This new review is about a series written by two of my favourite authors, David Weber and John Ringo. The series is, of course, the March Upcountry Series.
There’s four books, but Ringo’s website says that there’s 3 more books contracted in this series (yay! :) So far, the books are:
This is the story of “His Royal Highness, Prince Roger Ramius Sergei Alexander Chiang MacClintock, Heir Tertiary to the Throne of Man” and the Barbarians of the Bronze Battalion of the Empress’ Own, and their march across lovely Marduk.
It all starts when Roger and the Barbarians, who are his bodyguard unit, are sent as representatives of the Empire of Man to Leviathan, a fishing planet that has their Net-Hauling celebration in a couple of months. When the Empress informs the Prince of his new duty, we start to learn what a…lovely personality he has. Calling him a brat is offensive to all brats! Prince Roger represents the worse traits that any kid of the aristocracy can ever portray, and not half-way through chapter 1 of the first book, the reader is ready to wring his neck, just so he’ll stop sticking his feet into his mouth.
On their way to Leviathan, things don’t go as expected, and the Prince and his bodyguard end up landing in lovely Marduk…a planet that makes the Amazonian forest look like a desert, and makes Australia’s fauna look like a petting zoo :)
Is in Marduk that the first 3 books take place, telling us of the saga of the Prince and the Bronze Barbarians across the planet, trying to reach the space port on the other side of it, so they can then take it by force before pirating a space ship to try and get back to Earth. The fourth book is about what happens once they manage to make it back to Earth…which isn’t all that much different from their adventures in Marduk lol!
And throughout the long march, the killing and dieing, the teaching and learning, we see the transformation of Pringe Roger from a brat into a man, from a worthless clotheshorse into a commander of men and mardukans in battle.
This series is, in short, the story of how Prince Roger becomes a man…but the catalysts that help in this transformation are the true furnances of Hell…and the power of love…not only romantic love, but the love of friends that are with you in the good, the bad and the worst.
Weber and Ringo manage to pull you into the life of Roger and careing about each and every one of the characters that surround him, making each battle a nail-bitting moment, filled with worry about the lifes of all of them…and the heartbreaks happen. Neither of the two authors are known as softies when it comes to characters…they kill characters that you think are main characters and will never die…and it hurts.
Few authors are as good as these two at writing battle scenes, and in this series they manage to create some of the most fun and tense battle scenes I’ve read in a while…just for that, it’s worth reading it.
This series is in my list of great military SF series of all times, and if you enjoy military SF, you’ll love it.
Technorati Tags: david weber, march upcountry, books, SF, science fiction, fiction
Tags: Books, Reviews
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