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Childe Cycle #4
Tactics of Mistake
Mild-mannered and scholarly Cletus Graeme, a light colonel on assignment with the Allied forces, arrives on Bakhalla, where he commands a small force of Dorsai, soldiers of fortune who sell their lives in foreign wars to feed their families back home, and Graeme sees an opportunity to test his theories on them. Reprint.
288 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1971
70 people are currently reading
1074 people want to read
About the author
Gordon R. Dickson
589 books377 followersGordon Rupert Dickson was an American science fiction author. He was born in Canada, then moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota as a teenager. He is probably most famous for his Childe Cycle and the Dragon Knight series. He won three Hugo awards and one Nebula award.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 113 reviews
September 8, 2023
Not exactly my cup of tea, but a fine work of military sci-fi featuring a Sherlock Holmes like military strategist employing logic, deductive reasoning, guerilla and pys-ops type tactics to outmaneuver and psychologically outwit his adversaries, often baffling his own colleagues and clueless superiors along the way. Dickson balances the protagonist's sometimes irritating smarty pants type nature, despite a generally humble attitude, by conjuring some sympathy due to a serious injury/physical limitation. There's plenty of action, but the focus is really on the tactics employed in outsmarting the other side, on the battlefield and over the long term.
May 19, 2020
DAW collectors # 9
Gordon Rupert Dickson (November 1, 1923 – January 31, 2001) was a Canadian-American science fiction writer.
Cover Artist: Kelly Freas
Lieutenant Colonel Cletus Grahame has been an instructor at the Western Alliance military academy since a battle injury crippled one of his knees, and forced his retirement from active duty. He has completed three volumes of a planned twenty-volume series of books on military strategy and tactics, and believes his analysis can revolutionize military science, although many do not take his work seriously. Feeling he needs to get out in the field and try putting his theories into practice, he leaves the academy and arranges to be sent to the world of Kultis, where the Alliance is supporting the Exotic colony of Bakhalla in a war against the neighboring colony of Neuland, backed by the Coalition.
The heart of his military strategy, based in part on fencing, is what he labels the "tactics of mistake," enticing one's opponent into overreaching, and being ready to take advantage of the mistake. This description is an adaptation of a similar concept in the novel Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini when the character Moreau studies at the salon of the Master of Arms.
On the first night out on the ship to Kultis, he deliberately antagonizes Dow deCastries, Secretary of Outworld Affairs for the Eastern Coalition, forcing deCastries to take notice of him. He also meets Colonel Eachan Khan, an officer of the Dorsai troops who have been hired by the Exotics, and Khan's daughter Melissa. Mondar, an Exotic official, is also present, and takes notice of Grahame.
Putting his theories to work, Grahame repeatedly entices deCastries and the Neulanders into attempting incursions, where he is ready to pounce on them. Finally, after conveniently getting his own uncooperative commander out of the way, he entices them to launch a major invasion. Using the Dorsai troops, who had been underestimated and little-used by the Alliance command, he actually wins the war, handing deCastries a humiliating defeat.
His victory has actually made him rather unpopular with his own command. Mondar, using the Exotic science of ontogenetics, recognizes him as a key mover of history, and tries to recruit him to join the Exotics, but he chooses instead to emigrate to the Dorsai, in order to begin building them into the kind of military force he envisions. It seems he possesses some of the advanced mental abilities of the Exotics, and with their help, he is able to heal his crippled knee.
Melissa wants her father to return to Earth, and the General's rank he had enjoyed in the Western Alliance, and to do so, she needs the influence of deCastries. Grahame forces Melissa to marry him to prevent Eachan's departure, as he feels Eachan is necessary to his plans.
Over the course of years, Grahame builds the Dorsai into the unique fighting force that becomes so famous in later years. With their advanced training and superior tactics, they can defeat larger forces and suffer far fewer casualties than any others, making them far more economical for other worlds to hire. Gradually, they reach a status where other worlds no longer need to depend on Earth for fighting forces to protect them, threatening Earth's control of the younger worlds through its system of client states.
This book got me hooked on Gordon R. Dickson and I read everything by him I could find.
Childe Cycle
The Genetic General (1960) (restored variant title: Dorsai!, 1976)
Necromancer (1962) (variant title: No Room for Man)
"Warrior" (1965) (short story) included in Lost Dorsai
Soldier, Ask Not (1967)
Tactics of Mistake (1972)
The Spirit of Dorsai (1979)
Lost Dorsai (1980)
The Final Encyclopedia (1984)
The Dorsai Companion (1986)
The Chantry Guild (1988)
Young Bleys (1991)
Other (1994)
Antagonist (with David W. Wixon) (2007)
Gordon Rupert Dickson (November 1, 1923 – January 31, 2001) was a Canadian-American science fiction writer.
Cover Artist: Kelly Freas
Lieutenant Colonel Cletus Grahame has been an instructor at the Western Alliance military academy since a battle injury crippled one of his knees, and forced his retirement from active duty. He has completed three volumes of a planned twenty-volume series of books on military strategy and tactics, and believes his analysis can revolutionize military science, although many do not take his work seriously. Feeling he needs to get out in the field and try putting his theories into practice, he leaves the academy and arranges to be sent to the world of Kultis, where the Alliance is supporting the Exotic colony of Bakhalla in a war against the neighboring colony of Neuland, backed by the Coalition.
The heart of his military strategy, based in part on fencing, is what he labels the "tactics of mistake," enticing one's opponent into overreaching, and being ready to take advantage of the mistake. This description is an adaptation of a similar concept in the novel Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini when the character Moreau studies at the salon of the Master of Arms.
On the first night out on the ship to Kultis, he deliberately antagonizes Dow deCastries, Secretary of Outworld Affairs for the Eastern Coalition, forcing deCastries to take notice of him. He also meets Colonel Eachan Khan, an officer of the Dorsai troops who have been hired by the Exotics, and Khan's daughter Melissa. Mondar, an Exotic official, is also present, and takes notice of Grahame.
Putting his theories to work, Grahame repeatedly entices deCastries and the Neulanders into attempting incursions, where he is ready to pounce on them. Finally, after conveniently getting his own uncooperative commander out of the way, he entices them to launch a major invasion. Using the Dorsai troops, who had been underestimated and little-used by the Alliance command, he actually wins the war, handing deCastries a humiliating defeat.
His victory has actually made him rather unpopular with his own command. Mondar, using the Exotic science of ontogenetics, recognizes him as a key mover of history, and tries to recruit him to join the Exotics, but he chooses instead to emigrate to the Dorsai, in order to begin building them into the kind of military force he envisions. It seems he possesses some of the advanced mental abilities of the Exotics, and with their help, he is able to heal his crippled knee.
Melissa wants her father to return to Earth, and the General's rank he had enjoyed in the Western Alliance, and to do so, she needs the influence of deCastries. Grahame forces Melissa to marry him to prevent Eachan's departure, as he feels Eachan is necessary to his plans.
Over the course of years, Grahame builds the Dorsai into the unique fighting force that becomes so famous in later years. With their advanced training and superior tactics, they can defeat larger forces and suffer far fewer casualties than any others, making them far more economical for other worlds to hire. Gradually, they reach a status where other worlds no longer need to depend on Earth for fighting forces to protect them, threatening Earth's control of the younger worlds through its system of client states.
This book got me hooked on Gordon R. Dickson and I read everything by him I could find.
Childe Cycle
The Genetic General (1960) (restored variant title: Dorsai!, 1976)
Necromancer (1962) (variant title: No Room for Man)
"Warrior" (1965) (short story) included in Lost Dorsai
Soldier, Ask Not (1967)
Tactics of Mistake (1972)
The Spirit of Dorsai (1979)
Lost Dorsai (1980)
The Final Encyclopedia (1984)
The Dorsai Companion (1986)
The Chantry Guild (1988)
Young Bleys (1991)
Other (1994)
Antagonist (with David W. Wixon) (2007)
April 30, 2018
Originally published on my blog here in February 2004.
