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jmoses's review against another edition
3.0
A fun story, with lots of action but little depth. I'll read some more because I like "in the dirt" mil sci fi.
veronica87's review
2.0
Superficial military science fiction with a sizable cast of characters, most of whom come and go so quickly they fail to leave an impression. Even the main character is a one dimensional type who failed to absorb me in her journey. Add in the fact that I was distracted from this book twice, managing to start and finish two other books, means that this story never fully held my interest. Therefore I can't, in all honesty, rate it higher than two stars.
mjfmjfmjf's review
3.0
A military sf series that I read only for the Endeavour Award. War on every page (okay almost every page). Definitely Starship Troopers inspired with a direct borrowing of the French Foreign Legion. Not exactly bad just really not impressive in any way. And I'm tired of the training, rising through the ranks Mary Sue.
zomulo's review
3.0
Guter Start, spannende Einführung. Leider wird die Rache am Ende eher zweitrangig und wird hoffentlich in den nächsten Büchern weiterverfolgt. Übrig bleibt Standardkost mit Standardende.
pieneman's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
troetschel's review
1.0
This book read so poorly that I'm amazed by the reviews. The writing was TERRIBLE. I've read Dietz before, I grew up on stuff like Legion of the Damned, and either I didn't realize how bad it was then, or he's entered some sort of decline where he throws stuff out and see what sticks.
I couldn't finish because it was so choppy and juvenile. Boring, predictable, eye-rolling dialogue and exasperatingly flat.
I couldn't finish because it was so choppy and juvenile. Boring, predictable, eye-rolling dialogue and exasperatingly flat.
adunten's review against another edition
4.0
2016 vreading challenge: a book and its prequel (with [b:Legion of the Damned|722434|Legion of the Damned (Legion, #1)|William C. Dietz|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1281846249s/722434.jpg|708671])
Our heroine: Andromeda McKee, born Cat Carletto, and known to all as “The Steel Bitch.” Once a wealthy dilettante, then a fugitive, then a soldier of the famed Legion.
Although Andromeda's Fall is futuristic military science fiction, it's based on an ancient coming-of-age epic storyline: a sheltered young person is suddenly and brutally forced out into the world and must undertake a difficult and dangerous quest, where the quest represents the transition from childhood to adulthood. In this case, Cat Carletto's transformation is quite literal – she must abandon her birthright and adopt a completely new identity to survive. And her quest is to seek vengeance for her murdered family.
Andromeda's flight quickly takes her to the doors of the Imperial Legion, the fictional descendant of the real-life French Foreign Legion. The Legion is known for its willingness to accept recruits who have nowhere else to go, and its fierce protection of its own. So it's a nearly-ideal place for a fugitive to hide and make a new life. In this first part of Andromeda’s story, she begins to learn the skills she'll need to get revenge, and work her way up the ranks of the Legion.
The history of the Legion as recounted in the book is quite real. The Battle of Camaron, which took place in Mexico in 1863, is an actual defining moment in the history of the French Foreign Legion - right down to the detail of Captain Danjou's wooden hand, which is still the Legion's most venerated relic today. The real Legion still celebrates Camaron Day every April 30. It helped cement the Legion's reputation as a bunch of crazy bastards who will go down fighting rather than surrender. In Dietz's imagined future, that fearsome reputation has only grown. And the use of the Legion in the story as an Imperial pacification force is true to the history of the real Foreign Legion as well.
No, the writing is not great. It was repetitious and clunky, and I thought I would scream if anyone's heart was beating “like a triphammer” ONE. MORE. TIME. I was also bothered by the description of an alien as having “froglike ears.” Errmmmm, frogs don't have external ears, so that means.... what? I have to think it means the alien had NO visible ears, but then it seems really odd to describe its non-existent ears at all.
Andromeda's Fall is hardly high literature, but it's a fun ride. I'm going to do Dietz, who spent actual time in the military, a favor and acknowledge that he knows the realities of military life a damn sight better than I do, and assume his depiction is reasonably realistic... aside from, you know, the spaceships, cyborgs, and aliens. Andromeda's advancement through the ranks seemed a bit rapid to me, considering she got two promotions in the space of her first real tour of duty in the field, but the text seemed to acknowledge that she herself was shocked by it and thought herself far too inexperienced to be a sergeant. The only other thing that really bugged me was Larkin – I had a hard time believing a guy like that Again, Dietz has been there, and I haven't.
I liked Dietz's portrayal of Andromeda in particular, and women in general. Andromeda is obviously exceptional, and maybe her exceptionalism is a bit over the top, but would you rather vread a story about someone who's NOT tough enough to survive the rapid transition from socialite to fugitive to recruit to soldier, and just gets killed in the third chapter? Exceptionalism aside, she's written like a person. She's got a good head on her shoulders, but also a lot of realistic flaws and doubts and fears to go with her innate toughness and determination. She's driven to succeed by a burning desire for revenge, and until your whole family has been murdered, you can't really say you know what that will do to a person. She's basically a good person, but she's not perfect. She's honest when she can be, but when her life is on the line, she does things out of self-interest that aren't totally on the level and then lies about it to save her skin. And she does ill-advised things like get romantically involved with her CO. But let's be honest – we'd like her less if she really was enough of a steel bitch to totally shut off her need for human connection. Dietz fell prey to the beauty myth by feeling he had to point out that she was beautiful, at least before she got her face slashed and her nose broken, but I ain't mad. The beauty myth gets us all at times, and her looks were far from being her defining characteristic.
Does it pass the Bechdel test? Yes. Although there are no other major characters who are women, a number of the minor characters are women, ranging from one of Andromeda's early COs to some of the techs and other soldiers under her own command later in the story.
