Customer Reviews

In the Heart of Darkness

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Great, great, great book. I especially enjoy a great series since I sometimes read 2 to 3 books a week. Very engaging, the characters are real and well developed, the plot is very interesting. I generally do not go in for alternate history but this one draws me in for some reason.

This book and its series is the achime of military sci-fi. It broadens the scope of battle beyond mere skirmishes and brings it into the full context of inter-continental warfare with a Roman era technological base that is further enhanced by a living intelligence from the future, with all the knowledge that represents. It is the mix of the old and the new, the profound and the pragmatic, and finally the just and the unjust. This is a book about evil men and their weaknesses just as it is about General Belisarius and his ability to command. This book and its series differentiate the exact facets of what makes your enemy tick and how you can use that knowledge to your advantage and your enemies' disadvantage. It logically and consistently combines such military maxims as "Peace through superior firepower", "Taking an enemy intact without a fight is the achime of battle", "The First rule of battle is that no battle plan survives contact with the enemy", and "The enemy of my enemy is my friend".

The battle with the Malwa have almost reached its head. This story features the conclusion of the Byzantine politics in Rome, for better or for worse. Every facets that Belisarius can gather is being readied for the war with Malwa. Belisarius has succeeded in his "Oblique Approach" and has set up the environment necessary to beat his enemy into obliteration. The next step will be taken by Malwa, in the "Destiny's Shield".

For those of you who have not read AN OBLIQUE APPROACH, I suggest you do so before reading this book. It may not be strictly necessary, but it will make the series more enjoyable for you. For followers of the series, this is a strong follow-up to the first book. Depending more on individual action than intricate battle-plans, it makes a refreshing change of pace that is still absorbing.

In this second installment of the Belisarius series, Our Hero has rescued the Empress Shakuntala and finally meets his ultimate enemy face-to-face. Link, the supercomputer from the future, lives in the body of one of the Malwa royalty. Unable to hide his true intentions from the mind-reading machine, Belisarius is forced to flee India. His African, Roman, and Indian friends split up to help confuse pursuit, and much of the book is taken up with their various escapades.

On the home front, Antonina and Theodora are dealing with treachery and treason as Malwa and Romans ally to overthrow the Emperor. Antonina has not been a sluggard while her husband was away; she is the leader of the newly formed cohort of grenadiers. Rioting in the streets, attempted assassinations, and the best efforts of the Malwa empire are no match for Belisarius and his wife, but tragedy does strike the Emperor Justinian in the end.

It's difficult to review a perfect book like this one. Every superlative in the language would merely be redundant. I was hooked from the first page and by reading the first book in the series, and watching characters who have become my friends as they work, play, hope, scheme, dream, love, hate and fight against the background of a world in the shadow of monstrous evil.

As always, Flint's people are superbly drawn, and there are scenes and times in this book I will return to again and again. This book is a treasure of graceful writing, with the battle scenes, while accurately done, not done with unnecessary nastiness.

This book is the second in a series of which four have now been published. Even so, the ending, while clearly aiming at a sequel, was as logically satisfying as a proof, and as emotionally satisfying as listening to Sarah Brightman sing.

This volume is a must have, and the last paragraph on page 302 is words I will treasure all my days. Thank you, Eric.

This series is, to my mind the best stuff Flint and Drake have done so far. It is fun to watch generals, armies and empires rise in fantasy lands, but I get a little more joy in seeing it happen on earth, in "real" terrain. The authors here have moved a little bit away from just the tactical, blood and guts of war (although there is PLENTY of that) and have tried to look at the grand strategy and the operational level of war, in a geographic and historical environment that we all know. This is a bold move, and I think I see where the series is headed (the term "oblique approach" is a real clue) and am very intrigued and excited. There are those who say, "It is just another general backed by a computer," and this is true, perhaps, but THIS general is opposed by an equal if not greater force, complete with its own "computer" and to win he will have to use grand strategy and operational art.

Those readers out for blood and guts will get it in this book, but the authors are really trying to do something a little bit more cognitive here and to my mind, it works. I have been a paratrooper sergeant, an Army Ranger, a infantry company commander, a battalion commander, a West Point Psychology Professor and a Professor of Military Science. I was one of the co-founders of the US Army's "Maneuver Warfare Symposium," with chapters in "Maneuver Warfare: An Anthology," and I am the author of "On Killing," a standard textbook used at West Point and in "peace studies" programs in many universities. From my own, strictly personal perspective, I think this series is the best stuff out there for the thinking fan of military SF.

Drake's second visit to the Belisarius model falls very far short of his first, The General series. I am an avid fan of all Drake's work and in particular have read and re-read The General so many times that the covers of my copies are worn away. This new series is a pallid imitation at best. The principal characters are worshiped from afar rather than made real by the author. The "sweat and dirt" reality of battle scenes from other Drake books is completely absent. We readers need to be careful that Drake does not become the Stephen King of military sci-fi: he publishes his grocery list and we rush to buy it!

In short. there's too much scholasticism and not enough reality in this series. I forced myself to read the first two volumes twice just to be sure: Don't waste your time on this series. Hopefully Drake's next effort will return to the level of his previous works.

THIS BOOK WAS A PLEASURE TO READ.( JUST LIKE ITS PREDECESSOR, AN OBLIQUE APPROACH.) I PARTICULARLY ENJOY THE CREDIT GIVEN TO BELISARIUS' ABILITIES. THE REAL ONE WAS ONE OF THE GREATEST MILITARY LEADERS IN HISTORY. MORE POWER TO THE DAVID DRAKE AND ERIC FLINT COLLABORATION. WHEN IS THE THIRD BOOK COMING OUT? I CAN'T WAIT TO BUY IT.

I found both this book and the one preceding to be eminently enjoyable, despite certain liberties with the historical record (an earlier review referred to 'hecatontarch' vs 'centarch', which is a much more dicey point than it is represented to be), such as the personality of Antonina. On the other hand, a good story is more important than niggling details - and since it is alt-history, who cares anyhow? I particularly have enjoyed the thorough debasement of that "vile" creature Procopius. He deserves it... Perhaps Drake et al. will eventually get over the (wholly justifiable) fascination with Belisarius sometime, and present one of the other great Byzantines in the next series. We can hope...

It does seem that Drake is running out of ideas, not only is this series reprising 'The General' but it is also set, overtly this time, in the Byzantine Empire, and our hero (again) has access to an advanced computer! Drake does not however have Turtledove's depth of knowledge of the period and it shows. It would be invidious to start listing the mistakes ( Centurion or Centenarius not Hekatontarch for a commander of a 100 etc) but using a real setting without that knowledge is asking for trouble, otherwise it is Drake as usual: packed with action and an engaging story.

David Drake has mined the Belisarius story more than once under other names. Now he uses Belisarius by name in an alternative history novel.

I was entralled by how various technologies are entertwined in a story about philosophy and war and what is "right". You are never in doubt about who will win, it is just a question of how hard the victory will be fought.

This is the first time I have ever seen someone show an example of the difference between fighting a war from a strategic view as opposed to a tactical view.

The book is flawed only in the lack of character development. You see what the characters DO, but why they think what they are doing is correct is not examined.