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Legion #6
For Those Who Fell
The final line of defense for humankind, the Legion of the Damned, under the command of General William "Bill" Booly II and First Lieutenant Antonio Santana, take on war on two fronts to protect the Confederacy after the alien Ramanthians acquire faster-than-light technology.
410 pages, Hardcover
First published October 5, 2004
12 people are currently reading
325 people want to read
About the author
William C. Dietz
124 books453 followersNew York Times bestselling author William C. Dietz has published more than fifty novels, some of which have been translated into German, Russian, and Japanese. He grew up in the Seattle area, served as a medic with the Navy and Marine Corps, graduated from the University of Washington, and has been employed as a surgical technician, college instructor, and television news writer, director and producer. Before becoming a full-time writer Dietz was director of public relations and marketing for an international telephone company. He and his wife live near Gig Harbor, Washington.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
March 19, 2017
This is the sixth book in this series. I liked the first couple and so splurged and bought the next four. Thank the Lord I don't have any more of these books after this. The author absolutely insists on stupid story lines. Here a sergeant is convicted of attempted murder on a ship heading to drop soldiers behind enemy lines. Is that sergeant left on the ship like any sane person would do? NO! Of course he promptly escapes by killing the MPs THEY APPARENTLY BROUGHT WITH THEM ON A COMMANDO RAID (albeit a battalion sized commando raid).
BUT IT GETS BETTER- since the author has the MPs carry UNSECURED magic box that shut down military cyborgs- THE VERY SAME MILITARY CYBORGS THAT HAVE BEEN THE FOCUS OF THE MILITARY FOR THE LAST 250 YEARS OF BOOK TIME. This book was published in 2005, in 2007 Iphones offered fingerprint protection yet his military something like 300 years in the future hasn't figured that out. PLUS THE MAGIC BOX ISN'T EVEN SPECIFIC, apparently since when the bad guys use it in combat there is only one cyborg within range. SO I GUESS ANY CYBORG WORKING WITH THE MAGIC BOX USER WOULD BE FUCKED. Good thing the bad guys don't have one of those. I can only assume the author did all this because he wanted to create a situation where a cyborg is taken captive, which he does unconvincingly.
The prior book set up, IN THE STUPIDEST POSSIBLE WAY, the Ramanthian war. Now we get to read about it, starting with the commando raid to grab the only technological advance to occur in the last 250 years. Otherwise all were told is that the confederation navy is losing to the Ramanthian navy, in spite of the fact that the Ramanthians were apparently being beaten by the Hudathans several years ago since Ramanthians had to steal a bunch of ships. Now the Hudathans are part of the confederation that includes the humans who beat them twice before and together they can't beat the Ramanthians??? The way the author has set things up anyone would be stupid to ally with the Ramanthians at the start of this book and yet two races do, albeit one unofficially.
Furthermore, this book starts by saying the whole war depends on the success of commando raid since the tech they are after allows FTL communication which would allow the Ramanthians to win the war by itself if they are the only ones to have it. SO, GIVEN THAT THE ENTIRE WAR HINGES ON THIS ONE MISSION WHY CAN'T THEY FIND ANY SHIPS TO ACTUALLY GO TO THE PLANET WHERE THE RAID IS? I can only assume that is because the author didn't want to write that story.
Note on significant alien races in this book:
Ramanthians: insect like aliens about to experience a population explosion when 5 billion
eggs hatch.
Hudathan: xenophobic genocidal aliens defeated twice but now limited confederate
members b/c of help given to address the Thracki/Sheen threat.
Thraki: xenophobic genocidal aliens who were chased by Sheen for centuries until
resolution in prior book.
Sheen: xenophobic genocidal alien robots chasing Thraki for centuries until central
computer was shut down in prior book. It appears their 12,000 or so drifting
will be a prime story line going forward.
