I’m a bit late on this one. The second entry in the Armored Piercing series was released last year on July 6, yet here’s the celebratory blog months later from the one-year anniversary. I haven’t even written a blog for the second-year anniversary of Armored Piercing 1. I really need to be better with that.
Anyway, I’d like to give thanks to those who bought and enjoyed Armored Piercing 2. Writing a sequel that lives up to its predecessor is a very hard task. The first book set up a world with a lot of intrigue and espionage. For the second book, I wanted to expand upon the espionage element by delving deeper into Shadow Company and Sekret Poryadok. As you can recall, Shadow Company is conducting a large-scale military deception. This is a very vulnerable time for them and they need to do whatever they can to “throw off the scent.” The stakes are higher when you force a shadow organization into a corner, as they are at their most dangerous when cornered.
The majority of AP2 takes place in Afghanistan. This is a very important location because most of the characters have made their careers serving in this country. The main events of book one kicked off in the country. In many pieces of entertainment, Afghanistan is used as a destination. Likely because of the nearly two-decade-long war led by the US. I wasn’t thinking of any political reasons to include the country in my books. The country has been embroiled in conflict for so long. In AP2, I wanted to establish a desire to end the conflict in the country. The Fists of Kabul bring an interesting perspective to this goal. Generally, they don’t attack civilians and they don’t plan to dominate the country, unlike the Iron Clad and the Saviours. They seek to “free” the country from “Western occupation.” You could call them freedom fighters or simple terrorists. In the larger scheme, however, the Fists are pawns of Shadow Company.
The “this goes deeper than you know” vibe of AP2 is what I wanted to accomplish for the sequel. For this series to work, our heroes must confront the ever-growing complexities of Shadow Company. There’s always a hidden game being played. I love sequels that add new context that makes you rethink what happened in the predecessor. A cause-and-effect element has to come into play when writing a series. Events from previous books have to matter. The world must feel like it’s evolving.
I never thought AP would become a full series. When I wrote AP1 as fan fiction for Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, I thought it’d just be one book. But I fell in love with the characters and the world, so I created sequels. For nearly 12 years, I’ve worked on this series. From middle school and onward into adulthood. I’m still working on AP4 and I hope to get started on AP5 soon. I have another series I wish to start on and it’ll likely be much longer than AP. I still have spinoffs in the works, including one that will nicely tie AP2 into AP3. I hope to also post a chapter from the OG draft for AP2 soon.
I’ve also put AP1 and AP2 on sale. Books will be free on Kobo and Apple in Canada and discounted in other countries. I’ll put the links below. In the meantime, stay tuned for more AP news. If you enjoy this series, please get the word out so we can build a nice fanbase to enjoy AP together.
Free AP1:
Free AP2:
Discounted AP1:
Discounted AP2: