March to the Stars
category: military science fiction, author:David Weber & John Ringo
book 3 of March...original copyright 2003
read in May 2012
Agamedes' opinion: 6 out of 10, read to pass the time
As I read the first few pages of this book I finally realised just what distinguishes military science fiction... Okay, it's taken me a while. Perhaps I did understand it before. It just clicked, this time, with a very loud click.
Military science fiction is about armies! Or navies, air forces, space fleets... What it is not about, is individuals.
Standard science fiction may have an army. The hero will be, perhaps, a raw recruit. Distinguishing him -- or her -- self by courageous actions, strategic thinking, individual heroism. And, more often than not, by deliberate disregard of orders in support of the greater good.
In military SF the hero is the army. There will be great leaders. There will be heroic individuals. If there is any deliberate disregard of orders, the disregarder will be shot. In military SF the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. And everyone knows it.
March to the Stars is the continuing saga of a small group of space marines, marooned on a less-than-ideal planet. Where less-than-ideal is a euphemism for, absolutely lethal... Lethal wildlife, lethal flora, lethal locals.
If this were ordinary SF, the marines would settle in and build a better civilisation. Or become tough yet benevolent rulers of the existing barbarian civilisations. Check out A Princess of Mars for a good example: tough planet, tough hero, lots of battles, lots of armies -- but not military SF.
Because the March novels are military SF, the army has two objectives: protect the nominal leader because he is a member of the imperial family, and get back to their headquarters planet. And they do this with military precision.
Monsters are destroyed and local armies are defeated. Not that the local armies offer much of a challenge: they have the numbers but not the skill of the empire's marines. Though locals are recruited -- and trained -- to become lethal fighters on the side of good.
And yes, the marines are on the side of good. Not always deliberately. It just happens that this group of marines works for the branch of the royal family which supports good... And I suspect that the marines would fight just as hard for evil, if their nominal commander said so.
"Good", of course, is in the eye of the beholder.
The current heir to the throne is just naturally benevolent. Which is just as well because his word is law. His grandfather was equally benevolent -- but believed in rule by consensus -- which lead to riots, revolution and suffering. Might is also right. And it's just lucky that the might of the nice marines is mightier than the vicious might of the local cannibals.
Have you read Doc Smith's Lensman series? In those books, might is right. Yet there is a forgiving approach to defeated enemies, an approach which is shared by Weber & Ringo. The Lensman civilisation smashes an aggressive planet... Both sides then realise that it was all a misunderstanding... The two civilisations then become the best of friends.
Towards the end of March to the Stars, the marines revisit various locals who supported the marines -- or were thrashed -- in this and previous books. Supporters have gained and are thriving. Enemies have learnt and show signs of thriving. Even the latest defeated enemies -- cannibals who are seen to be evil -- are forgiven... and will soon be returned to niceness by the power of the empire.
All very much in support of "good", though you may disagree with some of the specific implementations of "good".
So the hero of the story is the army. There are individual heroes, all with their role to play -- as a part of the army. The deathcount is large... but the army survives.
Don't get me wrong! There are individual dramas! These are stereotype soldiers with feelings... Some soldiers, we could even begin to like. Just a few, but perhaps enough.
This is military SF. It tells a story of a small army battling heroically against the odds. Enough enjoyment to leave me interested in reading more. To a fan of military SF -- I suspect that this is worth a bit more than my own six out of ten.
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