BUT IT GETS BETTER- since the author has the MPs carry UNSECURED magic box that shut down military cyborgs- THE VERY SAME MILITARY CYBORGS THAT HAVE BEEN THE FOCUS OF THE MILITARY FOR THE LAST 250 YEARS OF BOOK TIME. This book was published in 2005, in 2007 Iphones offered fingerprint protection yet his military something like 300 years in the future hasn't figured that out. PLUS THE MAGIC BOX ISN'T EVEN SPECIFIC, apparently since when the bad guys use it in combat there is only one cyborg within range. SO I GUESS ANY CYBORG WORKING WITH THE MAGIC BOX USER WOULD BE FUCKED. Good thing the bad guys don't have one of those. I can only assume the author did all this because he wanted to create a situation where a cyborg is taken captive, which he does unconvincingly.
The prior book set up, IN THE STUPIDEST POSSIBLE WAY, the Ramanthian war. Now we get to read about it, starting with the commando raid to grab the only technological advance to occur in the last 250 years. Otherwise all were told is that the confederation navy is losing to the Ramanthian navy, in spite of the fact that the Ramanthians were apparently being beaten by the Hudathans several years ago since Ramanthians had to steal a bunch of ships. Now the Hudathans are part of the confederation that includes the humans who beat them twice before and together they can't beat the Ramanthians??? The way the author has set things up anyone would be stupid to ally with the Ramanthians at the start of this book and yet two races do, albeit one unofficially.
Furthermore, this book starts by saying the whole war depends on the success of commando raid since the tech they are after allows FTL communication which would allow the Ramanthians to win the war by itself if they are the only ones to have it. SO, GIVEN THAT THE ENTIRE WAR HINGES ON THIS ONE MISSION WHY CAN'T THEY FIND ANY SHIPS TO ACTUALLY GO TO THE PLANET WHERE THE RAID IS? I can only assume that is because the author didn't want to write that story.
Note on significant alien races in this book:
Ramanthians: insect like aliens about to experience a population explosion when 5 billion
eggs hatch.
Hudathan: xenophobic genocidal aliens defeated twice but now limited confederate
members b/c of help given to address the Thracki/Sheen threat.
Thraki: xenophobic genocidal aliens who were chased by Sheen for centuries until
resolution in prior book.
Sheen: xenophobic genocidal alien robots chasing Thraki for centuries until central
computer was shut down in prior book. It appears their 12,000 or so drifting
will be a prime story line going forward.
November 2, 2020
Careful plotting and realistically messy detail help lift Willam Dietz's sixth military SF novel For Those Who Fell (after 2003's For More Than Glory ) about the Legion of the Damned, an army of biobod humans, aliens and brain boxes installed in mechanical bodies, which defends the Confederacy of Sentient Beings against any threat. The present enemy, the insectoid Ramanthians Empire, neeeds more planets to accommodate their queen's billions of eggs. When the Confederacy learns that a Ramanthian research outpost has developed a new FTL communications technology that could win the war, an special ops team sets out to capture the new technology. In particular, a young first lieutenant Antonio Santana must lead his troops through the perils of jungle, desert and ambush by psychotic renegades. Meanwhile, a young woman diplomat discovers that one of the Confederacy's alien races is secretly aiding the Ramanthians. While General Bill Booly helps the Confederacy establish a new capital on the planet Algeron. Characters attempt to gather information, make political alliances and maneuver skillfully, but often their efforts degenerate into groping, murderous frenzy. Author Willam Dietz expertly jumps from one theater of combat to another, one side to another, to show the opponents planning but then improvising as plans go awry. Even if the novel's action sometimes is as manipulative as a WWF Smackdown, it still gives a genuine adrenaline rush. Overall, definitely recommend this novel to any fans of Military sci-fi.
December 27, 2025
Tome 6 de la série "Legion of the damned"
Lu en anglais
Ça y est, la guerre est déclarée entre la confédération et les Ramanthians. Et, bien sûr, chaque faction cherche des alliés. Mais voilà qu'un renseignement a filtré à savoir que les Ramanthians auraient inventé un hypercom permettant les transmissions plus rapides que la vitesse de la lumière. Et, bien sûr, cet évènement change complètement la donne, car il permet aux Ramanthians d'ajuster leurs tactiques "en temps réel". Sauf que la Confédération a appris sur quelle planète l'hypercom est développé et envoie une force tactique pour s'en emparer. Mais les Ramathians s'y attendent.
