Customer Reviews

Death's Head

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Debut British author David Gunn's DEATH'S HEAD is a solidly built sci-fi military actioner.



Part cyber-punk, part military adventure, but all fun to read, Gunn's debut novel starts out with a one-two punch, delivering the reader almost instantly into this author's world of augmented men and women, robots, aliens, and more that may have all been done before, but Gunn still manages to add some panache to the genre with giving his own feel in the form of a deadly but funny gun. It is called a SIG Diabolo, (which gets some slaved-on additions about 3/4's thru the book), and it is an intelligent gun. Friggin' funny at times! (Judge Dredd's smart gun never talked.)



You can't help but see nuances of the King of this genre right now - Richard K. Morgan - but for a first-time novel, David Gunn manages to deliver a gritty and semi-vivid universe that is a rich mix of sci-fi series such as Warhammer and STARFIST. If you like Dan Abnett novels, then you should enjoy Death's Head.



Death's Head begins introducing readers to its antihero, Sven, who is the sole survivor of a fallen military outpost by intelligent alien beasts called ferox. (Very cool, but unfortunately like lots of things in this novel, never fully described.) The ferox interrupt Sven's beating on the whipping post and take Sven with them deep into the desert and into their subterranean cave home, where there he learns to communicate and live with them. He finds another human living among them, a female, who is very interesting to learn about and watch their relationship grow as prisoners among the aliens.



Sven is then forcibly taken from the ferox by his human rescuers, (or are they...?), and is served up to meet a high ranking military official who learns of his ex-military background and his ferox communications ability. (Something that has never been done before.) He then is shipped offworld to another ice planet that is a prison world, where he befriends some exiles and battles for space in the ice amongst other prisoners. After passing that test, Sven is then recruited to become an assassin. His job is to jump to a place called Farlight, hunt out a traitor, kill him and his entire family, destroy his palace, and of course if he is caught he will be denyed as being even known to have existed.



All this just to be inducted into the ultimate soldier program called - the Death's Head. What then follows is hardcore sci-fi military adventure with bullet-blasting, laser-blade slashing action as it is meant to be. And what makes it even more unique is the comically-funny smart gun, as well as the smartly funny bitter Sven that the reader follows as he runs through the galaxy battling everything from humans to aliens to cyborgs to a mix of all three.



Yeah, David Gunn surely borrowed from this and that from other books and genres, but still manages to skillfully create varied characters that - although not fully described like a lot of people, places, and things - still comes off as not being one-dimensional.



Although we didn't particularly go crazy over the last 1/3 of the novel, we still appreciated Gunn's writing acumen enough for a first-time novel to read his next book. If you like sci-fi adventure, then this one is for you.



Well done David Gunn!

...All within the first 50 pages! What more could you want?

This may be David Gunn's first novel, but I have a sneaking suspicion he's a pen name for someone else. I just can't put my finger on exactly who, though. At any rate, this is a pretty terrific book. The background is far-future space-opera-y to the extreme, and the characters (from a mad emperor to cyborgs to hard-bitten mercenaries) are nothing we haven't seen before. But 'Gunn's' writing is deft and flows well - it made me burn through the whole book in one night.

The story is fairly light on the technobabble/space military jargon, which is a plus in my book, but it's detailed and intriguing enough to keep even the most jaded military scifi fans entertained. Gunn doesn't make an attempt to play his material strictly seriously; there's enough sly humor and almost-self-deprecation in the writing to make it evident to me at least that Gunn wrote this primarily for the love of story-telling, and that he expects his readers to have as much fun reading it as he did writing it.

So, very nice first novel (if first novel it actually is ;) ), and I'll be looking forward to seeing more from David Gunn.

Yeah, I wasn't looking for military sci-fi or a bunch of techno-babble, I was just wanting a good read. This does have the military stuff, but it's not overdone and there's enough heart in the hero that it's not all about his cojones and his big gun. I liked this book alot. Great creatures, great story. A bit short, but hey, it left me wanting more and that's pretty rare lately.

Simply put, this is the most entertaining book I have read in years. Gunn has created a great universe and a great character. When I finished the book, I was pretty amazed by the sheer amount of action and major events that had taken place.

Highly recommended.

Death's Head Series
David Gunn

1. Death's Head (4 ½ stars out of 5)
2. Death's Head: Maximum Offense (4 stars out of 5)
3. Death's Head: Day of the Damned (4 stars out of 5)

When it's time to put down those dusty classics, the recommended high-brow literature and your lengthy summer reading list I suggest you pick up any one of David Gunn's Death's Head books. They are the Science Fiction equivalent of the action adventure blockbuster movies you've come to know and love. The stories move faster than the speed of light and are quite literally jammed with swearing, shooting and screwing (not necessarily in that order.) Between the three S's however, you'll find great storytelling, sharp dialogue and quite a few unique literary inventions. Wait! That just doesn't give justice to Gunn's work. There is backstabbing, compassion, evisceration and even a bit of technological tom-foolery. Yes, I said it - tom-foolery. How else do you explain the computer chip resurrection some characters achieve? But take my word for it this is not a cheap sub-plot to play god. There is logic and purpose behind the concept. You'll feel it before you truly understand it.

