REVIEW: Soldier of the Legion by Marshall S. Thomas

Soldier of the Legion by Marshall S. Thomas
Publishing Information: Paperback; 298 pages
Publisher: Timberwolf Press 2007
ISBN 10: 1601453426
ISBN 13: 978-601453426
Series Book 1 of the Beta 3 series
Copy: Out of pocket
Reviewer: Tyson

Back of Book: "A rough truce divides the known galaxy between the System, the despotic slave empire that rules the inner systems, and the Confederation of Free Worlds. A ConFree unit is dispatched to defend a remote world from a mysterious Systie incursion. Our hero, call-sign "Thinker," will soon discover that giant exosegs, slavers and Systies are just the beginning. Once before the Legion faced the godlike, utterly alien and evil, Omnis, and drove them back at the cost of billions of lives. The future of humanity, all humanity - even the corrupt and decaying System empire, will soon be in the hands of Soldiers of the Legion."


As I was looking on the internet for a book similar to Heinlein's Starship Troopers and Scalzi's Old Man's War I found Marshall S. Thomas' Soldier of the Legion. The book does take a rookie soldier and talk of the exploits through the galaxy. However, that is where the similarities end.


The Heart of Soldier of the Legion is a loose attempt to capture the success of Heinlein and Scalzi and it starts out well. We learn the unit and their various shortcomings and at first I really enjoyed what I was reading but as the book dragged on the chacters began to lose their charm. I think part of it had to do with the characters of Priestess and Valkyrie. They are both hardcore female warriors and they both have staked a claim on our protagonist, "Thinker." Since they are the best looking women and natural born killers it made it hard to continue my suspension of disbelief. 


The plot is that there are two forms of government/philosophy in the universe one that believes in freedom and one that uses slaves for labor and any other tasks. If earth gave up slavery in the 1800s (for the most part), it did not make much sense that we returned to the practice once we took to the stars. I realise that the bad guys in Soldier of the Legion had to be despicable, but I would have like to have seen something different to set the two civilisations apart. Slavery to me was an easy out. 


Another thing that bothered me was that the book leaves you hanging. The end of the book is a cliffhanger. While I do not mind cliffhangers, the last 30 to 40 pages takes the reader on a completely different course from the rest of the book and then leaves you with the legion preparing to face death. The ending of Soldier of the Legion seemed rushed and I have to wonder if the Thomas was not sure what to do next so he just stopped and ran to the publishers and said "we will take care of it in book two." It left a sour taste in my mouth considering the short length of the book, Thomas could have at least ended the small skirmish and then give us a glimpse of the big picture and the first portion of the plot for the second book in the series but, he failed to do that.


Plot  6
Characters  7
Style  4


Overall 5/10