- Paperback: 336 pages
- Publisher: Baen Books (March 1994)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1555940838
- ISBN-13: 978-1555940836
- Shipping Weight: 503 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Military officer Raj Whitehall is roaming through catacombs ofthe planet Bellevue when he discovers the computer Battle Central, arelic from the Golden Age before the planet's fall a thousand yearsearlierp. 171 . Central decides Raj is the one to carry out a mission,and by showing him what will happen to the planet withoutintervention, Central convinces Raj to save the stet caps/pk CivilGovernment from corruption and bandits. With the computer's guidance,Raj proposes a battle plan and soon sets out to conquer the enemieswho would destroy Bellevue, while others plot against him fromwithin. Central gives Raj advice from time to time by demonstratingfor him in his mind's eye what could happen if Raj makes the wrongstrategic decision. The computer's intervention, however, confuses thestory line, especially since Central gives alternate scenarios, oneafter the other. This novel, first in a series, may appeal to militaryscience fiction buffs who enjoy puzzling out complicated battlescenes. Drake is the author of Northworld ; Stirling wrote Under theYoke.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.
Book Description
Military science fiction at its very best. First novel in the Raj Whitehall series. Reissue
--This text refers to the
Mass Market Paperback
edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the Best Military SF Series Ever,
By
This review is from: FORGE (THE GENERAL 1) (Mass Market Paperback)
This book is the first in a series of 5 books that depict a planet (Bellevue) with a human civilisation that has fallen back from a star spanning empire to preindustrial levels, roughly circa US prior to its Civil War. David Drake furnished the outline, which was laid flesh by Steve Stirling. The books are superbly written, with a plausible, complicated neo-feudal world. You can feel the dust in the air and the sweat on the skin as General Raj's soldiers trudge to battle; and thence the stench of gunpowder and voided bowels as the casualties mounted in battle. Sometimes, between battles, there are jarring scenes as people who transgress an autocrat's law are enslaved, along with their entire families. While the level of technology is roughly Civil War America, imagine instead an America where you did not have to be Negro to be a slave, and there was no restriction on a ruler's power. Where the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man is unknown. The society is closer to that of Imperial Rome. No coincidence. The hero, Raj, is modelled on Belisarius, the Byzantine general. There are lighter moments. The state religion is a worship of Computers (explicitly capitalised), based on a fragmented recollection of their power, prior to the nuclear war that brought down the earlier civilisation. Priests can be female. Fierce theological disputes arise over different interpretations of surviving computer manuals. Which were probably untelligible to begin with, anyway. Those of you who have read Byzantine history can see echoes of the nitpicking arguments that split early Christianity; arguments utterly meaningless to those outside a narrow frame of reference. Oh, speaking of Christians, here they are like Jews; an unloved minority. But there are plenty of Muslims. In fact, they are the other Great Power on Bellevue. The series revolves around the two Powers confronting each other, to decide the fate of the planet. Before you read this series, I urge that you do a quick scan of Belisarius in a good dictionary. You will get more from the series this way. The biggest problem about this series is that it is hard to find in its entirety in a bookstore. You may have to scrounge in used bookstores. It doesn't appear to have been reprinted recently.
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Empire Builders cookbook...,
By
This review is from: FORGE (THE GENERAL 1) (Mass Market Paperback)
Based on the life of the Byzantine general Belisarius. This Sci-fi series follows the life of Raj Whitehall who is given the daunting task of uniting his planet and dragging it up out of the black hole of history into which it had fallen. But the computer in Raj's mind is God, and God is on his side.... An amazing interpretation of warfare from two masters... and a guide to how to build an Empire... an amazing series.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Generic Space-opera,
By MacGeezer (Cleveland, OH USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: FORGE (THE GENERAL 1) (Mass Market Paperback)
generic "after the fall" type series, decent palace intrigue, military strategy, chars lack development, main char/wife hard to empathize with unless juvenile; this series not among Stirlings best work
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