good sense of his SAS Regiment military background in which he saw action through the realistic jargon and tactical techniques so ably described in each battle scene.

The classic domain of most high action thrillers is the scenario where the hero (or heroes) are vastly outnumbered and outgunned, facing virtually insurmountable odds. With that in mind, Outrider ticks all of the boxes most action fans are looking for. For those with a military bent there’s the added bonus of great emphasis on descriptions of weaponry (including a few whizz bang inventions), intense combat sequences and graphic descriptions of violence. The more emotional sides of the story, while evident and given importance as far as motivation is concerned, is kept to a minimum.