The Battlemaster

The Vang #3

by Christopher Rowley

The heir to the first settler of the planet Fenrille must ally her people with the planet's native Fein in order to protect an indigenous material capable of conferring immortality from the humans who would exploit it.

From the back cover:

Until bad investments robbed him of all but the poorest of his family estates, Count Geezl - "Emperor" - Karvur had ruled the debauched nights of the planet Wexel. Now circumstances forced him to take his sadistic pleasures among the uncouth peasants of Wexel's hilly outback.
But the count was driver to return to his old haunts, and that he could do only if he was rich - immensely rich. So he wore the tattoos off his peasants-skin boots desperately searching the family's ancient and barren lands for any salable commodity.
It was there, embedded in rock 84 million years old. that Emperor Karvur found the huge alien artifact that transformed him into something he's never imagined - or desired ... something that would threaten the very existence of humanity.

Cover Art: Stephen Hickman

Genres: Science Fiction, Space Opera, Horror, Fiction

313 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published September 13, 1990

About the author

Christopher Rowley is a prolific writer of both science fiction and fantasy novels. He was born in 1948 in Lynn, Massachusetts to an American mother and an English father. Educated for the most part at Brentwood School, Essex, England, he became a London-based journalist in the 1970s. In 1977 he moved to New York City and began work on The War For Eternity, his first science fiction novel. He currently lives in upstate New York.

Reviews

[Mark Lawrence · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun pulpy sci-fi read from 1990.

The novelty of the vang has worn off for me somewhat in this 3rd volume.

The characters are a unlikeable and rather bland, the writing also a bit ropey with head-hopping and no real flair.

However, I still enjoyed the read and consumed it fairly swiftly for me, albeit half the book was read today on the car journey to a hospital appointment with my daughter, then taking her to school, then going back to school to collect her after being told she wasn't well, and then in the 7:30pm to 7:30am (now) period on the A&E resus unit and now in intensive care (she's stable).

I think Rowley made the right decision to end the series here.

The end of the book was a bit of a letdown, though there was certainly a bang!

I did enjoy the 1990 view of the distant future which is already looking quite dated. Although the spaceships travel at relativistic near-light speeds (as far as I can tell) and they have instantaneous communication through black holes, have colonised thousands (millions?) of planets and had space flight for millenia ... they don't appear to have internet or smartphones. Computers fit in suitcases. A computer is described as having a "mere terabyte" of RAM, presumably to shock us that anyone could call a terabyte 'mere' - but I can buy a 2 terabyte memory stick for less than $10 30 years after the book was written... And a character tells a reporter she hopes they have enough 'discs' to save all the filming they're going to do on...

I'm used to seeing badly dated predictions of the future in 1960's or 70's sci-fi, but to see it in 90's sci-fi makes me feel old!

Anyway, the central idea of this series is excellent in terms of imagination. The books are very violent and gory. I saw a twitter poll yesterday asking where do you draw the line for violence?

a - sexual violence
b - violence against children
c - violence against animals
d - all of the above

This book has all of the above.

it's basically grimdark sci-fi.

If you're looking for characters or deep thoughts or beautiful writing, look elsewhere, but I enjoyed the story.


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[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good read by Rowley. This is the third in the Vang series, but they are pretty loosely related, so you could pick this up as a stand alone. Most of the action takes place on a truly terrible planet and that is where the battlemaster is revived and rampages. Fun read with a surprise twist at the end.

Edit on reread (12/20). TB takes place about 3000 years after Vang: the military form. Once again, Rowley sets the action (at least at first) on a planet at the armpit of the universe-- Wexel. Wexel is ruled by a close net oligarchy of feudal lords, and most of the population are basically serfs. The ITAA basically governs humanity (although it is not discussed in any detail) and also controls 'fleet' and 'ground' units. A new colonel Chang has been sent by central command to basically clean up the corrupt ITAA units on Wexel and she has her hands full.

