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Iron Scepter
Book by Scepter, Seddon, Andrew M.
- GenresScience Fiction
262 pages, Paperback
First published February 13, 2001
15 people want to read
About the author
Andrew M. Seddon
33 books25 followersI was born in England, but have lived most of my life in the US... upstate NY, Maryland, West Virginia, and for the past 30 years, Montana. I am semi-retired, and my wonderful wife Olivia (a veterinarian) and I divide our time between Montana and Florida. Our dogs - Rex ,my German Shepherd, and Bakhita, Olivia's Chiweenie - love both places as well.
I began writing in 1990, both fiction and non-fiction. My genres are science fiction, historical fiction, and supernatural fiction (I don't like the term horror, but that's what Goodreads had me choose). I like mixing genres.
When not writing, my wife and I can be found running marathons, hiking, or travelling.
I began writing in 1990, both fiction and non-fiction. My genres are science fiction, historical fiction, and supernatural fiction (I don't like the term horror, but that's what Goodreads had me choose). I like mixing genres.
When not writing, my wife and I can be found running marathons, hiking, or travelling.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 4, 2020
Back in 2006 (pre-Goodreads), I read the first edition of this novel, and wrote a "retrospective" review from memory about six years later. Andrew (who's a good personal friend --but that doesn't govern my reviews or ratings!) recently gifted me with a copy of the completely re-written new edition. My intention had been, after this second read, to compare the new text with the first book (which is on a shelf in my office at work). Having to quarantine at home due to coming down with COVID-19, however, nixed that plan. But while the course of the new read brought back memories of the basic lines of the plot, I do think there are also differences (which, of course, would be in keeping with the author's idea of doing a new edition in the first place!). Accordingly, therefore, I'm taking the unusual step of deleting the original text of my review and completely re-writing it, so that a new telling of the story gets the completely fresh review based on a fresh reading that it deserves. (My apologies to those who liked the first draft of this review; hopefully the new version won't contain anything that would make you "unlike" it!)
None of Andrew's SF novels and story collections are billed as part of a series; but they all fit into the chronology of an over-arching imaginary future "history" of human space exploration and colonization. However, this novel and two others, Wreaths of Empire and its prequel Farhope, although those two are set decades later, are more closely related than the others. If he ever did bill any of his work as a series, those three and a projected fourth book would be the best candidate! (Readers should also be warned that both later books, and my reviews of them, contain a major spoiler for the plot of this book.) Future human colonization of the galaxy is a staple premise in the SF genre, usually explained by the invention of faster-than-light (FTL) space travel. "Hard" SF purists (who want tales solidly extrapolated from actual science), though, always had reservations about the latter, since Einstein asserted that it's impossible. Writing in that tradition, Andrew instead posits "hyperspace travel" and gives a half-page explanation of how it supposedly works. (If, like me, you don't understand any of it and totally don't care --I'm basically a "soft" SF fan, anyway-- you can just ignore this and go on.)
Within that genre-wide context, though, much of the literature and movie/TV treatments of galaxy-wide expansion also shared an accompanying premise of a galaxy-wide centralized single Utopian government, whose happy and contented subjects have all long ago embraced a warm-fuzzy secular humanist ideology which homogenizes all nasty localism and unites the whole hive behind The Greater Good. The ideological roots of this go back to the "economic liberalism" of the 18th-century, with its exaltation of "rationalization" and "centralization" of economic and political power and its distaste for traditional ethics and religion which stood in the way of said rationalization and centralization. It handed that vision of the supposed "inevitable" Utopian rachet of history, developed into a secular substitute for religion, down to both its "Left" and "Right" descendants today. Both were prominent in the pulp-magazine milieu that shaped U.S. SF in the inter-war years. Galactic government, in that view, was just the natural step up from the popular goal of world government and economic "globalism."
All three of these novels share, as a common thread, the premise that this far-future galaxy (or at least its human-occupied part) is dominated by an incarnation of this dream, the Hegemony, extrapolated directly --and, here, supposedly historically evolved directly-- from today's bureaucratic, quasi-authoritarian nation-States. Worlds that were colonized 300 years earlier, in the first flush of Expansion, by people seeking better lives are now being "re-integrated" by the better-financed and more high-tech steamroller of Hegemony expansion. But readers shouldn't break out the champagne; Andrew's own vision is informed by the ethical and religious traditions economic liberalism repudiated (and probably by knowledge of the contemporary effects of "globalism" on the populations in its gunsights). The Hegemony government is dictatorial, responsible only to itself, and while it can mouth the policy goals of the World Controllers from Brave New World, it's also quite willing to use the tactics of Big Brother in 1984. Populations its satraps deem too "regressed" are routinely massacred so their worlds can be taken over by others; all the rest lose their independence, and free thought is tolerated only as long as it's kept quiet and doesn't challenge anything the Hegemony does.
This book is framed by notations supposedly made in 2595 A. D., concerning a document from 2495, now newly de-classified as per policy. That document is the body of the book, and begins with Hegemony Maj. Karel Novacek of the Hegemony's feared Political and Ideological Bureau (its equivalent of the Gestapo or KGB) explaining how he came to create and transmit it from deep space. It then drops back to events starting when he's in his office on the newly-conquered human world of Lenore (pop. ca. 65,000), a relatively cold but habitable planet. His narrative will incorporate some flashbacks to the conquest itself, and to events in his childhood and prior career. So far, "reintegration" has been routine --but it's about to get dicier; and it's very soon going to get a LOT more complicated, with a major surprise that's going to put Lenore at the center of the fate of the galaxy. And Maj. Novacek will have to embark on a very unpredictable mental journey.
As in all of his work (unlike some of hard SF's less-stellar specimens), Andrew tells a gripping, meaningful story with serious food for thought, which concentrates on human beings --their relationships, character development, and moral choices-- not on hardware and speculative science. He creates very realistic, nuanced characters whom the reader can understand clearly. The plotting is taut, often tensely suspenseful (even on a second read, albeit of an earlier version!) and incorporating significant surprises which make sense within the book's internal logic. It delivers enough action for space opera fans, but should appeal to readers looking for serious themes as well.
None of Andrew's SF novels and story collections are billed as part of a series; but they all fit into the chronology of an over-arching imaginary future "history" of human space exploration and colonization. However, this novel and two others, Wreaths of Empire and its prequel Farhope, although those two are set decades later, are more closely related than the others. If he ever did bill any of his work as a series, those three and a projected fourth book would be the best candidate! (Readers should also be warned that both later books, and my reviews of them, contain a major spoiler for the plot of this book.) Future human colonization of the galaxy is a staple premise in the SF genre, usually explained by the invention of faster-than-light (FTL) space travel. "Hard" SF purists (who want tales solidly extrapolated from actual science), though, always had reservations about the latter, since Einstein asserted that it's impossible. Writing in that tradition, Andrew instead posits "hyperspace travel" and gives a half-page explanation of how it supposedly works. (If, like me, you don't understand any of it and totally don't care --I'm basically a "soft" SF fan, anyway-- you can just ignore this and go on.)
Within that genre-wide context, though, much of the literature and movie/TV treatments of galaxy-wide expansion also shared an accompanying premise of a galaxy-wide centralized single Utopian government, whose happy and contented subjects have all long ago embraced a warm-fuzzy secular humanist ideology which homogenizes all nasty localism and unites the whole hive behind The Greater Good. The ideological roots of this go back to the "economic liberalism" of the 18th-century, with its exaltation of "rationalization" and "centralization" of economic and political power and its distaste for traditional ethics and religion which stood in the way of said rationalization and centralization. It handed that vision of the supposed "inevitable" Utopian rachet of history, developed into a secular substitute for religion, down to both its "Left" and "Right" descendants today. Both were prominent in the pulp-magazine milieu that shaped U.S. SF in the inter-war years. Galactic government, in that view, was just the natural step up from the popular goal of world government and economic "globalism."
All three of these novels share, as a common thread, the premise that this far-future galaxy (or at least its human-occupied part) is dominated by an incarnation of this dream, the Hegemony, extrapolated directly --and, here, supposedly historically evolved directly-- from today's bureaucratic, quasi-authoritarian nation-States. Worlds that were colonized 300 years earlier, in the first flush of Expansion, by people seeking better lives are now being "re-integrated" by the better-financed and more high-tech steamroller of Hegemony expansion. But readers shouldn't break out the champagne; Andrew's own vision is informed by the ethical and religious traditions economic liberalism repudiated (and probably by knowledge of the contemporary effects of "globalism" on the populations in its gunsights). The Hegemony government is dictatorial, responsible only to itself, and while it can mouth the policy goals of the World Controllers from Brave New World, it's also quite willing to use the tactics of Big Brother in 1984. Populations its satraps deem too "regressed" are routinely massacred so their worlds can be taken over by others; all the rest lose their independence, and free thought is tolerated only as long as it's kept quiet and doesn't challenge anything the Hegemony does.
This book is framed by notations supposedly made in 2595 A. D., concerning a document from 2495, now newly de-classified as per policy. That document is the body of the book, and begins with Hegemony Maj. Karel Novacek of the Hegemony's feared Political and Ideological Bureau (its equivalent of the Gestapo or KGB) explaining how he came to create and transmit it from deep space. It then drops back to events starting when he's in his office on the newly-conquered human world of Lenore (pop. ca. 65,000), a relatively cold but habitable planet. His narrative will incorporate some flashbacks to the conquest itself, and to events in his childhood and prior career. So far, "reintegration" has been routine --but it's about to get dicier; and it's very soon going to get a LOT more complicated, with a major surprise that's going to put Lenore at the center of the fate of the galaxy. And Maj. Novacek will have to embark on a very unpredictable mental journey.
As in all of his work (unlike some of hard SF's less-stellar specimens), Andrew tells a gripping, meaningful story with serious food for thought, which concentrates on human beings --their relationships, character development, and moral choices-- not on hardware and speculative science. He creates very realistic, nuanced characters whom the reader can understand clearly. The plotting is taut, often tensely suspenseful (even on a second read, albeit of an earlier version!) and incorporating significant surprises which make sense within the book's internal logic. It delivers enough action for space opera fans, but should appeal to readers looking for serious themes as well.
May 24, 2021
What an absolutely fantastic read! In the beginning, I had a few doubts, as I did have a little trouble getting into the storyline and following along, but after just a few chapters, the book took off, and took me with it!. This story was fun, creative and vivid. Seddon has a beautiful way with words. Several times I stopped and reread things, just to soak in the imagery. His world building was great-this was the first space adventure book I've read, and the descriptions of the other planets made me want to visit them just to see them in real life. The lead character, Novacek, was complex and though at first unrelatable for me individually, he really pulled through and in the end, the novel was just as much about second chances as it was aliens and space travel. A truly great sci-fi story, more than worth the read!
May 20, 2021
I loves me some good military sci-fi, and this story didn’t disappoint.
The story is told in first person, from the perspective of Major Novacek. Whenever you write first person, you have advantages and disadvantages, and you have to accept the good with the bad. The good is that you get to see the main character’s POV a lot more intimately, and the author does a good job of this, including some interesting and important backstory. The bad is that you don’t see any one else’s POV, which really can limit your story sometimes.
Because of this, the story is really the story of one man, this Major Novacek. He starts off as a pretty hard-nosed character, and he tries to keep his hard image, even after coming in contact with the colonial woman on the planet Lenore. There are shades of Roman occupation here, and their view of Pax Romana, of an iron fist being the only solution for peace. But the people of Lenore aren’t going to take things lying down, and they have secrets that are revealed as they story develops. In addition to this, we have aliens. And who doesn’t like aliens?
In fact, I would have liked to have seen more about the aliens. And going back to the POV, I think the story would have been stronger if we would have seen more than just Novacek’s viewpoint.
The story is told in first person, from the perspective of Major Novacek. Whenever you write first person, you have advantages and disadvantages, and you have to accept the good with the bad. The good is that you get to see the main character’s POV a lot more intimately, and the author does a good job of this, including some interesting and important backstory. The bad is that you don’t see any one else’s POV, which really can limit your story sometimes.
Because of this, the story is really the story of one man, this Major Novacek. He starts off as a pretty hard-nosed character, and he tries to keep his hard image, even after coming in contact with the colonial woman on the planet Lenore. There are shades of Roman occupation here, and their view of Pax Romana, of an iron fist being the only solution for peace. But the people of Lenore aren’t going to take things lying down, and they have secrets that are revealed as they story develops. In addition to this, we have aliens. And who doesn’t like aliens?
In fact, I would have liked to have seen more about the aliens. And going back to the POV, I think the story would have been stronger if we would have seen more than just Novacek’s viewpoint.
January 21, 2017
"An empire may be built by force, but it must be maintained by peace."
We have met the evil empire, and they are us. While the human Hegemony unravels and humans make first contact with sentient aliens in the background, on stage our protagonist—a minion of said evil empire—has a crisis of faith in the Hegemony, his leaders, and himself when he’s supposed to be subduing a rediscovered human world and starting a galactic war. He’s helped over the edge by an irritatingly wholesome local, who expects better from him than does he.
The story is great; the storytelling is just a bit “on the nose.” Even though told in a first person point of view, the tale need not explain everything to the reader.
Few of the scientific gaffs found so often in contemporary science fiction.
Quibble: if the locals plan to ambush the Hegemony space fleet by surprise, why alert them to continued resistance by attacking them on the ground? I know, they had to make the attack for the alien ambassador to accidentally fall into their hands, but it comes across as contrived.
Lots of soul searching.
A good read. More like 3.5 stars
We have met the evil empire, and they are us. While the human Hegemony unravels and humans make first contact with sentient aliens in the background, on stage our protagonist—a minion of said evil empire—has a crisis of faith in the Hegemony, his leaders, and himself when he’s supposed to be subduing a rediscovered human world and starting a galactic war. He’s helped over the edge by an irritatingly wholesome local, who expects better from him than does he.
The story is great; the storytelling is just a bit “on the nose.” Even though told in a first person point of view, the tale need not explain everything to the reader.
Few of the scientific gaffs found so often in contemporary science fiction.
Quibble: if the locals plan to ambush the Hegemony space fleet by surprise, why alert them to continued resistance by attacking them on the ground? I know, they had to make the attack for the alien ambassador to accidentally fall into their hands, but it comes across as contrived.
Lots of soul searching.
A good read. More like 3.5 stars
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 25, 2021
Political intrigue, the pitfalls of warmongering and coercive leadership; some of the themes of this brisk galactic drama. Will history repeat itself should humanity, one day, venture out in an interstellar diaspora? I hope not but it seems to be the premise that Seddon wishes you to entertain. Well-written with great dialogue.
April 22, 2021
The memoir of Major Novacek begins with the retelling of his adventures as the chief Ideological Bureau officer on the newly occupied, icy planet Lenore. Facing a resilient, fiercely independent society unwilling to submit to occupation, Novacheck discovers that their pride is rooted in an old-forgotten faith.
I loved this book because of the beautiful prose, captivating space-opera settings, and intriguing characters. Major Novacheck may be difficult to sympathize with at the beginning, but as the plot moves along he becomes very likable, complex, and realistic in his internal conflicts and infatuations.
The military-like political organization ruling the Hegemony is a realistic projection of many past and current-day totalitarian regimes, and so are the cultural norms it uses to justify genocide and oppression. Iron Scepter is a delightful beginning to a series I look forward to reading.
I loved this book because of the beautiful prose, captivating space-opera settings, and intriguing characters. Major Novacheck may be difficult to sympathize with at the beginning, but as the plot moves along he becomes very likable, complex, and realistic in his internal conflicts and infatuations.
The military-like political organization ruling the Hegemony is a realistic projection of many past and current-day totalitarian regimes, and so are the cultural norms it uses to justify genocide and oppression. Iron Scepter is a delightful beginning to a series I look forward to reading.
May 24, 2021
Political intrigue, the pitfalls of warmongering and coercive leadership; some of the themes of this brisk galactic drama. Will history repeat itself should humanity, one day, venture out in an interstellar diaspora? I hope not but it seems to be the premise that Seddon wishes you to entertain. Well-written with great dialogue.
May 31, 2021
The year is 2495 A.D. when the Earth-based Hegemony is expanding its influence across the galaxy to integrate independent worlds settled during an earlier expansion phase. Major Karel Novacek is the ranking officer of the Hegemony’s Political and Ideological Bureau assigned to Lenore, a cold world of about 65,000 inhabitants that is slated for integration into the Hegemony. Novacek faces the difficulty that the inhabitants of Lenore don’t want to integrate. After the Hegemony navy easily destroys the defending Lenore fleet, Novacek has to quell an underground resistance movement. The first contact with an alien space-traveling species further complicates his Lenore mission, but also draws him into a much bigger political gambit.
The fast moving plot, the surprises, and the battle that Novacek fights within himself as he carries out the ruthless dictates of the Bureau, make this the best science fiction book I have read in a long time. Not only is the plot exciting, but many times I found myself thinking about the weighty questions facing Novacek as he agonizes over the conflicting dictates that arise from obedience and loyalty to the Bureau and doing what is right. I’m looking forward to reading two of Seddon’s other books, Farhope and Wreaths of Empire, in the near future.
The fast moving plot, the surprises, and the battle that Novacek fights within himself as he carries out the ruthless dictates of the Bureau, make this the best science fiction book I have read in a long time. Not only is the plot exciting, but many times I found myself thinking about the weighty questions facing Novacek as he agonizes over the conflicting dictates that arise from obedience and loyalty to the Bureau and doing what is right. I’m looking forward to reading two of Seddon’s other books, Farhope and Wreaths of Empire, in the near future.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews