Optiman

by Brian M. Stableford

Throughout the centuries that have passed since humans first ventured into interstellar space, they have been at war with the alien Veich. The human race has, in consequence, been fully militarized, its educational system being a form of military training--which includes, among other disciplines, the elimination of fear from the human psyche. Attitudes to the war have, however, been colored by the gradual discovery of relics revealing that it is echoing an earlier interstellar conflict whose antagonists have completely disappeared, victors and vanquished alike. On a neglected continent of an unimportant world, ex-sergeant Remy and other human and Veich deserters have joined forces to form a mercenary company that places its expert skills at the disposal of the dominant indigenes. This refuge from the greater war is, however, disrupted when archeologists on another world discover evidence that there might be significant relics of the earlier war buried in the inhospitable heart of the continent, where barbarian tribes are currently massing for a religious war. Remy has no alternative but to revert to working for his own race, knowing that whatever he enables them to find, or even if they find nothing at all, his own life will be in grave peril, and that nothing will ever be the same again.... Great military SF! (Also published as Optiman.)

Genres: Science Fiction, Collections, Fiction

190 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 7, 1980

About the author

Brian Michael Stableford was a British science fiction writer who published more than 70 novels. His earlier books were published under the name Brian M. Stableford, but more recent ones have dropped the middle initial and appeared under the name Brian Stableford. He also used the pseudonym Brian Craig for a couple of very early works, and again for a few more recent works. The pseudonym derives from the first names of himself and of a school friend from the 1960s, Craig A. Mackintosh, with whom he jointly published some very early work.

Reviews

[Paulo "paper books only" · Rating 2 out of 5]

Brian Stableford wrote some pretty good novels in my perspective, pawn of chaos or granger 6 book series. There are others that I don't enjoy and this was one of them.
Basically this is a story of Berbers and the such tribes fighting invaders on their own countries. In the beginning I was thinking he was taking Germanic or gaulish tribes vs roman but then in my imagination I was seeing van Damme as a legionnaire traveling through the desert as Berbers attack.

I have some queries that are.. why in the far future of intergalatic travellling are these people travelling by foot/horses knowing that the indigenious will attack them? Makes zero sense. Get to the chopter...

It has some interesting concepts of races, evolution, war among other philosophic stuff (Which are quite common in Stableford novels) but then it lacked in other fields including telling the story. Optiman are like super human soldiers that are created in vats for war, unfortunately Stableford then didn't dwell much on them.

If you want to read s novel by him I would advice Hooded Swan novels. They are pretty small, around 150 pages each. I've loved it so much that I bought Empire of Fear , Asgard series, Emortality series (in hardcover), David Lydard series, Daedalus series among other books.

This one I would skip it

[Jim Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Plot wise this is pretty much a standard space adventure. But being authored by Brian Stableford, it's also got a good bit of philosophy and speculation about our origins and the nature of war. While the book is entertaining and occasionally intellectually stimulating, it's not on the order of his more serious works. I would say the greatest fault of the book is the overly complicated combination of races on the planet--this can make for slow going the first 50 pages or so until you get them all sorted out.

[Sammi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three-and-a-half stars

I found it slightly hard to follow in places, but that may be because I recently got back into reading after a lengthy break (for health reasons).

[Frederick Lopez · Rating 2 out of 5]

Brian Stableford’s War Games had some interesting ideas, but I don’t feel he executed them very well.

The time is during an ancient intergalactic war between humanity and the Veitch, kinda like the conflict in Stephen Baxter’s Xeelee Sequence. The place is the desert planet Heidra, where an archaeologist hopes to uncover an end to the war in the ancient ruins of an advanced alien race. He is assisted by the protagonist Remy, a human deserter. Remy’s an interesting character in that he’s involved in an intimate relationship with a Veitch woman, but none of the individual characters’ stories find an satisfactory conclusion.

One of the interesting ideas I referred to in the introduction is the novel’s take on the origin of life. The Veitch and humans are genetically very similar, as are most intelligent species in the galaxy. The consensus view is that convergent evolution is to blame, but the archaeologist reckons that some spooky precursors are to blame. I also liked the Optiman, genetically engineered superhumans who lacked only the ability to procreate.

The main problem I had with War Games is that some characters have a tendency to speak in exposition. Characterisation was also not great, with me having little reason to care about anyone in the story. Granted I was in the final throes of my minor thesis, but there should have seen something.

I’d recommend this only for Stableford fans. Great cover, though.