Encore une fois la légion, et ses durs de durs, est impliquée et se trouve livrée à elle-même sur la planète Savas. Les Ramanthians contrôlent le ciel et leurs forces terrestres ont consolidé leurs positions. Toute tactique est bonne incluant de mettre à contribution les factions d'indigènes peu avancées sans se soucier des pertes.
Un bon récit avec sa ligne maîtresse, mais aussi un traitre sadique qui torture les cyborgs avec un genre de taser prohibé, des batailles de cavaliers spéciaux, quelques batailles spatiales. Un peu de tout, quoi !
J'ai beaucoup aimé ce tome. Il s'avère que j'ai mis la main sur une très bonne série militaire. Par contre, si je veux poursuivre, il va falloir que je me procure les 3 tomes suivants sans compter le tome 3 qui me manque.
Lu en anglais
Ça y est, la guerre est déclarée entre la confédération et les Ramanthians. Et, bien sûr, chaque faction cherche des alliés. Mais voilà qu'un renseignement a filtré à savoir que les Ramanthians auraient inventé un hypercom permettant les transmissions plus rapides que la vitesse de la lumière. Et, bien sûr, cet évènement change complètement la donne, car il permet aux Ramanthians d'ajuster leurs tactiques "en temps réel". Sauf que la Confédération a appris sur quelle planète l'hypercom est développé et envoie une force tactique pour s'en emparer. Mais les Ramathians s'y attendent.
Encore une fois la légion, et ses durs de durs, est impliquée et se trouve livrée à elle-même sur la planète Savas. Les Ramanthians contrôlent le ciel et leurs forces terrestres ont consolidé leurs positions. Toute tactique est bonne incluant de mettre à contribution les factions d'indigènes peu avancées sans se soucier des pertes.
Un bon récit avec sa ligne maîtresse, mais aussi un traitre sadique qui torture les cyborgs avec un genre de taser prohibé, des batailles de cavaliers spéciaux, quelques batailles spatiales. Un peu de tout, quoi !
J'ai beaucoup aimé ce tome. Il s'avère que j'ai mis la main sur une très bonne série militaire. Par contre, si je veux poursuivre, il va falloir que je me procure les 3 tomes suivants sans compter le tome 3 qui me manque.
June 26, 2016
I actually read 300 pages of this book, quite an investment in time, before giving up in disgust. The story itself wasn’t that bad. Humanity in a war against evil bugs, losing even, trying to get allies, both of them, playing political games, trying to gain technological edges. Human Confederacy troops are sent to an occupied planet where the Ramanthians are rumored to have some advanced technology the humans covets. The mission is to destroy the enemy and grab the technology. Murphy hits from the very beginning. Everything goes wrong.
But that’s not my complaint. Back on the base, there was a gunnery sergeant named Kuga-Ka who’s been a bully and a bastard who has everyone scared of him and who actually tortures his men. And he has his captain addicted to life threatening drugs, so he has him in his pocket. Meanwhile, the good guy of the novel, First Lieutenant Santana is brought in to lead his platoon in their company and let’s just say, the two don’t get along. Santana sees early what’s going on and confronts the man and threatens him with severe disciplinary action if things don’t change. To make matters worse, though, the Confederacy fights with warbots, cyborgs that are huge, seven foot fighting machines made from dead warriors and recorded personalities/souls/digitized recordings/etc with individualized “brain boxes” containing that “former” person’s personality in it, to be linked only and solely with its individualized cyborg body. And for reasons I either don’t recall or never really made totally clear to me, Kuga-Ka HATES one of these cyborgs with a passion, a female, and determines to steal her brain box. Why? What exactly does he plan on doing with it? Throwing it away? That might make some sense. But, no, he hangs on to it while traveling to other worlds through jungles and deserts, for months. He carries this brain box while wounded, hacking his way through jungles with a machete for what? Why does he hate this cyborg this much? For another thing, why does he hate ANYONE so much? Because he goes on a murdering spree, with some cronies of his. They’re captured, or at least he is, but upon getting to the next planet, he’s helped to escape and they’re off. A tracking team is sent after them, but they’re ambushed, tortured, and slaughtered, so that everyone can see them hanging there dead with their entrails hanging out of them. Nice. This asshole, while just a gunny, seems to know a little bit about everything. It’s amazing how much he knows. He knows about airships, about all sorts of weaponry, about close quarters combat, about sniping, about cybernetics, although he admits he’s no cybernetics tech, about negotiating with aliens, about tactics and strategy. My God, he’s the smartest man the military has ever produced! Too bad he’s the biggest psycho too, because for the life of me – and this is why I gave up – he has utterly NO motive whatsoever for being a hate filled nutjob on a murdering spree who hates Santana, who he’s known a couple of days, so much he wants to butcher him, and who hates this one cyborg, out of dozens – why her? Why any? –so much, that he turns traitor and gives himself in to the bugs and offers to help them track down his human ex-colleagues for the purpose of slaughtering them. And he wants to be paid and paid well for this. Nice.
