The Prince (Hardcover)

In Falkenberg's Legions (1990), the first novel in the series, John Christian Falkenberg the Third joins the CoDominium Armed Services and serves on his first and his last assignments as a CoDominium officer. The novel itself incorporates two previous novels. West of Honor describes the admission of Falkenberg into the CoDominium service and his first field command on Arrarat with the 42nd Line Marine Regiment, where they fought against a former gang, the Mission Hills Protective Association. The Mercenary describes Falkenberg's last field command in the service with a cadre of men from the disbanded 42nd on a mission to stabilize the government of Hadley and the subsequent formation of the Legion. Additional material has been incorporated in this fixup to enrich the backstory.

In Prince of Mercenaries (1989), the second novel in the series, the Legion accepts a contract on Tanith to wipe out some pirate gangs and to quell a tax boycott by opposition planters who have employed another mercenary unit. Then the bulk of the Legion leaves Tanith on a mission to New Washington, where Colonel Falkenberg marries a local women and retires. This novel is a fixup of several shorter pieces with a framing story about a visit from Prince Lysanter of Sparta to discuss a contract for an advise and instruct mission.

In Go Tell the Spartans (1991), the third novel in the series, the Legion sends the 5th Battalion on a mission to Sparta to help train local troops, but they arrive only to discover that they are facing an insurrection.

In Prince of Sparta (1993), the fourth novel in the series, the 5th Battalion resumes its training mission after helping the Spartan troops to defeat the insurrection. However, enemy units are still conducting low level guerilla strikes and the Royal forces are trying to uncover the enemy supply lines.

This series portrays a wide variety of military operations and tactics with units of regimental strength or less; CoDominium unit sizes are limited because of mission parameters and funding whereas mercenary unit sizes are restricted by the CoDominium laws of war. Larger units are allowed or required only in the nationalist forces on Earth.

This series also reveals various aspects of military operations other than combat, including economics, logistics and intelligence. Also, it exposes the limits of military power: the power to kill is not the same as the power to compel. For the most part, these stories were inspired by historical situations; for example, the suppression of the Nika riots by Belisarius in 532 AD.

Recommended for Pournelle & Stirling fans and anyone else who enjoys SF tales of military forces in an alternate future.

The stories are well-written. Pournelle & Stirling write excellent military sci-fi. However, I did not enjoy this read quite as much as I remember. It wasn't so much the point-of-view (1st vs. 3rd) that others mention, or even the odd pacing (where the action builds to a climax, and stops short). Instead, it was the setting that was mildly annoying.

I have no problem with the CoDominium, even though it has been passed up by history. I read enough Alternate History fiction that the CoDo falls into that category in my mind. What was irksome for me was the technology controls (and other plotting decisions) that were designed to create WWII-style battles, clearly Pournelle's favorite. The alien worlds were vaguely detailed, with Tanith being the best. But really, the worlds were designed only to have different locations for battles. You could drop any one of the battles onto some Earth location, with no difference. What about tainted atmospheres, truly alien fauna and flora, odd rotational effects, etc.?

That said, it was good reading, and Stirling's contributions are definitely a plus.

Wayne Gralian
Wayne's World of Books / Krakow RPGs