Customer Reviews

The Final Battle (Legion)

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It really shows that sometimes sequals are better tan the originals. READ THIS BOOK, it is some of the best military SF i've ever read!

Thirty years ago, as recorded in William C. Dietz's earlier novel Legion of the Damned, the Human Empire managed, thanks to the remarkable legionnaires and in particular the cyborgs in its ranks, to overthrow a corrupt and ineffective imperial government and defeat the powerful space fleet of the aggressive Hudathans. Admiral Poseen-Ka and thousands of his defeated soldiers were imprisoned on Worber's World, and mega-merchant turned hero Sergi Chien-Chu, the new leader of the victorious empire (now organized as the Confederacy of the Sentient) did not pursue a murderous assault on the Hugathan home world. This was a mistake. The Hugathans see any intelligent life form as a threat to their survival, a threat that must be eliminated. Their bitter defeat only strengthened their resolve, and they used what they had learned in the first war to prepare for the new offensive against the Confederacy. A major part of the new game plan involved the implementation of their own cyborg army, and the best and brightest of the Hudathan soldiers were given the honor of being killed and resuscitated in the metallic form of the Regiment of the Living Dead.

The Final Battle is a great read, but it does have its weaknesses. It takes a while to get into the novel, as we are reintroduced to a few major characters from the earlier book, men and women who are to some degree shadows of their old selves, and newly introduced to new heroes such as the half-human, half-Naa son of the famous William Booly. The young Booly eventually matures into an interesting character, but his role seems to fade as the ultimate conflict approaches; indeed, many important characters and plot points seem to fall away as the end approaches. Dietz is at his best in describing the intense action of the wars and skirmishes that take place, and the remarkable prison break that puts the Hudathans back into the game is a great example of this. I continue to have a little trouble accepting Poseen-Ka's eminence in the Hudathan war plans, though; he is a slow and methodical leader who goes against the aggressive nature of his race as a whole, a man who basically lost the first war single-handedly, and yet he regains immense power in the Hudathan military.

My biggest problem with this book concerns the position of the Clone Worlds. Their position inside the Confederacy is viewed as crucial, and much is made of the split between the world's three rulers in this regard, but - unless I just missed something - the Clones aren't even a factor in the pivotal events. All you get out of this particular storyline is an oversexed relationship between a clone and an aging human warrior. There is, in fact, a good deal of unnecessary sex in this book, sex that serves no real purpose whatsoever. When you have two important leaders continually making goo-goo eyes at each other when they are supposed to be laying the groundwork for the mutual survival of their worlds, that - to me - is a problem.

The second half of the novel does come across as a little rushed, and I'm still wondering where a few seemingly important sub-plots wandered off to, but The Final Battle still stands as an oftentimes gripping military science fiction adventure. Those who enjoyed Legion of the Damned should enjoy this second Legion novel, but the first novel is clearly the better of the two.

The Final Battle (1995) is the second SF novel in the Legion series. The initial work in this sequence is Legion of the Damned.

In the previous volume, Norwood was the senior surviving officer on Worber's World. The Hudutha had bombed every major city and were working over the planet in overlapping strips. She went to the Hudutha and asked for terms of surrender.

Unfortunately, the Hudutha did not take prisoners without good reasons. They were very paranoid and assumed that their enemy would retaliate against them if they escaped death. They imprisoned her, but continued butchering the population of the planet.

Meanwhile, St. James was leading the Camerone Day celebrations. He read the history of the Camerone incident and then dismissed the troops for the festivities. He wished Marianne was there to celebrate with him.

Booly was leading a patrol the next morning. Booly rode Villian as the patrol leaves the fort. Naa spies watched them pass by in the village and out in the desert. The Naa had a surprise waiting for them.

On Earth, Marianne met Scolari and Chien-Chu at a party thrown by the Emperor. They were summoned from the party to advise the Emperor on the situation at Worber's World. The Emperor got conflicting advice from Marianne and Scolari.

In this novel, Moolu Rasha Anguar is President of the Confederacy of Sentient Beings. He was elected to the office after Chien-Chu died of a massive heart attack.

Sergi Chien-Chu is a very wealthy merchant. He had been the first President of the Confederacy. After his death, his wife Nola paid the costs of boxing his brain. Now he is a cyborg often called Jim James.

Natalie Norwood is a General in the Confederate Army. She is serving on Battlestation Alpha XIX in orbit around Worber's World.

Ian St. James is a General in the Confederate Legion. He commands the Legion Military Academy.

D. A. Axler is a Colonel in the Legion. She works for St. James.

Marianne Mosby is a General in the Legion. She has won numerous awards for courage under fire.

William B. Booly, Jr., is a senior cadet in the Legion Military Academy. He is a half-breed with a human father and a Naa mother.

Parker is a Corporal in the Legion. He has been promoted to sergeant several times.

Niman Poseen-Ka is a Hudathan POW on Worber's World. The former War Commander of Hudathan forces attacking the Confederacy has been a prisoner for two decades.

In this story, Norwood and her command are keeping a vigilant eye oh the Hudathan POWs on Worber's World. The enemy seems to be keeping busy, but is not improvising weapons for a breakout Unfortunately for the Confederacy, something is going on underground.

A Hudathan scout ship had dropped a globe filled with microrobots into a meteorite swarm. The globe had fallen out of the sky with the many meteors and reached the surface. There they spread and dug into the ground.

The microrobots combined to make small factories. These manufactured weapons, armor and support gear. One made an android that contacted the POWs and passed on the plan to Poseen-Ka.

At the next quarterly onplanet inspection, the Hudatha ambush the Confederation party. Despite the surprise, Norwood and her troops fight their way back to the LZ. Poseen-Ka personally shoots Norwood and the other two Confederate survivors.

