Customer Reviews

A Small Colonial War

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the first of three novels. The story line is beleivable and well crafted. The main characters are very life like and I found myself identifying with them at once. The action and environment is remarkably well written. You find yourself wishing that the book was twice as long so that you could spend more time with each of the main characters. Be advised that this is not happy-ever-after material. In my opinion this story is the best literary effort of Frezza and is a must read for any serious military sci-fi reader

Superb military SF, but also a book I recommend to people that want to try and understand something about the military life and war in general. Frezza did something with this book that is rare, it made me truly care for the characters and feel sad about the ones who died - on all of the sides. Superb.

I like the David Drake military SF books very much. Frezza's trilogy is as good as any of DDs, but intended, I think, for the reader who has not only served in a special outfit, but has studied the art and history of warfare - a much smaller and more sophistocated audience. I have read them three or four times and will again. Enjoy.

A Small Colonial War captures the soul of military life in the midst of a bitter and difficult campaign.

Anton Vereschagin and the members of his battalion are complex characters and Robert Frezza has done an excellent job of evolving the story on the basis of the viewpoints of the main characters.

After finishing the book, I had to read it again several times to fully flush out the nuances in the opening scenes which set the context for the storyline to emerge.

This book really brought home the humor and the pain of men in the battlefield for whom going home is not really an option.

I'm not a military man myself but I could identify with several of the characters and the situations they were in.

I highly recommend this book to all fans of military SF as well as fans of military fiction in general.

Highly recommended for fans of Pournelle's Co-Dominium series or David Drake. "A Small Colonial War" is what its name suggests -- the story of a colony world in rebellion and an interstellar empire trying to suppress it on the cheap with a force of not much more than light infantry and armored cars. As such it is not gadgety science fiction nor wildly speculative, but very much like Pournelle's books -- a tale of military characters where the man, not the technology, is the defining and decisive issue.

THIS AND THE OTHER BOOKS IN THE SERIES ARE OUTSTANDING EXAMPLES OF MILITARY SCIENCE FICTION.
I RE-READ THIS BOOK AT LEAST ONCE A YEAR AND HAVE RECOMENDED IT
TO ALL OF MY FRIENDS WHO ENJOY THE GENERA.
I REALLY WISH A FOURTH BOOK WOULD BE WRITTEN BUT THE SERIES DID END AT A LOGICAL POINT.
FREZZA IS TO GROUND COMBAT WHAT WEBER IS TO STAR NAVIES.
ENJOY!

I just finished this title for the fifth or sixth time in as many years. I stumbled upon Frezza a number of years ago and was totally floored that I could have missed such talent in all my years of reading S-Fiction.

Superior military SF with characters and situations much more real that Pornell or Drake. All of the books in the series are must reads for fans of military SF.

Having read a lot of sci-fi since 1992, some of it good, some of it absolutly awful, it is great to chance upon an author that I initially overlooked. If you like political/military sci-fi, I suggest this and all the books authored by Mr Frezza. You will not be disappointed. He approaches his subject with great humor and restraint. This and the books that follow surprised me with how well-written and gosh-darned interesting they were. As they say en espaneol, "Muy reccomendo."

This novel - and its sequels, Fire in a Faraway Place and Cain's Land - are hands down the best written military SF novels I've read over the past 40 years. They are also among the most exciting and dramatic. Individualized, rich characters you come to care about. Believable politics. Finely crafted plot. Strong pacing. Sophisticated humor. Moreover, Frezza has something to say about life out on the edge of empire and the toll it takes on the men and women who, for a range of reasons, find themselves risking all for the sake of a faraway government that sees them as tools to be used and discarded. I come back to these books every few years and appreciate them more each time.

So whatever happened to Robert Frezza?