Another POV begins the novel, however, a Count Karvur, who is basically living in exile on the old family estates on Wexel. The once flamboyant Count is down on his luck, after being scammed of his money and is looking for a way to get back to the 'jet set' if you will. While prospecting for minerals on his estate, he comes across an alien vessel and figures he has struck gold. After some digging, he enlists a young professor from one of the colleges on Wexel to help with the research. As you probably guessed, what they find is a Vang, this time a battlemaster...

This, like the previous volume in the series, moves at times at a frenetic pace. Rowley describes simply but richly the complicated political landscape of Wexel and the rebels ('liberators'), along with the paramilitary groups that stamp them out. Life is cheap on Wexel, and getting cheaper when the Vang make their move.

I really enjoyed this book (and series). It reminds me of the action scifi films of the era (it was published in 1990) and is at times thoughtful and extremely gory. The Vang make for an awesome alien-- they are basically parasites who need 'hosts' and can transform people into various classes, like the military form). Very sharp and very fast, the Battle Master is all consumed with either finding other Vang or dominating humanity. Even though humanity has claimed the stars, the human condition has not changed, and we witness incredible acts of bravery as well as cruelty. 4.5 stars!

[Jason Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Vang duology/trilogy comes to a definitive conclusion in this book, featuring yet another invasion by the parasitic alien Vang on yet another corrupt backwater planet in humanity's far future. This time, the ancient alien is accidentally unleashed by Count Karvur, a sociopathic rapist aristocrat who unearths the ancient spaceship on his estate, and this time, instead of the 'mere' Military Form, the alien is the Battlemaster, which operates more or less like the invader in the previous book, except that it's even smarter, stealthier, can more-or-less disguise as an uninfected human being (!!), and at the end it transforms into a giant tentacle monster.

Whereas "The Vang: The Military Form" maintained a tone of apocalyptic threat mixed with black humor, however, "The Battlemaster" goes for pathos, as the Battlemaster, finding itself apparently alone in the universe, goes on a quest to rediscover the Vang homeworld which was lost millions of years ago. In general, the Vang is much more 'humanized' in this book, and even talks to people, shows mercy occasionally, etc.. A noble military officer is the human hero, doing her best to outthink the tactically brilliant alien. Rowley is a solid author and there's some cool moments here, but the setting and characters feel less well-developed than "The Military Form" and it doesn't match that book's tension and surprises.

[Bryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is excellent science fiction horror and the last book of the definitive trilogy that inspired Halo and its subsequent franchise. The imagination contained in this trilogy is stunningly mind blowing. The first book was the weakest, the second the best, and this one was somewhere solidly in-between. There are exceptional moments and so much missed potential. Thankfully, sci-fi fans inspired by this series created the Halo franchise to fulfill the potential of what this could have been. The Halo universe stands on the shoulders of sci-fi giants, and this trilogy contains the origins of the oldest and most mysterious of the giants, the Flood, the Vang. Although Greg Bear did write a founding trilogy which was a special origin story unto itself, the true inspiration is found in this trilogy which will continue to inspire and ignite the imagination of whoever reads it.

[Miloni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Haven't read the first two yet. And that didn't matter because this one is awesome!

It is a fun read. Very entertaining & gripping. Aliens that have octopus like tentacles & polyps growing from their body. One of the best sci-fi book!

[Luka Onee-san · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a very good reading experiance. Unexpected ending. At least for me.

[Nhat · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the third book in the Vang Series, taking place about a thousand years since the Vang invaded Saskatch colony in the second book Military Form.
On the planet Wexel, a terror surfaced in the form of a tendrilled, worm-like creature embedded in the nutritious gel. The terror was the Vang, the parasitic member of the race referred to as Gods of Axon-Neuron, which had dominated a large portion of the galaxy before being wiped out by the Starhammer. The fossilized creature was dug up by Count Karvur, a dangerously ambitious aristocrat of a failed family in the southern countries of Wexel. Through Karvur, the creature, called itself the Battlemaster, unleashed into the planet, causing total chaos and destruction, paving a path of murder and gore in order to find out the fate of its species and find the way home.

