The Outposter

by Gordon R. Dickson

Trapped...The Outposters, a token band of specially trained experts, were given the task of guiding the exiled colonists in their harsh new environment and protecting them from the treachery of the enemy Meda V'Dans.
But the problems seemed insurmountable. For Earth was indifferent to her superfluous population and supply lines ran thin. The colonists were considered disposable "garbage."
But one young Outposter, Mark Ten Roos, had an old score to settle with the Meda V'Dans. Years ago they had killed his parents and now they had crippled his adopted father.
His plan was a daring challenge to the system. But could he change the odds...?

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Collections, Science Fiction Fantasy, Space Opera

187 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1972

About the author

Gordon Rupert Dickson was an American science fiction author. He was born in Canada, then moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota as a teenager. He is probably most famous for his Childe Cycle and the Dragon Knight series. He won three Hugo awards and one Nebula award.

Reviews

[Devero · Rating 2 out of 5]

Siamo in piena space opera, molto conquista del west nello spazio. La Terra sovrappopolata invia su altri pianeti il surplus di abitanti, che ne abbiano voglia o meno. Colonie di frontiera, con gli alieni Meda V'Dan che fanno la parte un poco degli indiani e un poco dei messicani della prima metà del 1800. Ma ci sono paralleli, nel finale, anche con la situazione pre-rivoluzione americana. Nel complesso un discreta storia, ma la parte scientifica è molto carente, abbandonata in favore dell'approfondimento sociologico.
2 stelle.

[Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Outposter was really enjoyable. I was telling a friend that I have never been a really big Gordon R Dickson fan but I may have to reevaluate that. This novel reminded me a lot of Jack Vance's Demon Princes series-at first I thought it was the similar plots (a young man whose parents are killed seeks revenge, with outer space as a backdrop) but having thought about I can see it is really about the essence of the protagonists themselves. Jack Vance's Kirth Gersen and Dickson's Mark Ten Roos are both very determined and competent individuals. They do not spend a lot of time engaged in self doubt, vacillation, or psychoanalysis. There is no wringing of hands-they plunge ahead and do what must be done. It is rather refreshing to read about that type of person. The Outposter was a good quick read with a satisfying conclusion.

[Stifynsemons · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.8 stars, I really liked it and likely will read again.

A novel premise underlies the Meda V'Dan alien culture and it is up to Mark to discover and manipulate. And makes fools of the establishment. He's too competent, insanely so, but in this story, that makes discovering the why of he figured things out as interesting as a fantasy story with a solid prophetic underpinning. Other characters in the story aren't exactly flat, but they aren't vibrant though.

[pol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book. Aliens, space colonies, space politics…space stuff. Good ending. Honestly way better than I thought it would be.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh.

Gordon R. Dickson was a childhood fave of mine, with the Dorsai novels being at the top of the list. But many of his sci-fi heroes are self-centered, arrogant a-holes. Maybe even sociopaths? The hero in this book falls at the high end of that spectrum.

Mark Ten Roos is an "Outposter" - that's kind of a frontier town mayor/marshal - in space. His parents were murdered by aliens when he was a child. To get his vengeance, he uses everyone, puts the entire human universe at risk and basically becomes inter-stellar Mussolini. Oh sure, there's some business at the end where he gives a speech saying how everything worked out because of those who were on his "team"... but they all know (as do we) that he was a team of one. Honestly, not sure why anyone would want to be anywhere near this egotistical butt-head, much less put everything on the line for him. The women here are basically arm-candy, but even at that, I'm not getting what they see in him either.

Despite all that, there is some interesting space-pirating going on. And it is Gordon R. Dickson, after all, so there's fun to be had in the read.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

An old book, 1976 paperback edition, copyright 1972.
A good swashbuckling adventure set in a time when Earth is overpopulated and there is a lottery that condemns 'winners' to be sent to colony worlds. The hero is actually from such a world and is returning to it after his education on Earth. We learn his parents were killed by a raid by an 'errant band' of traders and he was adopted by the head trader of that colony.
Typical of the time (1972) he is brooding, self-isolating, internally driven , brilliant character who has a mission and will stop at nothing, even his own projected destruction, to achieve that vision. Not even the obvious attraction to a beautiful woman will detract him, until it does, sort of.
Good adventure, summer reading!

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enteraining amd exciting space opera in the old style

[D.M. Dutcher · Rating 1 out of 5]

As much as I love Dickson, this is very bad Gordon Dickson writing.

