The Lizard War (Mass Market Paperback)

The resulting society had few atheists, for everybody felt the hand of some god in the Shuffling. One of changes involved the relocating of the Pope to New Orleans, later renamed New Rome. Other changes occurred within the Church, including a renewed emphasis on loving God and his fellow men, leading to the formation of an Order of Saint Higuchi charged with keeping the peace among all men. The Higuchian masters and brothers were trained in the martial arts, covert investigation techniques, and military strategy and tactics.

In this novel, generations later, Luis Raoul DenUyl, of mixed Spanish and Flemish ancestry, is a Higuchian brother on a mission. He is traveling alone, with very little in the way of a briefing. In Galway Town in Connemara, Luis meets Jamila Smith and Paddy Glynn and joins forces with them after a fight with local soldiers. Later, Luis learns that Jamila is a member of the Order of Saint Higuchi, having been admitted as an experiment after she was raised as an orphan by the brothers and then demonstrated extraordinary talents.

The threesome find themselves being hunted by Lizards, but turn the tables and ambush one of the aliens and take his energy gun. After a night raid on their camp by Lizard dupes, Luis evades the attackers, but looses contact with Jamila and Paddy. Moreover, he is injured in the attack and the wound becomes infected. He is found unconscious with a high fever by Tom, who nurses him back to health and accompanies him toward his destination. Tom knows that Luis is a Higuchian brother, but Luis slowly learns that Tom is something entirely different.

Along the way, Tom and Luis meet Lemmi Tsinnajinni, another Higuchian brother of Navajo ancestry, but travel on separately. In North Allegheny, they find Paddy and Jamila in the army of the local Duke. Traveling on together through York, the Commonwealth of the Lakes and Adirondack, they finally arrive at the rendezvous with other brothers assigned to the mission and their Buddhist monk allies.

In this story, the Monitor Service is a branch of the Cultural Oversight Bureau, which is an agency of the Commonwealth of Homid Worlds. The Monitor Service is covertly protecting the Earth as a primitive world in the galactic community. Since the Lizards are inciting the Saint Lawrence People's Democratic Republic to attack its neighbors, the Monitor Service is determined to remove these intruders. The Order of Saint Higuchi and other local forces are cooperating with the Monitor Service in this task. The mission of the Higuchian brothers and the Buddhist monks is to infiltrate into the PDR and attack the Lizard ship outside the capital at Eisenbach.

This story has a fascinating mixture of cultures, languages and governments within the Northeastern region of the former United States. The first part of the book is a travelogue under fire, with Luis and various companions trying to avoid their pursuers while dealing with the locals, some of which are Lizard worshippers. While Luis knows about the Lizards, he learns a good deal more from Tom, the local head of the Monitor Service, during their travels.

This story presents an interesting theology of redemption by the survivors of the Apocalypse. The changes inspire the Church to active opposition of evil in the world, rather than to passively urge its congregants to eschew evil and do good works. Hence, the Order of Saint Higuchi actively seeks out evil and destroys it, on the assumption that the evildoers have already had their opportunity to repent their ways. In many respects, it is a reversion to an earlier Church, but with the emphasis on individuals rather than nation states. However, it is not a matter of kill them all and let God straighten things out, for the Order is charged with protecting the innocents from the evil acts of wrongdoers.

Highly recommended for Dalmas fans and for anyone else who enjoys martial arts and covert missions against a group of alien malefactors.

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This book could more accurately be described as a quest novel. What I mean by this is that the main purpose of the story is for a few brave souls to get to a certain destination and perform a mysterious task. The purpose of the task is never made clear to the participants, as is common in quest stories.

I did not get the impression that the lizards ruled all of the Earth or even most of it. My impression was that they dominated a small portion of North America and terrorized a greater portion. From the story it seems that the technological backsliding humanity has experienced is of there own doing and not that of the lizard like aliens.

It is my impression that this story could easily have been told in a fantasy setting and probably would have come of as a better novel. The lizard alien aspects just didn't seem necessary to the way the plot was contrived.

This was a good book if read without any preconceptions. I think the cover art and descriptions do the reader harm in his or her enjoyment of the book. I do recommend this novel but suggest you not expect what it appears to be.

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