********** Spoiler Alert – I tell you the who story in the following pages. ***********
Short story! I don’t know why, but I’ve lately got stuck reading several short story books. I don’t particularly like short stories, that’s one reason I don’t read anthologies. It seems like you just get familiar with the situation and the characters and then “The End”. That’s not the way I like for books to be written. If you’re writing a book, then write a book. If you want to have a prequel, then stick it at the front of your full-lenght book. Now, I’m not a writer, so you guys can just ignore what I just wrote.
About this short story. It’s pretty predictable. There’s this mercenary, Severan, who is the commander of a quite successful mercenary group, but he’s grown tired of all the fighting. So he wants to settle down with a good woman, have kids and farm. So he does. Next, he’s told about some really bad guys tearing up planets, killing people for no reason and then moving on. He’s warned about this coming trouble, but chooses to ignore it.
The trouble comes to his planet. Then the trouble comes to his farm. He takes his wife and kids to hid in a prepared cave. He goes to met with the bad guys who are tearing up his farm. He starts shooting until all the bad guys are dead, but they called in reinforcements. So, he starts killing all the reinforcements.
Then, the bad guys find his wife and kids. They tell him to surrender or they’ll kill his kids. He does and then they tell him to swear allegiance to their “god”. He says he can’t because it would be a lie. They shoot one of his kids. Severan goes berserk! He’s only armed with a knife, but he manages to rip the guy who shot his son from one end to the other. Then he grabs the leader and begins to crush his windpipe. They shoot him and after he kills the leader, they pin him down. Then they shoot his other kid. He goes berserk again and kills every one around him. He goes hunting for his wife. She’s being raped in a van. Severan kills ever guy near the van with his knife and then starts shooting anything that appears to be alive.
Finally, everything, including his cows, are dead at the farm. Severan is almost dead. He’s lost an eye and his hand won’t work. As he lays their bleeding out, he vows to kill every one of these Ghazzali and their leader, very painfully.
Suddenly, a strange mysterious alien race that doesn’t often visit human worlds, finds him and fixes him up. He recovers in a hospital. Now he has a new bionic eye and a bionic hand. He remembers his vow.
End of story! More to come….someday!
The author has a number of follow-on books. The only one I could find was Book #5. When I asked him about the others, he said he was writing them in reverse order! It may be awhile before we get to read book one. Don’t loose interest! Yeah, right!