John Dalmas (1926–2017)

A heavily philosophical military science fiction novel, the first in a trilogy, I believe. I thought it was quite good, although I found the ending somewhat unsatisfying and a little disappointing. But perhaps it was fitting for the philosophical viewpoints the author was trying to get across regarding society, war, and other roles for people/beings in cultures, etc.

A rebellion takes place on a planet where some important mining is done by slaves, essentially. The slaves are physically show more superior to their intellectually “superior” masters, but they have some help and training, as well as weapons, and soon it turns into a real battle. So, a different race of warriors from another planet is hired as mercenaries to come in and fight them for the human masters. The protagonist, a journalist, joins the mercenaries to get their stories, and becomes one of them, essentially, living and training with them, even going out on missions with them. He discovers and finally understands their cultural philosophy regarding “play” and war, etc, and that changes everything.

I won’t say more because I don’t want to give away the plot or the critical ending, but it’s a good, action packed book with a lot of tension and emotion, intrigue and politics. And the aforementioned philosophical thoughts and ideas. Almost a five star book, but I’m giving it four stars due to the problematic and moderately disappointing ending. Nonetheless, definitely recommended and I intend to read the other books in the series. show less

When their parents flee just steps ahead of the thought police, Larn and Deneen, along with their espwolf, decide to rescue them. Suspecting that their parents are bound for the almost mythical planet of Fanglith, they take off in pursuit. The myth is that F.anglith was used as a prison planet thousands of years ago and people were marooned there with no technology. Some survived and their descendents began the long road back to civilization on a planet its inhabitants now call Earth. show more Landing in Medieval Europe they begin the search for their parents ...

Although marketed as SF when published, today this book would almost certainly get a Young Adult label. It's a quick read and Larn and Deneen are teenagers. However, that didn't keep me from being diverted by their adventures. I particularly liked the role played by Bubba, the espwolf. show less

Not wonderful, not bad. I like Haugen, and the situation is interesting, but it's more than a little wishful thinking. It's actually somewhat disconcerting how the situation in the book resembles...not the current economic situation, but how the situation today could have been (was, by some people) forecast six months ago. Written in 1988, set in 1994.
Problems - the aforementioned wishful thinking - if the right guy could get real power, he could reform! Everything! Foreign policy, the legal show more system (and the law), education, tax reform (that one's easy in comparison), healthcare, etc, etc. 'All' it needs is one guy who thinks 'sensibly' to have power (effectively unlimited power, too - there's a thin rationalization of that, but it wouldn't really work that way). Yeah. No. Not gonna happen.
The other thing that looked familiar was that this reminded me a lot of Ringo's Last Centurion - the story is not even a little borrowed, but the wishful thinking is similar. Though the Centurion is working from the bottom up, not the top down.
The new science thing is an interesting deus ex machina, though it hasn't really come into full play by the end of the book. The oddest thing is - well, two things. Published in 1988, but his tech is way behind in a few spots - the sort of stuff that was in common use in offices (like fax machines or copiers) don't get mentioned, while he talks about mimeograph machines. They were still around in '88, I guess, but I was working by then and never saw one in any of the offices I worked in. Ever. The other oddity is how much worse shape the world was in in his forecast than in reality - the Soviet Union was still going strong, the price of oil was way up (to $67/barrel! Well, it's been higher now...), apartheid was still in full force in South Africa, and so on. A lot of those things were still active in '88 - now we look back and see the cracks, but the changes didn't seem serious then - so I can see why he'd think so, but looking at what the world really did look like in 1994 his forecast is amusing. And it really is a conspiracy theory - which seems totally unnecessary.
Overall, not a bad story but not one that catches me. Too much wishful thinking and too much cognitive dissonance. Glad I read it, won't re-read.
Oh, BTW - the person who wrote the back cover matter (and chose the title) didn't read the book, or even a good outline of it. The fact that he was chosen to be President by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is...basically irrelevant to the story (it even gets brought up as a media question only once). Silly. Though the alternate title might have been 'Try Common Sense, America!'. Which I don't think would have sold very well. show less

In John Dalmas’s Soldiers, 14,000 alien warships appear from nowhere in the human Commonwealth and start attacking entire planets, exterminating all of the humans, and resettling and terraforming these worlds for themselves – kind of six limbed, powerful mini-dinosaurs with brains and guns. Typically all humans die. The Commonwealth doesn’t even find out about this until this has happened to several planets and warning is gotten away secretly.

The Commonwealth is unprepared for this, as show more it hasn’t had war in centuries, and it has virtually no fleet nor army to speak of. In order to get the time to build up both, more worlds will fall and more people will die.

A lot happens in this book as we follow one particular group of recruits from a religious-based (as in zealots) planet as they train, as well as following the build up of the fleet and the tactics used in an effort to gain intelligence and to “annoy” the enemy. Additionally, there are peaceniks at home who think this is all a hoax, "peaceniks" who want peace so badly, they are willing to kill to get it. It all makes for good drama and a pretty good book. The ultimate land and orbital battles are tactically gripping and are well written. You can draw certain conclusions from this book, philosophically, although I wouldn’t put it in the same category as Ender’s Game or its sequels. Still, if you want to think about things, you can. If you don’t want to, just enjoy the explosions. It’s typical Dalmas – a four star book and recommended. show less