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Empire of Man #1
March Upcountry
A Bad Neighborhood
"Always Faithful." That was the IMC motto, and the Marines of Bravo Company, Bronze Battalion, of the Empress' Own Regiment, lived by it... even if they did occasionally wonder why they bothered. After all, Prince Roger MacClintock, Tertiary Heir to the Throne of Man, was a real piece of work. A spoiled rotten, arrogant, whiny, terminally handsome, thoroughly useless young pain in the butt.
But that was before the Royal Brat and his bodyguards were marooned on Marduk by an assassination attempt. Before they found themselves facing 120° heat in jungles where it rained five or six hours a day...during the dry season. Before they had to march halfway around the entire planet, through damnbeasts, Capetoads, killerpillars, and atul-grak. Before they encountered treacherous local potentates, barbarian migrations, and an ocean full of sea serpents that could swallow a topsail schooner whole.
Under the right circumstances, even the most spoiled brat can grow up fast, and it turns out that under his petulant, spoiled exterior, Prince Roger is a true MacClintock, a scion of the warrior dynasty that created the Empire of Man a thousand years before. The Marines assigned to guard him have discovered a new belief in him — and in their motto — and they're determined that they will get him off of Marduk alive.
Of course, the planet has other ideas...
"Always Faithful." That was the IMC motto, and the Marines of Bravo Company, Bronze Battalion, of the Empress' Own Regiment, lived by it... even if they did occasionally wonder why they bothered. After all, Prince Roger MacClintock, Tertiary Heir to the Throne of Man, was a real piece of work. A spoiled rotten, arrogant, whiny, terminally handsome, thoroughly useless young pain in the butt.
But that was before the Royal Brat and his bodyguards were marooned on Marduk by an assassination attempt. Before they found themselves facing 120° heat in jungles where it rained five or six hours a day...during the dry season. Before they had to march halfway around the entire planet, through damnbeasts, Capetoads, killerpillars, and atul-grak. Before they encountered treacherous local potentates, barbarian migrations, and an ocean full of sea serpents that could swallow a topsail schooner whole.
Under the right circumstances, even the most spoiled brat can grow up fast, and it turns out that under his petulant, spoiled exterior, Prince Roger is a true MacClintock, a scion of the warrior dynasty that created the Empire of Man a thousand years before. The Marines assigned to guard him have discovered a new belief in him — and in their motto — and they're determined that they will get him off of Marduk alive.
Of course, the planet has other ideas...
608 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published May 1, 2001
163 people are currently reading
3334 people want to read
About the author
David Weber
322 books4,549 followersDavid Mark Weber is an American science fiction and fantasy author. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1952.
Many of his stories have military, particularly naval, themes, and fit into the military science fiction genre. He frequently places female leading characters in what have been traditionally male roles.
One of his most popular and enduring characters is Honor Harrington whose alliterated name is an homage to C.S. Forester's character Horatio Hornblower and her last name from a fleet doctor in Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander . Her story, together with the "Honorverse" she inhabits, has been developed through 16 novels and six shared-universe anthologies, as of spring 2013 (other works are in production). In 2008, he donated his archive to the department of Rare Books and Special Collections at Northern Illinois University.
Many of his books are available online, either in their entirety as part of the Baen Free Library or, in the case of more recent books, in the form of sample chapters (typically the first 25-33% of the work).
http://us.macmillan.com/author/davidw...
Many of his stories have military, particularly naval, themes, and fit into the military science fiction genre. He frequently places female leading characters in what have been traditionally male roles.
One of his most popular and enduring characters is Honor Harrington whose alliterated name is an homage to C.S. Forester's character Horatio Hornblower and her last name from a fleet doctor in Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander . Her story, together with the "Honorverse" she inhabits, has been developed through 16 novels and six shared-universe anthologies, as of spring 2013 (other works are in production). In 2008, he donated his archive to the department of Rare Books and Special Collections at Northern Illinois University.
Many of his books are available online, either in their entirety as part of the Baen Free Library or, in the case of more recent books, in the form of sample chapters (typically the first 25-33% of the work).
http://us.macmillan.com/author/davidw...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 355 reviews
January 16, 2012
Modder! this book is pocking awesome! --- that's Pinopan for "My goodness, this is indeed an awesome book!" If you're looking for sci-fi with intricate political intrigue and underlying subtext of mankind's search for meaning, you're not very likely to find it on planet Marduk where Prince Roger Ramius Sergei Chiang MacClintock Heir Tertiary to the Empire of Man (my fingers cramped typing this) crash-lands with his royal bodyguard The Empress's Own Bravo Company -- but stick with Roger and his space marines and you'll discover never-before-seen creative methods for killing hostile alien species...and how to cook them
Prince Roger is an absolute delight. He's so adorable I want to grab him by the powered armor and slap some sense into his pretty blonde head. I also love other eccentric characters. No unit of space marines will be complete without a swearing pocking Pinopan! specifically one that goes by the name Poertena
Prince Roger is an absolute delight. He's so adorable I want to grab him by the powered armor and slap some sense into his pretty blonde head. I also love other eccentric characters. No unit of space marines will be complete without a swearing pocking Pinopan! specifically one that goes by the name Poertena
July 23, 2024
Pretty good sword and planet adventure by Weber and Ringo, although given these two authors, you can expect it to be rather windy and meandering at times. The Empire of Man, based on Earth, faces various human rival empires, especially the 'Saints', a group of radical environmentalists (you just know Ringo stuck that in there 😁). Anyway, the prince of the Empire (and you know Weber stuck that in there, given how 'space feudalism' seems to be his bag) and his elite bodyguards of marines, due to sabotage and the Saints, are forced to basically crash land on the planet of Marduk. Now, all they have to do is travel some 1000 miles through (potentially) hostile territory, somehow (re)take the only space port on the planet, and then commander a ship to get them home...
I am a sucker for military science fiction and I have read this series more than once. Ringo, for all his conservative bluster, does amazing action sequences, and Weber does good political intrigue, both of which pepper the pages of the tale here. March Upcountry basically details how the prince and company landed on the planet, and their attempts to get established with the natives, the so-called scummies due to the layer of mucus coating their skin. The Mardukians have a low tech society, roughly equivalent to the late Feudal era in Europe, with many city states and countless tribes in the jungles. The planet is harsh-- constant rain, hot, and high g.
Prince Roger starts the tale basically as a fop/clothes horse; entitled, egocentric and basically an asshole. As the story progresses, however, he starts to 'man up' and become the true leader his genes almost destined him to be. Toss in a bit of epic poetry by Keats and others, reflections of what being a soldier means, and then what a marine means, and you get a bit of the flavor of this one. 3.5 stars, rounding up as I have read this a few times!
I am a sucker for military science fiction and I have read this series more than once. Ringo, for all his conservative bluster, does amazing action sequences, and Weber does good political intrigue, both of which pepper the pages of the tale here. March Upcountry basically details how the prince and company landed on the planet, and their attempts to get established with the natives, the so-called scummies due to the layer of mucus coating their skin. The Mardukians have a low tech society, roughly equivalent to the late Feudal era in Europe, with many city states and countless tribes in the jungles. The planet is harsh-- constant rain, hot, and high g.
Prince Roger starts the tale basically as a fop/clothes horse; entitled, egocentric and basically an asshole. As the story progresses, however, he starts to 'man up' and become the true leader his genes almost destined him to be. Toss in a bit of epic poetry by Keats and others, reflections of what being a soldier means, and then what a marine means, and you get a bit of the flavor of this one. 3.5 stars, rounding up as I have read this a few times!
July 15, 2017
I would more truly rate this 2 1/2 stars due to its decent ending. I could not rate any higher because I don't care for stories that leave questions in the reader's mind and there are a few here. 5 of 10 stars
August 29, 2018
Updated: Just had to correct a typo.