Though Dickson himself is keen that the three novels generally known as the Dorsai Trilogy should be considered to be part of the far larger framework of his Chantry Guild future history of which they form part, there are few science fiction fans who would not feel that Tactics of Mistake, Soldier, Ask Not and Dorsai! are far more interesting and readable than their fellows. The reason for this is simple: Dickson later on let his writing become weighed down by some of the mystical ideas which form a relatively small part of these three novels; interesting they may be, but they dominate the other books to such an extent that the reader is put off.
Tactics of Mistake introduces the Dorsai, a race of mercenary soldiers of the future. The background situation is one which is common in a lot of American science fiction of the period - the Cold War extended over a group of colonised planets. In Dickson's future history, many of these planets are home to groups of specialists - scientists on Newton, the mystical Exotics on Kultis; this, under the name of the Splintering, is one of the ideas central to the Chantry Guild series as a whole: for the human race to mature properly, it needs to split into groups which will each develop a specific kind of human, for later re-integration.
The setting is the planet Mara, host to a small war between the Alliance-backed Exotics, the employers of the Dorsai, and the Coalition-backed Neulanders. Cletus Grahame is an Alliance officer recently arrived from Earth, who has come to Kultis to try out some new ideas he as about military strategy, notably the "tactics of mistake", which basically consists of drawing an opponent into a series of errors at the end of which their position becomes untenable.
There are obviously shadows of the Vietnam War in the novel, and implied criticism of American policy in the opportunistic imperialism which marks both the Alliance and the Coalition. Grahame's tactics similarly seem to criticise American attempts to win in Vietnam by brute force methods - more men, better weapons, rather than tactics suited to the nature of the conflict (as those adopted by the Viet Cong proved to be).
Dickson's writing style is nothing if not mainstream science fiction. The influences of Heinlein and Herbert are clearly to be seen in this novel, for example. Dickson shared with Herbert a desire to make his subject matter more sophisticated than in earlier science fiction; he was here attempting to do for the depiction of military strategy what Herbert had done for politics in Dune. The difference can be seen by citing another example. In E.E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman series, the strategic decisions consist of the deployment of a sequence of ever more spectacular weapons, combined with small group operations to disable the enemy command structure. I find it hard to see, however, how the tactics Grahame devises based on the (notoriously difficult to assess) psychology of powerful members of the enemy hierarchy, could be generally applicable. (Think about how hard it has been for Americans to find Osama bin Laden - and I think that Grahame's analysis of future actions of people like Dow Castries are on the same sort of level of difficulty.) Yet Grahame's plans always seem to work perfectly; no miscalculations, no unforeseen difficulties, no chance event ruining things. The only exception to his psychological understanding is his inability to read the woman he wants to marry.
The take on the subject matter may be influenced by Herbert, but the writing style is more firmly in the style of Robert Heinlein's earlier novels (before Stranger in a Strange Landd). This is despite Dickson's clear rejection of the type of militarism which is part of Starship Troopers. The Tactics of Mistake is exciting and easy to read. Most serious science fiction fans will probably already have read the Dorsai Trilogy, but if not - anyone who likes writers like Heinlein and Herbert will enjoy it.
Though Dickson himself is keen that the three novels generally known as the Dorsai Trilogy should be considered to be part of the far larger framework of his Chantry Guild future history of which they form part, there are few science fiction fans who would not feel that Tactics of Mistake, Soldier, Ask Not and Dorsai! are far more interesting and readable than their fellows. The reason for this is simple: Dickson later on let his writing become weighed down by some of the mystical ideas which form a relatively small part of these three novels; interesting they may be, but they dominate the other books to such an extent that the reader is put off.
Tactics of Mistake introduces the Dorsai, a race of mercenary soldiers of the future. The background situation is one which is common in a lot of American science fiction of the period - the Cold War extended over a group of colonised planets. In Dickson's future history, many of these planets are home to groups of specialists - scientists on Newton, the mystical Exotics on Kultis; this, under the name of the Splintering, is one of the ideas central to the Chantry Guild series as a whole: for the human race to mature properly, it needs to split into groups which will each develop a specific kind of human, for later re-integration.
The setting is the planet Mara, host to a small war between the Alliance-backed Exotics, the employers of the Dorsai, and the Coalition-backed Neulanders. Cletus Grahame is an Alliance officer recently arrived from Earth, who has come to Kultis to try out some new ideas he as about military strategy, notably the "tactics of mistake", which basically consists of drawing an opponent into a series of errors at the end of which their position becomes untenable.
There are obviously shadows of the Vietnam War in the novel, and implied criticism of American policy in the opportunistic imperialism which marks both the Alliance and the Coalition. Grahame's tactics similarly seem to criticise American attempts to win in Vietnam by brute force methods - more men, better weapons, rather than tactics suited to the nature of the conflict (as those adopted by the Viet Cong proved to be).
Dickson's writing style is nothing if not mainstream science fiction. The influences of Heinlein and Herbert are clearly to be seen in this novel, for example. Dickson shared with Herbert a desire to make his subject matter more sophisticated than in earlier science fiction; he was here attempting to do for the depiction of military strategy what Herbert had done for politics in Dune. The difference can be seen by citing another example. In E.E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman series, the strategic decisions consist of the deployment of a sequence of ever more spectacular weapons, combined with small group operations to disable the enemy command structure. I find it hard to see, however, how the tactics Grahame devises based on the (notoriously difficult to assess) psychology of powerful members of the enemy hierarchy, could be generally applicable. (Think about how hard it has been for Americans to find Osama bin Laden - and I think that Grahame's analysis of future actions of people like Dow Castries are on the same sort of level of difficulty.) Yet Grahame's plans always seem to work perfectly; no miscalculations, no unforeseen difficulties, no chance event ruining things. The only exception to his psychological understanding is his inability to read the woman he wants to marry.
The take on the subject matter may be influenced by Herbert, but the writing style is more firmly in the style of Robert Heinlein's earlier novels (before Stranger in a Strange Landd). This is despite Dickson's clear rejection of the type of militarism which is part of Starship Troopers. The Tactics of Mistake is exciting and easy to read. Most serious science fiction fans will probably already have read the Dorsai Trilogy, but if not - anyone who likes writers like Heinlein and Herbert will enjoy it.
November 1, 2018
Better than the earlier books. Not as good as I remembered. A long time ago this was my introduction to this series and Gordon Dickson in general. And at the time it was a favorite. And with this re-read I still like it, and like it better than the earlier books. It does a good job of moving the story along even if the parallel with Dorsai! is way too strong. And I don't think I read Dorsai! until much later. In this book Dickson tries to explain how the worlds went from Necromancer to Dorsai!/Soldier Ask Not. And it is basically is just enough. And we are given a clue as to where the Dorsai themselves come from. And I guess I was more accepting when I was younger, but I don't think I have the same level of belief. And another ornamental female character. For simple relatively short action books, there is a lot of philosophy and complexity. At this point in the series there is just not enough to hold it together. But the later books are a lot longer.
April 11, 2011
I enjoyed the timelessness of this book; Dickson didn't dwell too much on what the differences were in technology and race, but rather on the existence of differences: different groups had different attitudes, different technology had different benefits, etc.
I found the book a little optimistic though; everything works out just the way Cletus plans and I've just never seen that happen in the real world. Life happens. Armies and leaders are often plagued with unforeseen circumstances, mistakes and coincidence. Leadership seems to be more about adapting to circumstances than trying to figure out exactly what's going to happen.
I found the book a little optimistic though; everything works out just the way Cletus plans and I've just never seen that happen in the real world. Life happens. Armies and leaders are often plagued with unforeseen circumstances, mistakes and coincidence. Leadership seems to be more about adapting to circumstances than trying to figure out exactly what's going to happen.
