The Final Battle (Legion of the Damned)

As my comments from Legion of the Damned stated, I looked through my boyfriend's books, found this book and squirreled it away to begin reading the moment I finished the previous book. Again, Mr. Dietz did not disappoint in creating a vision of the future detailed enough to understand, but not so detailed that you would have a tendency to get bogged down in it. By the time the first few chapters were past Mr. Dietz had shocked me several times, though perhaps regular science fiction readers might not have been so shocked, I found them to be good, or at least acceptable shocks. Acceptable because I knew the moment after my mind had gotten done with the, "no, you can't do that, that's not fair," that really there was no other way for the story to be continued if that character still lived, got away scot-free, or what have you. Mr. Dietz appreciates his characters, keeps you in touch with them, but doesn't have any compunction on cutting one out or down to size as the plot required.

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 secon

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!