Getting military sci-fi right is tricky. As with any genre fiction, there are certain rules to be followed. When you pick up a book with a cover depicting a sword-wielding Roman-type firing a primitive cannon under the shadow of a swirling nebula, you have certain expectations and woe unto any author who fails to meet them. Fortunately, S.M. Stirling and David Drake are both decorated vets (Stirling for the bestselling Anne McCaffrey collaboration The City Who Fought and Drake for the well-loved Hammer's Slammers series, about "the meanest bunch of mercs who ever nuked a world for pay.")
The Reformer continues their Raj Whitehall series, with its intriguing schtick of the cloned consciousnesses of a military commander (Raj) and a battle computer (Center) becoming voices in the head of a would-be hero on a primitive world who is trying to coax humanity back--one planet at a time--to the level of progress it had acheived before a crippling galactic civil war. In The Reformer, Raj and Center are guiding a clever, scrappy philosopher named Adrian and his studly soldier brother Esmond, helping them introduce gunpowder and civic order (eventually) to the quasi-Roman civilization on Hafardine. Fast-paced, but not quite as meaty as earlier installments in the series, Reformer still gets the job done with believable battle scenes and knowing descriptions of early weapons and technology. --Paul Hughes
From Publishers Weekly
Military SF experts Stirling and Drake move into hardcover for the seventh entry in their General series (The Chosen, etc.), about soldier-statesman Raj Whitehall and the sentient computer, Center, influencing the course of civilization in a far-future galaxy. This time, the discarnate minds of man and machine do their good work on a planet that has regressed to a level of technology resembling that of the Roman Empire; there's even an equivalent to Rome (Vanbert), which has conquered the local version of Greece (Emerald, with its capital of Solinga standing in for Athens). Aided by Whitehall and Center, Adrian Gellert, a Solingian law clerk working in Vanbert, becomes involved in a rebellion, along with his warrior brother, Esmond. Before they have to flee, they introduce gunpowder grenades to Vanbert. They also equip King Casull of the Isles with arquebuses, cannon and steam-driven ironclad rams. The climax, occupying a third of the novel, involves the Islanders' assault on Vanbert's coastal city of Preble, and is told with the knowledge of military tactics and hardware, and the vividly described action, that readers expect from Stirling and Drake. There's not much originality on display here, and the ending is indecisive, but devotees of military SF should enjoy themselves nonetheless. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
The Reformer FROM THE PUBLISHER
After the collapse of the galactic Web, civilizations crumbled and chaos reigned on thousands of planets. Only on planet Bellevue was there a difference. There, a Fleet Battle Computer named Center had survived from the old civilization. When it found Raj Whitehall, the man who could execute its plan for reviving human civilization, he and Center started Bellevue back on the road leading to the stars; and when Bellevue reached that goal, Center sent copies of itself and Raj to the thousands of worlds still waiting for the light of civilization to dawn. On Hafardine, civilization had fallen further than most. That men came from the stars was not even a rumor of memory in Adrian Gellert's day. Adrian Gellert was a philosopher, a Student of the Grove. His greatest desire was a life of contemplation in the service of wisdom . . . until he touched the 'holy relic' that contained the disincarnate minds of Raj Whitehall and Center. On that day, Adrian's search for wisdom would lead him to a life of action, from the law-courts of Vanbret to the pirate cities of the Archipelago - and battlefields bloodier than any in the history he'd learned. The prize was the future of humanity.
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