Top notch writing from Christopher Rowley. Although he tends to summarize a lot of the story, he described the world very vividly as if he lived on Wexel and saw the scenes through his own eyes. The novel is action packed, gory, and full technological and sociological envisions of the future that scifi fans won't be disappointed.
However, having read Starhammer and Military Form, this story seemed lacking. While Starhammer was pretty much a scifi epic, Military Form was a scifi-horror hybrid in the veins of Ridley Scott's Alien, it was gory and brutal, with great intertwining stories and characters, and a formidable alien enemy that was both ruthless and inhuman. That was what made Military Form such an intense book.
Battlemaster, on the other hand, gave the creature emotions and power of speech, and at times, I felt a sense sympathy for the creature. I do not like this. This is not King Kong. The Vang is a vicious alien race that should be so alien that you're scared of them. In this story, they drive cars, they eat food from restaurants, they talk, they watch TV, they use keyboards. Basically they do everything you wouldn't expect, or want to see, from a Vang.
The characters, while decent, did not hold up to the protagonists of Military Form. Chang was the only character I remotely liked.
This is a good book, but the author had changed too much, taking away its potential. And the ending is garbage. I must say I am a little disappointed with the book, compare to Military Form, which was one of my favorite books.

[Brett's Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, but not great read. I read Rowley's "The Military Form" years ago, as teenager, and I still have a soft sport for it, it was everything I liked about science fiction at the time: scary aliens, military action, strange worlds, vast star empires, awesome. Over the years, I've re-read "The Military Form" on a couple of occasions, and it still is a pretty good. I knew there were other books in the series and when I stumbled across a copy of "The Battlemaster" Afghanistan I had to read it. I will say, many of the same elements are present in the TBM as in the TMF, unwitting characters release ancient evil representatives of long dead empires to pray on the panic of the local populace; before being stopped by the military. Some minor differences are present, in the TMF, human space was portrayed as colonial and unrefined, in the TBM it is portrayed as post-colonial and vast; in the TMF we have a male hero and the TBM a female protagonist. However, these two novels are essentially the same book, and that fact, combined with the TBM's long build up to the climax and abrupt end, left me feeling unsatisfying. A couple of additional points. I had hoped to learn more about the Vang in the TBM, and was disappointed, again just hints about culture, organization, purpose and goals; with no pay off because of the very abrupt ending to the book. When I read the TMF, i was not an especially religious person and so I didn't notice the strand of unpleasant materialism in Rowley's writing; however, I noticed it greatly in the TBM. If the universe is really random, (indifferent) no Creator, no purpose and more to the point, no moral framework, then humans are really no better then the completely vile Vang, which kill randomly and with no regard for the intelligent life it is extinguishing. Why fight, why try and survive, why try and preserve our culture with no ultimate purpose? Clearly, the author does think we are worth preserving, redeemable, which are religious sentiments; then why the cold materialism (nihilism really)? Who knows, I doubt Mr. Rowley has considered these points. I am curious and will seek out the "Starhammer" to complete the series (I've come this far). But, I think I am getting ready to leave this type of cold fiction behind, with its stark materialism, it is difficult to read.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is the third and last in "The Vang" series. The Vang is an aggressive militaristic species that was supposed to have been exterminated by a race, now long dead. This story starts two thousand years after the last Vang sighting. They are almost considered a myth by this time. The last Vang in the universe is revived after thousands of years since his race was destroyed. He starts to take over a planet of humans but in the course of this action he discovers his race is extinct. This changes his actions and the entire direction that he is headed. I heartily recommend the Vang series to any fan of military science fiction or of Christopher Rowley. The writing is minimalist, yet conveys an abject horror that is missing from so many books today.

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The last book of a very loose trilogy (Starhammer, The Vang: The Military Form, The Vang: The Battlemaster). Crazy alien infestation part 2, very different from the original Military Form infestation. Equally intense, blazing quick read, but I guess I enjoy the uniqueness of the first Military Form infestation a little better.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Re-read this recently, along with the previous book.

My initial impression is that The Military Form is the better of the two Vang books that focus on the story from their perspective, but now I'm not so sure.

Battlemaster adds a certain pathos to the fate of the Vang that makes me think it's better than I give it credit. I rated it as five stars before because it's gonzo alien body horror, but it's also more than that too.

[Hotrats · Rating 2 out of 5]

same as first one