SOJALS rating:

Awful (1/5)

I first read this in 1998.

I bought this in desperation - there being nothing else in Jena, the only bookshop in Tokyo that seems to have even a reasonable selection of SF&F. Even so most of Jena's SF&F selection is shelves of fantasy series with titles like "Nevermist", "Nevermist Chronicles", "Return To Nevermist", "Wizard of Nevermist", "Dragons of Nevermist" and "Five Go Wild in Nevermist", shelf after shelf down the wall. The only good stuff looks to be in the top shelf, but that's so high up I can't read the titles. I don't know what they've got up there, but they have to be really old and rare classic works. I can't imagine anyone else here has ever been able to reach up to them. Jena has been going for donkey's years so these have to be like really priceless first-editions.

I'm going to buy some stilts and make myself rich man. Anyway, I've always wanted stilts.

Back to the book. Well it's about a long-running, religious-racist interstellar war. We first meet our hero, Trystan Desoll, when he's guarding the border on some godforsaken desert planet. He commands a bunker bravely fighting off increasingly powerful enemy attacks. He survives and eventually goes on to greater things, overcoming the racial prejudice to which he is subjected since his appearance matches, rather too closely, that of the enemy. Meanwhile, there's a potential love interest slouching around in the background.

This was an emergency purchase and I'd expected it to be appallingly bad. In fact it is readable, as long as one doesn't think too much about it. Actually the beginning of the book was exciting, guns and tanks and all, but it didn't last long. being the beginning I suppose.