March Upcountry

Weber, David, and John Ringo. March Upcountry. Empire of Man No. 1. Baen, 2001.
David Weber and John Ringo are the A-Team of Baen Books for military science fiction. Weber is best known for the original Honor Harrington series. John Ringo got his start with Hymn before Battle, the first volume of the Posleen War novels. Weber is a master of books that adapt C. S. Forester’s Hornblower model to interstellar warfare. Ringo seems more influenced by the works of Rudyard Kipling. The Empire of Man series is a clever blend of the two narrative tropes. The series protagonist, Prince Roger, is third in line to inherit the throne. He is a whiney young man who is never taken seriously, but he has potential abilities for which he at first gets no show more credit. He could well be a character in a Forester novel. When Roger and his personal guard troops find themselves stranded on a jungle planet rife with warring barbarian tribes, they must march thousands of miles and attack a spaceport to get back home. Along the way, Ringo and Weber find occasion to quote Kipling’s “Grave of the Hundred Dead.” Roger will have to grow up quick. Standard stuff but well done. 4 stars. show less

"Travel to distant lands, meet strange and exotic native peoples, and kill them."

That's military science fiction for you, although in this case it also is the slogan of the Bronze Battalion of the Empress' Own Regiment.

After terrorist sabotage, Prince Roger MacClintock and the Bronze Battalion space marines are stranded in the wilderness of the planet Marduk, noted for high mountains, high temperatures, low technology and the short tempers of its nine-foot, four-armed, slime-covered natives. They must march halfway around the planet to get to the nearest spaceport. Along the way, they must make allies and battle barbarian tribes who are out to destroy everything in their path. All this turns the prince from a spoiled brat into a show more valuable member of the company and a true leader.

Great storytelling and plot, deceptively deep characterization, and a sneaky sense of humor all contribute to make this a thoroughly enjoyable read. Unlike most military science fiction and indeed, other works by the two authors separately, these books don't get too bogged down in technical details or battle descriptions. In fact, the battles scenes are handled so skillfully that I actually read all of them instead of skipping them as I might in other books. History buffs might recognize this as a takeoff on the story of Xenophon. show less

I had trouble getting into this book, and even considered abandoning it early on because it wasn’t holding my interest. However, I did become more interested in it as things progressed.

The story is that a group of space marines are escorting a prince to an event on another planet. The prince is the younger son of the empress. He’s spoiled and rather arrogant, and he’s been kept largely ignorant of the greater political machinations that have always been going on around him. Most people can’t stand him, and they aren’t even sure if he’s loyal to the empress, but it's their duty to protect him and they're determined to do so. En route to their destination, their ship is sabotaged and they’re forced to take escape shuttles to show more a nearby hostile planet. From that point, it’s a combination military/survival story as the company of soldiers and the prince try to make their way across a planet with hostile animals and hostile people and limited supplies.

The story started to get more interesting to me once they landed on the planet, but the story never gripped me or held anything special for me. It was pretty straight-forward, and never really presented me with any questions or major surprises. There was a huge cast of characters and this is one of those third-person omniscient point-of-view books where the reader is bounced around between various characters’ heads from paragraph to paragraph. It wasn’t too difficult to follow, but it did occasionally give me pause. At one point, the authors even told us what a pet lizard was thinking…

The prince was a somewhat interesting character, and he grew more likeable as the book went on. A couple of the other characters were pretty likeable also. However, I never felt heavily invested in either the characters or the story. It wasn’t a bad book, and I was mildly entertained by it, but I could easily pick it up and read for just a few minutes and then put it down again. I don’t plan to read the sequels. show less

This was an odd book. On one hand, it had a lot of action, which was good, and it had some interesting characters whom you could come to enjoy seeing in a series, of which this is the first book. On the other hand, it drags at times and the conversations can seem unnecessary and arbitrary and a little too long winded and the main battle is just too much to be believable. It's far too one sided of a victory to be remotely believable. More on that in a minute.

Prince Roger MacClintock of the Empire of Man has been sent by his Empress mother to another planet with a contingent bodyguard company of royal marines. However, their ship gets sabotaged and they're forced to land on a strange planet with one port, held by an enemy force. Thus, show more they're forced to land on the opposite side of the planet and walk for up to six months to go take the port by force since they would have been shot out of the sky if they had been seen coming down from space. Roger is a rich, spoiled brat, but an heir to the throne and must be protected at all times and returned to the empire. The troop sets off through what turns out to be hostile territory, picks up a few alien allies, but runs into a huge alien army intent on destroying them. The major battle is 18,000 technologically deficient aliens against 70 Marines. Long odds. Virtually impossible. And bizarrely, while the Marines take casualties, they slaughter a zillion aliens and win the battle. Now, I'm sorry, but that just seems freaking impossible and implausible to me. I know they have technologically superior weapons, but 18,000 to 70 odds are just too much to overcome and there's no way that could happen. No way. Not believable. To make matters crazier, they move on, come to another alien city state and are taken captive, where about 35 of the unwounded or remaining Marines slaughter another army and live to move on to a sequel. Right. Uh huh. So, good action, but asking the reader to believe a little too much, I'm sorry.

I didn't know whether to give this book three or four stars, because it's probably a four star book, but I'm so annoyed by the impossible outcome of the major battle, that I'm knocking a star off and giving it three. Nonetheless, I bought the second book and will be reading it, hoping for more realistic action this time. It's not a bad story. Just make it a little more realistic. Please. Cautiously recommended. show less

What starts off as a military space fiction in the vein of David Weber’s Honor Harrington series quickly become a high tech meets low tech style of military fiction. I wasn’t sure what to expect after the first chapter but I really enjoyed the journey this book took me on. It is an excellent start to a series.

Let me start off by saying I felt more of Weber’s influence in this story that John Ringo’s, although I have been unable to find how much each writer contributed. The overall story arc, character progression, and setting feel like pure Weber to me while the action beats have Ringo’s finger prints all over them.

While there are a few things that could be said negatively about this title there are so many more things to like show more about it. There was a book I read years ago from a Greek historian and mercenary known as Xenophon of Athens called Anabasis where he accompanied 10,000 soldiers stranded deep in Persia as they fought their way back home. If you can get past the language it is a great adventure story and a March Up Country seems to be updating the Xenophon story for a science fiction setting. You have a group of elite warriors fighting through hostile territory and barbarian hordes to find a way home. If you read a lot of Weber you might recognize that he pulls a lot of the initial plots of his story lines from actual history and the choice to adapt what has come to be known as “The March of the 10,000” was a stroke of genius.

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I had fairly low expectations for this one, and I'd have to say that it was marginally better than I expected. Set in a galactic imperial setting, it's about a good-for-nothing prince whose ship is sabotaged, leaving him stranded on a little known planet with a small crew of marines. As they make their way across the planet to the only outpost of civilization (battling sometimes-hostile aliens, as well as flora and fauna, on the way) the prince begins to grow up. The characters are fairly one-dimensional, the romance plotline was inane, and the aliens are far less interesting than they could have been. But, the story is surprisingly entertaining, and moves along a brisk pace. And, the price was right (free through www.baen.com/library )!

I like Weber and Ringo together, they make a good team. Not so much of the mathematics of space warfare, not so much of the wallowing in gore - and lots of excellent characters, even (some of) the ones who die early are already established as solid characters. And there's definitely character development in this series - and not only Prince Roger!