Gritty sci-fi by Army veteran Carl W. Hartman on reanimated soldiers, duty, grief, and moral dilemmas.

What happens when fallen soldiers are brought back; not to rest, but to fight again?

ORLANDO, FL, UNITED STATES, August 25, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- In The First Re-Animated Division, debut author and Army veteran Carl W. Hartman introduces a military science fiction story built on one poignant question: how far should a country go to survive a war it is losing?

Set during a devastating World War III, the novel follows Dr. Kevin Smitherson, a government-backed scientist tasked with solving the military’s growing manpower crisis. His solution is unprecedented. He creates a process that re-animates deceased soldiers and returns them to combat. But reanimation is not resurrection. These soldiers return altered, stripped of self, and deployed without consent. What begins as a scientific breakthrough soon spirals into an ethical reckoning involving grief, memory, politics, and faith.

Featured Quote

“Watch your mouth or I'll bite your tongue off and eat it. I've carried this man off the field before, sir.”

Unlike typical war fiction, this story does not center on victory or valor. It confronts the realities of what war asks from the living and the dead. Hartman, a U.S. Army infantryman who served for seven years, including during Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm, struggled for years with the idea of writing a story that uses the lives of soldiers as its central device.

The First Re-Animated Division explores multiple perspectives; military leadership, scientific ethics, families left behind, and soldiers themselves. As the re-animated division is deployed, observers and readers are forced to ask: What does it mean to serve if you can never come home? What happens to human dignity when the body becomes a weapon after death?

Hartman’s military background gives the book an unmistakable authenticity. He brings firsthand understanding of life in uniform, the cost of service, and the weight of sacrifice. But this is not a war memoir. It is a work of imagination built on real emotions, written to both entertain and provoke thought.

The First Re-Animated Division is marching your way soon.

About the Author

Carl W. Hartman is a former Army infantryman who served for seven years, including active duty during Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm. He lives in Ohio with his wife, three sons, and one granddaughter. The First Re-Animated Division is his debut novel, inspired in part by a creative challenge he set for himself and his wife; she enjoys stories about the undead, while he prefers military fiction. This book became the middle ground. Drawing on his service experience, Hartman writes with a voice that honors those who serve, even as he questions the systems they serve within. He is 59 years old and still believes the hardest part of war is not the battlefield, but what comes after.

Carl W. Hartman
Parker Publishers
contact@parkerpublishers.com

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