Customer Reviews

The Buchanan Campaign

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Buchanan Campaign (1995) is the first military SF novel in the Second Commonwealth series. The Confederation of Planets claims hegemony over all human worlds and thus is offically in a state of war with all independent planets. Heretofore, the war has been more ideological than active, but recently the Federation has attacked the Second Commonwealth at Camerein. Buchanan is an independent world in the space between these governments and now the war has come to it.

In this novel, Doug Weintraub is out hunting when flashes and sonic booms in the sky cause him to return to his home and set up a comlink with the other six commissioners. They are informed that Federation troops have landed and are advancing upon Sam and Max, the two small cities of Buchanan. Then one of the commissioners is captured by the Federation soldiers. Doug leaves the conference and launches the emergency message rocket in his barn to report the problem to the Second Commonwealth and then takes to the hills with his hunting gear. Later, he gathers together a few other men and they plant exposive charges on the Federation shuttles parked at the spaceport.

When the Buchanan message rocket arrives in the Buckingham system, the Second Commonwealth promply sends the Second Regiment of the Royal Marines to Buchanan. The HMS Sheffield and her escorts arrive two weeks after the shuttle sabotage and immediately attack the single Federation Cutter-class warship in orbit around Buchanan. Despite all efforts to intercept the ship, it manages to transit to Q-space and flee the system. This establishes a time limit on clearing out the Federation ground troops, for the escaped ship will surely bring rapid reinforcement by the Federation.

The marines are landed by shuttle and surround the area containing Sam, Max, and the spaceport. As they land, the Federation troops quickly turn off their helmet electronics to eliminate their obvious signatures and then relocate to other positions, so the Commonwealth marines do not know the present location of the enemy. The Intelligence & Reconnaissance platoon sends out patrols to try to locate the estimated battalion of enemy soldiers in the area and one such patrol walks into an ambush. As they return fire, another party -- the Buchanan group -- also takes the Federation troops under fire.

After an air assault and ground reinforcements take out the Federation unit, the leader of the marine patrol, Sergeant David Spencer, takes the Buchanan irregulars back to the I&R platoon and introduces Doug to the regimental commander. They feed and outfit Doug's men and make arrangements to scatter them as local liaison among the various marine units. This willing cooperation by the Buchanan men greatly pleases the political liaison, Prince William, since it should facilitate a longer range association with the Second Commonwealth.

Needless to say, the Federation reinforcements arrive at some point and make life difficult for the Commonwealth marines. A goodly amount of ground fighting ensues, as well as close support missions from the fighter craft. There is also some spatial combat, but the point of view mostly follows the I&R platoon.

This series concentrates on ground warfare and taking back ground without rendering it uninhabitable. Therefore, it mostly consists of conventional warfare with relatively low-tech, and reliable, weapons and protective gear. There are no power suits in this series nor any use of armor per se. Of course, the same was true in Viet Nam; since one RPQ could take out a tank at little cost, the tanks were seldom used in wild areas and never used off the roads in the Delta (an M-48 in a rice paddy often became a submarine -- that is, an underwater vehicle). Some were used in Cambodia, which is not as boggy, and in the dryer northern zone where the North Vietnamese Army initiated tank attacks during the Tet offensives.

Recommended for Shelley fans and anyone who enjoys small-unit combat stories in a SF setting.

-Arthur W. Jordin

The upside to "The Buchanan Campaign" is that the writing is handled very competently. Dialogue is believable and, as a description of an imaginary military operation, it is very readable. Events are easy to follow and logical.

The downside here is that there isn't much of a story. The characters are almost totally one-dimensional. The only personal insights that we get to any of them are that one male fighter pilot has female fighter pilot for a girlfriend and that one of the groundtroops is bitter because he was due for discharge but his discharge was postponed because of the military emergency. The main character among the Buchanan colonists has a wife a child, but neither of them ever utters a single word in the entire book. We know that the enemy "Federation" claims sovereignty over all human-inhabited worlds, but that's all we ever find out about what motivates them, nor do we ever see a single enemy face-to-face despite extensive ground action on the surface of the planet. As for Buchanan itself, it isn't very alien. We encounter only one alien species in the beginning of the story, otherwise the story could take place in a wilderness area on earth. This one species, the hippobary, is remarkably like our hippotamus and plays almost no role in the story. Nor are there any political complications back on the Commonwealth homeworld to make things more interesting. In fact, there is never any contact of any kind between the Commonwealth and the Federation as far as the reader knows.

In short, this story is okay as far as it goes, but it doesn't go very far. There are no surprises or twists in this plot. No external complications of any kind intrude into the operation. The story is entirely straightforward and predictable from beginning to end. Something like a scoop of vanilla ice cream -- it's fine if that's what you want, but most people prefer something more interesting. "The Buchanan Campaign" is mediocre at best.

The introduction was imaginative and held me in rapt state of attention. However, fifty pages later it was clear how the book would end and the book became a chore to finish.

The characters are clean cut and represent themselves well. Their society is orderly, envision clipped green hedges and tidy lawns. The cause is fair and just, representing higher, but not unreasonable, ideals. The story, like the characters, reflects an array of stable and secure ideals, comfortable in their superiority.

On the plus side, the book is well written and the characters, in their sterile world, are complete. They just don't seem real.

No plot twists, no surprises, just a cadre of good men fighting the unimaginative, but very tidy, good fight.

3 stars, no surprise:)

Rick Shelley has extrapolted another possible future of our expansion into the vast ocean of space, which appears to reflect historical events. In his book "The Buchanan Campaign," Rick Shelley, gives the reader a snap shot of have suddenly life can change for individuals, worlds, and large political powers. I feel that Rcck Shelley has done a great job in developing all the major characters in the book. This book is well worth reading. Further, I recommend his other two series "The Dirigent Mercenary Corps" and "The 13th Spaceborne."

Great start of a new trilogy set a thousand years in the future, and in human colonized solar systems far, far away. The twist that sets this above most contemporary military sf is the uniqueness of having the Second (British) Commonwealth being a major power in space -- while the pseudo-democratic Confederation is the enemy. The story is well told and focuses more on the human condition than on "Big Science". In fact, I was surprised at how Shelley's future was so very familiar in terms of both science and human nature. Recommended.

The Buchanan Campaign is, at best, a bus or train book. Not that it's bad but it's not great either. The plot is simple - a poor, defenseless, planet that never harmed anybody and isn't worth a penny has been invade by the Big Bad Guys. The story is pretty simple after that. The Second Commonwealth has been asked to come to the planet's aid and beat back the Federation.
The part that really hurt the book was all the minor characters that died just to try to make the reader respond. That's the only reason the minor characters were made - to die. And their deaths did nothing to push the story or plot along. The ending also seemed a tad railroaded - the author was going from point A to point B no matter how the characters felt about it.
The good part is the Big Bad Guys are neither stupid nor cowards. The Federation ground troops have a few tricks up their sleeves and the Federation Navy isn't about to leave without a fight. So the tactics and battles, while not as well crafted as I would like, are not as bland as they would be if the Big Bad Guys were also idiots or plain EVIL.

This is the best book that I have ever read, After reading this I went to every book store in search of more books by Rick.