It was a quick, entertaining read. I preferred the first book of the trilogy to the remainder. The highly sexual portrayal of the female characters makes the book a male fantasy but one can ignore that aspect of the books. ( )

A tour de force - literally and figuratively.: This is another classic trilogy from David Drake, who forged "Hammers' Slammers" and also (with Steve Stirling, another fine wordsmith) gave us "The General" series. Drake is particularly adept and both using and acknowledging the sources of myth and legend while striding boldly outside what we used to think were the limitations and cliches of those genres.Nils Hansen is a tough, brutal man but no more so than is necessary to get the job done; and as in all of Drake's so-called military science fiction (which category does his work a descriptive disservice) here is a series hero who, like most people who work at 'the sharp end', understands all too well that - Nietzsche to the contrary - that which does not kill us does not make us stronger; it usually leaves us crippled in mind or in body and wired and plumbed with tubes and monitors and pain snaking around under the sheets.As Drake himself has said (and I have poorly paraphrased); if you choose to deploy men of violence then you owe it to them, yourself and the rest of society to not be ashamed, surprised or ignorant of the results. Not that Drake uses his books to expound philosophy; this is an excellent read on many levels.Drake tells strong stories strongly. And in a field where all too many authors over-indulge in the presentation of motivations and personal psychology to the detriment of action and passion, Drake is an outstanding craftsman of damn good books.

I think I enjoyed the second novel the most. ( )

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