Nature of the Beast (Military Science Fiction Series) [Mass Market Paperback]

Richard Fawkes (Author)

Book Description

Series: Military Science Fiction Series | Publication Date: July 27, 2004

The forces of annihilation

Throughout the galaxy, the near-invincible armies of the alien Remor have set their sights on one goal: the complete extermination of the human race. Outnumbered and outgunned, The Interstellar Defense League cannot afford to discard any asset -- so a disgraced Sector Commander is being given a chance to redeem himself ... by sacrificing his life.

The fate of Christoph Stone -- and, perhaps, the destiny of all humankind -- is to be decided on a distant frontier planet nestled deep in enemy-controlled space. Saddled with shockingly green troops, a captain with a checkered past, and a trouble-making civilian expeditionary force, Stone's mission is clear and clearly suicidal. Because even his superiors are unaware of the weapon the Remor have waiting for the human invaders as they attempt to retake a captive world: an instrument of destruction that is demonic, unstoppable ... and obscenely human.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Richard Fawkes grew up surrounded by books and developed an early fascination for military history that continues to this day. Occasionally, he can be cajoled into admitting, without details, to time spent as a small unit commander and a close combat specialist. At the present time his martial activities are confined to the practice of historical European martial arts. When not devising stories of the Eridani and Humankind's War with the Remor, Fawkes works as a designer of icons for manually controlled tactical simulations.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Harper Voyager; First Edition edition (July 27, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060536772
• ISBN-13: 978-0060536770
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #397,097 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Much Improved on the First in the Series, March 21, 2005

By 

C. Price "Layman, Lawyer, Blogger" (Southern California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Nature of the Beast (Military Science Fiction Series) (Mass Market Paperback)

I enjoyed The Face of the Enemy enough to buy this sequel and I am glad that I did. From a literary perspective, it is an improvement on almost every level. The character development is more rich, the plot tighter, and the battle scenes more compelling.

Picking up shortly after the first book, the focus of The Nature of the Beast is direct military confrontation with the Remor. Humanity is launching its first real counteroffensive, but its commander and his troops are not exactly the cream of the crop of the Interstallar Defense League. At least on the surface. To make matters worse, the IDL force has to deal with a large contingent of civilian volunteers from a a star nation whose human government has refused to sign up with the IDL. They are eager, but naive, underequipped, and undertrained.

In addition to following the IDL's preparations, you learn about life on a Remor occupied planet. Which is kind of surprising because you got the impression from the first book that there would be no humans left after the Remor got done with them. But it seems that the Remor have their uses for humans which makes the Remor far more heinous than had they simply just exterminated them all.

Fawkes follows both narrative threads in a balanced manner, giving each sufficient attention so that when the narratives converge, the story moves along smoothly and naturally.

The battles in space and on the ground are more detailed and developed than in his first installment, though not as global as you will find in other science fiction. Though in the first book, the IDL characters sometimes seemed a little one dimensional, here they have more depth. More honor. And certainly more justification.

In the first book you learned more about humanity and its varied governments, motivations, and space nations. This book tells us a lot more about the Remor and, perhaps, their motivations. In my opinion, Fawkes has done a good job of "setting the board" for future books about this universe.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is not a horror story, March 10, 2007

By 

P. Testart (Chula Vista California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Nature of the Beast (Military Science Fiction Series) (Mass Market Paperback)

This is not a horror story but the villains are as horrible set of monsters as you can find or imagine.
The hero's sort of are a militant alliance of many human star systems are are just as onery and hard to get along with as any other competeing sets of Politicians. The story is about a group of professional soldiers fighting with inadequate everything and how they win against the odds by thinking, planning, training and then standing fast against serious danger.
a great read spent all night.
I have read 2 books in this series and I recommend both.
I am waiting for a third.
I am waiting for anything by this author

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hurray for Fawkes!, October 11, 2004

By 

Robert J. Skinner "midsouth_books" (Memphis, TN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Nature of the Beast (Military Science Fiction Series) (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is absolutely riveting. There's a little bit of everything here from cutting edge technology, to adventure, to bothersome grandstanders, to scary aliens, to romance and heroic exploits. Fawkes has hit another homerun!