Seeds of War

by Kevin D. Randle, Robert Cornett, R. Cornett

It was war. The enemy...Alien, unknown, incredibly distant. The troops...reluctant volunteers, young and afraid. The stars... their training ground, the school where each must learn the soldier's craft. The journeys end...a battle unimaginable, on a planet decades from home.

Genres: Science Fiction

265 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published August 1, 1986

About the author

Ufologist and historic fiction & science fiction writer.

Within the UFO community he is often regarded as one of the preeminent experts on the reported crash of a UFO near Roswell, New Mexico in July 1947.

A professional writer with more than 80 books to his credit, Randle is perhaps best known for his books about UFOs and the Roswell story.

Reviews

[Robert D · Rating 3 out of 5]

When the slightly dystopian future the reformed United American Government discovers that a space ship sent out decades ago to Alpha Ceti was attacked and destroyed. (While radio communications travel at light speed the ships are still limited to relativistic drives.) The president declares war and the draft is started for soldiers that will travel for years training during their flight.

The book jumps between different characters every chapter. Some characters only have a couple of chapters. Most of the chapters are centered on the recruits and reveals different aspects of their training. Once the story arrives to the target planet around Alpha Ceti the number of protagonist limits itself but still jumps back and forth. The plot is a bit weak and it's pretty obvious that inhabitants lack the technology to have destroyed the first earth spaceship but the soldiers continue the mission of 'pacifying' a hostile race.

I'm not sure if this was intended to be a trilogy from the start the book does not denote itself as being book one, but the reader should be aware there are two more books in the series.

[Freyja · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shades of Forever War. I liked that the story was told from several different viewpoints. That kept it a bit more interesting. There's plenty of technical details for those who like that (like me) and plenty of character development. The violence (and accidents) are not sugar-coated.

It's been a few years since I last read this book, certainly since I moved across the Bay as this book is still in a box in the basement. We need more room for bookshelves so the books can get out and be re-read. We could start a science fiction and fantasy reading library with what we have.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this almost 20 years ago. I don't remember much, other than it was a military SF story about a bunch of green recruits going off to war against aliens on Alpha Centauri, for reasons that were never really made clear.