Pretty good book. I found it amazing how many slow spots there managed to be in an adventurous military science fiction novel. Drew me in held my interest pretty well.
We get to follow the prince and his guard troop through subsequent volumes in this series. i found it didn't "weather" all that well, but as space opera (if you can call a book where the space ship is down and the characters are stranded on a planet a space opera) it's pretty good. Enjoy. The action at least is pretty good. I didn't love this book nor did I hate it. I read them at a bad time and they managed to occupy my mind.
Pretty good book. I found it amazing how many slow spots there managed to be in an adventurous military science fiction novel. Drew me in held my interest pretty well.
We get to follow the prince and his guard troop through subsequent volumes in this series. i found it didn't "weather" all that well, but as space opera (if you can call a book where the space ship is down and the characters are stranded on a planet a space opera) it's pretty good. Enjoy. The action at least is pretty good. I didn't love this book nor did I hate it. I read them at a bad time and they managed to occupy my mind.
February 5, 2024
Travel to distant lands, meet strange and exotic native peoples, and kill them.That's military science fiction for you, although in this case it also is the slogan of the Bronze Battalion of the Empress' Own Regiment.
After terrorist sabotage, Prince Roger MacClintock and the Bronze Battalion space marines are stranded in the wilderness of the planet Marduk, noted for high mountains, high temperatures, low technology and the short tempers of its nine-foot tall, four-armed, slime-covered natives. They must march halfway around the planet to get to the nearest spaceport. Along the way, they must make allies and battle barbarian tribes who are out to destroy everything in their path. All this turns the prince from a spoiled brat into a valuable member of the company and a true leader.
Great storytelling and plot, deceptively deep characterization, and a sneaky sense of humor all contribute to make this a thoroughly enjoyable read. Unlike most military science fiction and indeed, other works by the two authors separately, these books don't get too bogged down in technical details or battle descriptions. In fact, the battles scenes are handled so skillfully that I actually read all of them instead of skipping them as I might in other books. History buffs might recognize this as a takeoff on the story of Xenophon.
This is the first of a series continued in three other books, all of which are excellent.
=======
Rereading for the third or fourth time. Who keeps track of that sort of thing?
I enjoyed this reading but it was less satisfying than before. Was it because I know the story so well that it seemed to go more slowly than before? I liked getting reacquainted with the world that was built here but realized that my favorite book is the second of the trilogy, where the challenges are more complex and we see deeper into more of the characters.
June 7, 2023
2023: Still a huge favorite. Still incites laughs, edge-of-my-seat thrills, war chants, and tears.
2022: Loved it. Read the series years ago and was thrilled to listen to it on audio. Moving on to March to the Sea.
2020: No matter how many times I relisten to this series, I'm always crushed when things go wrong, jubilant when they succeed, and in stitches at some their antics. Still an all-time, all-genre favorite. Narrator Stephen Rudnicki rocks my world.
2019: Still one of my all-time favorite sci-fi series. Great story, great narration.
2022: Loved it. Read the series years ago and was thrilled to listen to it on audio. Moving on to March to the Sea.
2020: No matter how many times I relisten to this series, I'm always crushed when things go wrong, jubilant when they succeed, and in stitches at some their antics. Still an all-time, all-genre favorite. Narrator Stephen Rudnicki rocks my world.
2019: Still one of my all-time favorite sci-fi series. Great story, great narration.
December 31, 2020
This book is a fairly standard example of military scifi complete with overwhelming odds, alien villains and allies, and a space empire. Roger is the tertiary heir of the Empress and notorious as a spoiled dilettante more interested in clothes than people. From the beginning of course we recognize that he has hidden depths, but they are obviously not being utilized fully. And that's the situation when the ship he's traveling on is sabotaged and he is forced to land on a planet with his imperial guard to seize a starship and escape. Naturally the planet's only spaceport is on the wrong continent.
Why read a book I just described as "fairly standard"? Well if you don't like military scifi put it down right now. There's not much here that will appeal to you. But to fans of the genre the main draw of such novels is in the difficulty of the objectives and the interest of the themes. The prodigal son improving himself and claiming his place at the head of the empire (because of course he's going to end up as emperor) has been a powerful trope throughout history, for good reason. And the clear goal of marching across a planet to capture a spaceship is a fascinating and difficult one that hearkens back to Xenophon's Anabasis ("march upcountry", not a coincidence).
You also have the opportunity for some pretty cool aliens. The Mardukans are slimy giants who are very good fighters but lack modern technology. Basically we're looking at bronze age civilizations but with key differences of biology and society. Which is neat. There are also monsters to frighten even the toughest constitutions. Ringo isn't afraid to kill characters off (we often get inside the heads of the soon-to-be-deceased) and it's clear the victories won't be cheap, for all that it falls into the trope of insurmountable hordes vs. a small number of superior marines (just once I'd like to see it the other way round). All-in-all it's quite a challenge. And since there are four books to tell this story it's not even close to over.
Why read a book I just described as "fairly standard"? Well if you don't like military scifi put it down right now. There's not much here that will appeal to you. But to fans of the genre the main draw of such novels is in the difficulty of the objectives and the interest of the themes. The prodigal son improving himself and claiming his place at the head of the empire (because of course he's going to end up as emperor) has been a powerful trope throughout history, for good reason. And the clear goal of marching across a planet to capture a spaceship is a fascinating and difficult one that hearkens back to Xenophon's Anabasis ("march upcountry", not a coincidence).
You also have the opportunity for some pretty cool aliens. The Mardukans are slimy giants who are very good fighters but lack modern technology. Basically we're looking at bronze age civilizations but with key differences of biology and society. Which is neat. There are also monsters to frighten even the toughest constitutions. Ringo isn't afraid to kill characters off (we often get inside the heads of the soon-to-be-deceased) and it's clear the victories won't be cheap, for all that it falls into the trope of insurmountable hordes vs. a small number of superior marines (just once I'd like to see it the other way round). All-in-all it's quite a challenge. And since there are four books to tell this story it's not even close to over.
July 24, 2021
What a gripping series this was/is for me. I love the premise, a young spoiled prince, stranded on a hostile planet with few resources, must make his way toward a hope of escape. While at the same time growing up and maturing, both as a man, and as a leader. 05/05/17 re-read: So good, like visiting old friends, for, I think, the 4th time. 2021 re-read: Still such a joy to read.
May 17, 2015
I had trouble getting into this book, and even considered abandoning it early on because it wasn’t holding my interest. However, I did become more interested in it as things progressed.
The story is that a group of space marines are escorting a prince to an event on another planet. The prince is the younger son of the empress. He’s spoiled and rather arrogant, and he’s been kept largely ignorant of the greater political machinations that have always been going on around him. Most people can’t stand him, and they aren’t even sure if he’s loyal to the empress, but it's their duty to protect him and they're determined to do so. En route to their destination, their ship is sabotaged and they’re forced to take escape shuttles to a nearby hostile planet. From that point, it’s a combination military/survival story as the company of soldiers and the prince try to make their way across a planet with hostile animals and hostile people and limited supplies.
The story started to get more interesting to me once they landed on the planet, but the story never gripped me or held anything special for me. It was pretty straight-forward, and never really presented me with any questions or major surprises. There was a huge cast of characters and this is one of those third-person omniscient point-of-view books where the reader is bounced around between various characters’ heads from paragraph to paragraph. It wasn’t too difficult to follow, but it did occasionally give me pause. At one point, the authors even told us what a pet lizard was thinking…
The prince was a somewhat interesting character, and he grew more likeable as the book went on. A couple of the other characters were pretty likeable also. However, I never felt heavily invested in either the characters or the story. It wasn’t a bad book, and I was mildly entertained by it, but I could easily pick it up and read for just a few minutes and then put it down again. I don’t plan to read the sequels.
