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Better to Beg Forgiveness
Jan. 31st, 2008 10:57 amI recently finished reading Mike Z. Williamson's new book Better to Beg Forgiveness...
. It's an unusual entry into the "military SF" sub-genre.
Unlike the typical novel, this book focuses on mercenaries providing executive protection, or "EP." A group of six Ripple Creek (Easter egg for "Blackwater") operatives have been hired to protect the interim president of Celadon, the least-wealthy of three nations on a small colonial planet. For various reasons, the security and political situation eventually goes south, and our heroes end up smuggling out the President.
The book started rather slowly, with a good chapter of setup, and several chapters of slowly-escalating action. Mike is a nice guy (I've met him at cons) but he has little faith in the "international community" and their ability to effect change in a country. Considering the decidedly mixed track record of that community, I'm not sure I blame him.
One of the main bad guys in the book is a fat French politician / actor, who's a real cardboard cutout. It's also not at all clear why said Frenchman does some of the things he does. Lastly, Mike is a competitive pistol shooter and ex-Army type, so some of his jargon for tactical maneuvers was impenetrable for me. Having said all of that, I found Better to Beg Forgiveness an interesting read. I'd give it 3 out of 5 stars.
. It's an unusual entry into the "military SF" sub-genre.Unlike the typical novel, this book focuses on mercenaries providing executive protection, or "EP." A group of six Ripple Creek (Easter egg for "Blackwater") operatives have been hired to protect the interim president of Celadon, the least-wealthy of three nations on a small colonial planet. For various reasons, the security and political situation eventually goes south, and our heroes end up smuggling out the President.
The book started rather slowly, with a good chapter of setup, and several chapters of slowly-escalating action. Mike is a nice guy (I've met him at cons) but he has little faith in the "international community" and their ability to effect change in a country. Considering the decidedly mixed track record of that community, I'm not sure I blame him.
One of the main bad guys in the book is a fat French politician / actor, who's a real cardboard cutout. It's also not at all clear why said Frenchman does some of the things he does. Lastly, Mike is a competitive pistol shooter and ex-Army type, so some of his jargon for tactical maneuvers was impenetrable for me. Having said all of that, I found Better to Beg Forgiveness an interesting read. I'd give it 3 out of 5 stars.
