Spirit of Dorsai

Mr. Dickson is well known in science fiction circles as a good writer, so I bought this book. It is interesting. The Dorsai are the inhabitants of a planet humans have colonized in their expansion across the galaxy. There is little to survive on, so the wherewithal to survive has to be imported and what is exported are mercenaries. The book starts with a introduction to a female of a certain family, Amanda, and an off world questioner. He is curious about the history of the planet and she is the one with the answers. Her ancestors helped save and create the legacy the planet lives on. The first story is how the planet retained its independence. They were to be brought under the rule of Earth because the actions of one of the mercenaries was to be arrested as an excuse. The planet was inhabited by old, infirm, young, etc. (the healthy young were off fighting other's battles), yet they defeated the invaders. The second story is of the death of one of the more famous mercenary and how his twin brother exacted justice for him. The crux of the story is that some things need doing by certain people to further the ends of some esoteric group that hires the mercenaries for client planets. It is all for the betterment of mankind, but some bad things do need to happen to facilitate the path to greater good.

The chronology I have places this book right after Dorsai proper but it really doesn't matter all that much. The best reason to read it after Dorsai is because this might spoil some of the events that happened in that novel but at the same time once you know what happened, it takes something away from the stories in this book. This is essentially two short stories with a framing sequence to give them context and they really aren't even that related. The third Amanda Morgan first tells the story of the first Amanda Morgan and this is significant because it's probably the first time Dickson has written a female character in this series who does more than serve as window dressing for the male characters. Amanda Morgan is old and stubborn and somewhat cranky but she's memorable either way. The events of the story aren't as interesting as she is, since they deal with stuff that happened in Tactics of Mistake (how a planet full of old and crippled people beat all the soldiers who were invading while Cletus was otherwise occupied) and so you know already how it ends, although Dickson does tend to take his sweet time getting there and in the end I still feel like I missed something. But Amanda Morgan stands out and Cletus was one of the better early characters so it was nice to revist that time in the series. The second story reads fairly quickly and once again involves the Graeme twins Ian and Kelsie and how Ian deals with Kelsie's death. This one I thought was well done but this is about the third time the series has dealt with Kelsie's murder and what Ian did in its wake (Soldier, Ask Not, Dorsai and now this book, for those keeping score) and since we never really got a good glimpse of Kelsie anyway . . . I would have liked to see more of the twins while both were still alive, since Dickson tells us all the time how much they complemented each other but Kelsie dies very early in every telling, or the twins are only seen from a distance. But it was a nice distraction and not terrible. The framing sequence probably could use more explanation as well, I assume it will make more sense when I read the Final Encyclopedia one of these days. The illustrations are really nice, though, and many are very striking, not just showing the scenes that Dickson is describing but taking an abstract stance and really standing out. I'm not sure if this is in print or not, but it can be bought used for like a dollar just about anywhere and if you're working your way through the Childe Cycle it makes an interesting, though not essential supplement to the whole thing.

This book explains how did the old men, women and children defended the Dorsai world by themselves without Cletus Graeme in 'Tactics of Mistake', then fast forwards to the details of Kensie Graeme's Death and Ian Graeme's revenge of his brother in 'Dorsai!'.It also introduces us, by way of conversation, to Amanda ap Morgan, Hal Mayne, and the Final Encyclopedia.This book should be read after Dorsai!, and Tactics of Mistake for best enjoyment.