June 17, 2018
Classic old time sci-fi with dated (charming) language and reasonable characters. I love that it completely takes fast interstellar travel as a given and doesn’t dwell on it in the least. Interplanetary conquest with overtones of Space Operas. It’s a quick read.
Definitely more military strategy than anything else, but it’s done well. The fact that it flies in the face of US strategy in Vietnam was interesting (written in 1970) It is one of the few books where our hero’s strategy *always* works (which is a little annoying). Reminds me of Dune a bit.
Definitely more military strategy than anything else, but it’s done well. The fact that it flies in the face of US strategy in Vietnam was interesting (written in 1970) It is one of the few books where our hero’s strategy *always* works (which is a little annoying). Reminds me of Dune a bit.
August 15, 2022
[3.3 stars, I liked it and might read again]
The Tactics of Mistake tells the story of a bookish Colonel Cletus who revolutionizes military conflict on the colony worlds by innovative tactics. Cletus carries a Sherlock Holmes style vibe, not in understanding what happened, but in understanding what will happen. It makes for an interesting situation for a while, but the story-line slowly loses some of its credibility as Cletus navigates increasingly challenging situations with God-like omniscience. And his marriage is bizarre. Yet it is fast paced, and makes for a feel-good novel overall.
The Tactics of Mistake tells the story of a bookish Colonel Cletus who revolutionizes military conflict on the colony worlds by innovative tactics. Cletus carries a Sherlock Holmes style vibe, not in understanding what happened, but in understanding what will happen. It makes for an interesting situation for a while, but the story-line slowly loses some of its credibility as Cletus navigates increasingly challenging situations with God-like omniscience. And his marriage is bizarre. Yet it is fast paced, and makes for a feel-good novel overall.
August 28, 2019
An old favorite is new again with the audio edition.
January 11, 2018
An excellent book!!! My first read of 2018. Read for VintageSciFiMonth in January.
First rate Military SciFi that deals more with the inner heart and mind of humanity than the battles, but describes the actions well! Highly enjoyable and possibly the best book of The Childe Cycle so far!
First rate Military SciFi that deals more with the inner heart and mind of humanity than the battles, but describes the actions well! Highly enjoyable and possibly the best book of The Childe Cycle so far!
July 16, 2025
"You've taken all the life out of war--you know that, don't you?"
"It's the way I like it," said Cletus.
This quote sums up Tactics of Mistake very well. A milSF story that means well in terms of sci-fi tactics and strategy, it plays out in such a clinical and emotionless manner that it takes all the fun out of every aspect of its premise.
The focus of this book is the military career of Cletus Grahame. Yes, "Cletus". Perhaps that name wasn't as ridiculous in 1970 as it sounds today, but considering that the book's back cover changes the name to "Donal Graeme", then perhaps the publisher also felt that that name was rather silly, at least for what is supposed to be a military genius. Anyway, Cletus Grahame is indeed a military genius capable of defeating any army of any size in the universe with just his intellect. And he certainly manages that, but for what I feel are the wrong reasons that may even border on Mary Sue territory.
For starters, Cletus is never, ever wrong. Not even once. Whatever he says will happen, happens. If he says his enemy will act a certain way, they absolutely will, on the dot. It's easy for someone to win anything if they are 100% right about what their opponents will do, regardless of how doubtful and risky it may be for them to do what he predicts.
So the military operations Cletus undertakes with his oft-scarce army of soldiers are less about outsmarting the enemy and more about... well, not doing much of anything. The "tactics of mistake" that Cletus introduces early on are about taunting the enemy into feints so many times that they get overconfident and then when they lower their guard you strike at full force. Think of the boy who cried wolf. The problem is that this is seldom what happens in the handful of military operations that occur in the book. What actually happens is rather more dumb. To wit:
1. Cletus predicts beforehand every single military move that the enemy is gonna make (of several that they have the option to perform, mind you), no matter how detrimental it is to their own benefit.
2. Cletus moves himself and/or his troops in such a way that they are ready to ambush their enemy exactly where he knows they will be, because of course they will.
3. Practically nobody shoots or dies or anything because the ambush is always so flawless that the enemy surrenders immediately.
This is the general flow of the "military tactics" that happen in every "action" scene. Cletus always attains victory not through clever tactical maneuvering but by letting the enemy be dumb and ridiculously predictable, because he says that they are.
It's more about the enemy being brainless, than Cletus being smart.
And this seems to be fine at first, since the first (and probably best) military operation has him smartly maneuvering battle lines and reacting to terrain conditions that change the enemy behavior and thus his own army's movements. BUT. This is only on the surface. Everything that happens here was described by Cletus before the battle even started, so it's not really a battle of wits and strategy, but simply an execution of what Cletus said he was going to do in the first place. The enemy is too dumb to react to anything or have even a chance to counterattack or even harm Cletus's forces in any way.
This is BORING action.
And while I appreciate that it's proper military, tactical action (which I always crave), it's just too low stakes to be interesting. No twists, no tactical outmaneuvering. Just Cletus kicking everyone's ass because he said he would.
(The worst part is that the actual way he wins is by himself using a ridiculously efficient hoverbike that is practically noiseless and packed with dozens and dozens of mines that he deploys while watching ALL the enemy troop movements without a hitch. If this bike is so wonderfully powerful, then why isn't everyone using them??)
The subsequent military operations get more and more abstract and "strategic", meaning that the way they are described is increasingly less detailed, to the point where we are told that an army wins, but not HOW they won. They just win because again, Cletus is a genius and what he said would happen happened.
And so we are constantly reminded (by Cletus himself more often than not) that Cletus is a genius and that the small army he eventually develops with tough mental and physical training is practically invincible, despite often facing up against armies orders of magnitude larger than them. But we are almost never shown HOW they are superior soldiers. They are so incredibly good that they barely need to shoot a gun or anything else. So they "just win".
The military battles truly devolve into nothing-battles. The final two operations are the perfect examples. In the first, they besiege a city for a couple of weeks and then pretend to retreat and attack another target, and the city's dumb leader decides to send their ENTIRE army out to chase them, INCLUDING TRANSPORTING THEIR STATIC TURRETS that were defending the city for no good reason, and guess what? This is exactly what Cletus predicted and they immediately ambush them and win and take over the city! This is not only absurd but it kind of also spits on the face of actual military tactics and military history.
The very last operation is somehow even worse. Cletus goes back to the planet where his people and his trained army is, and it turns out that his worse enemy, the leader of the big bad army was waiting for him and he's captured and is surrounded by the entire enemy force. And for once this guy is not gonna get overconfident with Cletus! He's so fed up with Cletus always winning that he is about to shoot him when... Cletus wins the war. How? Well, we're never shown! But he sure did win, because the WOMEN AND CHILDREN AND OLD PEOPLE in the planet turned out to be better soldiers than an entire galactic army off screen, because that's what Cletus trained them to be! WHAT??
What I never even mentioned was Cletus as a character and the cast that follows him. Why? Because they are treated even worse than the military tactics here. Since Cletus is a god-like genius that knows how everyone is going to behave, he is an emotionless military asshole to everyone, and everyone tolerates it because he gets results. But the more he wins, the more of an asshole he becomes, for no good reason. The solution to making the love interest fall in love with him even though she hated him since the beginning? Force her to marry you! And then have your kid and only mention him IN A SINGLE SENTENCE after he's all grown up, of course! What to do with your closest ally that has always been by your side? Start shunning him out of nowhere, then replace him with a character who literally hated your guts and tried to get you expelled, and then come back years later and tell him that it was because he knew he was going to rise up in rank by himself! All of this is an absurd way of writing a main character. His actions are seemingly redeemed by everyone, and all is forgiven, because he is Cletus, the man who can do no wrong!
For a book about a character that claims to perfectly understand human behavior, this book is ironically so drained of emotion and logic that it felt like a robot trying to figure out and mimic human behavior, in a milSF story. If you're a fan of military tactics (which should be the main draw to this), then maybe you'll get past all the many, many flaws here, including the military ones. But if not, I can't really recommend this unless you're interested in learning how a cerebral "genius" character can be so annoyingly and absurdly written.
"It's the way I like it," said Cletus.
This quote sums up Tactics of Mistake very well. A milSF story that means well in terms of sci-fi tactics and strategy, it plays out in such a clinical and emotionless manner that it takes all the fun out of every aspect of its premise.
The focus of this book is the military career of Cletus Grahame. Yes, "Cletus". Perhaps that name wasn't as ridiculous in 1970 as it sounds today, but considering that the book's back cover changes the name to "Donal Graeme", then perhaps the publisher also felt that that name was rather silly, at least for what is supposed to be a military genius. Anyway, Cletus Grahame is indeed a military genius capable of defeating any army of any size in the universe with just his intellect. And he certainly manages that, but for what I feel are the wrong reasons that may even border on Mary Sue territory.
For starters, Cletus is never, ever wrong. Not even once. Whatever he says will happen, happens. If he says his enemy will act a certain way, they absolutely will, on the dot. It's easy for someone to win anything if they are 100% right about what their opponents will do, regardless of how doubtful and risky it may be for them to do what he predicts.
So the military operations Cletus undertakes with his oft-scarce army of soldiers are less about outsmarting the enemy and more about... well, not doing much of anything. The "tactics of mistake" that Cletus introduces early on are about taunting the enemy into feints so many times that they get overconfident and then when they lower their guard you strike at full force. Think of the boy who cried wolf. The problem is that this is seldom what happens in the handful of military operations that occur in the book. What actually happens is rather more dumb. To wit:
1. Cletus predicts beforehand every single military move that the enemy is gonna make (of several that they have the option to perform, mind you), no matter how detrimental it is to their own benefit.
2. Cletus moves himself and/or his troops in such a way that they are ready to ambush their enemy exactly where he knows they will be, because of course they will.
3. Practically nobody shoots or dies or anything because the ambush is always so flawless that the enemy surrenders immediately.
This is the general flow of the "military tactics" that happen in every "action" scene. Cletus always attains victory not through clever tactical maneuvering but by letting the enemy be dumb and ridiculously predictable, because he says that they are.
It's more about the enemy being brainless, than Cletus being smart.
And this seems to be fine at first, since the first (and probably best) military operation has him smartly maneuvering battle lines and reacting to terrain conditions that change the enemy behavior and thus his own army's movements. BUT. This is only on the surface. Everything that happens here was described by Cletus before the battle even started, so it's not really a battle of wits and strategy, but simply an execution of what Cletus said he was going to do in the first place. The enemy is too dumb to react to anything or have even a chance to counterattack or even harm Cletus's forces in any way.
This is BORING action.
And while I appreciate that it's proper military, tactical action (which I always crave), it's just too low stakes to be interesting. No twists, no tactical outmaneuvering. Just Cletus kicking everyone's ass because he said he would.
(The worst part is that the actual way he wins is by himself using a ridiculously efficient hoverbike that is practically noiseless and packed with dozens and dozens of mines that he deploys while watching ALL the enemy troop movements without a hitch. If this bike is so wonderfully powerful, then why isn't everyone using them??)
The subsequent military operations get more and more abstract and "strategic", meaning that the way they are described is increasingly less detailed, to the point where we are told that an army wins, but not HOW they won. They just win because again, Cletus is a genius and what he said would happen happened.
And so we are constantly reminded (by Cletus himself more often than not) that Cletus is a genius and that the small army he eventually develops with tough mental and physical training is practically invincible, despite often facing up against armies orders of magnitude larger than them. But we are almost never shown HOW they are superior soldiers. They are so incredibly good that they barely need to shoot a gun or anything else. So they "just win".
The military battles truly devolve into nothing-battles. The final two operations are the perfect examples. In the first, they besiege a city for a couple of weeks and then pretend to retreat and attack another target, and the city's dumb leader decides to send their ENTIRE army out to chase them, INCLUDING TRANSPORTING THEIR STATIC TURRETS that were defending the city for no good reason, and guess what? This is exactly what Cletus predicted and they immediately ambush them and win and take over the city! This is not only absurd but it kind of also spits on the face of actual military tactics and military history.
The very last operation is somehow even worse. Cletus goes back to the planet where his people and his trained army is, and it turns out that his worse enemy, the leader of the big bad army was waiting for him and he's captured and is surrounded by the entire enemy force. And for once this guy is not gonna get overconfident with Cletus! He's so fed up with Cletus always winning that he is about to shoot him when... Cletus wins the war. How? Well, we're never shown! But he sure did win, because the WOMEN AND CHILDREN AND OLD PEOPLE in the planet turned out to be better soldiers than an entire galactic army off screen, because that's what Cletus trained them to be! WHAT??
What I never even mentioned was Cletus as a character and the cast that follows him. Why? Because they are treated even worse than the military tactics here. Since Cletus is a god-like genius that knows how everyone is going to behave, he is an emotionless military asshole to everyone, and everyone tolerates it because he gets results. But the more he wins, the more of an asshole he becomes, for no good reason. The solution to making the love interest fall in love with him even though she hated him since the beginning? Force her to marry you! And then have your kid and only mention him IN A SINGLE SENTENCE after he's all grown up, of course! What to do with your closest ally that has always been by your side? Start shunning him out of nowhere, then replace him with a character who literally hated your guts and tried to get you expelled, and then come back years later and tell him that it was because he knew he was going to rise up in rank by himself! All of this is an absurd way of writing a main character. His actions are seemingly redeemed by everyone, and all is forgiven, because he is Cletus, the man who can do no wrong!
For a book about a character that claims to perfectly understand human behavior, this book is ironically so drained of emotion and logic that it felt like a robot trying to figure out and mimic human behavior, in a milSF story. If you're a fan of military tactics (which should be the main draw to this), then maybe you'll get past all the many, many flaws here, including the military ones. But if not, I can't really recommend this unless you're interested in learning how a cerebral "genius" character can be so annoyingly and absurdly written.
August 6, 2019
My 2019 reread of this book that I first read >30 years ago as a teenager.
A dozen or so years after the publication of the Genetic General, this, while it's the 4th book in the Childe cycle is considered the middle of the key books in the series.
Dickson has clearly worked to create a universe that interesting things happen on a grand scale because significant influential people are able to exert great control over happenings at a cosmic scale.
Cletus Graeme is one of these. As a young tactician, shipping out from Earth to the colony world of Mara he is advise the Alliance team supporting the mystical exotics in their local war against the Neulanders. The Neulanders are supported by the Coalition. The Coalition and Alliance earth teams are engaged in various proxy wars around the colony worlds that are yet to really establish themselves.
Cletus comes across quickly as a brilliant, arrogant, prescient man (a bit like many of Dickson's heroes to this point). Establishing his credentials early on by getting into a bit of a spat with the Coalition leader, he demonstrates his 'tactics of mistake' by baiting Dow DeCastries on the outbound journey.
This interplay with DeCastries continues through the book as Cletus demonstrates again and again that he is some kind of Sherlockian superman - able to perfectly predict his opponents move with unnerring precision.
These little encounters make for exciting reading, but really the character archetypes are paper thin - supervillan (check), grumpy teen (check), loyal fanboys (check), stupid authoritarian leader (check). We also have a love interest who, while central to some plot elements, probably has no more than a couple of pages in the whole book attached to her.
Cletus refines his tactics and works with the Dorsai troops using mystical energies to create a race of supermen, redefined in a new military super organisation different to anything seen before.
It's of it's time (Asimov, Heinlein) and shows the kind of work that publishers were looking to put on our shelves. There are loads of jingoistic little victory vignettes as Cletus proves time and again that he is unstoppable and there's never any real doubt about the outcome of the book.
I'm starting to run out of steam on this now, as, enjoyable as the endless stream of achievements for the protagonists in the Childe cycle are (and they are all, without exception, flawless heroes), I'm starting to crave some grey in a universe of black and white.
A dozen or so years after the publication of the Genetic General, this, while it's the 4th book in the Childe cycle is considered the middle of the key books in the series.
Dickson has clearly worked to create a universe that interesting things happen on a grand scale because significant influential people are able to exert great control over happenings at a cosmic scale.
Cletus Graeme is one of these. As a young tactician, shipping out from Earth to the colony world of Mara he is advise the Alliance team supporting the mystical exotics in their local war against the Neulanders. The Neulanders are supported by the Coalition. The Coalition and Alliance earth teams are engaged in various proxy wars around the colony worlds that are yet to really establish themselves.
Cletus comes across quickly as a brilliant, arrogant, prescient man (a bit like many of Dickson's heroes to this point). Establishing his credentials early on by getting into a bit of a spat with the Coalition leader, he demonstrates his 'tactics of mistake' by baiting Dow DeCastries on the outbound journey.
This interplay with DeCastries continues through the book as Cletus demonstrates again and again that he is some kind of Sherlockian superman - able to perfectly predict his opponents move with unnerring precision.
These little encounters make for exciting reading, but really the character archetypes are paper thin - supervillan (check), grumpy teen (check), loyal fanboys (check), stupid authoritarian leader (check). We also have a love interest who, while central to some plot elements, probably has no more than a couple of pages in the whole book attached to her.
Cletus refines his tactics and works with the Dorsai troops using mystical energies to create a race of supermen, redefined in a new military super organisation different to anything seen before.
It's of it's time (Asimov, Heinlein) and shows the kind of work that publishers were looking to put on our shelves. There are loads of jingoistic little victory vignettes as Cletus proves time and again that he is unstoppable and there's never any real doubt about the outcome of the book.
I'm starting to run out of steam on this now, as, enjoyable as the endless stream of achievements for the protagonists in the Childe cycle are (and they are all, without exception, flawless heroes), I'm starting to crave some grey in a universe of black and white.
September 11, 2025
I read this in serialized form (as published over 4 parts in the October 1970 through January 1971 issues of Analog). It may differ from the final complete publication.
I haven't read any novels by Dickson in literally 20 or 25 years, so it was interesting revisiting an author I knew my dad liked. The first half of this book was really quite fun--seeing the hypercompetent officer maneuver his opponents and superiors in such a way to get his desired battlefield outcomes, but in the second half it escalates very quickly indeed in ways I'm more ambivalent about. The love interest Melissa practically vanishes into the background except for a final last word to the book. I haven't read any Dorsai stories before, and while I may yet do so (I'm still interested in the novella "Lost Dorsai"), I'm more ambivalent about reading stories that end up like this. Cletus becomes just a little too competent (he basically turns into a military version of Asimov's Hari Seldon, able to predict just about everything).
I haven't read any novels by Dickson in literally 20 or 25 years, so it was interesting revisiting an author I knew my dad liked. The first half of this book was really quite fun--seeing the hypercompetent officer maneuver his opponents and superiors in such a way to get his desired battlefield outcomes, but in the second half it escalates very quickly indeed in ways I'm more ambivalent about. The love interest Melissa practically vanishes into the background except for a final last word to the book. I haven't read any Dorsai stories before, and while I may yet do so (I'm still interested in the novella "Lost Dorsai"), I'm more ambivalent about reading stories that end up like this. Cletus becomes just a little too competent (he basically turns into a military version of Asimov's Hari Seldon, able to predict just about everything).
October 23, 2014
There's a lot more action in this book compared to the last one. We've also gone back in time, a century before the first book, to learn about the origins & the real strength of the Dorsai. A good, quick read with a neat ending.
The series is still going strong. On to the next book, The Spirit of Dorsai.
The series is still going strong. On to the next book, The Spirit of Dorsai.
March 24, 2011
Dry, interesting concept, early example of military sci-fi world building. Could have done with a sense of humor. An early influence on Enders Game. Fantastic artwork. A minor classic.
June 1, 2019
🛸👽😉👩✈️👨🏿✈️ 5 stars ✨
The Tactics of Mistake by Gordon R. Dickson
Read on: iBooks, KyBook (1, & 3), SmashWords, Kobo, Good Reads, and others as I find them.
Started: 28 Avril 2019.
Finished: 1 June 2019.
Amazon: ?
Title:
Using old knowledge to offset modern ills.
When this book first came out, I was recovering from a bad auto accident and had a chance to read it as a new book in the early 1970s. I swore at the time that I d get a copy eventually for myself. The last thing I expected was to forget about it until nearly 50 years later.
I can t wait to see what I remembered correctly or how far off I was:
Okay, the first several chapters are what I remembered. It dealt with an aspect of fencing which I was learning at the time (best described as “Tactic of Mistake” mostly because I can t remember the actual term.) :)
The lessons learned then are surprisingly still true today. From military to political to medical. Just because time has past, in no way means that all must change. Only that the possibility is there, if the force/guidance is around will they change.
The medical lessons are hinted at early and actually start in chapter 7 and are much as I remembered them. They helped me do what I ve done so far in my life, and I hope that relearning them I ll be able to make the rest of my life easier.
{Getting through this book slowly and re learning/refreshing my knowledge, is what s taking longer than my normal speed. However, seeing some of the effects of relearning this type of medicine more than makes up for it.}
Even though I now own a copy, I m reading and relearning the medical aspects since they are still applicable today. It sort of makes me wonder why the AMA doesn t pass on actual cures anymore.
Antibiotics have been abused so much, that we now have antibiotic resistant viruses.
Don t get me wrong thinking that I m against high tech medicine, I m not. There are times and conditions where it can be very beneficial to have access to it. Why do so many people have to get flu/pneumonia/et cetera shots yearly when your body s own microbiome can take better care of each individual, than a research company guessing which single virus is going to be “big/highly profitable” this year.
What s even worse is the fact that you can t sue the medical doctors if their vaccines were for the wrong virus (it s against the law (federal law), so they are actually above the law), and even if people die, they are untouchable.
For my personal day to day life, the techniques described helps me live.
While the general population doesn t have total access to the practices described in the book, what we do have could improve the average person s life. The American Medical Association would disagree since it enables the individual rather than keeping that same individual loaded down with their drugs. {I m sorry, after reading some of the “medications” I m taking (was taking) have a possible side effect: of death and the AMA is perfectly fine with that. I m not! I ll do my best to eradicate them out of my life!}
I read this book on my iPhone (iBooks).
The Tactics of Mistake by Gordon R. Dickson
Read on: iBooks, KyBook (1, & 3), SmashWords, Kobo, Good Reads, and others as I find them.
Started: 28 Avril 2019.
Finished: 1 June 2019.
Amazon: ?
Title:
Using old knowledge to offset modern ills.
When this book first came out, I was recovering from a bad auto accident and had a chance to read it as a new book in the early 1970s. I swore at the time that I d get a copy eventually for myself. The last thing I expected was to forget about it until nearly 50 years later.
I can t wait to see what I remembered correctly or how far off I was:
Okay, the first several chapters are what I remembered. It dealt with an aspect of fencing which I was learning at the time (best described as “Tactic of Mistake” mostly because I can t remember the actual term.) :)
The lessons learned then are surprisingly still true today. From military to political to medical. Just because time has past, in no way means that all must change. Only that the possibility is there, if the force/guidance is around will they change.
The medical lessons are hinted at early and actually start in chapter 7 and are much as I remembered them. They helped me do what I ve done so far in my life, and I hope that relearning them I ll be able to make the rest of my life easier.
{Getting through this book slowly and re learning/refreshing my knowledge, is what s taking longer than my normal speed. However, seeing some of the effects of relearning this type of medicine more than makes up for it.}
Even though I now own a copy, I m reading and relearning the medical aspects since they are still applicable today. It sort of makes me wonder why the AMA doesn t pass on actual cures anymore.
Antibiotics have been abused so much, that we now have antibiotic resistant viruses.
Don t get me wrong thinking that I m against high tech medicine, I m not. There are times and conditions where it can be very beneficial to have access to it. Why do so many people have to get flu/pneumonia/et cetera shots yearly when your body s own microbiome can take better care of each individual, than a research company guessing which single virus is going to be “big/highly profitable” this year.
What s even worse is the fact that you can t sue the medical doctors if their vaccines were for the wrong virus (it s against the law (federal law), so they are actually above the law), and even if people die, they are untouchable.
For my personal day to day life, the techniques described helps me live.
While the general population doesn t have total access to the practices described in the book, what we do have could improve the average person s life. The American Medical Association would disagree since it enables the individual rather than keeping that same individual loaded down with their drugs. {I m sorry, after reading some of the “medications” I m taking (was taking) have a possible side effect: of death and the AMA is perfectly fine with that. I m not! I ll do my best to eradicate them out of my life!}
I read this book on my iPhone (iBooks).
November 11, 2023
Futuristic Sci-fi written in the past(ours) and it still holds up without any missteps.
ToM felt direct, optimistic, and highly scripted as a military tale of opposing generals, so to speak, Cletus Grahame (our brainiac strategist protagonist with an agenda) and Dow deCastries (a seemingly greedy capitalist providing coalition supplies and support-aka the target of Cletus' attention.)
Not much effort was wasted on detailed future weapons and space travel descriptions, almost all felt like foregone natural progressions of our advancements. Same for the worlds involved, all coming across as city-states on the current globe in relative closeness or proximity. No green people or Star Wars creatures. Just humankind.
I had no idea who the Dorsai were until now, and I guess they are physiological mercenaries that can endure longer hardships, and/or perform greater efforts, at the simplest explanation. Nearly every incursion detailed in the text was diversionary in tactics. Never once was there a force on force stand up battle between anyone. So, are the Dorsai better? Smarter? Eh, at least their leader, Cletus, is and that's what he was selling because that was enough for the storyline.
The whole book was a chess match of sorts between chess players, using the universal playing field of planets. The victories all felt scripted, to only be successful, without any military obstacles or snafu's handed out, which took away from my greater enjoyment of the tale. And always the right person/piece of equipment, or worldly opportunity to further the sales pitch of "Dorsai For Hire." As a veteran, the scenarios all came across more as battle drills performed in a regimented training exercise, without regard to actual worldly effects, misplaced weapons, or under/over performing enemies (who all reacted as predictable across the board). And there weren't any real stakes for the reader to invest themselves in.
Cletus got tiresome fast. To the point you almost want the other side against him to win. There is always someone smarter, faster, better equipped, and more motivated (just not in this story.)
From a military standpoint, Dickson gets the "feel" correct. He understands what he wants to tell the reader, and we see it play out from the open sequence. It almost feels anti-climactic in its delivery and once the story is over, there is no after-effects or thought-provoking message, just that Earth isn't welcome out in space. Um, ok.
Worth a look.
Thanks for reading.
ToM felt direct, optimistic, and highly scripted as a military tale of opposing generals, so to speak, Cletus Grahame (our brainiac strategist protagonist with an agenda) and Dow deCastries (a seemingly greedy capitalist providing coalition supplies and support-aka the target of Cletus' attention.)
Not much effort was wasted on detailed future weapons and space travel descriptions, almost all felt like foregone natural progressions of our advancements. Same for the worlds involved, all coming across as city-states on the current globe in relative closeness or proximity. No green people or Star Wars creatures. Just humankind.
I had no idea who the Dorsai were until now, and I guess they are physiological mercenaries that can endure longer hardships, and/or perform greater efforts, at the simplest explanation. Nearly every incursion detailed in the text was diversionary in tactics. Never once was there a force on force stand up battle between anyone. So, are the Dorsai better? Smarter? Eh, at least their leader, Cletus, is and that's what he was selling because that was enough for the storyline.
The whole book was a chess match of sorts between chess players, using the universal playing field of planets. The victories all felt scripted, to only be successful, without any military obstacles or snafu's handed out, which took away from my greater enjoyment of the tale. And always the right person/piece of equipment, or worldly opportunity to further the sales pitch of "Dorsai For Hire." As a veteran, the scenarios all came across more as battle drills performed in a regimented training exercise, without regard to actual worldly effects, misplaced weapons, or under/over performing enemies (who all reacted as predictable across the board). And there weren't any real stakes for the reader to invest themselves in.
Cletus got tiresome fast. To the point you almost want the other side against him to win. There is always someone smarter, faster, better equipped, and more motivated (just not in this story.)
From a military standpoint, Dickson gets the "feel" correct. He understands what he wants to tell the reader, and we see it play out from the open sequence. It almost feels anti-climactic in its delivery and once the story is over, there is no after-effects or thought-provoking message, just that Earth isn't welcome out in space. Um, ok.
Worth a look.
Thanks for reading.
May 29, 2018
The late Gordon R. Dickson was one of the more respected of the old-guard, golden-age sci-fi writers that included Heinlein, Pohl, Asimov and others. He was well-educated and his writing displays his intellect in a very thought-provoking manner.
I began reading the Dorsai series back in the 1970's and found his idea of a mercenary force that was more interested in preserving themselves than in fighting battles (and getting themselves killed, which is costly both financially and personnel-wise) to be interesting. If what I've written on the front cover is true, I first read this book in 1976, then again in 1985.
The main character, Cletus Grahame, plays his game of being a mercenary leader like a master chess player against his opponent, Dow Decastris.
The book moves at a brisk pace, outlining his strategy and it's effectiveness in a very convincing manner. About the only thing that seemed two-dimensional was the relationship between Grahame and Melissa Khan. It rang very hollow to me. She appears to be more of a pawn in his scheme rather than his queen, and her sudden turnabout towards him (twice in the book) seems a bit forced and fabricated. Then again, Dickson came from the kind of background in sci-fi where women were second-class citizens, to simply smile brightly, kiss the hero and cheer him on. Couple that with the fact that the book was written in 1971, you can understand why she played such a minor and shallow role (unlike Heinlein's women, who were always capable, strong, intelligent and caring).
Overall, a good "guys" book. Not one that I would recommend to anyone with a feminist bent, though.
I began reading the Dorsai series back in the 1970's and found his idea of a mercenary force that was more interested in preserving themselves than in fighting battles (and getting themselves killed, which is costly both financially and personnel-wise) to be interesting. If what I've written on the front cover is true, I first read this book in 1976, then again in 1985.
The main character, Cletus Grahame, plays his game of being a mercenary leader like a master chess player against his opponent, Dow Decastris.
The book moves at a brisk pace, outlining his strategy and it's effectiveness in a very convincing manner. About the only thing that seemed two-dimensional was the relationship between Grahame and Melissa Khan. It rang very hollow to me. She appears to be more of a pawn in his scheme rather than his queen, and her sudden turnabout towards him (twice in the book) seems a bit forced and fabricated. Then again, Dickson came from the kind of background in sci-fi where women were second-class citizens, to simply smile brightly, kiss the hero and cheer him on. Couple that with the fact that the book was written in 1971, you can understand why she played such a minor and shallow role (unlike Heinlein's women, who were always capable, strong, intelligent and caring).
Overall, a good "guys" book. Not one that I would recommend to anyone with a feminist bent, though.
August 7, 2023
Gordon Dickson was a prolific science fiction writer, most of whose works were published in the 1960s through the 90s. In 1970, he re-entered the universe of his award winning 1964 short story “Soldier, Ask Not” (1964). Tactics of Mistake was first serialized in Analog, and I just read a collectible first paperback edition, DAW #9. Many newer editions and translations are available, including some omnibuses with other novels.
Dickson’s Military-SF Childe Cycle is set in a universe with a newly interstellar humanity that is splintering into specialized cultures. Tactics of Mistake is the fourth written novel in that universe, but is set chronologically earlier in the timeline. I have not read any of the others, but it does seem like a good place for a reader to enter the universe. The main character is Cletus Grahame, ancestor of key characters of the later works, and founder of many of the key principles of the Dorsai soldier culture. He was injured in earlier action on behalf of the Western Alliance of Earth nations, but emigrates to the Dorsai mercenaries. He is portrayed as a highly intelligent strategist and technician, who plans a complex scheme for the independence of colony worlds from Earth, led by himself. The scheme is revealed to the reader episodically, as he outwits opponents and governments. He has also developed a personal discipline for control of the processes of his own mind and body, which develop into characteristics of the superior military forces of Dorsai.
He has a romantic interest, which is barely a romantic interest, as he suppresses all personal feelings to his goals. So, a heroic figure, but hardly one for a reader to sympathize with. The dramatic tension is entirely in the intellectual exploration of how his schemes will work out, even while their eventual outcome is never in doubt. I found it an entertaining read, but not particularly deserving of the dedicated fandom I have observed over the years.
Finally, I have to mention that to read this novel, and perhaps the other Dorsai novels, in 2023 raises a few uncomfortable thoughts regarding the Wagner mercenary force of Russia, operating without government accountability in Ukraine, Syria, Africa, and other contemporary theaters of war.
Dickson’s Military-SF Childe Cycle is set in a universe with a newly interstellar humanity that is splintering into specialized cultures. Tactics of Mistake is the fourth written novel in that universe, but is set chronologically earlier in the timeline. I have not read any of the others, but it does seem like a good place for a reader to enter the universe. The main character is Cletus Grahame, ancestor of key characters of the later works, and founder of many of the key principles of the Dorsai soldier culture. He was injured in earlier action on behalf of the Western Alliance of Earth nations, but emigrates to the Dorsai mercenaries. He is portrayed as a highly intelligent strategist and technician, who plans a complex scheme for the independence of colony worlds from Earth, led by himself. The scheme is revealed to the reader episodically, as he outwits opponents and governments. He has also developed a personal discipline for control of the processes of his own mind and body, which develop into characteristics of the superior military forces of Dorsai.
He has a romantic interest, which is barely a romantic interest, as he suppresses all personal feelings to his goals. So, a heroic figure, but hardly one for a reader to sympathize with. The dramatic tension is entirely in the intellectual exploration of how his schemes will work out, even while their eventual outcome is never in doubt. I found it an entertaining read, but not particularly deserving of the dedicated fandom I have observed over the years.
Finally, I have to mention that to read this novel, and perhaps the other Dorsai novels, in 2023 raises a few uncomfortable thoughts regarding the Wagner mercenary force of Russia, operating without government accountability in Ukraine, Syria, Africa, and other contemporary theaters of war.
August 4, 2023
Total war porn. Cletus Grahame is a desk colonel, expert in tactics, and he wants to see the elephant. He signs up for a mission off planet where he can see some action, but mostly to set up his master plan to rule the universe. Or at least change who rules it. Cletus is one of Dickson's future super men and he has mastered the mind-body link like Doc Savage, so he can think himself into perfect health. He is also free from emotional attachments, has a computer like mind, and near hypnotic powers over others. He uses these abilities to manipulate everyone around him in his years long plan to upend the power structure of the galaxy.
After a bit of talking to set the main characters at odds, this book is a series of military engagements. Grahame maneuvers himself into being in charge, outwits the enemy, and wins easily, usually against much greater odds. He piles success upon success to set up a final showdown with his ultimate enemy.
The military engagements are entertaining and not overly simple. Cletus himself is arrogant and near sociopathic. At one point Dickson mentions how Cletus builds up a following by being successful and through his natural likeability. Apparently that second part got edited out of the book.
Very much in the range of Hammer's Slammers with a hyper efficient super human as the lead officer. And an important cog in Dickson's history of the Dorsai, the point where they move from being regular mercs to super mercs. If you're into war porn strategy without all the blood and gore then this is right up your alley.
After a bit of talking to set the main characters at odds, this book is a series of military engagements. Grahame maneuvers himself into being in charge, outwits the enemy, and wins easily, usually against much greater odds. He piles success upon success to set up a final showdown with his ultimate enemy.
The military engagements are entertaining and not overly simple. Cletus himself is arrogant and near sociopathic. At one point Dickson mentions how Cletus builds up a following by being successful and through his natural likeability. Apparently that second part got edited out of the book.
Very much in the range of Hammer's Slammers with a hyper efficient super human as the lead officer. And an important cog in Dickson's history of the Dorsai, the point where they move from being regular mercs to super mercs. If you're into war porn strategy without all the blood and gore then this is right up your alley.
Read
March 1, 2025February, 2025. Montana.
The weakest of the books so far. Dickson seems to be zeroing in on his final destination, whatever that is. The superhuman antagonist is by far the least believable, combining Donal Graeme's perfect strategies with Paul Formain's comic book worthy strength and regenerating health, oh, he's just as good as Tam Olyn at manipulating people too. I suppose this leads into Dickson's argument that, in the future, we will harness the true power our minds to be able to manipulate the laws of physics and bend reality. Who knows. It's a fun idea to play around with, I suppose.
There are limits to science and even mathematics. But since those are the tools we use to decipher and measure the world, it's difficult to imagine what lies beyond them.
But the ESP elements are not what turned me off about this book. It's really starting to bug me how much Dickson treats women as nothing but objects waiting around for a man to do something with them. I get that he was a product of his times, but seriously, this book was written in 1971; almost 200 years after Mary Wollstonecraft published "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman". Hell, Dickson was a contemporary of Le Guin. This may actually be the most chauvinist representation of women I've ever encountered in sci-fi.
Certainly one aspect of that era in Sci-Fi that I do not miss at all.
The weakest of the books so far. Dickson seems to be zeroing in on his final destination, whatever that is. The superhuman antagonist is by far the least believable, combining Donal Graeme's perfect strategies with Paul Formain's comic book worthy strength and regenerating health, oh, he's just as good as Tam Olyn at manipulating people too. I suppose this leads into Dickson's argument that, in the future, we will harness the true power our minds to be able to manipulate the laws of physics and bend reality. Who knows. It's a fun idea to play around with, I suppose.
There are limits to science and even mathematics. But since those are the tools we use to decipher and measure the world, it's difficult to imagine what lies beyond them.
But the ESP elements are not what turned me off about this book. It's really starting to bug me how much Dickson treats women as nothing but objects waiting around for a man to do something with them. I get that he was a product of his times, but seriously, this book was written in 1971; almost 200 years after Mary Wollstonecraft published "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman". Hell, Dickson was a contemporary of Le Guin. This may actually be the most chauvinist representation of women I've ever encountered in sci-fi.
Certainly one aspect of that era in Sci-Fi that I do not miss at all.
May 1, 2024
Colonel Cletus Grahame, injured fighting with the Western Alliance, has convalesced by starting to write a twenty volume treatise on the tactics of war. Three volumes in he gets himself sent as a military adviser to a frontier world where his expertise in subtle tactics wins three crucial battles with few personnel and almost no casualties. The traditional military hierarchy is however, too ponderous to adapt to the new tactics and Grahame resigns from the Alliance and attaches himself to a growing group of mercenaries from the Dorsai. Here his ideas are embraced and he is free to ddvelop his techniques of mind-body warfare. His ultimate goal has been to free the outer worlds from both the Alliance and Coalition occupations and his long-range plans are laid, with the cooperation of the Exotics. The Macchiavellian manouevres Grahame uses endear him to his men but leave his allies conflicted. Gordon R. Dickson has written a piece of military fiction with strong ideas but characters that are difficult to like. The first book of his very long Dorsai series, it’s worth a look. Brief disclaimer: I'm not big on military SF so results may vary.
December 25, 2017
This is where my journey into SF began back in 2002. Not been able to find the book anywhere all these years. Finally it came up on Kindle deals and I grabbed it. To be honest, the book did not excite me as much as it did back then. The idea is still cool. The idea of how an adversary can be made to engage with you in small conflicts and slowly drawn into larger and larger conflicts having him exactly where you want him till he falls headlong into the trap you have set for him. The world building across the entire series this book is part of is cool. I had actually missed the series level elements in my last read. But now reading this after the other books in the series, I could see lot of elements furthering the overall story -the story of humans spreading into outer space and breaking into splinter cultures and the conflicts between earth and other worlds and well as between the varying philosophies of the splinter cultures. This series is something I plan to revisit this year along with Dune and Ringworld.
October 23, 2020
What an awful book. Irremediable. It doesn't even work as pulp sci-fi. In fact, it's not sci-fi at all, not really, despite its futuristic setting. It's essentially a military tale with a small amount of political intrigue (simplistic, untaxing). It's set on various imaginary planets but feels like '50s USA. There is no alien culture or landscape, etc, they're all basically mini earth's. The main character is a sort of super human military genius who's supposedly a master tactician though this is never really demonstrated to the reader, except in so far as he keeps winning battles, his predictions always prove to be true, and he's never surprised by anything that happens because he knew it was going to happen all along -- what a bore! He's the loner hero, laconic, stoic, with super human levels of self control and mind over matter stuff, who seems cold and aloof and is misunderstood but he gets the girl in the end anyway. So, on second thought, it's not a military novel, it's a western.
May 15, 2017
Theoretically, Gordon R. Dickson's "Tactics of Mistake (Childe Cycle Book 4)" lies in the middle of his "Childe Cycle." But, for me, it's the pinnacle of the thing. Part of that is that Dickson never finished the Cycle. According to the wiki for the "Childe Cycle," there were supposed to be six science fiction books, three historical ones, and three (then) present-day ones. He never wrote the historical or present-day books, and four of the science-fiction books that are numbered as part of the Cycle really only take place in the same universe: they were not supposed to be part of the Cycle. Anyway, I love the way this book circles back from the rise of Donal Graeme in the first book to Cletus Grahame and the rise of the Dorsai in this book. Plus, the writing is a bit better here than in the earlier books. So, I'm rating this book at an Excellent 5 stars out of 5.
September 7, 2017
Storyline: 3/5
Characters: 3/5
Writing Style: 3/5
World: 3/5
A young, puzzlingly overconfident upstart comes along and challenges an older, established, and influential leader to a game of wits. We've seen this before - a couple of times already - in the Childe Cycle. And that is what makes this the least interesting book of the series thus far. We've done all this before. In truth, though, I liked it the first and second times around and generally liked it this time as well. I enjoy seeing the mysteriously charismatic, military savant challenge and defeat his foes. I like the eerie aura suffusing the tale. I like the background political and sociological world that this is grounded in. I would rather this have progressed or filled in more, however, instead of doing the same thing again with new characters in new places.
Characters: 3/5
Writing Style: 3/5
World: 3/5
A young, puzzlingly overconfident upstart comes along and challenges an older, established, and influential leader to a game of wits. We've seen this before - a couple of times already - in the Childe Cycle. And that is what makes this the least interesting book of the series thus far. We've done all this before. In truth, though, I liked it the first and second times around and generally liked it this time as well. I enjoy seeing the mysteriously charismatic, military savant challenge and defeat his foes. I like the eerie aura suffusing the tale. I like the background political and sociological world that this is grounded in. I would rather this have progressed or filled in more, however, instead of doing the same thing again with new characters in new places.
November 19, 2018
I was curious about where Dickson would go after the seemingly complete trilogy of Dorsai!, Necromancer, and Soldier, Ask Not., so I continued reading the series in publication order.
Tactics of Mistake steps back in time again relative to Dorsai! to show the maturation of the splinter cultures. It feels less decisive than the other books and almost reactionary -- the protagonist of this book is in many ways, seemingly more or less the same as the protagonist of Dorsai!.
Though I enjoyed the story as a military science fiction story, I really felt like it didn't add anything to Dickson's thesis about humanity's evolution. It certainly shed light on the Dorsai and why they are the way they are, but the details revealed really aren't that interesting.
Tactics of Mistake steps back in time again relative to Dorsai! to show the maturation of the splinter cultures. It feels less decisive than the other books and almost reactionary -- the protagonist of this book is in many ways, seemingly more or less the same as the protagonist of Dorsai!.
Though I enjoyed the story as a military science fiction story, I really felt like it didn't add anything to Dickson's thesis about humanity's evolution. It certainly shed light on the Dorsai and why they are the way they are, but the details revealed really aren't that interesting.
April 17, 2022
Cletus Grahame has travelled from Earth to a planet where opposing factions fight. Cletus studies tactics and believes that with their correct use, any conflict can be won with a minimum of casualties. He proceeds to prove his theories in a number of confrontations, winning the support of locals and upsetting some of the military in charge.
I read this short book (237 pages) in order to get to the second, written 4 years prior, in the series, SOLDIER, ASK NOT, which won a Hugo for best novella. Unfortunately, I found this one a tad uninteresting and predictable and gave up on it two thirds of the way in. This is a book that may appeal to those who like military SF, but it is low on excitement.
I read this short book (237 pages) in order to get to the second, written 4 years prior, in the series, SOLDIER, ASK NOT, which won a Hugo for best novella. Unfortunately, I found this one a tad uninteresting and predictable and gave up on it two thirds of the way in. This is a book that may appeal to those who like military SF, but it is low on excitement.
May 18, 2023
3.5/5. This book's exploration of misdirection tactics is interesting, and I enjoyed reading more about the background of the Dorsai. I wish we learned more about Cletus's motivations. At first he appears to be a smart and ambitious scholar of military tactics. Later his goals are revealed to be much larger, but without clear reason why they are important to him. He also becomes less sympathetic later in the book due to his mistreatment of the people close to him. Tam, from Soldier, Ask Not, was also something of an anti-hero, but his motivations were much better developed. While I like this book less than the previous entries in the Childe Cycle, overall I still enjoyed it and look forward to continuing the series.
August 7, 2023
3.5/5. This book's exploration of misdirection tactics is interesting, and I enjoyed reading more about the background of the Dorsai. I wish we learned more about Cletus's motivations. At first he appears to be a smart and ambitious scholar of military tactics. Later his goals are revealed to be much larger, but without clear reason why they are important to him. He also becomes less sympathetic later in the book due to his mistreatment of the people close to him. Tam, from Soldier, Ask Not, was also something of an anti-hero, but his motivations were much better developed. While I like this book less than the previous entries in the Childe Cycle, overall I still enjoyed it and look forward to continuing the series.
August 23, 2023
Cletus is a military man in the future where wars are fought off planet on near earths.
With energy weapons.
He is shot in the leg and decides to start a band of mercenaries.
That will train to be super soldiers.
Theres a very intense space opera at play.
Lavish parties. Exotic uniforms. All that aristocrat.
He merrys the chancellor's daughter.
The space ships used as air force.
Gator boats the mark v. Can drown u in a rice patty.
Well cletus eventually fights for freedom of the earth colonies.
On the planet dorsia.
This book had the feel that dickson maybe was in Vietnam or lived threw it.
O yeah the tactics of mistake were sending smaller attaches to versus larger attaches.
All thow it proved fruitful when as mercs they mobilized more effectively.
With energy weapons.
He is shot in the leg and decides to start a band of mercenaries.
That will train to be super soldiers.
Theres a very intense space opera at play.
Lavish parties. Exotic uniforms. All that aristocrat.
He merrys the chancellor's daughter.
The space ships used as air force.
Gator boats the mark v. Can drown u in a rice patty.
Well cletus eventually fights for freedom of the earth colonies.
On the planet dorsia.
This book had the feel that dickson maybe was in Vietnam or lived threw it.
O yeah the tactics of mistake were sending smaller attaches to versus larger attaches.
All thow it proved fruitful when as mercs they mobilized more effectively.
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