What do you think?
Rate this book
Cain's Land
Solely because of his brilliant leadership and daring tactical skills, renegade Lieutenant-Colonel Anton Vereshchagin has been lured out of retirement by a representative of His Imperial Majesty's Japanese government -- the same government Vereshchagin betrayed when he led the planet Suid-Afrika in a successful revolt, after he had commanded the Japanese campaign to conquer it.
Now Vereshchagin's dangerous mission is to make the first manned contact with the inhabitants of the newly discovered planet Go-Nihon. The potential benefits to mankind are enormous, but so are the perils. For beneath the planet's alien beauty lurks a civilization whose technology is in some areas slightly ahead of man's -- and a race whose instincts may be far deadlier.
When Vereshchagin's tiny fleet enters orbit around Go-Nihon, it is met with nuclear rockets. But those are easily destroyed, so the planet's rulers agree to negotiations and all seems to be going well. Then, in a surprise attack, the aliens kidnap the entire negotiation team, and Vereshchagin has to coordinate the assaults from space, ground attacks, and commando missions to rescue the prisoners and convince the aliens of the value of peaceful coexistence.
It's a lesson Vereshchagin and the men of his 1st Battalion, 35th Infantry (Rifle) could die trying to teach...
Now Vereshchagin's dangerous mission is to make the first manned contact with the inhabitants of the newly discovered planet Go-Nihon. The potential benefits to mankind are enormous, but so are the perils. For beneath the planet's alien beauty lurks a civilization whose technology is in some areas slightly ahead of man's -- and a race whose instincts may be far deadlier.
When Vereshchagin's tiny fleet enters orbit around Go-Nihon, it is met with nuclear rockets. But those are easily destroyed, so the planet's rulers agree to negotiations and all seems to be going well. Then, in a surprise attack, the aliens kidnap the entire negotiation team, and Vereshchagin has to coordinate the assaults from space, ground attacks, and commando missions to rescue the prisoners and convince the aliens of the value of peaceful coexistence.
It's a lesson Vereshchagin and the men of his 1st Battalion, 35th Infantry (Rifle) could die trying to teach...
301 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 29, 1995
34 people want to read
About the author
Robert A. Frezza
5 books11 followersAn American writer who began publishing SF with "Max Weber's War" for Amazing, January 1987.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 7, 2014
The last of this series is an excellent one as our aged heroes and their former enemies must first look into mankind's first alien contact.Then, when it becomes clear that they're hostile, they must find a way to communicate humankind's peaceful intentions by showing them that if they hit us, we'll hit them harder, but not so hard as to start an interstellar war.
Freeza never wrote another novel after this one as far as I can tell and I've always found that sadly disappointing. While there's no-where for our protagonists to go--unlike many series many characters die and they all age--there's at least two, probably three, prequels that could be written about these characters and I'd read them the second they were published. Oh well, it's been decades but perhaps he'll turn his hand to writing again. I hope so.
Freeza never wrote another novel after this one as far as I can tell and I've always found that sadly disappointing. While there's no-where for our protagonists to go--unlike many series many characters die and they all age--there's at least two, probably three, prequels that could be written about these characters and I'd read them the second they were published. Oh well, it's been decades but perhaps he'll turn his hand to writing again. I hope so.
June 17, 2015
The last of three books in this series, and the last of five books by this author, CAIN'S LAND does not dissapoint. Intelligent, full of dry wit, and well written, the novel is amomg the best Military SF available, and one of the better First Contact novels. You could start with it, but would be better off going back to the beginning, in A SMALL COLONIAL WAR. People who do not like to lose familliar characters, who believe that academics should make policy, or who dislike the military will not enjoy it.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews