War World: Cyborg Revolt

War World #11

by Jerry Pournelle (Series Creator), John F. Carr (Editor), Donald Hawthorne

The battle between the Sauron Coalition of Secession and the First Empire of Man in the twenty-seventh century ended in a war of extermination and the all-out bombardment of the planet Sauron. The only surviving Sauron spaceship, the Fomoria, is commanded by Vessel First Rank Galen Diettinger. Fleeing Imperial pursuit, the Saurons land on Haven, a hardscrabble world of extreme temperatures, hard radiation, deadly flora and fauna and wastelands containing some of the toughest humans in occupied space. Born in rebellions and civil war, life on Haven is a constant struggle against the harsh moon’s environment, as well as its other occupants—animal and human—all desperate to carve out their own niche. On this desolate moon, the Sauron Soldiers not only have to fight off the human inhabitants, but face a mutiny in their own ranks, as the Cyborg Super Soldiers make a bid to rule the last surviving colony. The Cyborgs are the ultimate product of Sauron’s millennium-long eugenics program and as such are the end-point in the Race’s military development. To the Super Soldiers it is unthinkable that a mere Soldier—no matter how brilliant—should command the new Sauron Homeworld.Meanwhile, Brigadier Gary Cummings, commander of the Haven Volunteers, has lost both his headquarters and military forts. But Brigadier Cummings has fought the Saurons before and knows that the Saurons have no mercy for human norms; this is a war of total domination. The Saurons want to own Haven and use her population as breeding stock for future Soldiers. To fight back, the Brigadier is starting a guerilla campaign in the outback. Castell City and Lermontovgrad have been bombed back to the stone age, but the humans of War World have been tested before…. The one thing the Saurons hadn’t anticipated was a mutiny in their own ranks leading to a three-cornered war.

280 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 26, 2013

About the author

Dr Jerry Eugene Pournelle was an American science fiction writer, engineer, essayist, and journalist, who contributed for many years to the computer magazine Byte, and from 1998 until his death maintained his own website and blog.

From the beginning, Pournelle's work centered around strong military themes. Several books describe the fictional mercenary infantry force known as Falkenberg's Legion. There are strong parallels between these stories and the Childe Cycle mercenary stories by Gordon R. Dickson, as well as Heinlein's Starship Troopers, although Pournelle's work takes far fewer technological leaps than either of these.

Pournelle spent years working in the aerospace industry, including at Boeing, on projects including studying heat tolerance for astronauts and their spacesuits. This side of his career also found him working on projections related to military tactics and probabilities. One report in which he had a hand became a basis for the Strategic Defense Initiative, the missile defense system proposed by President Ronald Reagan. A study he edited in 1964 involved projecting Air Force missile technology needs for 1975.

Dr. Pournelle would always tell would-be writers seeking advice that the key to becoming an author was to write — a lot.

“And finish what you write,” he added in a 2003 interview. “Don’t join a writers’ club and sit around having coffee reading pieces of your manuscript to people. Write it. Finish it.”

Pournelle served as President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1973.

Reviews

[Philippe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent adaptation

I bought the paperback version of Cyborg's revolt years ago. This edition contains the original stories woven in a superb novel. the Well done, Mr Carr!