Andromeda's War / William C. Dietz

Andromeda's War
(Legion of the Damned,
follows Andromeda's Choice)
by William C. Dietz

military science fiction

copyright 2014
read in January 2015

rated 7/10: well worth reading

Spaceships, soldiers and swords... Swags of aliens, indistinguishable alien planets, a bit of a love story... What fun !

It's great to read a "simple" adventure book :-) And by "simple" I mean, no pretensions. Just good, clean -- violent -- fun. Violent only because it's military. There's always violence when fighting wars.

Also a rather simple means of dealing with conflict. Things look bad for the heroine, a secret agent is about to find out her guilty secret, the secret agent gets killed. Sometimes, killed by the heroine.

There's physical conflict -- against aliens who are intelligent, tough and humanoid. A hint of tentacles but all aliens tend to have two arms, two legs, one head.

There's also the conflict of orders versus private desires... a standard theme in military SF, I suspect. Obey orders or be shot. Or, obey orders because that's the way the army works. Although Andromeda manages to get by this restriction -- once, at least -- by simply going beyond the stated orders. Not against but beyond.

The heroine is tough, moral and likeable. Other characters have only enough depth to play their roles. One alien commander gets just a tiny bit of depth to his character.

But I do like the range of almost-human characters... I guess it's a part of the Legion of the Damned (I must look for more books in the series) that there are humans -- bio bods -- and various mechanical soldiers driven by a human "brain box". It seems that serious injury or serious crime may result in the surviving brain being put in a box and set to running a machine.

So the "cavalry" rides mechanostriders... sorry... horse analogues which are human troopers. Troopers' brains, anyway, living on as mechanical soldiers. Tanks, horses, planes, all may be named soldiers: mechanical devices controlled by human brains.

All treated equally, all with equal rights. (Whatever rights they still have, in a Legion of the Damned !) All subject to being injured (and repaired) or seriously injured (but the brain box recovered) or killed.

It's an interesting idea. I like it !

It's all a lot of fun. Lots of fighting but very little suspense. Interesting characters... drawn very lightly. A lightweight book... and I enjoyed it.

A very enjoyable book.

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"Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level then beat you with experience."