The story is that a group of space marines are escorting a prince to an event on another planet. The prince is the younger son of the empress. He’s spoiled and rather arrogant, and he’s been kept largely ignorant of the greater political machinations that have always been going on around him. Most people can’t stand him, and they aren’t even sure if he’s loyal to the empress, but it's their duty to protect him and they're determined to do so. En route to their destination, their ship is sabotaged and they’re forced to take escape shuttles to a nearby hostile planet. From that point, it’s a combination military/survival story as the company of soldiers and the prince try to make their way across a planet with hostile animals and hostile people and limited supplies.
The story started to get more interesting to me once they landed on the planet, but the story never gripped me or held anything special for me. It was pretty straight-forward, and never really presented me with any questions or major surprises. There was a huge cast of characters and this is one of those third-person omniscient point-of-view books where the reader is bounced around between various characters’ heads from paragraph to paragraph. It wasn’t too difficult to follow, but it did occasionally give me pause. At one point, the authors even told us what a pet lizard was thinking…
The prince was a somewhat interesting character, and he grew more likeable as the book went on. A couple of the other characters were pretty likeable also. However, I never felt heavily invested in either the characters or the story. It wasn’t a bad book, and I was mildly entertained by it, but I could easily pick it up and read for just a few minutes and then put it down again. I don’t plan to read the sequels.
August 8, 2021
Notes:
Great narration by Stefan Rudnicki! I was worried that Roger would be too whiny, etc. He's not! Great start to a series. A nice mix of coming of age, galactic politics, exploring & meeting new species and action.
Great narration by Stefan Rudnicki! I was worried that Roger would be too whiny, etc. He's not! Great start to a series. A nice mix of coming of age, galactic politics, exploring & meeting new species and action.
September 19, 2017
I tried this one out because the blurb sounded fun, and I wanted to give Weber a second chance after the disaster that was the beginning of Honor Harrington.
Fortunately, I quite enjoyed it.
But first, a brief digression for trivia:
It turns out that quite a few milsf books (and I'm sure other military fiction) have been written more-or-less in homage to Xenophon's tale Anabasis, which depicts a historic long strategic retreat across country after perfidy by the opposing side (they violated the laws of war) and is often referred to as "The March Upcountry". After all, as some folks say, there are no new stories.
As I mentioned in my previous review, The Lost Fleet: Dauntless emulates Anabasis, and so does (oddly enough, given the title) Weber/Ringo's March Upcountry. But here's the completely trivial part that keeps cracking me up, because I'm a word geek like that: "upcountry" actually refers to travel AWAY from a coast, moving inland (refer to Merriam-Webster if you don't believe me), while both the original Xenophon and the Weber/Ringo groups are moving TOWARDS a coast, AWAY from the inland region. Xenophon gets a pass, because his troop did move inland before traveling back to a different coast, but Weber and Ringo do not. So the book really ought to be called March Down-Country. ;-)
And that's your meaningless trivia for the day. :-p
Oh, second bit of trivia: March Upcountry also mines the Battle of Rorke's Drift (the subject of the movie Zulu) at one point, to great effect. (And so did Tanya Huff's book Valor's Choice, and probably lots of others.) Again -- no new stories!
Okay, so the book:
The main character is Prince Roger, younger son of the Empress of the Empire of Man and third in line to the throne. Roger has been pampered all his life but also isolated from power and kept in the dark; he is never allowed to take part in any important political activities and has never even been told why his father was banished when Roger was an infant (he is a half-sib to his older brother and sister, not a full sib). As a result Roger has grown up resentful and full of self-doubt, which he masks with intense arrogance and lots of acting out. IOW, he's an ass and has been nearly ruined for any good use. Nonetheless, as third in line to the throne, his existence is strategically important to both the Empire and those who would bring it down, and thus he is protected by an elite squad of Royal Marines.
As the book opens, Roger is sent by his mother on a bullshit trip to an outlying planet for a meaningless press-the-flesh publicity event. But his ship is sabotaged along the way in a failed assassination attempt. Roger and his Marines are forced to land far off their intended course on a little-visited planet, and the Empire at large thinks that he has been killed. Fortunately, the planet does have a small space port. Unfortunately, the space port is in enemy hands, it's basically on the other side of the planet from where they landed, and they're on foot. And thus the march "upcountry".
This is mostly a story of Roger growing up and becoming a useful human being over the course of the long trek. I thought his maturation was pretty well done, except that I would have liked to see more steps along the way -- more of him becoming slightly less arrogant in smaller increments. But I enjoyed his transformation for the most part, and he certainly wasn't a Gary Stu. He was an ass, he did stupid things, and he fell on his face. And I loved the way the Marine commander would become absolutely enraged over Roger's various idiocies. The poor commander had no official power over Roger, so he couldn't punish him or simply hogtie him, and Roger was officially the ranking officer (with an official rank of Colonel despite not having any military experience at all), so the Marine commander had to follow Roger's orders -- yet the commander's only purpose in life was to get Roger home safely, so he had to work around Roger being an idiot. The other secondary characters were also interesting, and while not terribly rounded, they did add good texture to the story. Oh, and two things I loved: first, there are lots of strong female characters; and second, the only chaplain in the company, one of the female Marines, just happens to be a priestess of the Temple of Satan. That cracked me up.
The planet's natives, unfortunately, did not act terribly nonhuman -- a frequent problem with human-and-alien stories -- and aside from their physical differences, they could pretty easily have been replaced by any intelligent-but-primitive human native tribe. I would have liked to see more cultural and psychological differences there. And the translating computer picked up new languages waaaaaaaay too easily and quickly, which I found annoying -- I had to roll my eyes every time it learned an entire new language within a coupla hours of listening to one new native speaker (there are several languages involved over the course of the book).
The trek itself was plenty interesting, with lots of dangers and new groups of natives to deal with along the way. As the Marine motto goes, travel to exciting new places, meet exotic new people, and kill them. Lots of that going on! And as they travel, the group is forced to rely on more and more primitive equipment -- their high-tech gear keeps breaking down for various reasons (including incompetent manufacture, deterioration from high humidity, running out of power, and using up ammunition), and they gradually adapt to native weaponry and matériel. However, I did not appreciate their blithe adaptability to native food, and again had to roll my eyes at how convenient it was to have basically everything be digestible and nontoxic. It wasn't that they ignored the issue -- while they were still on the ship they discussed this fact, and they brought supplements with them for local nutrient deficiencies -- I just thought it was way too convenient.
So anyway -- this is all a very long way of saying that it was an entertaining journey with a very imperfect hero and lots of interesting details, some of which I didn't agree with. This is a series of four books, and I'm afraid that Roger will become a Gary Stu in the rest of the series now that he's well on his way to growing up, but I'm actually interested enough in this one that I put book #2 on Mount TBR.
As for the narration -- this one is narrated by Stefan Rudnicki, one of the big names in the business. He isn't one of my personal favorites, and his voices are not always terribly individualized, but he's a very professional reader and he does a good job. (He also did the Acts of Caine books, along with a bazillion others, if anyone's interested.)
Fortunately, I quite enjoyed it.
But first, a brief digression for trivia:
It turns out that quite a few milsf books (and I'm sure other military fiction) have been written more-or-less in homage to Xenophon's tale Anabasis, which depicts a historic long strategic retreat across country after perfidy by the opposing side (they violated the laws of war) and is often referred to as "The March Upcountry". After all, as some folks say, there are no new stories.
As I mentioned in my previous review, The Lost Fleet: Dauntless emulates Anabasis, and so does (oddly enough, given the title) Weber/Ringo's March Upcountry. But here's the completely trivial part that keeps cracking me up, because I'm a word geek like that: "upcountry" actually refers to travel AWAY from a coast, moving inland (refer to Merriam-Webster if you don't believe me), while both the original Xenophon and the Weber/Ringo groups are moving TOWARDS a coast, AWAY from the inland region. Xenophon gets a pass, because his troop did move inland before traveling back to a different coast, but Weber and Ringo do not. So the book really ought to be called March Down-Country. ;-)
And that's your meaningless trivia for the day. :-p
Oh, second bit of trivia: March Upcountry also mines the Battle of Rorke's Drift (the subject of the movie Zulu) at one point, to great effect. (And so did Tanya Huff's book Valor's Choice, and probably lots of others.) Again -- no new stories!
