silky_octopus's review
1.0
I knew that I was taking a chance with this novel. I started out reading the Horseclans novels a long time ago, but only the first 12 books were ever published in the UK, so I picked up the others over the next 25 years r so as and when I found them. I've known for years that the author died leaving the series unfinished, but I didn't know that much about this final volume.
I was looking forward to the book, based on the premise. With the later volumes all tending to involve a hefty amount of back detail on Milo's life in and around World War II, I was expecting something fairly similar here. Unfortunately, this appears to have been the first part of at least a two-part novel run, because we don't actually find out how the Cats came to be, or exactly how they joined the Clans. The first forty or so pages of the novel is simply a repeat of detail from an earlier novel introducing Milo and his companions to the Mother and her cubs. While a certain amount of the novel goes back to spend more time in that period, it's not nearly as much as I'd hoped.
The novel spends a fair amount of time starting to explain how the Cats came to be, putting us back in the position of viewing the group of scientists and venture capitalists responsible for the work involved in trying to reintroduce an extinct species, as well as some back detail on other, similar projects responsible for reintroducing species such as the quagga, but that story doesn't finish either. The story is presented as Milo learning the events around the creation of the Cats from the personal journals of a senior financier involved with the programme, with some commentary and personal reflection from Milo about the times.
That leads to the next couple of big problems. In this novel, Adams pushes the date of World War III back into the 21st century, and also gives us some glimpses of his version of the 21st century, which are generally wrong. Video chatting is done via expensive hardware, rather than software or VOIP, and he presents a secure hotel for the wealthy that exists on a large, offshore platform only reachable by air, boat, or undersea rail, complete with anti-aircraft defenses. He also comments on the increasing sense of impending doom in international relations.
Where it goes really off the rails is when Milo starts commenting on the underlying cause for the inevitability of World War III, initially from the point of view of his being drummed out of the US military in the 70s, during the Vietnam War, and then more generally. Apparently what went wrong with the world is that soft, liberal, wishy-washy pinkos and commie sympathizers didn't let right-thinking people in the military wage war on Russia immediately after World War II, and then compounded that disaster by refusing to allow the military to fight the Korean and Vietnam wars in the same manner as the closing stages of World War II - by carpet-bombing enemy cities, or possibly nuking them, and waging total war. Mankind could've had a great and glorious future, but all those deluded liberal wishy-washy pinko commie sympathizers - and actual commies, working to bring down the US - prevented the US from destroying Soviet Russia, becoming the sole, unquestioned world power and leading all of the other nations into a great and free future.
The decline in public safety within US cities is mentioned, but Milo has an answer for that, too - it's the fault of those aforementioned liberal left-wing pinko commie sympathizers who worked to take guns out of the hands of sensible people, thereby stopping them from keeping the streets safe, because as Milo avows, "an armed society is perforce a civil society". I did initially wonder if Adams was attempting to add depth to Milo by showing that in his own way, he's as prejudiced or hidebound as everyone else, particularly at this relatively early stage, and that as he went on to become High Lord and rule the Confederation, he matured and got wiser, but I just really don't think the writing is clever enough to make me believe that.
Did I mention that the villain working to stop the development of the Cats in the 21st century is a fat, unhealthy, bullying, left-wing commie vegetarian? And not even a clever one. Vegetarians get a pretty good slating here as well, alongside all of the (at best) delusional left-wing liberals and pinko commie sympathizers.
I was hoping the Horseclans would go out in a satisfying fashion, but instead the series seems to end mid-rant... and not even a good rant.
I was looking forward to the book, based on the premise. With the later volumes all tending to involve a hefty amount of back detail on Milo's life in and around World War II, I was expecting something fairly similar here. Unfortunately, this appears to have been the first part of at least a two-part novel run, because we don't actually find out how the Cats came to be, or exactly how they joined the Clans. The first forty or so pages of the novel is simply a repeat of detail from an earlier novel introducing Milo and his companions to the Mother and her cubs. While a certain amount of the novel goes back to spend more time in that period, it's not nearly as much as I'd hoped.
The novel spends a fair amount of time starting to explain how the Cats came to be, putting us back in the position of viewing the group of scientists and venture capitalists responsible for the work involved in trying to reintroduce an extinct species, as well as some back detail on other, similar projects responsible for reintroducing species such as the quagga, but that story doesn't finish either. The story is presented as Milo learning the events around the creation of the Cats from the personal journals of a senior financier involved with the programme, with some commentary and personal reflection from Milo about the times.
That leads to the next couple of big problems. In this novel, Adams pushes the date of World War III back into the 21st century, and also gives us some glimpses of his version of the 21st century, which are generally wrong. Video chatting is done via expensive hardware, rather than software or VOIP, and he presents a secure hotel for the wealthy that exists on a large, offshore platform only reachable by air, boat, or undersea rail, complete with anti-aircraft defenses. He also comments on the increasing sense of impending doom in international relations.
Where it goes really off the rails is when Milo starts commenting on the underlying cause for the inevitability of World War III, initially from the point of view of his being drummed out of the US military in the 70s, during the Vietnam War, and then more generally. Apparently what went wrong with the world is that soft, liberal, wishy-washy pinkos and commie sympathizers didn't let right-thinking people in the military wage war on Russia immediately after World War II, and then compounded that disaster by refusing to allow the military to fight the Korean and Vietnam wars in the same manner as the closing stages of World War II - by carpet-bombing enemy cities, or possibly nuking them, and waging total war. Mankind could've had a great and glorious future, but all those deluded liberal wishy-washy pinko commie sympathizers - and actual commies, working to bring down the US - prevented the US from destroying Soviet Russia, becoming the sole, unquestioned world power and leading all of the other nations into a great and free future.
The decline in public safety within US cities is mentioned, but Milo has an answer for that, too - it's the fault of those aforementioned liberal left-wing pinko commie sympathizers who worked to take guns out of the hands of sensible people, thereby stopping them from keeping the streets safe, because as Milo avows, "an armed society is perforce a civil society". I did initially wonder if Adams was attempting to add depth to Milo by showing that in his own way, he's as prejudiced or hidebound as everyone else, particularly at this relatively early stage, and that as he went on to become High Lord and rule the Confederation, he matured and got wiser, but I just really don't think the writing is clever enough to make me believe that.
Did I mention that the villain working to stop the development of the Cats in the 21st century is a fat, unhealthy, bullying, left-wing commie vegetarian? And not even a clever one. Vegetarians get a pretty good slating here as well, alongside all of the (at best) delusional left-wing liberals and pinko commie sympathizers.
I was hoping the Horseclans would go out in a satisfying fashion, but instead the series seems to end mid-rant... and not even a good rant.
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