I had thought this series was over. Then I found two more books available via Amazon; this one and “Blood World (Book #8)”. I bought both books and have been enjoying them tremendously. These are quirky books. They have a concept that I haven’t actually read anywhere else. You see, the military soldiers and sailors all die sometime during their battles if they are not lucky. And that includes the main character of these stories and several minor characters that comprise Legion Varus. But, never fear, for they are easily and immediately resurrected and thrown right back into the same battle over and over until they win! Just imagine how much you’d get paid if you died in battle and got to come back and collect the insurance! It doesn’t work that way with Legion Varus or any other Legion. Death is something that just happens during a battle and they still expect you to perform, dead or not!
Earth has formed a number of Legions who act as mercenaries for the Galactic overlords. Yes, Earth has been conquered a while back by the Galactics who are so far ahead of us in technology that they almost consider us as cattle; little more than semi-intelligent slaves. We’re not exactly mistreated, but we can’t do anything that would be against Galactic law. Most of that law states we’re to stay at our current technology level and we can’t leave our planet unless given permission. Of course, the Galactic fleet that controls our region of space can’t be everywhere at once and the Galactics have their own civil war going on in the Galactic center. So, we’ve pretty much been on our own and it almost costs the human race it’s existence.
There’s one particular Legionnaire who you’ll meet and his name is Jame McGill! Now he’s something of an oddity in that he can get into the worst possible conditions at the worst possible time, but some how, some way, he finds a solution or a way out and saves everybody! James started at the bottom and was killed many, many times during those years. He managed to get himself resurrected every time, but it seems to be harder and harder to guarantee that he won’t be permed at some point in one of these future battles. Being “permed” means the Legion, your superiors, decided that you weren’t worth the revival or you committed some terrible crime that you had to be permed. James McGill has committed numerous serious crimes, mostly blatant disregard for Galactic laws, and he was supposedly permed many times. But, this is James McGill, Legion Varus Centurion that we’re talking about. He lives on!
This time he’s sent on a mission to destroy the inhabitants of a rocky world that have done nothing but invent things. The blue dome on this rocky planet is the only place inhabitable and that’s where a bunch of scientist live and work. Earth is about to be visited by the Galactic Overloads once again and they know that if this planet is found to have humans doing what they are doing, then Earth will be guilty of breaking all sorts of Galactic Laws and our entire planet will be wiped clean!
So, Legion Varus (including Centurion McGill) is sent to Rogue World to clean it out. Should be a simple in and out operation. I mean how hard can it be to take care of some egghead scientist? And it probably would have been easy if James McGill hadn’t gotten involved.
This is a very humorous series. It’s tongue in cheek humor at it’s finest. I can barely grasp the concept of dying in a battle and then being processed through a revival machine coming out with all my memories intact and a brand new body, clear of any defects, and still at the age of twenty-something! Oh, I won’t remember the gristly details of my recent death; those are edited out, but I will know I died and someone or something had just killed me. Kind of gets you motivated to go do the same thing to them. And that’s what you get to do, go kills the enemy or get killed again, over and over. What a concept. Science fiction is great!
I’m on to reading “Blood World”. I don’t know if this is the end of the series or not. James McGill is a Centurian, but he has a number of higher ranks he could attain so maybe it’s not over yet. I just can’t imagine what he’s capable of doing if given the authority. The Galaxy might never be the same. Have fun reading these books and do go back to the beginning if you haven’t read them before.