OK, is this remotely believable? Isn’t this carrying things a bit too far, Dietz? I can understand resentments. I can understand people having issues. I can understand being pissed off. I can’t understand people being so psychotic that they go on two world killing sprees, torture, main, ambush, slaughter, turn themselves into the enemy and offer to help them kill your former colleagues, ALL FOR NO MOTIVE WHATSOEVER!!! Usually when people act this way, there’s some type of motive. A spouse or lover has been unfairly killed, or child or parent. Someone has lost their career. They’ve lost their life’s savings. Something HUGE has happened to someone to turn them into a killing monster and traitor. I don’t recall that happening to Kuga-Ka in this novel at all. He’s just a generic bastard to begin with. Someone who needs the shit beaten out of him from day one to begin with, but not someone who you would expect would go insane or who you would even think is intelligent enough to pull all of this stuff off. It just doesn’t make sense. Dietz takes a mediocre character from a minor situation and turns him into a super villain with super powers and it’s irritating and not believable. It’s just damned annoying after awhile. In fact, Kuga-Ka is so relentless in his hatred and murderous desires that it becomes almost comical and nearly ruins the dramatic elements of an otherwise decent military sci fi novel. If Dietz had dialed down this character A LOT, this book might have been fairly enjoyable. As it was, I got too pissed off after 300 pages to finish it and, as I said, I gave up. I don’t care enough to find out what happens. I just want the gunny to die a horrible death and I don’t care enough about the other characters to read on and see what happens to everyone in the meantime.
I’ve read other books by this writer and in fact, have two more waiting in my stacks to be read. They tend to be hit or miss. This was somewhat of a miss with hit potential. I would give this three stars, but I’m downgrading it to two stars because of the Kuga-Ka character and the overkill associated with him. It really brought down my enjoyment of the novel. Nonetheless, cautiously, cautiously recommended for military sci fi fans.
