Boom! This is Books & Biceps #399!

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Old Guns by J.N. Chaney and Nicholas Sansbury Smith

Nick Smith is my kind of author. When he’s not writing epic, New York Times bestselling sci-fi action thrillers he’s either competing in IronMan Triathlons (he’s finished two) or he’s outside hiking, biking and running - a true Books & Biceps Sophisticated Meathead.

I’ve recommended a few of Nick’s books before, both in the Hell Divers series (the first book Hell Divers, which has an all-time great cover, and the prequel, Into the Storms). And this week he’s dropping his newest book, Old Guns, which is like a futuristic Lethal Weapon mixed with The Expendables mashed up with Grumpy Old Men.

If the cover had a subtitle it would be “we’re too old for this shit” haha.

I’m about a third of the way through the book and it takes place in 2173 and 2188, so we’re way off in the future, where our two bad asses, Frank Cage and Martin Kelvin, ex-Marines, are called in by the Colonial Shield Federation (a future space government type agency) to effectively save humanity from ancient aliens.

I’m enjoying the book because it’s a nice change of reading pace for me from recent weeks, where I’ve read and recommended books on basketball, chess, the Mysterious Life of Moe Berg and the exploits of Daniel Boone. We’ve covered a lot of non-fiction topics the last month, so I like adding the space-buddy-cop action genre to the mix.

The future-civilization building is great, as always with Smith. He doesn’t bog you down in minutiae or BS or get in the way, as some writers do. He gives you just the right amount of dots to connect about how we got from 2026 to 2188, while leaving you plenty of gaps you can figure out on your own.

In one scene early in the book, when Cage and Kelvin are training new Marines using a fancy holographic simulation chamber that is new to them, Frank says, “Pretty impressive tech. In our day, we trained with cardboard cutouts and imagination.” To which Martin replies, “and we survived anyway.”

I love this. Frank and Martin are from the future, but not an unrecognizable one, and the new stuff they’re training with for this last-chance mission is new to them, so it’s new to us. The book might be 150+ years into the future, but the Old Guns feel very much like they’re from the 1980s or 90s. They could be fighting the Predator with Arnold.

If you’re looking for a fun action sci-fi thriller, give this one a read.

Back when I was writing cover stories for Muscle & Fitness and Men’s Fitness, I got to visit my fair share of incredible college and pro weight rooms. Aside from all the cool branded plates and racks and platforms, they mostly had the same rows of equipment, just laid out differently with different themes, depending on the head coach.

I remember doing a piece on Tim Tebow while he was at Florida, and I was blown away with how awesome the individual training stations were. You can read that piece here, and it includes the entire speed, lower body and strength workout those dominant Gator teams used to win two titles.

I’m bringing this up because I saw a tour online of Penn State’s state-of-the-art weight room and while the design is similar to the UF room, they’ve added some insane tech.

Check this out. Imagine a touch pad at every station that tracks, trains and logs all of your lifts for you. Might be the next Flex Factory upgrade!

If you’re a guy over 40 and you’ve been looking for a new digital magazine that’s written for midlife men, by midlife men, on the topics that actually matter to us: family, fitness, fashion, finance, food & fun, then join us at Midlife Male.

I write a column every Tuesday called The Manologue. In honor of MLB’s Opening Day on Thursday, I took a look back to a time when we all thought we’d become rich… from our baseball card collection. View with sheer jealousy my favorite binder page of Jose Canseco cards and then read the column. I promise, it’ll put a smile on your face.

The ‘Read More, Lift More’ 30-Day Brain & Body Endurance Challenge

The Flex Factory Garage Gym Muscle Manual: 90 Days to Meathead Nirvana

And while the cover reveal is coming soon, you can always pre-order your book right now. We have a TON of cool giveaways coming, so just screenshot your order and you’ll be able to take advantage of every single one:

Jon Finkel is the award-winning author of Macho Man: The Untamed, Unbelievable Life of Randy Savage, 1996: A Biography, Hoops Heist, The Life of Dad, Jocks In Chief, The Athlete, Heart Over Height, “Mean” Joe Greene and more. His books have been endorsed by everyone from Mark Cuban, John Cena and Tony Dungy to Spike Lee, Kevin Durant and Chef Robert Irvine. He has written for GQ, Men’s Health, Yahoo! Sports, The New York Times and has appeared on CBS: This Morning, Good Morning Texas, Good Morning Chicago, and hundreds of radio shows, podcasts and streams. Jon was recently profiled in The New Yorker about the awesome community he’s built around his Books & Biceps newsletter. They describe him as “a gym rat’s Reese Witherspoon”. Reply to this email for any media requests.

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