Dickson tends to have recurring themes in his books, namely a smart young man from the mandarin class (scientist, usually) must deal with an interloping alien race by discovering how they tick and using that against them if possible, changing humanity if not. This book is a really slipshod version of those themes.

Mark is an outposter; born to people who were deported to populate space and prevent earth overpopulation. When he was just a baby, his parents were killed by an alien raid on his colony. He vows revenge.

However, there are so many problems with this story.

1. Mark was orphaned as a baby, and there is no real growing up scene to show us him developing his vengeance; he starts as an adult outpost trainee ready to start his own private war.
2. Mark is unlikable, and is obsessed with revenge. Most Dickson protagonists in this theme tend to have similar awkwardness or inability to understand people because they are set apart, but Mark is unlikable because he is plan first and always, and doesn't go through the normal humanizing things Dickson characters go through.
3. Everyone lets Mark do his plan, which is absurd. There's no reason to trust him, and he is very much a male mary sue.
4. The aliens, unlike other dickson books, are very underwhelming and are off screen most of the book. The explanation of their "weakness" was a little insulting.

If you want a better treatment of these themes, Way of The Pilgrim is much more exciting. This is just bad overall.

[Kevin Phyland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Young Mark Ten Roos has been sent to the space station Abruzzi Fourteen, orbiting Garnera VI as an outposter. They protect the interests of the usually unwilling colonists, drawn by lottery from an overcrowded Earth. But Mark has more on his mind than just a tour of duty. His family were slaughtered by the alien Meda V’Dan and he has sworn revenge, not only on the aliens themselves but on the Navy, grown lax and corrupt over time. In a word he plots a revolution. Picking some colonists with skills he needs for his posting, he succeeds in annoying a Meda D’Val trader on board the transit ship and decides that if he can lure the aliens into a ‘renegade’ attack on Abruzzi Station he will have excuse enough for a reprisal. After soothing ruffled feathers both on station and with the Navy, Mark plans an even bigger assault, disguised as a trading mission. What he finds out about the Meda D’Val tempts him to an action which on the surface seems reckless but achieves some degree of closure. If it wasn’t for the relative unlikeability of the main character this would have been a satisfying piece of space opera. Gordon R. Dickson seems to have used the same template as for The Tactics Of Mistake when plotting this book.

[Simon Mcleish · Rating 3 out of 5]

Early novel by Gordon R. Dickson which is not in itself a great piece of science fiction (it's basically a fairly generic tale of Earth badly treating colony worlds, vaguely reminiscent of the American war of independence), but which contains interesting pre-echoes of his best known work, the Dorsai novels and especially the character of Cletus Grahame in Tactics of Mistake, the man who can understand the true meaning of social trends and take advantage of them for his own purposes.

[Lesa Loves Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pooh! I highly anticipated reading 'Outposter' since Gordon R. Dickson wrote one of my favorite sci-fi short stories but it didn't live up to my expectations. I liked it okay. Outposter is a cowboys in space 'they done kilt my pa' revenge story but the cover blurb is misleading. Mark was not a little boy when the aliens killed his parents and it didn't happen before his eyes. He was a six week old newborn, for synopsis' sake!

[James Mcnulty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic Gordon Dickson space opera, I read it in college (1972). Not in the topmost tier of his writng, but a solid read: crowded earth, shipping excess population to the colonies, corrupt government & corporations and the honest honorable Out poster, defender of the colonists. A book very much of its time. Dickson was a formative influence in my reading of SF in my young adult years., a wonderful writer.

[Sir Blue · Rating 5 out of 5]

The outposter was wrote by master
gordon dickson.
I had read his fantasy the
"dragon and his george. "Where he turns into dragons.
Here we find mark who was made outposter after his parents were killed.
An outposter is kind of like a planets sherif.
Then the "Meda V Dan "an alien race makes contact. They trade they make wars.
There are navy battles.
Mark must return to earth after the
Meda v dan war.

[Darrell Picnic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book

Read this book 40 years ago and it is still as good now as it was then. I would recommend it to anyone who likes Scifi and finds reading a great way to spend an evening.

[Thom Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Typical old style sf

A SUPERIOR man enlists or bullies normal people to do his will to assert the superior earthian (old style sf usually called these folks Terrans) goals and or saves the race from itself. Essentially Lawrence of Arabia in outer space.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't delve into science fiction too often, but found this one entertaining enough.
The overall concept of the book kept me interested, although I never closely attached to any of the characters, which was disappointing.

