From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Aug 24 16:02:12 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!washdc3-snf1!news.gtei.net!news.ums.edu!haven.umd.edu!hecate.umd.edu!sipb-server-1.mit.edu!senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!usenet From: "Aaron M. Renn" Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Face of the Enemy by Richard Fawkes Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 09 Aug 1999 13:49:04 -0400 Organization: GNU's Not Unix! Lines: 62 Sender: wex@tinbergen.media.mit.edu Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: tinbergen.media.mit.edu X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.3/Emacs 19.34 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:2423 Face of the Enemy by Richard Fawkes Review Copyright (c) 1999 Aaron M. Renn Conclusion: Worth Reading [This review may be considered to contain some spoilers for the overall plot outcome. AW] This is a solid, if not spectacular, military SF story. A strange alien race called the Remor have been ravaging human planets. To counter the threat the Interstellar Defense League was formed. Several human worlds resist joining the IDL however, believing it an expansionist military power. One such group of planets is the Panstellar Combine. They discover a planet with non-human indigenous intelligent life. These creatures look suspiciously like the denizens of the planet of Cassuell's Home, who were exterminated by the IDL, which insisted that the primitive life forms there were Remor. A joint expedition from the various human worlds is sent to investigate the natives of this new planet Chugen, including one Kurt Ellicot, a scientist who "went native" while studying the primitives of Cassuell's Home. But as the team is about to land on Chugen, the Remor attack, causing the shuttle to crash land. That's when things really get interesting. To the best of my knowledge, this is Fawkes' first novel and it shows. The plot has a few holes and rough edges. For example, there's this mysterious Professor Alsion charcter, who appears at random moments to make cryptic remarks. One of the major IDL characters disappears and we never find out what happened to him. The alien Remor remain an enemy we end up learning little about. The end of the book also brings no real resolution to the conflict. (A sequel is planned?) A little more editing and revision was needed I thought. Nevertheless, there is a lot to recommend. I loved the way Fawkes kept from stereotyping people as Good Guys or Bad Guys. All of the human characters have both reasons to like them and reasons to hate them. The IDL are the jack booted thugs many people suspect them of being, but they are also the only line of defense against the Remor that they believe themselves to be. Nobody in this book escapes without blame. Almost everybody also has their redeeming qualities and comes to grow as a person during the book. I also like the new world exploration/adventure and first contact elements of the book. Whoever this Richard Fawkes guy is, I think he's got potential. Military SF fans will definitely want to pick this one up. Others should find it at least a decent read. I'm looking forward to seeing his future works, which will hopefully show a little more maturity. %A Fawkes, Richard %T Face of the Enemy %I HarperPrism %D 1999-07 %G ISBN 0-06-105795-9 %P 537 pp. %0 mass market paperback, US$5.99 Reviewed on 1999-08-06 -- Aaron M. Renn (arenn@urbanophile.com) http://www.urbanophile.com/arenn/