I really like theses books although I’m not so sure I could accept the idea of dying and the being regenerated in a new body!
If you haven’t read any of these books, you really need to go back to the beginning and start from there. Our main character, James McGill, is a Legionnaire with the Legion Varus. How he stays in this legion is the real mystery. See, James McGill isn’t one to follow orders or the rules. He does what James McGill thinks is right and then sorts out the consequences later.
As I mentioned, dying is part of the job for Legionaries, especially for Legion Varus. But, dying doesn’t necessarily mean “dead”. The Legion has an alien machine which takes organic matter and converts it into a new human with the downloading of that persons most recent memories! Out from this machine pops a fresh human. This copy has all the memories of its previous body up until they were killed! That to me is really gruesome. I mean dying is bad enough, especially if it was a violent death, but remembering how you just died who put a lot of people in the insane asylum! It’s just not something you’d want to remember.
James McGill has been in the Legion awhile. This will be his fourth world that he and the Legion Varus have been assigned a mission to do something. In every past mission, James McGill has been killed several times. He hopes that won’t happen this time and he tries his hardest to make that happen. Except things always go wrong for McGill.
Because he has been a impressive Legionnaire when he’s fighting, he’s up for promotion to Veteran. This is like an NCO position and has to be vetted through the other Legion Vets, none of which like James McGill. They all think he thinks too much and they wind up paying for it. So, James has to pass a “trial by fire” ritual setup by the other Vets. But, he quickly finds out that it’s rigged against him.
Ok, you need to read the book to find out what happens to Veteran James McGill. He’s also wanted by the Nairbs which is like the Galactic judges. They can also execute McGill permanently and if not him, all of Humanity. But, James McGill is a resourceful guy if nothing else. He thinks on his feet and usually figures out hot to not permanently die. That’s a good thing.