Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sixteenth Watch | 2020 | Myke Cole | Buy |
| 2 | The Bronze Lie | 2021 | Myke Cole | Buy |
Myke Cole’s standalone novels show his range beyond series work. Sixteenth Watch (2020) puts the U.S. Coast Guard on the Moon during a resource conflict, drawing on Cole’s own Coast Guard experience to tell a military science fiction story about peacekeeping rather than warfare. The Bronze Lie (2021) looks at ancient combat and challenges popular myths about historical warfare.
Sixteenth Watch is unusual in the military science fiction genre because its protagonist tries to prevent a war rather than win one. The Coast Guard setting gives the story a different flavor from the Marine or Navy stories that dominate the subgenre. Cole served in the Coast Guard himself, and that experience grounds the book in specific operational details.
The Bronze Lie is technically non-fiction rather than a novel, examining how ancient combat actually worked versus how popular culture portrays it. The two books together show Cole’s interest in questioning assumptions about military life, whether set in the future or in the ancient world.