Humm, other than the water, I’m not sure what they cover to this book is supposed to indicate. There was not underwater station like shown on the cover as far as I remember. Green World is a water world with small islands here and there. Our main character, James McGill has passed through here before. He didn’t get to see much of it, but this time he’s almost stuck here twice. They last time he leaves here, he’s dead!
If you remember, James McGill is a Varus Legionnaire. He also has the rank of Centurion which puts him in charge of about a platoon sized unit in the Legion. At the start of this book, Legion Varus has stood down with nothing much going on. James has been staying with a lady friend, as usual, but it’s not Galina Turov or Tribune Turov, his boss and on again/off again lover! But now, that same Tribune Turov was urgently trying to contact James with a new assignment. He, as usual, was ignoring it as long as he could, but since he was pretty bored with doing nothing, he finally answered the call.
And his new assignment was going to suck big time. Someone has been stealing a lot of Legion supplies and equipment. These shipments were coming in to the docks by ship and then disappearing. Tribune Turov wanted McGill to go and investigate what was going on and to put a stop to it! McGill objected to the assignment indicating that it wasn’t a job for a Centurion and he was not an investigator. Galina told him that he was going to do as she said because she didn’t have anyone else available. She also told him that the previous investigators assigned to this job had disappeared! James didn’t like to hear that.
So, James McGill begins his new job as an Investigator on the docks of Central City. He finds a ship loaded with supplies and equipment and then he finds a whole lot of trouble. While he does identify the smugglers that are taking the stuff, there are way to many of them for him to kill immediately, so he manages to escape by getting one of the workers to teleport him to where ever they are sending all the supplies and equipment. He’s in kind of a hurry since about forty guys are gunning for him so he doesn’t really check to see where he’s being sent. That’s how he winds up at Green World this first time.
As the story goes, you’ll find that James runs into a Claver, the female type, named Abigail Claver. She once had the hots for James, as did most females until they got to know him, but now she’s back with her clone brother Clavers running this smuggling operation. She’s definitely not in charge. This is where James runs into a few people or aliens he’s known before. One is Maurice Armel and the other is a saurian named Raash. James gets to meet these two after Abigail shoots him dead! Yes, dying in these stories is something people do all the time and rather frequently. James usually manages to keep from dying very often, but in this book he seems to accomplish this rather dangerously too often. Each time he dies, he runs the risk of not being revived or permed.
Anyway, James stirs things up and the entire Legion gets involved. The only problem with this is that it’s a trap both for the Legion Varus and Earth. While James is concerned with him and his Legion friends dying during this mission, he is more than agitated when he learns that his daughter, Etta, has been killed back on Earth. She’s not a Legionnaire and doesn’t have the normal backup required for revival as does James. So, that’s where his attentions are focused during the latter half of the book. He’s bound and determined to bring Etta back one way or another.
I like these stories because they have a ton of subtle humor not found in a lot of my military sci-fi books. James is quite a character and the relationships he has with the people around him is remarkable to put it mildly. And, for a book to talk about getting killed over and over again as though it’s a normal thing shows you what kind of strange book this can be. Still, it’s an accepted part of being a Legionnaire in these books. I like them and hope to see more come, but fifteen books in one series is quite a lot. I still think there can be more yet to come.