[Al "Tank" · Rating 5 out of 5]

I fine adventure with twists at the end. Well-written with an interesting cast of characters. I especially liked the self-centered banking expert (but then, I'm warped).

[Spencer Dunn · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know what! It worked for me! Definitely a pulpy sci-fi book- but it comes together really nicely at the end, and I even felt a twinge of emotion!! Perfect cottage read.

[Winter D'Arcy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really solid book. It meanders a bit at the beginning but it quickly finds it footing.

[Mark Bates · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good old school SciFi.

[Scott Holstad · Rating 4 out of 5]

This isn't a bad book, but it's not a great book either. Above average?

Earth is overpopulated -- has been for 100 years -- and has a lottery where the "winners" are turned into colonists who are shipped to Earth's colonies around the galaxy. There they presumably lead miserable lives, all under the watch of Outposters, sort of frontier cops. One thing I didn't understand was why entire worlds and their colonists are being protected by groups of four or five outposters.... How are so few supposed to stave off alien attacks and protect the populace (and keep the peace)? That seemed pretty weak in the story line to me.

But there are indeed aliens. We have the Meda V'dan, a predatory alien race that has been attacking the colonies, stealing various supplies and killing outposters for years. Thus we meet Mark Ten Roos, an 18-year-old outposter whose parents were killed by the Meda V'dan when he was young and whose adoptive father, an outposter, has just been crippled in a Meda V'dan attack on a colony. Mark has been studying on Earth for five years and now he's going back out to the colonies, but he's got big plans. He wants to rid the galaxy of the Meda V'dan and will let nothing get in his way. Along the way, he recruits various colonists who have training that will be able to help him, such as space navigation, bookkeeping (he wants to turn the colonies into self-sustaining entities, since they're reliant on the earth for everything), a former Marine for security, etc. He's ticked at the Navy, which has sat back and done nothing about these attacks for fear of starting a war with this alien race.

Now, one would think over a 100 year period, the colonists would have gotten to the point where they could be self sustaining, the Navy could have built up its power so that it could take on the Meda V'dan, etc., et al, but these plot weaknesses never occur to Dickson, the author. Odd.

Mark "borrows" a few ships from the Navy, gets some colonists trained in how to use them, and visits the Meda V'dan city on another planet, on both a spying mission and under the guise of setting up trade with them. However, he burns for revenge, and gambles that the aliens will attack his planet after his visit. He's not disappointed. Three Meda V'dan ships appear and attack his colony, but he's prepared and has guns and ships ready. He takes two out while a third escapes. He then borrows more and bigger ships from the Navy and goes to attack the Meda V'dan city, hitting them where they live.

Now, I'm going to go no further because that would give away the ending and I don't want to do that. Suffice it to say that things turn out fairly well, the colonists gain their independence from Earth, Mark disappears with an interesting love interest, and the book ends a bit anticlimactically, frankly. Partially satisfying, partly not. Still, I guess I like the ending enough to give this book four stars. There are holes in the plot and Mark's superhuman work ethic and narrow-sighted desire for revenge make him hard to buy as a character at times, but he's a decent protagonist, even if he is the 18-year-old savior of the galaxy, which seems unlikely. It's a good quick read. I finished it in a day. I cautiously recommend this book to sci fi fans, and obviously to any Dickson fan who hasn't yet read it.

[Richard Tongue · Rating 4 out of 5]

While an excellent book – and one I have read more than once – this is ultimately frustrating, a good book let down by a somewhat lacklustre ending. It begins with the assignment of one 'Mark Ten Roos' as an Outposter, essentially a combination of a colonial commissioner and a federal marshal, with a mandate to protect the people of Earth's colonies, all of whom were selected on a draft basis – with the result that none of the colonies have reached a point of self-sufficiency, instead remaining dependent on Earth. The other problem – the Meda V'dan, a predatory alien race that has been attacking the colonies, stealing supplies and killing outposters, while Earth's navy sits back and does nothing for fear of provoking the war.

This situation does seem to me somewhat artificial, I must admit; the setting has this being the case for more than half a century, and after that much time, I would have thought that the children or grandchildren of the original colonists might have adapted, and that someone would have noticed the Navy was useless. Nevertheless, the setting is well and concisely realized, along with the stratified class structure which has emerged – which mostly boils down to those who can be drafted, and those who cannot.