Okay, so the book:
The main character is Prince Roger, younger son of the Empress of the Empire of Man and third in line to the throne. Roger has been pampered all his life but also isolated from power and kept in the dark; he is never allowed to take part in any important political activities and has never even been told why his father was banished when Roger was an infant (he is a half-sib to his older brother and sister, not a full sib). As a result Roger has grown up resentful and full of self-doubt, which he masks with intense arrogance and lots of acting out. IOW, he's an ass and has been nearly ruined for any good use. Nonetheless, as third in line to the throne, his existence is strategically important to both the Empire and those who would bring it down, and thus he is protected by an elite squad of Royal Marines.
As the book opens, Roger is sent by his mother on a bullshit trip to an outlying planet for a meaningless press-the-flesh publicity event. But his ship is sabotaged along the way in a failed assassination attempt. Roger and his Marines are forced to land far off their intended course on a little-visited planet, and the Empire at large thinks that he has been killed. Fortunately, the planet does have a small space port. Unfortunately, the space port is in enemy hands, it's basically on the other side of the planet from where they landed, and they're on foot. And thus the march "upcountry".
This is mostly a story of Roger growing up and becoming a useful human being over the course of the long trek. I thought his maturation was pretty well done, except that I would have liked to see more steps along the way -- more of him becoming slightly less arrogant in smaller increments. But I enjoyed his transformation for the most part, and he certainly wasn't a Gary Stu. He was an ass, he did stupid things, and he fell on his face. And I loved the way the Marine commander would become absolutely enraged over Roger's various idiocies. The poor commander had no official power over Roger, so he couldn't punish him or simply hogtie him, and Roger was officially the ranking officer (with an official rank of Colonel despite not having any military experience at all), so the Marine commander had to follow Roger's orders -- yet the commander's only purpose in life was to get Roger home safely, so he had to work around Roger being an idiot. The other secondary characters were also interesting, and while not terribly rounded, they did add good texture to the story. Oh, and two things I loved: first, there are lots of strong female characters; and second, the only chaplain in the company, one of the female Marines, just happens to be a priestess of the Temple of Satan. That cracked me up.
The planet's natives, unfortunately, did not act terribly nonhuman -- a frequent problem with human-and-alien stories -- and aside from their physical differences, they could pretty easily have been replaced by any intelligent-but-primitive human native tribe. I would have liked to see more cultural and psychological differences there. And the translating computer picked up new languages waaaaaaaay too easily and quickly, which I found annoying -- I had to roll my eyes every time it learned an entire new language within a coupla hours of listening to one new native speaker (there are several languages involved over the course of the book).
The trek itself was plenty interesting, with lots of dangers and new groups of natives to deal with along the way. As the Marine motto goes, travel to exciting new places, meet exotic new people, and kill them. Lots of that going on! And as they travel, the group is forced to rely on more and more primitive equipment -- their high-tech gear keeps breaking down for various reasons (including incompetent manufacture, deterioration from high humidity, running out of power, and using up ammunition), and they gradually adapt to native weaponry and matériel. However, I did not appreciate their blithe adaptability to native food, and again had to roll my eyes at how convenient it was to have basically everything be digestible and nontoxic. It wasn't that they ignored the issue -- while they were still on the ship they discussed this fact, and they brought supplements with them for local nutrient deficiencies -- I just thought it was way too convenient.
So anyway -- this is all a very long way of saying that it was an entertaining journey with a very imperfect hero and lots of interesting details, some of which I didn't agree with. This is a series of four books, and I'm afraid that Roger will become a Gary Stu in the rest of the series now that he's well on his way to growing up, but I'm actually interested enough in this one that I put book #2 on Mount TBR.
As for the narration -- this one is narrated by Stefan Rudnicki, one of the big names in the business. He isn't one of my personal favorites, and his voices are not always terribly individualized, but he's a very professional reader and he does a good job. (He also did the Acts of Caine books, along with a bazillion others, if anyone's interested.)
February 5, 2018
Got a great plot but it gets bogged down by the tedious storytelling.
This is my second re-read of the book after some 12-15 years. I remember liking it a lot when I was still in college, now it felt mediocre at best.
I loved the plot idea, it is about a group of space-traveling humans stranded on a backwaters sword-wielding planet. The storytelling focuses on how a group of marines, travels across the continent dealing with local city-states, tribes, flora & fauna. It’s about plasma gun vs spears. The story itself is straightforward without any intrigue or suspense, which is not a bad thing considering its supposed to be an adventure story.
Another part of the story is the growth of the main character, Prince Roger, a spoiled brat. In the beginning, one can’t help but hate him for his tantrums, by the end he does become likable enough.
My problem was the book was just too long at 608 pages, lots of wasted words & extra pages. The same story could have been told in half the number of pages for a more entertaining package without losing out on contents.
This is my second re-read of the book after some 12-15 years. I remember liking it a lot when I was still in college, now it felt mediocre at best.
I loved the plot idea, it is about a group of space-traveling humans stranded on a backwaters sword-wielding planet. The storytelling focuses on how a group of marines, travels across the continent dealing with local city-states, tribes, flora & fauna. It’s about plasma gun vs spears. The story itself is straightforward without any intrigue or suspense, which is not a bad thing considering its supposed to be an adventure story.
Another part of the story is the growth of the main character, Prince Roger, a spoiled brat. In the beginning, one can’t help but hate him for his tantrums, by the end he does become likable enough.
My problem was the book was just too long at 608 pages, lots of wasted words & extra pages. The same story could have been told in half the number of pages for a more entertaining package without losing out on contents.
May 25, 2017
Oddly I think this is my favorite sci-fi series from either author.
Weber & Ringo's alternate viewpoints & tone really balance each other out. Nothing too info-dumpy, fast paced action, humor and actual character for to the side characters.
Highly recommend.
Weber & Ringo's alternate viewpoints & tone really balance each other out. Nothing too info-dumpy, fast paced action, humor and actual character for to the side characters.
Highly recommend.
September 19, 2011
I love Space Opera.. You know what I mean, don't you? I mean a Western set in some far-flung future with lots of neat Science Fiction weapons, alien cultures, etc. This novel filled that niche quite well.
Spoiled Prince Roger, third in line for the throne of the human empire, is sent off on a minor diplomatic mission, but then his ship is sabotaged. His regiment of marines are stranded on an out-of-the-way planet, where they decide to struggle across the harsh terrain, fighitng through hostile flora and fauna, and encountering cruel alien cultures. Along the way, they will struggle with their failing weaponry, and diminishing ammunition supply. The commanding officer is at first, frustrated with his spoiled charge but determines to either teach the Prince or kill him.
The writing team of David Weber and John Ringo turn out a really good military Science Fiction novel. They manage to capture the military banter, strategy, and even diplomatic machinations of their characters, etc. The novel combines great action sequences, interesting characters, wonderful weaponry, and an odd alien culture...
This book is the beginning of a series and sees the Marines partway through the journey.. I am glad to have the next one in my collection, though I prefer to break it up with something different.. but I really enjoyed this novel.. it was honestly, good action-packed fun!!!
Spoiled Prince Roger, third in line for the throne of the human empire, is sent off on a minor diplomatic mission, but then his ship is sabotaged. His regiment of marines are stranded on an out-of-the-way planet, where they decide to struggle across the harsh terrain, fighitng through hostile flora and fauna, and encountering cruel alien cultures. Along the way, they will struggle with their failing weaponry, and diminishing ammunition supply. The commanding officer is at first, frustrated with his spoiled charge but determines to either teach the Prince or kill him.
