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For almost 400 pages of Anvil Gate, I was convinced I was going to write a lore -post about the Lambent in the Gears of War franchise. I was fully expecting myself to sit down today and talk about the Locust vs. Lambent war and how these events eventually lead us to Gears of War 3. But then, Anvil Gate decided to put all its cards on the table and said, “the fuck you are, buddy.” 

Anvil Gate is the 3rd Gears of War novel and also, once again, written by our number one lore machine, Karen Traviss. The book picks up exactly where Jacinto’s Remnant left off with the remaining COG forces setting up camp on the island of Vectes after the sinking of Jacinto and the Locust war ending. The novel follows Delta Squad, Bernie Mataki, Anya, and the usual characters as they deal with Stranded groups who are committing terrorist acts against the settlements of Vectes. The book is truly about the former Stranded, the COG, and the UIR (Union of Independent Republics) working together amidst their history and differences to try and navigate a new life for all of them.

The Lambent show up by attacking trawlers and fishing boats. The Lambent, in brief, are Locust who have been infected by lambency which is caused by an infection from imulsion. This virus turns the host into a murderous, mindless drone and also makes them explode upon death. The Locust were actually fighting the Lambent in their own war which caused them to go above ground. The Lambent arc was inspired by Halo’s Flood virus - in fact there are many similarities between the 2 series that I might get into at some point. 

The Lambent arrive on the scene and unite the argumentative factions as Gears/URI/Stranded battle the “glowies.” Tensions still exist and the narrative harkens back to a battle in the Pendulum Wars involving Victor Hoffman. Hoffman was posted at Anvil Gate in Kashkur - a COG garrison that was said to be impassable by enemy forces and boy, if you weren’t convinced that Hoffman was a war criminal yet, have I got news for you. 

The structure of Anvil Gate is just like the 2 previous novels with a current timeline and then jumping back to a specific point in time around a certain character or characters. Anvil Gate flashes back 30+ years when Hoffman was just a young Lieutenant and freshly married to Margaret (a woman who he would get killed by his actions involving The Hammer of Dawn). As the war between the COG and the Indies rages on, Anvil Gate stands at the center in a key area for the war because Kashkur controlled 1/5th of the imulsion supply on Sera. I hope it’s obvious to all of you the parallels between many of these wars and our own wars. War is always war.

Now, the book keeps hinting that something happens at Anvil Gate that Hoffman is haunted by and the forming UIR members have not forgotten (the older ones, that is). Throughout the book, Hoffman begins to tell Bernie Mataki about the incident but is interrupted and the narrative reveal is pushed until the end of the book. 

I enjoyed Anvil Gate up to this point (before the final 2 chapters) but unlike the previous 2 books, the flashback chapters were just more Hoffman being Hoffman and nothing crazy. But that was ok - I am happy to hang out with Delta and fill in the gaps between Gears 2 and 3. I find the post-Jacinto world complicated and engaging to read how each person grapples with the past as they forge a new future. 

Then chapter 19 happens to the reader. It happens to the reader because it pulls the ripcord on what we have been eager to know for about 400 pages. Hoffman makes an insane move.

While Anvil Gate might be impassible to the URI, the COG are still losing. The lack of food and supplies arriving causes starvation amongst the civilians. One incident involves Hoffman executing a man who stole COG food for his family. His brutal logic states that if it doesn’t stop here, then it will continue. But with starvation taking hold, Hoffman realizes he needs to get the civilians out of Anvil Gate and decides to surrender to Captain Benoslau of the URI. 

Now, before this scene, the reader is aware that Hoffman is up to something but you’re just not entirely sure what it is. Essentially, Hoffman rigged the majority of Anvil Gate (inside the walls) with explosives. The remaining Gears waited on the wall for the 200 or so Indies to get inside. While Hoffman agrees to terms with Benoslau, bombs are set off trapping those 200 URI soldiers in burning buildings. With that, Hoffman shoots Benoslau twice in an act of betrayal (he did surrender and therefore went back on his word) and the Gears on the wall pick off all the trapped men in the fire-ridden part of town. Hoffman saves Anvil Gate this way and in a twist of poetic irony, Coalition forces arrive to help in the fight just a tad too late. In the end, Hoffman wouldn’t have had to do any of this if he just waited a bit longer. 

Hoffman, of course, was the man who would eventually set Sera on fire with the Hammer of Dawn strike and kill 80% of the world’s population in an attempt to stop the Locust. Between that and this dishonorable act, Hoffman is a branded war criminal in my eyes. I think was makes it so hard for me to outright hate him is that Bernie Mataki is in love with him so there has to be part of him that redeems his actions. It’s tough. I’m not a fan of loving/hating characters in binary way. I believe the best characters have qualities I detest and adore. I think the more I discover about Hoffman, the more I find it hard to see if he even is a person. 

Anvil Gate took my breath away in the end. I still think my favorite book is Jacinto’s Remnant so far but Anvil Gate is a masterclass in holding the cards close.   

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