Customer Reviews

West of Honor

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This book gives you the beginnings of J. Falkenbergs story....his first real commmand on an isolated backwater with a scratch BN of recruits and jailhouse refugees. You met for the first time many of his companions of the Legion and how they first begin to form the team he takes throughout the Galaxy. The battle scenes as usual are well written and cover the use of misinformation, small unit tactics and the inevitable politics of the CoDominion. A really good read.

When I say not to buy this book, it's not because there's anything inherently wrong with it. West of Honor is actually a great book. It's just that its content has been collected in more complete editions. The first two books in Pournelle's novels of John Christian Falkenberg were The Mercenary, followed by West of Honor. Those two books were eventually stitched together into Falkenberg's Legion, which is now considered the first book in the series. There were three later books, Prince of Mercenaries, Go Tell the Spartans, and Prince of Spartans. The last two books were co-written with S.M. Stirling; all four were eventually collected as The Prince. Thus my advice, if you want to read Pournelle/Stirling's tales of John Christian Falkenberg - and you should, they're some of the best military SF ever written - pass on the individual books and buy The Prince instead, to have the complete series in one volume.

Pournelle has always been one of the most militaristic science fiction writers, glorifying the concept of men fighting and dying for pride, their unit and the glory of victory. The premise is that the United States and the Soviet Union grew to fear the rise of other powers more than they feared each other. Therefore, they joined together to create the CoDominium (CoDo), a joint military force that represses all other political entities as well as scientific advancement.
In this case, the setting is the planet Arrarat, originally settled by religious groups with a desire for land and a more primitive lifestyle. The land was fertile so the agricultural colony thrived. However, the ruling political body then decided to use the planet as a dumping ground for criminals and other political undesirables. This has led to what amounts to a civil war and John Christian Falkenberg is the de-facto leader of the CoDo marine force sent to support the appointed governor.
Falkenberg is an excellent military commander; by doing the unexpected very well he easily wins the first major engagement. However, when the governor is somehow trapped and the CoDo marines are to attack the forces holding him, something is not right and Falkenberg makes sure that he does not put his forces into a completely untenable position. The marine leadership learns very quickly that the political hounds are out baying at everything, there is no simple or easy solution to the problem, and stability on Arrarat required the deaths of many marines and the killing of many of the rebels at the hands of another group.
Despite his militaristic leanings, Pournelle does not express the situation in glowing terms; the marines are professionals that understand that some of them will die horrific deaths in the battles to come. The unusual point is that the marines are portrayed as the only honorable people; all others are devious with hidden and self-serving agendas. Politics and economics are intertwined and dirty, and the marines must use their guts and blood to shovel the resulting muck. It is a story that maintains your interest, although there is no real glory here, just an opportunity to fight and die for the cause of the moment.