The Final Battle

Rating:
Summary: Not as Good as legion of the damned
Review: First off all, the whole book was done about thirty years after the first book. Some of the characters should be around 5o-60 and are still running around in combat boots. Sure its a given that planetary armies need time to recover but come on. He should not have used his on senior citizen characters. His book did though have outstanding action that i much approve of. His book did not have what legion of the damned had, but it is still one of the best sci-fi books i have ever read.

Rating:
Summary: Even better than Legion of the Damned
Review: It really shows that sometimes sequals are better tan the originals. READ THIS BOOK, it is some of the best military SF i've ever read!

Rating:
Summary: The Hudathans strike back - with cyborgs of their own
Review: Thirty years ago, as recorded in William C. Dietz's earlier novel Legion of the Damned, the Human Empire managed, thanks to the remarkable legionnaires and in particular the cyborgs in its ranks, to overthrow a corrupt and ineffective imperial government and defeat the powerful space fleet of the aggressive Hudathans. Admiral Poseen-Ka and thousands of his defeated soldiers were imprisoned on Worber's World, and mega-merchant turned hero Sergi Chien-Chu, the new leader of the victorious empire (now organized as the Confederacy of the Sentient) did not pursue a murderous assault on the Hugathan home world. This was a mistake. The Hugathans see any intelligent life form as a threat to their survival, a threat that must be eliminated. Their bitter defeat only strengthened their resolve, and they used what they had learned in the first war to prepare for the new offensive against the Confederacy. A major part of the new game plan involved the implementation of their own cyborg army, and the best and brightest of the Hudathan soldiers were given the honor of being killed and resuscitated in the metallic form of the Regiment of the Living Dead.

The Final Battle is a great read, but it does have its weaknesses. It takes a while to get into the novel, as we are reintroduced to a few major characters from the earlier book, men and women who are to some degree shadows of their old selves, and newly introduced to new heroes such as the half-human, half-Naa son of the famous William Booly. The young Booly eventually matures into an interesting character, but his role seems to fade as the ultimate conflict approaches; indeed, many important characters and plot points seem to fall away as the end approaches. Dietz is at his best in describing the intense action of the wars and skirmishes that take place, and the remarkable prison break that puts the Hudathans back into the game is a great example of this. I continue to have a little trouble accepting Poseen-Ka's eminence in the Hudathan war plans, though; he is a slow and methodical leader who goes against the aggressive nature of his race as a whole, a man who basically lost the first war single-handedly, and yet he regains immense power in the Hudathan military.

My biggest problem with this book concerns the position of the Clone Worlds. Their position inside the Confederacy is viewed as crucial, and much is made of the split between the world's three rulers in this regard, but - unless I just missed something - the Clones aren't even a factor in the pivotal events. All you get out of this particular storyline is an oversexed relationship between a clone and an aging human warrior. There is, in fact, a good deal of unnecessary sex in this book, sex that serves no real purpose whatsoever. When you have two important leaders continually making goo-goo eyes at each other when they are supposed to be laying the groundwork for the mutual survival of their worlds, that - to me - is a problem.

The second half of the novel does come across as a little rushed, and I'm still wondering where a few seemingly important sub-plots wandered off to, but The Final Battle still stands as an oftentimes gripping military science fiction adventure. Those who enjoyed Legion of the Damned should enjoy this second Legion novel, but the first novel is clearly the better of the two.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: This book is a major disappointment to anyone who read "Legion of the Damned." It seems as if Dietz just got tired of writing the book in the middle and just ended it as quickly as possible. As always he has amazingly original ideas and the hooks in the beginning of the book are great. But missing is the intense detail and realism that made "Legion of the Damned" such a good book. In particular his development of the newest kind of human cyborg is so skeletal that it seems he just sketched it out in 5 minutes. While I had to buy this book due to the fact I loved Legion so much if you were just a mild fan of the previous book I'd say save yourself this disappointment.