Counting the Cost (Review)
Counting the Cost (Review)
‘ve been a bit remiss in my book reviews lately, largely because I’ve been remiss in reading in general. I’ve been limping through a Carl Sagan book as of late. This isn’t to say it’s a bad read. It’s just not as riveting as fiction. So, to get something out (and to take a break) I grabbed a novel from David Drake (of Hammer’s Slammers fame), Counting the Cost. Had it since 1987 (when it was published) and as soon as I opened it the ancient covers (from and back) broke off. So it’s literally now a paperback.
Anyway, the world it takes place on is pretty screwed up. One main colony made up of Christians (on one continent) and Muslims living on the other. The governor of the planet has been buying the Christian church’s support by arranging a crusade against the other continent, and to deal with dug-in opposition, they’ve hired both the Slammers and another merc group (for air defense), United Defense Batteries. They were hired by the governor in case the Muslims launched some sort of missile. Interesting, since the other slammer books mentioned “Calliopes”, huge platform vehicles with multi-barrel lasers on them, and this story tells us more about them.
Anyway, the governor has been bowing to the church and the church (via a corrupt bishop) has been bowing to two huge gangs in the city, the Reds and the Blacks, who are passing the time scuffling with each other. But the bishop is playing a long game, waiting until he’s whipped the crowds up into religious fervor, at which point he’ll unify the mobs, wipe out the governor and kickoff the crusade in earnest. Under new management.
But the slammers are wise to this.Two officers, one Slammer, one UDB, unite to take out the bishop, protecting the governor (who might be corrupt, but he pays the bills, right?). They wait until the bishop is holding a sunrise service, calling for his masses to storm the governor’s palace and slay the demons.
And let’s face it – the whole point of this book was to show just what happens with an air defense battery turns its multi-barrel lasers on a packed crowd.
It was interesting to me that the book makes the Christians the evil (grimly evil) baddies in this one. Most authors won’t risk it but Drake did, calling out the all-to-common aspect of religion to be used as a tool for evil men (and giving other lessor evil men a chance to slaughter). Made for a good read.
So yes, another find military scifi book by this Vietnam veteran author. It’s a good read that went by too quickly.
And so back to Sagan for me.