But that’s not my complaint. Back on the base, there was a gunnery sergeant named Kuga-Ka who’s been a bully and a bastard who has everyone scared of him and who actually tortures his men. And he has his captain addicted to life threatening drugs, so he has him in his pocket. Meanwhile, the good guy of the novel, First Lieutenant Santana is brought in to lead his platoon in their company and let’s just say, the two don’t get along. Santana sees early what’s going on and confronts the man and threatens him with severe disciplinary action if things don’t change. To make matters worse, though, the Confederacy fights with warbots, cyborgs that are huge, seven foot fighting machines made from dead warriors and recorded personalities/souls/digitized recordings/etc with individualized “brain boxes” containing that “former” person’s personality in it, to be linked only and solely with its individualized cyborg body. And for reasons I either don’t recall or never really made totally clear to me, Kuga-Ka HATES one of these cyborgs with a passion, a female, and determines to steal her brain box. Why? What exactly does he plan on doing with it? Throwing it away? That might make some sense. But, no, he hangs on to it while traveling to other worlds through jungles and deserts, for months. He carries this brain box while wounded, hacking his way through jungles with a machete for what? Why does he hate this cyborg this much? For another thing, why does he hate ANYONE so much? Because he goes on a murdering spree, with some cronies of his. They’re captured, or at least he is, but upon getting to the next planet, he’s helped to escape and they’re off. A tracking team is sent after them, but they’re ambushed, tortured, and slaughtered, so that everyone can see them hanging there dead with their entrails hanging out of them. Nice. This asshole, while just a gunny, seems to know a little bit about everything. It’s amazing how much he knows. He knows about airships, about all sorts of weaponry, about close quarters combat, about sniping, about cybernetics, although he admits he’s no cybernetics tech, about negotiating with aliens, about tactics and strategy. My God, he’s the smartest man the military has ever produced! Too bad he’s the biggest psycho too, because for the life of me – and this is why I gave up – he has utterly NO motive whatsoever for being a hate filled nutjob on a murdering spree who hates Santana, who he’s known a couple of days, so much he wants to butcher him, and who hates this one cyborg, out of dozens – why her? Why any? –so much, that he turns traitor and gives himself in to the bugs and offers to help them track down his human ex-colleagues for the purpose of slaughtering them. And he wants to be paid and paid well for this. Nice.
OK, is this remotely believable? Isn’t this carrying things a bit too far, Dietz? I can understand resentments. I can understand people having issues. I can understand being pissed off. I can’t understand people being so psychotic that they go on two world killing sprees, torture, main, ambush, slaughter, turn themselves into the enemy and offer to help them kill your former colleagues, ALL FOR NO MOTIVE WHATSOEVER!!! Usually when people act this way, there’s some type of motive. A spouse or lover has been unfairly killed, or child or parent. Someone has lost their career. They’ve lost their life’s savings. Something HUGE has happened to someone to turn them into a killing monster and traitor. I don’t recall that happening to Kuga-Ka in this novel at all. He’s just a generic bastard to begin with. Someone who needs the shit beaten out of him from day one to begin with, but not someone who you would expect would go insane or who you would even think is intelligent enough to pull all of this stuff off. It just doesn’t make sense. Dietz takes a mediocre character from a minor situation and turns him into a super villain with super powers and it’s irritating and not believable. It’s just damned annoying after awhile. In fact, Kuga-Ka is so relentless in his hatred and murderous desires that it becomes almost comical and nearly ruins the dramatic elements of an otherwise decent military sci fi novel. If Dietz had dialed down this character A LOT, this book might have been fairly enjoyable. As it was, I got too pissed off after 300 pages to finish it and, as I said, I gave up. I don’t care enough to find out what happens. I just want the gunny to die a horrible death and I don’t care enough about the other characters to read on and see what happens to everyone in the meantime.
I’ve read other books by this writer and in fact, have two more waiting in my stacks to be read. They tend to be hit or miss. This was somewhat of a miss with hit potential. I would give this three stars, but I’m downgrading it to two stars because of the Kuga-Ka character and the overkill associated with him. It really brought down my enjoyment of the novel. Nonetheless, cautiously, cautiously recommended for military sci fi fans.
August 8, 2018
An excellent space romp. Enjoyed the pace and action with accomplished skill at creating plausible characters. Found myself wanting to know more about the characters which is unusual for an action-thriller sci-fi novel. Not being a gamer I think I enjoyed the book for what it was: a well told story. Great ideas presented well including the description of other worlds and their intertwining politics and relationships. As my first Dietz novel, I think I would be enticed to read more in the series.
January 14, 2018
I enjoy this series, but not enough to keep them. I will finish this later.
April 30, 2018
Another episode of Legion of the Damned. I enjoy this series. My only gripe is that I have trouble finding used copies to read!
