mjfmjfmjf's review against another edition
1.0
This piece of lengthy military crap was something I only read since it is the selection for the Powell's Science Fiction group. To some degree it was a bit like Starship Troopers and Spirit of Dorsai - the difference being both of those were good and relatively short and actually contained elements of science fiction or so I thought the last time I read them. Actually the author implied in the afterwards that having female and gay soldiers WERE the sf element.
So what didn't I like about this book? I didn't like the preachiness that implied the author knew THE TRUTH about how the military has worked and will always work including in the far far future when we settle planets a long distance away. I didn't appreciate the realism - yes Charge of the Light Brigade quality pointlessness does happen but that is not a good thing. And atrocities do happen but that is not something I'm interested in reading more than a page or two per hundred pages of story - and it better be justified for the story. Or non-fiction.
If this book were half the size and set as in an alternate past on Earth - it might have worked somewhat. But in an unstated future on another planet - no.
I don't expect to read anything by this author ever again.
So what didn't I like about this book? I didn't like the preachiness that implied the author knew THE TRUTH about how the military has worked and will always work including in the far far future when we settle planets a long distance away. I didn't appreciate the realism - yes Charge of the Light Brigade quality pointlessness does happen but that is not a good thing. And atrocities do happen but that is not something I'm interested in reading more than a page or two per hundred pages of story - and it better be justified for the story. Or non-fiction.
If this book were half the size and set as in an alternate past on Earth - it might have worked somewhat. But in an unstated future on another planet - no.
I don't expect to read anything by this author ever again.
jmoses's review
3.0
What the hell. I swear, the time jumping these books are doing is going to drive me insane. Not only does this one take place before the last one, it also takes place after. AND it also takes places in the middle of the second one.
Tom, what are you doing? Please stahp.
Other than that it was decent, but man. PLEASE WE JUST WANT A MOSTLY LINEAR STORY PLEASE
Tom, what are you doing? Please stahp.
Other than that it was decent, but man. PLEASE WE JUST WANT A MOSTLY LINEAR STORY PLEASE
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