A review by mjfmjfmjf
The Amazon Legion by Tom Kratman

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.