Customer Reviews

When Duty Calls: A Novel of the Legion of the Damned

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First off, I own almost all William C Dietz's books and enjoy the action and character development. I was looking forward to "When Duty Calls" and bought it as soon as it was available. I hate to say I'm disappointed. For some reason, it seems he has decided the only people who now read him book are teenagers and has started italicizing words like slam and bam and whoosh so we can understand that it's a sound. Parts of the book are written on such an elementary level I was kind of insulted. I guess I can't follow a plot without one of the characters explaining "Oh, I understand! They..." and would go on to say what was just done. I know he has another book coming out, I just hope he writes this one for adults.

When Duty Calls (2008) is the eighth SF novel in the Legion series, following When All Seems Lost. The initial work in this sequrnce is Legion of the Damned.

In the previous volume, the legion raided Jericho to free President Nankool. Vice President Jakow was very surprised at Nankool's return.

In this novel, Antonio Santana is now a Captain, commanding Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st REC. The Legion officer was promoted after the Jericho raid.

Liam Quinlan is a Major, commanding the 2nd Battalion, 1st REC. He is Santana's immediate superior. He doesn't appear to like Santana.

Marcott Nankool is President of the Confederacy of Sentient Beings.

Christine Vanderveen is a Confederation diplomat who had been on Jericho with President Nankool. She was recently promoted to FSO-2 for her actions during their capture.

In this story, Santana leads his largely untried company on a raid against a Ramanthian presence on Oren IV. Intelligence asserts that the Bugs are storing materiel on the planet to use as a forward supply point in their war with the Confederation. His company is dropping on the world in an assault boat.

The copilot detects extra heat from their target, a deserted mine. Santana decides to land a mile from the facility. Quinlan tries to countermand that decision, but Santana feigns communication problems and the copilot cuts the link. The Ramathian commander is disappointed as the boat bypasses the landing pad within the facility, but shuffles his forces to oppose the Legion troops.

Santana takes the mine, but is forced to retreat as the Ramathians blow demolition charges. Santana loses four troopers in the mine, but the rest get out in time. The cave-in crushes the remaining Ramathians.

Then the Ramathians invade Gamma-014, a largely agricultural world. Most of the armed forces and police are destroyed in the initial attack, but the Bugs fail to hit a cold weather training base. Colonel Six arms the troops at the base and sets out to wage a guerrilla style war against the Bugs.

Meanwhile, President Nankool is on Alpha-001 in the Clone Hegemony to negotiate an alliance. The Clone Hegemony has been neutral in the war between the Ramathians and the Confederacy. Yet Nankool hopes that they will join the largely human Confederacy against the insectile Ramathians.

The Clone Alphas are reluctant to ally with the Confederacy. Then the Clone underground grabs Christine and takes her to a subterranean base. They offer to join the Confederacy if the Confederation recognizes their new government.

Christine takes this message back to President Nankool, but he is not willing to take the chance. As the negotiations are beginning, word of the Gamma-014 invasion reaches the Clone leaders. Then the uprising begins on Alpha-001 and elsewhere within the Clone Hegemony.

This tale puts the Confederacy into an even more tenuous position. They send ships and troops to Gamma-014, but the Bugs attack within the Confederacy. Now President Nankool has a two-front war and even fewer resources with which to fight.

The Confederacy is winning battles, but losing the war. Maybe the next volume will turn the tide. Read and enjoy!

Recommended for Dietz fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of armed combat, diplomatic intrigue, and political upheavals.

-Arthur W. Jordin

Think ... Bridges @ Toko-Ri, War of the Worlds, Battle @ Chosin reservoir, Dunkirk, Planet wide civil war, Fredericksburg, Road Warrior and a small sprinkling of nukes ...

That collection of combined scenarios seems absurd, but Dietz accomplishes the interesting combination and more. Add to the mix, the 'Legion of the Damned' archive of characters coming and unexpectedly departing and you get the best installment of the series.

I was instructed in War College strategy and tactics. This installment is of such technical quality, that it would provide an edge to its readers as the best set pieces of strategy and tactics drawn from Sun Tzu, Hannibal, Genghis Khan, Wellington, Sherman & Grant, von Clausewitz, Alanbrooke, or von Moltke to name a few. For the military mind, it's a box of chocolates.

I couldn't put it down.

The war between the Confederacy of Sentient Beings and the Insecticide Ramanthian Empire continues. By order of their Queen, the Ramanthian military is going to invade Gamma- 014 rich in iridium. The planet belongs to the Clone Hegemony, a group of worlds in which sex and childbearing are prohibited; from birth the clones know what work they will do. The Confederation warns the Clone Hegemony even as the mutual enemy piles up victory after victory while the CSB shrinks with planet after planet being lost.

Commanding Officer of the Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st REC Captain Antonio Santana is ordered to go to Gamma- 014 to fight under the command of a Clone Hegemony General. This should cement the alliance between the two groups battling the Ramanthians. Antonio's lover diplomat Christine Vanderveen is on Hegemony planet Alpha 001; she is attracted to the leader of the rebellion there, who wants to replace the present government in order to allow people to have freedom of choice. On Planet Gamma 014, Santana and his bio bod and cyborg troops fight for their lives as the enemy badly outnumbers them and accepts deaths easily as a part of the hostilities. He knows it will take a miracle to leave this orb alive.

Fans of on other worlds will thoroughly enjoy WHEN DUTY CALLS, the latest Legion of the Damned space opera thriller. When the Ramanthians invaded earth, they are stunned by the sentient animals they encounter who not just resist, but operationally fight back even as much of the military is dying on Gamma 014. The resistance fighters are organized under an unusual leader and the enemies' casualties run much higher than the most pessimistic Ramanthian predict. William C. Dietz keeps his long running saga fresh to the delight of military science fiction fans.

Harriet Klausner

I liked this book a lot. Enough to read it in two settings which is unusual for me.

The good:

The author writes comfort food for my brain. I do a lot of technical reading and sometimes I just want to read for pleasure. He delivers. His plots are consistent, the action scenes are first rate, and it flows.

This book is nothing out of the ordinary for his readers. Good men killing bad aliens. Semi good men finding redemption in heroic death. Good women making love to good men. The same theme I have been reading in one form or another since the first sci-fi book I picked up.

The bad:

Another reviewer mentioned the italics. What the heck was your editor thinking? It was a little jarring. Otherwise? Buy it. Read it. Thrill to the fighting spirit of earths warriors!

Mr. Dietz is a good writer, I do not have a clue what happened to him the last 50 pages or so of this book. He wandered here and there, tying up a very few loose ends and leaving enought threads hanging to weave a shirt. That said, it was a good novel most of the way before it lost its way. From this ending he could write dozens os sequels that still never answer the questions he raised in this book. And continue to ignore the big picture. Oh well maybe he had one jump into hyper space too many.