In steps Mark, who has been trained both as an outposter and as a sociologist, and who is determined to crack the problem once and for all. He recruits a selection of skilled draftees and puts them to work, and starts training the colonists to defend themselves, instead of being reliant on the outposters for survival, a policy that has effect when he persuades the Navy to 'loan' him some ships. In the end, he takes on the Meda V'dan, and (spoiler alert) they vanish.

The plot has built up really well in a short space of time, but instead of the climactic confrontation that is expected, the enemy just goes away. Now this makes perfect sense in the context of the book, that I will grant you, but it does rather lead for a disappointing ending; I can't help but wonder if the author hadn't written himself a bit into a corner. While a bit heavy-handed in places, it is an enjoyable romp, and I can recommend it for a night's read.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Outposter is classic space opera-- a western written in an outer space setting. The Aliens are the Indians and the outposters and colonists are the settlers.

With that understanding, you might enjoy this one. It is an interesting enough novel, with some neat ideas about an alien culture, but overall, it is one cut above mediocre.

Mark was orphaned by an alien raid and raised by the station master until age 13 when he was sent back to Earth for schooling. Now, he has returned to his home colony and begins to work to eck out his revenge against the aliens who attacked him. In order to do so, he must overcome the Earth bureaucracy, a less than efficient space navy who is supposed to protect the colonists, but doing very little, and the opposition of the colonists themselves who are afraid of bringing more raids and attacks on their colonies.

Dickson is not at his best with this one. He struggles with describing space battles-- David Weber and John Ringo he is not... At one point, he has his colonists shooting at enemy space ships with handheld weapons. He doesn't describe these weapons well and the reader is left wondering how powerful such weapons must be because they actually do damage the ships. If you are looking for a good space war novel, this one isn't it.

The story is interesting because of Mark's handling of both his people and the aliens-- but somehow it just doesn't really reach GREAT SCIENCE FICTION writing. Sometimes, a space western can be pretty good.. and if you don't think Space Western ideas work-- look at Han Solo blasting the alien from under the table in the cantina... you don't get much more western than that.

[David H. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this in serialized form (as published over 3 parts in the May through July 1971 issues of Analog). It may differ from the final complete publication.

This was a weirdly disappointing novel. I was expecting the competent hero that we got in Mark, since we got one in Dickson's previous serial, Tactics of Mistake, but I wasn't expecting just how shallow and simplistic it felt, like a highlights reel of the actual story. Mark is an Outposter, a sort of marshal on the frontier of the Colonies. As soon as he gets there he takes over the Outposter station and sets in motion a bizarre plan apparently based on nothing concrete (Why does everyone trust him? He's literally 18 years old). The aliens are routed, hurray, and the ending just... yes? OK?

(I have not been having too much luck with these Analog serials so far!)

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mark reminded me of a sociopath. And I really have no idea how he decided to become this traditional man who would raise a family with Ulla, although yes, I admit that he was simply fascinated with her. Mark's too consumed with the thought of revenge with the Meda D'Van, and the way he acted is pretty scary. Ultimate genius, clever warrior, and a thirst for blood to avenge the family he didn't have. Downright scary, alright. And the colonies are stupid, like the navy, and the Earth-city's aristocrats. They also have like, 5 Outposters max per colony. No shit? Anybody ever thought of a rebellion? Alright book with plot holes. Fast read.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

A straightforward, old-fashioned sci-fi tale. It's fun to read this kind of book that I remember from my childhood, because science fiction was much less complicated back then: not a good or bad thing, just different. This is a simple, imaginative tale told without much world-building or character development or technology: what if we were like this and there was an alien race like this, how would we bounce off each other? Kind of a cool "one man changes the universe" style tale, too, which is fun to read.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Outposter is a fun sci-fi read. It also offers an interesting look at deciphering the values of another culture, the role of the "hero" in society, and the frontier spirit vs the decadence of modern society.

[Erik Graff · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mediocre science fiction novel based on a three-part Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact series in 1971.

[Helga Ganguly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the character of Mark. He reminded me of the heros in the Childe Cycle. Dickson loves his one in a million characters.

[Michael Head · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok. Good escapist sci-fi. Easy to read. Nice character development. Satisfying ending. If I was comparing it to a meal I would say it was a nice lunch BLT good taste and not hungry afterwards.