The writing team of David Weber and John Ringo turn out a really good military Science Fiction novel. They manage to capture the military banter, strategy, and even diplomatic machinations of their characters, etc. The novel combines great action sequences, interesting characters, wonderful weaponry, and an odd alien culture...
This book is the beginning of a series and sees the Marines partway through the journey.. I am glad to have the next one in my collection, though I prefer to break it up with something different.. but I really enjoyed this novel.. it was honestly, good action-packed fun!!!
February 10, 2025
I'm not really sure why this book appealed to be so much. Perhaps it is the combination of coming-of-age story with a heavy dose of Don't-Mess-With-The-Marines. Perhaps it was the depiction of the marines as real people with depth and back story. Like I said, I don't really know what it is, but I loved this book.
May 28, 2010
I enjoyed this one quite a bit. Weber & Ringo make a pretty good pairing as authors. The book is an interesting mix of space marine type of combat and royal politics with the main character being a whiny, egotistical brat - at least in the beginning. I'm going to read the second one for sure.
October 28, 2024
It is perhaps not fair to give this book only 3 stars. For what it is, it's pretty good, a real page turner. As its title suggests March Upcountry is almost non-stop action, the science-fiction equivalent of a road movie. It is the first in a four-part series about the "Empire of Man." The libertarian politics that underlie the political dimension of the first book are something I can merely tolerate. The enemy of the Empire, the Saints—whom we barely meet in this volume—are wholly undisguised stand-ins for politically-correct liberals run amok. They are apparently doctrinaire nincompoops compared to the coldly, pragmatic MacClintock family that runs the Empire of Man. The men and women of the armed forces, with whom we spend so much time, hey, they're just people who are good at what they do and just following orders. Sigh.
This is military science-fiction, so the military jargon flows thick and fast on every page. The company protecting the Prince during this long march is drawn straight out of the central casting roster established in the WWII-era movies that David Weber and John Ringo undoubtedly grew up watching on television. The Prince himself is the classic pampered brat who slowly but surely shows his true mettle as the story progresses. While it is all very, very familiar, it has to be admitted that Weber and Ringo do this sort of thing well.
The world building has three layers. The most proximate is the planet Marduk, where most of the story unfolds. The predominant animal life forms are derived from the rough equivalent of amphibians and reptiles albeit six-limbed, although there is at least one species of quite horrible insect. Weber and Ringo imagine the place as largely tropical jungle with more arid mountain ranges. It is also a civilization with better days behind it; the human visitors encounter ruins and forms of decadence nearly every step of the march.
The next layer of world-building consists of the Empire of Man, which is an oligarchy ruled by an iron-willed empress, Prince Roger's mother. The exposition that lays the groundwork for our understanding of the empire is presented a bit clunkily in conversations that various people have in between the fighting and planning to fight that dominate the narrative. As we gradually learn why Roger is such an outsider within the royal family, we are meant to have growing sympathy for him as learns from those around him and "grows up." He is only 22 years old, but initially often acts like a spoiled 13 year old.
It would be interesting to know how Weber and Ringo split up their duties. The former is a military history buff and the latter is an actual veteran. For those without any sympathy for the profession, the unmitigated respect for the armed forces in this book might a little hard to swallow. I found myself rolling my eyes a bit, but I did keep reading. Their prose is highly descriptive but never flowery or over ornate. Many of the battle sequences went on a bit long for me and also involved so many imaginary weapons that it was sometimes difficult to tell (or care) what was going on.
However, I found that by the end of March Upcountry I did care, sort of, in that 'I wonder what happens next' kind of way. After nearly 600 pages of storytelling and many, many casualties, the heroic Marine contigent has not actually gotten all the way up country. Since there are three more books, you know that at least some of them will make it, but you don't know who or how. Unlike Josh Whedon, Weber and Ringo do not tend to kill off beloved characters, but they are good enough at fleshing out minor players so that you do feel badly when they die. In short, you don't just root for the Prince.
The final layer of world-building concerns the conflict between the Empire and the Saints. Little is said of all this in the present volume, but it is clear that Roger is being turned into a "reformer" via is experience among the Marines. In that sense, this is a quite hopeful book that is about the possibility of redemption and revival. We could all use a little more faith in those things at this point in our history.
This is military science-fiction, so the military jargon flows thick and fast on every page. The company protecting the Prince during this long march is drawn straight out of the central casting roster established in the WWII-era movies that David Weber and John Ringo undoubtedly grew up watching on television. The Prince himself is the classic pampered brat who slowly but surely shows his true mettle as the story progresses. While it is all very, very familiar, it has to be admitted that Weber and Ringo do this sort of thing well.
The world building has three layers. The most proximate is the planet Marduk, where most of the story unfolds. The predominant animal life forms are derived from the rough equivalent of amphibians and reptiles albeit six-limbed, although there is at least one species of quite horrible insect. Weber and Ringo imagine the place as largely tropical jungle with more arid mountain ranges. It is also a civilization with better days behind it; the human visitors encounter ruins and forms of decadence nearly every step of the march.
The next layer of world-building consists of the Empire of Man, which is an oligarchy ruled by an iron-willed empress, Prince Roger's mother. The exposition that lays the groundwork for our understanding of the empire is presented a bit clunkily in conversations that various people have in between the fighting and planning to fight that dominate the narrative. As we gradually learn why Roger is such an outsider within the royal family, we are meant to have growing sympathy for him as learns from those around him and "grows up." He is only 22 years old, but initially often acts like a spoiled 13 year old.
It would be interesting to know how Weber and Ringo split up their duties. The former is a military history buff and the latter is an actual veteran. For those without any sympathy for the profession, the unmitigated respect for the armed forces in this book might a little hard to swallow. I found myself rolling my eyes a bit, but I did keep reading. Their prose is highly descriptive but never flowery or over ornate. Many of the battle sequences went on a bit long for me and also involved so many imaginary weapons that it was sometimes difficult to tell (or care) what was going on.
However, I found that by the end of March Upcountry I did care, sort of, in that 'I wonder what happens next' kind of way. After nearly 600 pages of storytelling and many, many casualties, the heroic Marine contigent has not actually gotten all the way up country. Since there are three more books, you know that at least some of them will make it, but you don't know who or how. Unlike Josh Whedon, Weber and Ringo do not tend to kill off beloved characters, but they are good enough at fleshing out minor players so that you do feel badly when they die. In short, you don't just root for the Prince.
The final layer of world-building concerns the conflict between the Empire and the Saints. Little is said of all this in the present volume, but it is clear that Roger is being turned into a "reformer" via is experience among the Marines. In that sense, this is a quite hopeful book that is about the possibility of redemption and revival. We could all use a little more faith in those things at this point in our history.
February 28, 2024
Military Sci-Fi candy. Fast and straightforward read. An indolent prince and his Marine bodyguards crash on a primitive planet and have to fight their way across the planet, the prince grows as a result of these experiences. While a simple and not terribly innovative story, it punches above its weight due to the competent storytelling abilities of the authors and the experiences of the authors who have an excellent history background, and one of the author's who was an Army paratrooper. This lead to excellent characterizations of how soldiers think, talk, and engage in shenanigans.
Not high art, but fun.
Not high art, but fun.
January 6, 2024
This book manages a convincing argument to balance a large difference in technology between an interstellar society and a primitive one. However, I was eager for more "space opera" by the end of the book and I'm unsure if remaining journey would feature enough unique content to span two more novels.
September 23, 2020
Solid MANtasy, manly men doing manly stuff talking about manly things. Mostly. Politics and Strategery.
did-not-finish
June 18, 2024DNF at 6%. I like how smart the main character is and that everyone around him under estimates him. However, I don't think that this is fitting my mood.
March 28, 2025
I've read a lot of Ringo and I've read a lot of Weber, but I'd never gotten around to reading this one. This is the first book of this series, but I think it is more like one long narrative stretched across four books. That being so, they spend a long time -- over a hundred pages -- setting up the premise for the series: an Imperial prince is travelling to a different star system when his space ship is sabotaged and he and his marine soldier bodyguards ends up marooned on a far side of a primitive planet that he will have to walk across to get to the space port so he can get home. So the first hundred pages sets that up, then the march starts. But here is why I think this is all one big narrative: in this book, he only gets half way across the first continent. The second one is called March to the Sea, and they have to get to and then cross an ocean. The third book is called March to the Stars and I think they have toactually take the space port in that one. Maybe in the fourth book they actually get off planet, who knows.
This hasn't been my favourite book by either author, but maybe I will appreciate it more when I've read the whole story. We'll see.
This hasn't been my favourite book by either author, but maybe I will appreciate it more when I've read the whole story. We'll see.
September 24, 2013
What starts off as a military space fiction in the vein of David Weber’s Honor Harrington series quickly become a high tech meets low tech style of military fiction. I wasn’t sure what to expect after the first chapter but I really enjoyed the journey this book took me on. It is an excellent start to a series.
Let me start off by saying I felt more of Weber’s influence in this story that John Ringo’s, although I have been unable to find how much each writer contributed. The overall story arc, character progression, and setting feel like pure Weber to me while the action beats have Ringo’s finger prints all over them.
While there are a few things that could be said negatively about this title there are so many more things to like about it. There was a book I read years ago from a Greek historian and mercenary known as Xenophon of Athens called Anabasis where he accompanied 10,000 soldiers stranded deep in Persia as they fought their way back home. If you can get past the language it is a great adventure story and a March Up Country seems to be updating the Xenophon story for a science fiction setting. You have a group of elite warriors fighting through hostile territory and barbarian hordes to find a way home. If you read a lot of Weber you might recognize that he pulls a lot of the initial plots of his story lines from actual history and the choice to adapt what has come to be known as “The March of the 10,000” was a stroke of genius.
When it comes down to the character work my opinion is on the fence. Prince Roger has the most character progression I have seen in any of Weber’s novels in a very long time. Weber has him start at one end of the extreme, the spoiled rich boy, and you see him becoming a soldier and eventually a man with the makings true leader. While his journey isn’t complete by the end of this novel there are still several books to go and it is clear Weber has a plan for the Prince. Captain Pharmer also manages some decent character progression along with a handful of the supporting cast.
Unfortunately this solid use of characters is off-set by many of the supporting cast being nothing more than stereotype stand-ins. This isn’t a dig at Weber as the cardboard stand-in style of supporting cast is the curse of the Genre. With as many characters as a book or series such as this is destined to have, it’s hard to put real work into characters and their personal arc. Plus you only have so many pages and if you try and get all of the characters fully fleshed out you would hit a wall when it comes to pacing. To Webers credit he does a good job in this story of whittling those blank slates down a bit.
The story itself is well constructed and I found the pacing to be excellent. The action is written very well in a face passed style. There is much less of the strategic maneuvering, large scale battle overviews, and long technical explanations that readers have come to expect from Weber. I do not mean that as a dig on Weber’s writing but I have always felt it more suited the space or navel style action scenes and not this small unit tactical style action beats.
This is where Ringo seems to really step in. The pacing of the action moments is both clear in its layout and frenetic in its momentum which has you whipping through the pages when a battle scene comes up. There is definitely a strong resemblance to Ringo’s other novels and his preference for small unit military style action sense. The battles range from small and fast to truly epic at some points.
While I credit Weber for much of the success of the title, it’s the action scenes that really pushed it over the top for me.
This book suffers a bit from the white hat / black hat syndrome with evil characters that are a bit to evil and good guys are a bit too pure. This however is a crutch of much of the science fiction genre so that can’t be held too much against this book too much. I would like to see more humanized or at least somewhat rounded enemies and not just mindless evil-encompassing tyrants.
Overall, this is an excellent title, and one I would recommend to any sci-fi lover. I can’t wait for the next book in the series.
Let me start off by saying I felt more of Weber’s influence in this story that John Ringo’s, although I have been unable to find how much each writer contributed. The overall story arc, character progression, and setting feel like pure Weber to me while the action beats have Ringo’s finger prints all over them.
While there are a few things that could be said negatively about this title there are so many more things to like about it. There was a book I read years ago from a Greek historian and mercenary known as Xenophon of Athens called Anabasis where he accompanied 10,000 soldiers stranded deep in Persia as they fought their way back home. If you can get past the language it is a great adventure story and a March Up Country seems to be updating the Xenophon story for a science fiction setting. You have a group of elite warriors fighting through hostile territory and barbarian hordes to find a way home. If you read a lot of Weber you might recognize that he pulls a lot of the initial plots of his story lines from actual history and the choice to adapt what has come to be known as “The March of the 10,000” was a stroke of genius.
When it comes down to the character work my opinion is on the fence. Prince Roger has the most character progression I have seen in any of Weber’s novels in a very long time. Weber has him start at one end of the extreme, the spoiled rich boy, and you see him becoming a soldier and eventually a man with the makings true leader. While his journey isn’t complete by the end of this novel there are still several books to go and it is clear Weber has a plan for the Prince. Captain Pharmer also manages some decent character progression along with a handful of the supporting cast.
Unfortunately this solid use of characters is off-set by many of the supporting cast being nothing more than stereotype stand-ins. This isn’t a dig at Weber as the cardboard stand-in style of supporting cast is the curse of the Genre. With as many characters as a book or series such as this is destined to have, it’s hard to put real work into characters and their personal arc. Plus you only have so many pages and if you try and get all of the characters fully fleshed out you would hit a wall when it comes to pacing. To Webers credit he does a good job in this story of whittling those blank slates down a bit.
The story itself is well constructed and I found the pacing to be excellent. The action is written very well in a face passed style. There is much less of the strategic maneuvering, large scale battle overviews, and long technical explanations that readers have come to expect from Weber. I do not mean that as a dig on Weber’s writing but I have always felt it more suited the space or navel style action scenes and not this small unit tactical style action beats.
This is where Ringo seems to really step in. The pacing of the action moments is both clear in its layout and frenetic in its momentum which has you whipping through the pages when a battle scene comes up. There is definitely a strong resemblance to Ringo’s other novels and his preference for small unit military style action sense. The battles range from small and fast to truly epic at some points.
While I credit Weber for much of the success of the title, it’s the action scenes that really pushed it over the top for me.
This book suffers a bit from the white hat / black hat syndrome with evil characters that are a bit to evil and good guys are a bit too pure. This however is a crutch of much of the science fiction genre so that can’t be held too much against this book too much. I would like to see more humanized or at least somewhat rounded enemies and not just mindless evil-encompassing tyrants.
Overall, this is an excellent title, and one I would recommend to any sci-fi lover. I can’t wait for the next book in the series.
May 12, 2025
March Upcountry is a thrilling and fun odyssey following the emergency landing and journey of a spoiled prince and his military contingent across an alien world.
The real fun of the book comes from Prince Roger’s wild antics to try to prove himself while fitting in with his marines and advisors, and the expedition’s run-ins with aliens technologically inferior to them in various ways. In the first book we see the futuristic marines, albeit outnumbered and surviving on dwindling resources, going up against ancient age to renaissance technology. The whole book captures the childhood magic of putting a dozen army men toys up against the innumerable forces of a Medieval Lego world with all the diplomatic wiles of the Medici and desperate survival of the Oregon Trail.
The action is sprinkled throughout liberally and done very well. The technology is explained in compelling ways in the context of the “historical” alien civilizations. The real excitement comes from learning about the various alien city-states and seeing the expeditions’ diplomacy with the local polities. Like the Germanic and Celtic tribes in Julius Caesar’s expeditions, they don’t always get along. The tone is kept very light and the humor generally works. There’s a little romance threaded throughout and is very sweet and a nice change of pace.
