Legion of the Damned [Paperback]

William C. Dietz (Author)

Book Description

Series: Legion | Publication Date: August 1, 1993

In the future, the terminally ill can prolong life by surrendering their consciousness to a cybernetic life form that is then recruited into the notorious Legion of the Damned, an elite fighting unit charged with protecting humanity.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This imperial space opera takes up the theme of fighting against impossible odds. At the center of the story is a futuristic French Foreign Legion made up of cyborgs and other societal misfits. The scrappy, chip-on-their-shoulder soldiers occupy their own planet in the far reaches of a contracting human space empire. When a xenophobic alien empire strikes at the humans, the legion becomes the last best hope for human salvation. The legionnaires are an oddball lot, ranging from their cut-throat, sexy commander, General Marianne Mosby, to the passionate Sergeant Bill Booly and the industrious, never-say-can't Legion General Ian St. James. Their cyberborgic compadres, with human minds trapped in armored killing machines, are rich and quirky characters as well. Throw in a Nero-like emperor more interested in his own pleasure than in the future of his empire, aristocratic conspirators working behind the scenes to take over the throne and ruthless, paranoid aliens with no way of understanding human psychology, and Dietz's ( Drifter's War ) latest tale becomes exciting and suspenseful. The humanity of the characters mixes well with the action to give this space drama real punch.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Ace (August 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0441480403
• ISBN-13: 978-0441480401
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #107,989 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

William C. Dietz is the best-selling author of more than thirty science fiction novels some of which have been translated into German, Russian, and Japanese. He grew up in the Seattle area, spent time with the Navy and Marine Corps as a medic, graduated from the University of Washington, lived in Africa for half a year, and has traveled to six continents. Dietz has been employed as a surgical technician, college instructor, news writer, television producer and Director of Public Relations and Marketing for an international telephone company. He writes full-time and lives with his wife in Washington State. For more information about William C. Dietz and his work visit: williamcdietz.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The few. The proud. The dead. The cyborg legionnaires., March 23, 2004

By 

Daniel Jolley "darkgenius" (Shelby, North Carolina USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Legion of the Damned (Paperback)

I'm quite pleased that I finally got around to sampling the wares of William C. Dietz, a writer with an impressive number of science fiction novels under his belt already. Legion of the Damned is a well-paced, absorbing novel of futuristic military science fiction based on a premise I find fascinating. A couple of centuries into the future, murderers and their ilk are still being executed, but they are given a second chance - of sorts - to evade the permanent clutches of the Grim Reaper. Those who choose the option of resuscitation are, if approved, reborn in the form of cyborgs - basically, these are gigantic robots of death consisting of a human head inside an artificial and quite deadly body. (For the record, other humans, such as the terminally ill, also have the chance to opt in to the cyborg program.) The cyborgs serve under the command of the Legionnaires, a military force founded on the twentieth-century French Foreign Legion. While they serve in the military of imperial Earth, the Legion is their country (just as their motto says). By the time of the events described herein, the Legion has finally been granted a home of their own, exercising a form of self-autonomy on Algeron, near the outer rim of the Empire's control. Of course, there are many human Legionnaires, but the cyborgs pack most of the punch. Training is so rigorous that many fall along the way, and some even hope for a second death in order to finally fall into oblivion.

There is great trouble in the Empire. The Hudathans, a militaristic alien race, have begun decimating imperial planets on the outer rim and are obviously working their way toward Earth itself. The Admiral of the Imperial Navy is an opportunistic and power-hungry individual who supports a retreat of the Imperial Navy, ostensibly to prepare an overwhelming attack against the Hudathans when they move farther into the empire's region of space; in actuality, her desires are fuelled largely by a determination to make a hero out of herself and to finally rob the Legion of its might and power. Many on the home world (especially those with an economic interest in the planets that stand to be abandoned) argue that Earth's forces should engage the enemy now, while they are still in the outer rim. To the misfortune of everyone concerned, the Emperor is basically insane - as mad as Nero and possibly even more decadent. At least Nero didn't have seven advisors hard-coded into this brain as a child and left to fight amongst themselves inside his mind.

Obviously, a major space battle between Earth's Imperial Navy and the Hudathan fleet is to be expected as this novel wends its way to a conclusion. However, a war between the Imperial Navy and the Legionnaires on Algeron, a localized imperial civil war, looms even closer on the horizon, for the Legion is quite unwilling to give up its home base and allow its forces to be dispersed. Basically, a lot of action is to be found in these pages, and Dietz excels at describing the militaristic aspects of his plot. There are a number of sub-stories incorporated into this fictional fabric involving the formation of a cabal to oppose the Emperor on Earth, an inter-species love story (that never completely clicks, in my opinion), legalistic power-plays among the alien Hudathans themselves in preparation for cosmic war, and a coming together of two cyborgs who "met" in a most unusual fashion in their prior human lives. The ultimate conclusion seems to come a little too quickly and easily, but all in all this is a thoroughly enjoyable novel that all fans of military science fiction should quite enjoy reading.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cyborgs, Lasers, and Aliens are the Make up of the Legion, October 25, 1999

By 

Scot E Tremblay ([e-mail]) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Legion of the Damned (Paperback)

If your looking for Courage, mixed with outstanding science technology and the every day struggle to do what's right. Then this book is for you. I've always loved armor eliments in a story and now with the addition of brain boxes you have mobile support that thinks. Mixed with your firpower is the grunt. The humanoid soldier that has no home but the Legion. I discoved Mr. Dietz while on vacation. I had come across the books in a random brook buying spree that resulted in a real find. For anyone that has read David Drake and followed the Slammers from campaign to campaign you can appreciate the way that the Legioniars come to life. Be it a knife fight in the desert or a full out assult against suppior odds you can really sink feel the emotion and Loyality that these troops have for their home.

You will be introduced to a race that has only one rule submit or Die. A race that has for thousands of years have had to struggle not only with other races but with nature to survive and thrive. A race that doesn't understand negotiations. Only the total control of another race will make them less likely to wipe you out.

This is an excellent adventure for anyone that knows the words Via La Legion!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Book 1 reviewed by a complete series reader, July 14, 2011

By 

robert johnston (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Legion of the Damned (Paperback)

I recently finished the newly released, ninth and final installment. If you are reading this review, I assume that you are looking to enjoy a grand space opera and a place to jump in. Good space opera is hard to find. Looking around and deciding where you might want to invest a lot of reading time in a multi-installment series is about the only way to find it. Great stuff is rare. In the genre of military space opera, Dietz has earned my highest regard with this "Legion of the Damned" series.

The series story is well bound in multiple threads of persons, families, friends and foes. Dietz writing style is front-line gritty, unexpected and action filled. Dietz strength is character development, narrative and the unexpected. There was more than a few became all-nighter reads for me. Dietz develops a compelling story and latches hard to your mind's eye. Then, he neatly wraps up each installment and after nine books, he wraps up the story. There is a lot to be said about `finishing'.

If there is a weakness in the series one might find the lack of high frontier scientific theory made manifest a missing opportunity. Some reviewers discuss this and you can choose as you will. There are no new forces of nature, quantum existences or multi-universes here. Dietz simply extrapolates human proclivities and technology to make a great story in an interesting galaxy. His authorial license leaps forward in scientific imagination and is contrasted with the reliability of essentials.

I don't think you go wrong giving Dietz a try. 5-Star start ... 5 Star end.