The Death's Head books are military Science Fiction the way it was intended to be written and the way it must be read. The characters are the meanest, nastiest, toughest survival-types you'll ever meet and they find themselves in impossible situations under unbelievable odds. Yet, they still manage to stay sane and complete the missions (well, most of them anyway.) Two of my favorite creations are the talking gun (and a smart-ass to boot) and a cognizant, sentient planet. You really have to read them to understand the complexities involved. But believe me when I tell you that it's absolutely worth it. I've been reading the series since the publication of the very first book and I wait impatiently for each next installment to hit the bookstores. (I haven't done that since Harry Potter!) This is great solid, throw-back military Science Fiction and I assure you that you won't be wasting your money if you purchase every book in the series.

The Alternative
Southeast, Wisconsin

[...]

I bought this book on the advice of a website saying it was really good and that people who enjoy the "Inheritance Trilogy" would like it.

I was NOT disappointed.

It is a VERY fast read and extremely captivating. From the beginning to the end it is high action without much fluff.

The only down side there is if there must be one is that when new characters or sub plots are introduced you are thrown into the action without much explanation and then as you read on you are slowly given more of the picture. I think a little more up front info would make it flow better. However, that's just my opinion. It's not enough of an issue for me to consider dropping my rating to 4 stars.

This is definitely a MUST READ!

... with the apparent consensus of earlier reviewers. If this is indeed a first effort, the writing is relatively polished and the ideas are expressed well. Unfortunately, several, if not many, of the ideas, concepts, and some of the very scenes themselves have been liberally lifted from other books, most notably Richard Morgan's excellent work. Although some might call these instances a series of homages, I think it's poor form to lift that much from others. If, on the other hand, Mr. Morgan has re-entered the arena with a pen name, then by all means, proceed, develop and enhance - and add a star because you're allowed to recycle your own materials and developments.

The overall plotline of Death's Head suffers from certain archetyping: central character with relatively unknown background, but regenerative powers, spends the first third of the book as a prisoner, gets noticed, then is promoted with lightning speed and becomes super-powered [...]-kicking machine within the space of a few hundred pages. So, too, do his Aux - militia he picks up more or less at random, who morph into deadly fighters in their own right for no apparent reason. That's not to say it's a bad read, for I, too, read through the book in one night. It's just that afficianados of the genre have already read a lot of what Mr. Gunn is writing here, so don't go in expecting anything too new or an overly high bar, and you won't be disappointed.

Set in a far-future world, 85% of the known galaxy is under the sway of the United Free, a civilization so advanced, their technology seems god-like. The remaining 15% is fought over by the Uplifted / Enlightened, a AI civilization and OctoV, a tyrant with the appearance of a teenage boy.

This is the story of Sven a super-human of sorts with a genetic make-up that's 98.2% human and 1.8% other.

The book is quite good at many levels, well written, entertaining, with plenty of hard military SciFi. Sven acquired an AI gun with a personality - quite funny interactions between Sven and his SIG Diabolo. I was actually dissapointed that the book ended. I am eagerly awaiting the sequel.

Wow! I haven't had this much fun reading a book for a while. This is a testosterone driven actioneer with lots of sex, violence, snappy dialogue, cool charactors and a non-stop plot. Very enjoyable and highly recommneded for SciFi fans looking for a fast moving witty adventure novel. Will be adding this author to my immediate buy list :)

What a rollicking adventure (just remember there are many definitions for adventure) as we are allowed to travel with Sven through the pages of "Death's Head".

Who would think that I would be feeling at all sympathetic towards this huge lug of an ex-soldier/prisoner/cutter/unsuspecting cannibal/telepath/self-healer/horndog/knight with very tarnished armor/leader of men, women, and more/hider of weapons in unimaginable places/definite non-member of AA/weapons aficionado/parasitical host/unlikely feeler of compassion and honor/officer and not a gentleman/killer of silverheads/nonconformist/bar owner/and the most in-your-face one-armed character since "The Fugitive"?

Yes, there is blood and guts and guts and blood and puke and s**t and sex and kinky sex but Sven wouldn't be Sven without all of this. Just be warned!! Do you want to get to know Sven this well?

I liked the ferox and hope we read more about them in future adventures of Sven and the Aux. I liked Haze - a lot. And of course I liked the SIG Diabolo - cheeky b*****d that it is.

"He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought" - Sven is a most beamish hero