The downsides are few but worth mentioning. There’s an Asian character who struggles with the English language sometimes. He’s an endearing character but the caricature does get old very fast.
The prince comes across as extremely whiny initially. Ringo provides him plenty of room to grow but the initial entitlement and kvetching almost made me put the book down in the opening chapters. Fortunately we get a nice cast of side characters all lamenting the fact that the have to protect this brat and this keeps it palatable most of the time.
The overall villains of the setting, who I assume come up in the sequels, are the ironically-named Saints who hold environmental stewardship, aid, and recovery over all else (including ethical treatment of people). This knee-jerk reaction to environmental concerns is not only incredibly lazy but has aged extremely poorly.
I was relieved to not find the libertarian propaganda between these pages that was the bread and butter of Ringo’s Live Free or Die series. Aside from the description of the Saints there wasn’t much preachiness at all on either side of the political spectrum.
My enjoyment of the series was enhanced by my inability to picture the aliens as anyone other than the chubby purple four-armed alien from Lilo & Stitch, and Prince Roger was immortalized to me as He-man. So the first two books of this series to me had the feel of an 80’s Saturday morning cartoon. By the end of March to the Sea (Empire of Man #2), I had enough of these characters and didn’t particularly care to see their journey back to the stars and for Roger to reclaim his rightful place by his mother’s side. But this book was a phenomenal start to a very fun series and the sequel continues the story to a satisfying end. Maybe I’ll come back and join Roger in his March to the Stars someday.
-Riley
PS: I hope the Saints win.
The real fun of the book comes from Prince Roger’s wild antics to try to prove himself while fitting in with his marines and advisors, and the expedition’s run-ins with aliens technologically inferior to them in various ways. In the first book we see the futuristic marines, albeit outnumbered and surviving on dwindling resources, going up against ancient age to renaissance technology. The whole book captures the childhood magic of putting a dozen army men toys up against the innumerable forces of a Medieval Lego world with all the diplomatic wiles of the Medici and desperate survival of the Oregon Trail.
The action is sprinkled throughout liberally and done very well. The technology is explained in compelling ways in the context of the “historical” alien civilizations. The real excitement comes from learning about the various alien city-states and seeing the expeditions’ diplomacy with the local polities. Like the Germanic and Celtic tribes in Julius Caesar’s expeditions, they don’t always get along. The tone is kept very light and the humor generally works. There’s a little romance threaded throughout and is very sweet and a nice change of pace.
The downsides are few but worth mentioning. There’s an Asian character who struggles with the English language sometimes. He’s an endearing character but the caricature does get old very fast.
The prince comes across as extremely whiny initially. Ringo provides him plenty of room to grow but the initial entitlement and kvetching almost made me put the book down in the opening chapters. Fortunately we get a nice cast of side characters all lamenting the fact that the have to protect this brat and this keeps it palatable most of the time.
The overall villains of the setting, who I assume come up in the sequels, are the ironically-named Saints who hold environmental stewardship, aid, and recovery over all else (including ethical treatment of people). This knee-jerk reaction to environmental concerns is not only incredibly lazy but has aged extremely poorly.
I was relieved to not find the libertarian propaganda between these pages that was the bread and butter of Ringo’s Live Free or Die series. Aside from the description of the Saints there wasn’t much preachiness at all on either side of the political spectrum.
My enjoyment of the series was enhanced by my inability to picture the aliens as anyone other than the chubby purple four-armed alien from Lilo & Stitch, and Prince Roger was immortalized to me as He-man. So the first two books of this series to me had the feel of an 80’s Saturday morning cartoon. By the end of March to the Sea (Empire of Man #2), I had enough of these characters and didn’t particularly care to see their journey back to the stars and for Roger to reclaim his rightful place by his mother’s side. But this book was a phenomenal start to a very fun series and the sequel continues the story to a satisfying end. Maybe I’ll come back and join Roger in his March to the Stars someday.
-Riley
PS: I hope the Saints win.
January 27, 2018
The first ¾ of the book was excellent and then it seemed as if the publisher said he needed another 60 pages. So they sat around the camp fire talking about metallurgy for a few pages. Then they tried another campaign.
The super high tech armor was being reserved for the next campaign but when it appears that they are being over run they still do not break it out. I will take a look at the sequel but if this book had ended after the major campaign and a victory march to the next town it would have been a 4 ½ stars.
The super high tech armor was being reserved for the next campaign but when it appears that they are being over run they still do not break it out. I will take a look at the sequel but if this book had ended after the major campaign and a victory march to the next town it would have been a 4 ½ stars.
November 10, 2015
This was an odd book. On one hand, it had a lot of action, which was good, and it had some interesting characters whom you could come to enjoy seeing in a series, of which this is the first book. On the other hand, it drags at times and the conversations can seem unnecessary and arbitrary and a little too long winded and the main battle is just too much to be believable. It's far too one sided of a victory to be remotely believable. More on that in a minute.
Prince Roger MacClintock of the Empire of Man has been sent by his Empress mother to another planet with a contingent bodyguard company of royal marines. However, their ship gets sabotaged and they're forced to land on a strange planet with one port, held by an enemy force. Thus, they're forced to land on the opposite side of the planet and walk for up to six months to go take the port by force since they would have been shot out of the sky if they had been seen coming down from space. Roger is a rich, spoiled brat, but an heir to the throne and must be protected at all times and returned to the empire. The troop sets off through what turns out to be hostile territory, picks up a few alien allies, but runs into a huge alien army intent on destroying them. The major battle is 18,000 technologically deficient aliens against 70 Marines. Long odds. Virtually impossible. And bizarrely, while the Marines take casualties, they slaughter a zillion aliens and win the battle. Now, I'm sorry, but that just seems freaking impossible and implausible to me. I know they have technologically superior weapons, but 18,000 to 70 odds are just too much to overcome and there's no way that could happen. No way. Not believable. To make matters crazier, they move on, come to another alien city state and are taken captive, where about 35 of the unwounded or remaining Marines slaughter another army and live to move on to a sequel. Right. Uh huh. So, good action, but asking the reader to believe a little too much, I'm sorry.
I didn't know whether to give this book three or four stars, because it's probably a four star book, but I'm so annoyed by the impossible outcome of the major battle, that I'm knocking a star off and giving it three. Nonetheless, I bought the second book and will be reading it, hoping for more realistic action this time. It's not a bad story. Just make it a little more realistic. Please. Cautiously recommended.
Prince Roger MacClintock of the Empire of Man has been sent by his Empress mother to another planet with a contingent bodyguard company of royal marines. However, their ship gets sabotaged and they're forced to land on a strange planet with one port, held by an enemy force. Thus, they're forced to land on the opposite side of the planet and walk for up to six months to go take the port by force since they would have been shot out of the sky if they had been seen coming down from space. Roger is a rich, spoiled brat, but an heir to the throne and must be protected at all times and returned to the empire. The troop sets off through what turns out to be hostile territory, picks up a few alien allies, but runs into a huge alien army intent on destroying them. The major battle is 18,000 technologically deficient aliens against 70 Marines. Long odds. Virtually impossible. And bizarrely, while the Marines take casualties, they slaughter a zillion aliens and win the battle. Now, I'm sorry, but that just seems freaking impossible and implausible to me. I know they have technologically superior weapons, but 18,000 to 70 odds are just too much to overcome and there's no way that could happen. No way. Not believable. To make matters crazier, they move on, come to another alien city state and are taken captive, where about 35 of the unwounded or remaining Marines slaughter another army and live to move on to a sequel. Right. Uh huh. So, good action, but asking the reader to believe a little too much, I'm sorry.