I've shelved it as "best audios," not because the audio narration is really that special, but because narrator Isabelle Gordon is something a bit uncommon - a female narrator who does voices and does male dialog well. She doesn't necessarily sound "like a man" any more than a male narrator sounds "like a woman" when doing women's dialog, but she gives different characters, including the men, distinctive voices that sound natural and comfortable and aren't jarring. Too often, narrators of both sexes struggle to realistically portray characters of the opposite sex, but as a matter of pure physics, it seems to be easier for men to go higher than it is for women to go lower.
Our heroine: Andromeda McKee, born Cat Carletto, and known to all as “The Steel Bitch.” Once a wealthy dilettante, then a fugitive, then a soldier of the famed Legion.
Although Andromeda's Fall is futuristic military science fiction, it's based on an ancient coming-of-age epic storyline: a sheltered young person is suddenly and brutally forced out into the world and must undertake a difficult and dangerous quest, where the quest represents the transition from childhood to adulthood. In this case, Cat Carletto's transformation is quite literal – she must abandon her birthright and adopt a completely new identity to survive. And her quest is to seek vengeance for her murdered family.
Andromeda's flight quickly takes her to the doors of the Imperial Legion, the fictional descendant of the real-life French Foreign Legion. The Legion is known for its willingness to accept recruits who have nowhere else to go, and its fierce protection of its own. So it's a nearly-ideal place for a fugitive to hide and make a new life. In this first part of Andromeda’s story, she begins to learn the skills she'll need to get revenge, and work her way up the ranks of the Legion.
The history of the Legion as recounted in the book is quite real. The Battle of Camaron, which took place in Mexico in 1863, is an actual defining moment in the history of the French Foreign Legion - right down to the detail of Captain Danjou's wooden hand, which is still the Legion's most venerated relic today. The real Legion still celebrates Camaron Day every April 30. It helped cement the Legion's reputation as a bunch of crazy bastards who will go down fighting rather than surrender. In Dietz's imagined future, that fearsome reputation has only grown. And the use of the Legion in the story as an Imperial pacification force is true to the history of the real Foreign Legion as well.
No, the writing is not great. It was repetitious and clunky, and I thought I would scream if anyone's heart was beating “like a triphammer” ONE. MORE. TIME. I was also bothered by the description of an alien as having “froglike ears.” Errmmmm, frogs don't have external ears, so that means.... what? I have to think it means the alien had NO visible ears, but then it seems really odd to describe its non-existent ears at all.
Andromeda's Fall is hardly high literature, but it's a fun ride. I'm going to do Dietz, who spent actual time in the military, a favor and acknowledge that he knows the realities of military life a damn sight better than I do, and assume his depiction is reasonably realistic... aside from, you know, the spaceships, cyborgs, and aliens. Andromeda's advancement through the ranks seemed a bit rapid to me, considering she got two promotions in the space of her first real tour of duty in the field, but the text seemed to acknowledge that she herself was shocked by it and thought herself far too inexperienced to be a sergeant. The only other thing that really bugged me was Larkin – I had a hard time believing a guy like that
Spoiler
(a) didn't rape her when he had the chance as well as beating her up, and (b) had it in him to undergo the sort of long-term attitude shift and display the stubborn loyalty that he did. But then, I've never literally had my life saved under fire by anyone before, and I don't know what that does to a person. Still, given what we know of his personality, I don't see him having the staying power to stick to a vow of loyalty it even if he means well.I liked Dietz's portrayal of Andromeda in particular, and women in general. Andromeda is obviously exceptional, and maybe her exceptionalism is a bit over the top, but would you rather vread a story about someone who's NOT tough enough to survive the rapid transition from socialite to fugitive to recruit to soldier, and just gets killed in the third chapter? Exceptionalism aside, she's written like a person. She's got a good head on her shoulders, but also a lot of realistic flaws and doubts and fears to go with her innate toughness and determination. She's driven to succeed by a burning desire for revenge, and until your whole family has been murdered, you can't really say you know what that will do to a person. She's basically a good person, but she's not perfect. She's honest when she can be, but when her life is on the line, she does things out of self-interest that aren't totally on the level and then lies about it to save her skin. And she does ill-advised things like get romantically involved with her CO. But let's be honest – we'd like her less if she really was enough of a steel bitch to totally shut off her need for human connection. Dietz fell prey to the beauty myth by feeling he had to point out that she was beautiful, at least before she got her face slashed and her nose broken, but I ain't mad. The beauty myth gets us all at times, and her looks were far from being her defining characteristic.
Does it pass the Bechdel test? Yes. Although there are no other major characters who are women, a number of the minor characters are women, ranging from one of Andromeda's early COs to some of the techs and other soldiers under her own command later in the story.
I've shelved it as "best audios," not because the audio narration is really that special, but because narrator Isabelle Gordon is something a bit uncommon - a female narrator who does voices and does male dialog well. She doesn't necessarily sound "like a man" any more than a male narrator sounds "like a woman" when doing women's dialog, but she gives different characters, including the men, distinctive voices that sound natural and comfortable and aren't jarring. Too often, narrators of both sexes struggle to realistically portray characters of the opposite sex, but as a matter of pure physics, it seems to be easier for men to go higher than it is for women to go lower.
veronica87's review against another edition
2.0
Superficial military science fiction with a sizable cast of characters, most of whom come and go so quickly they fail to leave an impression. Even the main character is a one dimensional type who failed to absorb me in her journey. Add in the fact that I was distracted from this book twice, managing to start and finish two other books, means that this story never fully held my interest. Therefore I can't, in all honesty, rate it higher than two stars.