April 18, 2013
[Legion of the Damned Book #6]
Careful plotting and realistically messy detail help lift Dietz's sixth military SF novel (after 2003's For More Than Glory) about the Legion of the Damned, an army of biobod humans, aliens and brain boxes installed in mechanical bodies, which defends the Confederacy of Sentient Beings against any threat. The present enemy, the insectoid Ramanthians, needs more planets to accommodate their queen's billions of eggs. When the Confederacy learns that a Ramanthian research outpost has developed a communications device that could win the war, an expedition sets out to capture the new technology. 1Lt Antonio Santana, a young Legionnaire Officer, must lead his troops through the perils of jungle, desert and ambush by psychotic renegades. Meanwhile, a young woman diplomat discovers that one of the Confederacy's alien races is secretly aiding the Ramanthians. Characters attempt to gather information, make political alliances and maneuver skillfully, but often their efforts degenerate into groping, murderous frenzy. Dietz expertly jumps from one theater of combat to another, one side to another, to show the opponents planning but then improvising as plans go awry. A genuine adrenaline rush.
Careful plotting and realistically messy detail help lift Dietz's sixth military SF novel (after 2003's For More Than Glory) about the Legion of the Damned, an army of biobod humans, aliens and brain boxes installed in mechanical bodies, which defends the Confederacy of Sentient Beings against any threat. The present enemy, the insectoid Ramanthians, needs more planets to accommodate their queen's billions of eggs. When the Confederacy learns that a Ramanthian research outpost has developed a communications device that could win the war, an expedition sets out to capture the new technology. 1Lt Antonio Santana, a young Legionnaire Officer, must lead his troops through the perils of jungle, desert and ambush by psychotic renegades. Meanwhile, a young woman diplomat discovers that one of the Confederacy's alien races is secretly aiding the Ramanthians. Characters attempt to gather information, make political alliances and maneuver skillfully, but often their efforts degenerate into groping, murderous frenzy. Dietz expertly jumps from one theater of combat to another, one side to another, to show the opponents planning but then improvising as plans go awry. A genuine adrenaline rush.
August 26, 2013
We are going on a bug hunt.
I was looking for a new author that I had not read before and I stumbled on to this book.
I didn't realize at the time it was book six in the series but I gave it a go anyway.
There are 2 or 3 very compelling characters in this story. I wish I had met them before they got to this stage of their existence. I will have to go back and find the first book to see what they were like.
The story itself is nothing special as far as sci-fi goes. Bugs take over what humans want, humans go get it back.
There are a couple of side stories to keep the characters developing.
All in all as a first read of a William Dietz book it was good.
I would read another of his works.
I was looking for a new author that I had not read before and I stumbled on to this book.
I didn't realize at the time it was book six in the series but I gave it a go anyway.
There are 2 or 3 very compelling characters in this story. I wish I had met them before they got to this stage of their existence. I will have to go back and find the first book to see what they were like.
The story itself is nothing special as far as sci-fi goes. Bugs take over what humans want, humans go get it back.
There are a couple of side stories to keep the characters developing.
All in all as a first read of a William Dietz book it was good.
I would read another of his works.
March 1, 2011
Jumped into this series with this book, and enjoyed it without having to read anything earlier in the series.
October 30, 2014
Another great book in the Legion of the Damned series.
The confederacy has been kicked off Earth and tries to find a home while dealing with a threat to Erath. Lots of great action
The confederacy has been kicked off Earth and tries to find a home while dealing with a threat to Erath. Lots of great action
September 5, 2013
stronger than the last few entries. it harkens back to the more tightly focused format of the first two books, which I enjoyed.
trekking onward...
trekking onward...
July 18, 2014
Great read but ready to finish the series it is going on way too long!
Read
May 28, 2015Don't know what the big deal is about this book-supposedly the book for Twilight fans. I read about 30% and could'nt get into the storyline as it seemed to make no sense.
March 25, 2016
Almost as good as "For more than Glory" but not quite there. Still a damn good romp in the Legion of the Damned series.
February 17, 2017
Kinda lame
Basically a war story with cardboard personalities and less imagination than your typical direct-to-TV sci-fi movie. Speaking of which, there is not much sci-fi here
Basically a war story with cardboard personalities and less imagination than your typical direct-to-TV sci-fi movie. Speaking of which, there is not much sci-fi here
August 25, 2016
Way to many story arcs for my taste
July 29, 2017
Great!
October 4, 2018
Good interstellar war story. Lots of action.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews