By Force Of Arms [Mass Market Paperback]

For the first time in the "series," the action follows quickly on the heels of the previous novel (By Blood Alone), and William Booley III rather than a next generation Booley retains his position of leadership in the new crisis facing the Confederacy. In the last novel, a new race of aliens, the Thraki, entered Confederate space, and thanks to a constant state of duplicity and posturing in the Confederate ranks, took up residence on a planet under the protection of the Clone Hegemony. The Hegemony originally hoped to use the Thraki, with its immense fleet, as an ace in the hole protecting their flank as they conspired to topple the Earth government and gain power for the secret interplanetary cabal they had secretly joined. The Thraki, in turn, hoped to use the Hegemony and, indeed, the whole Confederacy, as a massive shield against their pursuing enemies, the Sheen.

The mutiny now put down and the balance of power restored in the Confederacy, the league of alien planets finds itself between a rock and a hard place, as both the Thraki and the technological Sheen boast military resources they cannot match on their own. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and former President Sergei Chien-Chu has a plan many view as reckless and more than desperate. The Hudathans, who killed untold numbers of beings among Confederacy planets, have been "imprisoned" on their own home world ever since the end of the second Hudathan war, yet their military assets and significant population of renowned warriors could serve to aid the Confederacy in its current crisis. All of this eventually leads to an almost unrecognizable military force led by now-General Bill Booley III and made up of disparate, oftentimes antagonistic soldiers working together for the first time.

The Thraki - Sheen side of the story has its weaknesses and, at times, seems downright silly, and the eventual conclusion of the novel does leave something to be desired, but the bulk of the story is fresh and exciting, and the descriptions of the new Confederate military in action make for some of the most exhilarating (and sometimes quite humorous) accounts of military science fiction I have read. Some clumsy romance once again takes a little something away from the reading experience, but Dietz is an author who knows how to tell an exciting futuristic story.

All done, go home everyone? Sorry, But, that doesn't cut it for me. I have read Dietz because he has always delivered, Fast paced action, exceptional technology and a host of great charaters that make the Legion special. They are usually facing a dangerous & seriously competent enemy.

If anything it would seem that this book was an attempt at an easy way out to end the series. It seems that he was rushed and needed a quick ending. The result is a couple of interesting books that had some potential and then a let down.