Generic
Disclaimer when i review a David Weber book:
I am David Weber's elder brother.
Generally, however, i think i am fairly well
able to avoid any bias in my reviews thereunto
appertaining.
"Path of the Fury" is one of David's few
stand-alone books (in fact, the only other so
far is "Apocalypse Troll").
It looks like standard space opera -- albeit
of the very highest quality -- as we introduce
a planet-raping pirate fleet on the order of
"Doc" Smith's Boskonians; a fleet that
apparently is intentionally maximising
casualties in its raids on colony worlds. It
appears as if they are carrying "dead men tell
no tales" to its logical extreme -- but even
early on there are indications it may be even
more than that.
One shuttle-load of such heavily armed and
murderous raiders is just unlucky enough that,
on a backwater planet their fleet is raiding,
they happen to hit the farm that is the home
of Alicia de Vries, retired Imperial Marine
Drop Commando. And said lady, who had been out
hunting a Very Large native predator on the
far range, returns in time to find her entire
family wiped out and the Bad Guys still on the
ground.
With nothing to live for, the
heavily-augmented Alicia proceeds to become
the sort of berserk that is the worst
nightmare of any fighting man -- beyond pain,
able to shrug off even normally-fatal wounds,
totally unconcerned about herself, and
determined to have revenge before she dies
herself.
And, it is as she lies dying herself, having
taken revenge on all of the killers of her
family, that David introduces the twist that
makes this book unlike virtually any other
military SF novel you have read or will ever
read, in the person of a character who, in
consort with Alicia and one other, will raise
them all to higher and higher levels of
prowess, to the point where Alicia is not only
possibly the greatest individual warrior who
has ever lived, but even more -- an
implacable, unswerving personification of
vengeance who terrifies even herself.
In the person(s) of Alicia and her two
partners, who collectively may be said to be
the Fury of the title, David has introduced a
rather daring twist on military SF that, at
the least, challenges the underlying
assumptions of a mechanistic Universe that are
basic to so much of the genre; has bent if not
broken the rules and succeeded brilliantly in
producing an original and Very Satisfying
adventure.
Powerful as they are, Alicia & Co still
face so many difficult if not deadly
challenges -- both from the Bad Guys and from
well-meaning but non-comprehending Good Guys,
not to mention from their own natures,
severally and in combination acting -- that
the book is hardly a boring walkover, even for
them, and the action is hot and heavy enough
for even the most jaded military SF fan's
taste.
His best so far. |