Meanwhile, Hudathan ships are attacking Battlestation Alpha XIX. These ships overwhelm the Confederate bastion. After all the humans are dead, Poseen-Ka is taken back to the Hudathan capital for a courtmartial, but is cleared of all charges. He is promoted to Sector Marshal and joins the attack against the Confederacy.

Anguar visits the Clone Hegemony. The three clone worlds are very Earth-like planets inhabited by hundreds of clones types. He meets the three Alpha clones -- Marcus-Six, Pietro-Six, and Antonia-Six -- who rule the Hegemony. He asks them to join the Confederacy.

Marcus tends to accept alliance with the Confederacy, but his fellow clone leaders are not that willing. Pietro and Antonia meet with the Hudatha and agree to assist them. Antonia is less than enthused with the agreement after the meeting.

On Earth, senior cadet Booly has climbed to the top of Danjou Hall. From there, he can see the way over the rooftops to the headquarters building. He is planning on raising the cadet banner on a flagpole over that building.

He starts by climbing down to cross over to the next building. On the way to the flagpole, Booly knocks out and ties up two plebes who are trying to waylay him. After raising the flag, he crashes into the Commandant and collides with a cadet waiter. He returns to his quarters with cuts and bruises, but with a feeling of satisfaction.

The next day, Booly graduates from the Academy. His parents give him his blue kepi and shoulder boards. They invite him to a banquet, but he has other plans.

Bill meets Riley and other friends for dinner and drinks at the Kepi Blanc. Other recent graduates are also there, including the bully Kadien and his toadies. Although they don't like Kadien, Booly and Riley accept an invitation to accompany him to the Cess Pool, an offlimits dive in Tijuana.

After a fight with some marines, Kadien's farewell kick, and the beating from the marine MPs, Booly is taken back to the Academy. The next morning, he is awakened by Parker for his summary courtmartial. Parker suggests that he be apologetic about everything except the fight with the marines.

Colonel Axler baits him into loosing his temper, but he does not loose control of his body. She points out that his temper is often his worst enemy. Then she fines him three months pay and sends him to Alpha-001 in the Clone Hegemony.

Mosby is also going to Alpha-001 to take command to the Legionnaires there. Booly meets her on the ship. He also visits his soldiers on the ship, including the four Trooper II cyborgs.

This tale brings the Hudatha back against the Confederacy. The Clone Hegemony is too involved in internal struggles to fight the Hudatha. Yet Sergi has brought other sentients into the Confederacy defense.

Naturally the Confederacy is not defeated or there wouldn't be a sequel. The next installment in this series is By Blood Alone.

Recommended for Dietz fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of armed conflict, heroic actions, and determined sentients. Read and enjoy!

-Arthur W. Jordin

Futurist military science fiction in the Tom Clancy model. Dietz tells a number of stories and then ties them together at the end. Fairly realistic military action and political science put together.

As my comments from Legion of the Damned stated, I looked through my boyfriend's books, found this book and squirreled it away to begin reading the moment I finished the previous book. Again, Mr. Dietz did not disappoint in creating a vision of the future detailed enough to understand, but not so detailed that you would have a tendency to get bogged down in it.
By the time the first few chapters were past Mr. Dietz had shocked me several times, though perhaps regular science fiction readers might not have been so shocked, I found them to be good, or at least acceptable shocks. Acceptable because I knew the moment after my mind had gotten done with the, "no, you can't do that, that's not fair," that really there was no other way for the story to be continued if that character still lived, got away scot-free, or what have you. Mr. Dietz appreciates his characters, keeps you in touch with them, but doesn't have any compunction on cutting one out or down to size as the plot required.

This book is a major disappointment to anyone who read "Legion of the Damned." It seems as if Dietz just got tired of writing the book in the middle and just ended it as quickly as possible. As always he has amazingly original ideas and the hooks in the beginning of the book are great. But missing is the intense detail and realism that made "Legion of the Damned" such a good book. In particular his development of the newest kind of human cyborg is so skeletal that it seems he just sketched it out in 5 minutes. While I had to buy this book due to the fact I loved Legion so much if you were just a mild fan of the previous book I'd say save yourself this disappointment.

First off all, the whole book was done about thirty years after the first book. Some of the characters should be around 5o-60 and are still running around in combat boots. Sure its a given that planetary armies need time to recover but come on. He should not have used his on senior citizen characters. His book did though have outstanding action that i much approve of. His book did not have what legion of the damned had, but it is still one of the best sci-fi books i have ever read.

***Non-spoiler review*** This book was meh, nothing great. The problem here is that there are so many characters that we aren't really given the chance to form any deep and lasting bonds. There really is no main character to speak of, though Poseen-Ka and Booly come close.

Plot wise, this story feels like its a mile wide and an inch deep instead of being a deeper more gratifying story.

I think this would be an okay book for someone new to space operas and sci-fi. But for those of us who have read Weber, Drake, Ringo, Hamilton, etc this story is like a fast food burger to their New York Strip Steaks.

Like my review of Legion of the Damned, I feel this had potential to be an epic story. I think the author really could have explored the depth of the characters, politics, worlds, etc. much much more and turned this into a 5 book series. But instead, the book feels like a condensed version that just hits the key highlights and never really reaches any depths.

On the plus side, the writing is very good, scenes flow well, though he does do a lot of head hopping (which is usually considered a no-no in the writing world LOL) but casual readers probably won't mind.

Overall, I was satisfied with the book and didn't feel cheated or robbed like I have with a few other authors (you can see my other reviews to see who i'm talking about). I just think this book had potential to be much more.