The War with Earth [Mass Market Paperback]

Leo Frankowski (Author), Dave Grossman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 28, 2004

New Kashubia was a planet rich in heavy metals, but utterly lacking in carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen. Even dirt had to be imported at great expense. The colonists, moved there from Earth against their will, lived in tunnels drilled through solid gold but still were the poorest people in the universe. Since their only resource was people, they sent draftees out as mercenaries, fighting in tanks in symbiosis with a highly intelligent computer. And Mickolai Derdowski had fought bravely and brilliantly for nearly a decade, losing many friends in the process, and risen to the rank of General-he thought. But then he found out that it was all in virtual reality. The war had been faked, no one had died, and he was still just a tank commander, not a general at all. But New Kashubia had been well paid by the planet that had hired the mercenaries for the war they had faked, severe food rationing back home was no longer necessary, and people could now afford luxuries like homes and clothing. There was just one problem. A real war was looming on the horizon and this one couldn't be settled in cyberspace. A lot of people might get really, permanently killed. Such as Mickolai. . . .

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A blend of Keith Laumer's Bolos and David Drake's Slammers. . . ." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Baen (December 28, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743498771
• ISBN-13: 978-0743498777
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #177,381 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fast, Fresh and Smart Military Sci-Fi., July 12, 2003

By 

James J. Gerbino (Pensacola, FL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The War Against Earth (Hardcover)

Another Baen book that covers new ground in the Military Sci-fi sub-genre, The War With Earth has some old ideas mixed with some startling concepts and great action. The result... a thumping good book!

Our hero has just finished fighting a long and terrible war in the coffin of his super-cybertank. Then he finds out he has really only fought a virtual 'fake' war as his training and he is not only not a general and war hero, he is only a tank commander. But a real war is on the horizon.

The real juice of the story is the Mk 19 Battle Tank and its machine intelligence. The tanks have more personality than the characters in many a novel and the interaction between tank and human is the soul of the story. The action is really secondary to me. I read this in one sitting and then went online and found the author's other book from Baen, A Boy and His Tank.

Highly recommended to any fan of military sci-fi this novel has the feel of reality with all the flash and bang of a space opera. The workings of military hierarchies are dead on and the future politics ring true. Good stuff.

15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars An Immense Letdown, July 28, 2003

By 

Andrew X. Lias "http://andrewlias.blogspot.com" (Colorado Springs, CO USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The War Against Earth (Hardcover)

I am rather fond of A Boy and His Tank. Although not a book that's going to win a Pulitzer, it was a remarkably fun bit of millitary adventure.

The sequel, however, is simply awful. For one think, almost the entire first half of the book is spent detailing the protagonists real estate, financial and political doings, in thoroughly tedious and unexciting detail.

What is worse, however, is that this is one of those stories where the hero not only invariably wins, but he becomes immensely rich and powerful in the process, never making any but the most inconsequential of missteps and always demonstrated to be intelligent, wise, and unlucky beyond all conceivable possibility.

Worst of all, virtually everything that happened in the first book is negated in the second. All of the really interesting events from the first book are proven to be, quite literally, a dream. One is left to wonder what the point was.

Frankly, the story reads like [...] It is fantasy wish-fulfillment of the most indulgent variety. Rather than having interesting characters with foibles and limitations who face actual challenges, we have a kind of mock-god who goes around knocking the stuffing out of cardboard enemies who come across as no more threatening than cut-outs.

I do not know why this book is so deplorable when its predecessor was so enjoyable. Perhaps it's a case where one author is the right number (Frankowski wrote ABahT by himself), where a second author is one too many. Or, perhaps, the author simply lost his direction. Whatever the case may be, if like the first book, stop. Trust me, you'll be better of for having done so.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best hard-core science fiction I've read in a very long time, August 9, 2003

By 

A. L. Jones (Billings, MT United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The War Against Earth (Hardcover)

Reading this reminded me how many of the hundreds of SF titles I've read really didn't think much through like the real implications of technology or the character's lives outside the action/technical problem. This book is bursting with new ideas, insights, and concepts that probably will influence real military designers more than Star Trek or Star Wars' thin concepts of Francis Drake's longboat in space or aircraft carriers in space ever did. The implications of the technology and how it's used together reflects both Frankowski's often subtle wisdom and his collaborator's military field experience.
It definitely has the impact of how war goes when one side is constantly trained, tests simulations to find the right approach and rehearse, has superior communications and information, and maximizes a technological advantage. The first reviewer probably wouldn't believe the U.S. performance in the Gulf War, Afghanistan, Grenada, Panama, Iraq II, or anything the Israelis, British SAS, etc. have accomplished either because this stuff does create such an enormous advantage over any foe. I enjoy Frankowski's social commentary, economic insights, human relationships, and entrepreneurial mindset as much or more than the combat sequences and I think they make his books considerably different and richer than most. I've met and worked with a lot of folks like his characters so I guess they don't seem unbelievable to me. This and it's prequel A Boy and His Tank are among the best real military SF yet written, they're just not space operas based on World War I battleship slugfests, WWII carriers, or 17th century Spanish Main models.