I didn't know whether to give this book three or four stars, because it's probably a four star book, but I'm so annoyed by the impossible outcome of the major battle, that I'm knocking a star off and giving it three. Nonetheless, I bought the second book and will be reading it, hoping for more realistic action this time. It's not a bad story. Just make it a little more realistic. Please. Cautiously recommended.
August 7, 2013
My Favorite Series by Weber!!
My headline is saying a lot because Weber obviously includes the Honor Harrington series, but the combination of this series plot as the books progress with Stefan Rudnicki narrating it takes the championship belt in his world & even in many Sci-Fi books. There are def. more in-depth & complex books both metaphysical & poetic, BUT this series which I could easily classify as young adolescent that can cross into the adult series if u really listen to how Weber uses the tech level of the humans to conquer the problems that are placed before them.
The book is basically about a snot-nosed prince who is not only a bastard child but also 3rd in line of succession in his royal family & his mother not only doesn't trust him they have a serious communication problem. After an assassination attempt on him he ends up on a low tech planet filled with all sorts of things that find humans yummy... he slowly realizes what it means to be a soldier, a leader, a ruler through a surrogate 'father' of sorts who is also his commanding officer... Weber as always is not afraid to kill off many people in unique & graphic ways, but in the end 'peace thru excessive firepower' is just one of the rules they take from 'The Art of War' as they have to walk across an entire planet while things at home in his kingdom change drastically when he is gone & assumed dead...
There is suppose to be a couple other books after 'We Few' but I have not heard anything about it yet, but I am looking forward to it. The book is just a great, easy read, with the ability to expand ur ideas about how technology effects a civilization & if the tech levels are relatively close in regards to how milestones effect said civilization, for example, attacking in hoards, attacking in formations & discipline, the introduction of armor, the introduction of gunpowder, etc...
Like I said, these 4 books may not be the most in-depth, complex, futuristic look into how society changes but a great book about fighting for the fellow brother/sister next to u in arms & how humans come to run the majority of the universe in the future. HIGHLY recommend this series if u want a great sci-fi book u will prob read really quickly
My headline is saying a lot because Weber obviously includes the Honor Harrington series, but the combination of this series plot as the books progress with Stefan Rudnicki narrating it takes the championship belt in his world & even in many Sci-Fi books. There are def. more in-depth & complex books both metaphysical & poetic, BUT this series which I could easily classify as young adolescent that can cross into the adult series if u really listen to how Weber uses the tech level of the humans to conquer the problems that are placed before them.
The book is basically about a snot-nosed prince who is not only a bastard child but also 3rd in line of succession in his royal family & his mother not only doesn't trust him they have a serious communication problem. After an assassination attempt on him he ends up on a low tech planet filled with all sorts of things that find humans yummy... he slowly realizes what it means to be a soldier, a leader, a ruler through a surrogate 'father' of sorts who is also his commanding officer... Weber as always is not afraid to kill off many people in unique & graphic ways, but in the end 'peace thru excessive firepower' is just one of the rules they take from 'The Art of War' as they have to walk across an entire planet while things at home in his kingdom change drastically when he is gone & assumed dead...
There is suppose to be a couple other books after 'We Few' but I have not heard anything about it yet, but I am looking forward to it. The book is just a great, easy read, with the ability to expand ur ideas about how technology effects a civilization & if the tech levels are relatively close in regards to how milestones effect said civilization, for example, attacking in hoards, attacking in formations & discipline, the introduction of armor, the introduction of gunpowder, etc...
Like I said, these 4 books may not be the most in-depth, complex, futuristic look into how society changes but a great book about fighting for the fellow brother/sister next to u in arms & how humans come to run the majority of the universe in the future. HIGHLY recommend this series if u want a great sci-fi book u will prob read really quickly
February 28, 2015
This book is the first part of a four book series. I believe that the series really should have been five books, but I'll get into that when I review the last book, We Few.
The story's that of a spoiled princeling whom no one likes. Sent into the boonies on a show the flag mission, his ship is sabotaged and he goes down on a backwards planet that, while technically belonging to the Empire, is actually in the hands of the enemy. He and his bodyguards have to make their way cross-country to the port, take it out of enemy hands, steal a ship and make it back home. Somehow.
His bodyguards don't think much of him. The only one who does is his valet, who's the only one who's been with Prince Roger through everything. In this book, the beginning of the trek, Roger displays some of his spoiled qualities, as well as some of his finer qualities -- such as his shooting -- and begins to grow into a man rather than a spoiled brat.
Although frankly, I think that he was spoiled in a different way than we normally mean the term. It wasn't so much that he got everything he wanted and turned arrogant, but that everyone bungled his upbringing, causing an otherwise outstanding young man to rot away on the vine, as it were.
This venture will either be the making of him -- or the death of him.
The story's that of a spoiled princeling whom no one likes. Sent into the boonies on a show the flag mission, his ship is sabotaged and he goes down on a backwards planet that, while technically belonging to the Empire, is actually in the hands of the enemy. He and his bodyguards have to make their way cross-country to the port, take it out of enemy hands, steal a ship and make it back home. Somehow.
His bodyguards don't think much of him. The only one who does is his valet, who's the only one who's been with Prince Roger through everything. In this book, the beginning of the trek, Roger displays some of his spoiled qualities, as well as some of his finer qualities -- such as his shooting -- and begins to grow into a man rather than a spoiled brat.
Although frankly, I think that he was spoiled in a different way than we normally mean the term. It wasn't so much that he got everything he wanted and turned arrogant, but that everyone bungled his upbringing, causing an otherwise outstanding young man to rot away on the vine, as it were.
This venture will either be the making of him -- or the death of him.
January 14, 2015
Not my favourite Weber. The story of a crack military unit being stranded on a hostile planet and fighting their way across a continent to rescue has been done before, and better, in many books, of which his sometime collaborator David Drake's
Redliners
is, in my opinion, the best.
In addition, I really dislike the whole "interstellar empire" subgenre. I can't imagine a scenario in which interstellar civilization, even with faster-than-light travel, can work with hereditary nobility - and if it could, I don't want to live in that civilization. To cap it off, the "bad guys" in this universe are "eco-freaks". They're even less likely to be able to run a galactic civilization. Give me a break!
The primitive inhabitants of the planet Marduk are about as inhuman as a species could be (gigantic, six-limbed, amphibians, with wicked horns) while still eating food edible by humans, and yet from page to page you could easily forget they're not human - because they act just like humans.
Meh.
In addition, I really dislike the whole "interstellar empire" subgenre. I can't imagine a scenario in which interstellar civilization, even with faster-than-light travel, can work with hereditary nobility - and if it could, I don't want to live in that civilization. To cap it off, the "bad guys" in this universe are "eco-freaks". They're even less likely to be able to run a galactic civilization. Give me a break!
The primitive inhabitants of the planet Marduk are about as inhuman as a species could be (gigantic, six-limbed, amphibians, with wicked horns) while still eating food edible by humans, and yet from page to page you could easily forget they're not human - because they act just like humans.
Meh.
August 8, 2016
Audiobook.
Such a good book! A seemingly run-of-the-mill trip turns into something totally unexpected too where the survivors are left on a planet they know little about. This is about their "March Upcountry" to a space port in enemy hands. The prince, who at first I hated, I ended up liking a lot. His mouth went off like a teenager full of hormones where he just couldn't make himself stop saying stuff but eventually through this experience he's grown immensely. I loved this book. I'm planning on reading/listening to the rest of the series. Stefan Rudnicki did a fantastic job with the narration.
Such a good book! A seemingly run-of-the-mill trip turns into something totally unexpected too where the survivors are left on a planet they know little about. This is about their "March Upcountry" to a space port in enemy hands. The prince, who at first I hated, I ended up liking a lot. His mouth went off like a teenager full of hormones where he just couldn't make himself stop saying stuff but eventually through this experience he's grown immensely. I loved this book. I'm planning on reading/listening to the rest of the series. Stefan Rudnicki did a fantastic job with the narration.
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