Legion of the Damned

Legion of the Damned, Book 1

De: William C. Dietz

Narrado por: Donald Corren

In the future, the terminally ill can prolong life by surrendering their consciousness to a cybernetic life form that is then recruited into the notorious Legion of the Damned, an elite fighting unit charged with protecting humanity.

Listen to more titles in the Legion of the Damned Series.©1993 William C. Dietz (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

great series

I love the legion of the damned series would make an incredible tv show

This story is not Dead On Arrival!

The character development is well thought out and improves as the story progresses. There is a hint of whimsy to his writing style that makes the story enjoyable.

As good as when I read it

I started this series when it first came out. The narration is almost how I imagined the dialogue, as I read it.

Extraordinary - best SciFi book I have read

Mr. Dietz and Mr. Corren combine to present one of the truly entertaining SciFi thrillers of the year. This is, without a doubt, the best SciFi book I have had the good fortune to read(listen). I would recommend this book for both the Hugo and Nebula awards. If you were only going to read one SciFi book, you must read this one. I found myself unable to put it down, it was so entertaining.

It was okay

There's no discussion of the technology involved which is fine but it can add to the universe the story takes place in. A lot happens in the book, but it takes away from detail and character development. I like how flawed some of the characters were. Although much of the book was a pale imitation of Dune, I love Dune so I didn't mind.

Good stories that could use more detail

So, there is no main character, there are just a collection of characters that the story bounces between. I do like that, but there are a few problems with how it's executed; First, sometimes it will bounce between charterers/settings without any warning and gets confusing at times. Second, there is never enough time spent with any story in one sitting, as soon as I start getting invested, it switches to another. And third, it just breezes over some important plot points giving little to no attention to them. Like, two of the characters die at the end, and both of them got maybe a sentence mentioning it. Like, what did their friends and family who were there think/do/react etc when they saw them die?

Overall a good book, just needed more details.

It's ok, not great.

The book started out gang busters, with the introduction of cyborgs, biobots and life in the Legion. About the middle of the book I lost interest. I must admit that I am not a Military Sci-Fi fan, so those that are, may love this book. It is hard for me to get into make believe wars, battles, and politics if the author has not made me care for the characters. Each chapter jumps quickly from one character to another, not giving enough time to build the character and make us root or not root for him/her/it.

Dietz shows a good imagination and reminds me of Kevin J. Anderson. I was also reminded a little of Neal Asher, although he is not quite as biologically crazy as Asher.

This was written in 1993, so if on sale I will listen to more of Dietz to see if his writing gets any better.

Excellent -- Perhaps one of the best SF I've ever

I just finished the 6th book (of the 8 written so far) and thought I'd go back and write a review of the first in the series. I have not read a great deal of military Sci-Fi, but even without regard to the genre this is a great read. The plot is clever and complex. The military and historical information on the French Foreign Legion is a lot of fun as well.

The oddest sensation as I read it, was that it seemed familiar. Although written years before the movie, if I were the author, I'd be a bit miffed by the movie Avatar -- since 80% of the movie came out of this book...and another 15% came out of subsequent books in the series. (It is hard to tell if it was copied, or whether these are inevitable themes -- but it made me feel sorry for this author.)

If you like series books, such as the Lost Fleet series, or just a good adventure in space story -- this is a wonderful book.

Dietz Does

First Dietz book I have read...not bad at all. Great military Sci-Fi...good story. The narriation was very good. It is very hard to detail a battle involving...say...the human race...but Dietz did well with his story, kept focus. Recomended.

Huh. That wasn't that bad. Wonder if there's more.

First off, this book probably won't scratch everyone's itch. If you're looking for a hard-mil-sci-fi procedural, this isn't it. If you're looking for a deep, affecting story, this probably isn't that either. It is squarely in the camp of B-Movie action schlock.

That said, it's darned good B-Movie action schlock.

The story isn't really the thing I found most compelling about this book, which is something I feel rather odd typing. Rather, I found that what I was really enjoying about the book was the setting. You can tell the author was having the time of his life world-building this thing and didn't really give a damn how crazy any of it sounds when you look at it on its own. But he runs away with it, and it all just kinda works.

I do have to ding the writing for two rather glaring faults, one more harmless than the other. First, and more forgivable is the sex scenes. I don't know if it's the writing itself, or if a slightly stronger narration might have helped them, (though my inclination is to blame the writing) but as is they are just unbearably awkward to listen to. Thankfully, there is only a handful of them and they don't last too long.

The second big ding, and this one is something I just can't let off the hook, is that the author has a terrible habit of having leaving critical plot points to occur off-screen and then pay bare lip-service to them later. Major battles, critical plot turns, major character deaths, and my personally most loathed, a major romantic/character trauma/redemption thing (Its weird, but you'll know it when you see it, and it could have been one of the best things in the book, or hell, even a whole book on its own) get great, loving set-ups, then we cut away to something else, and when we come back we're looking at the aftermath. It's like Dietz just forgot he actually had to write the pay-off scene. It's frustrating and unsatisfying, and it leaves you feeling like some of the best scenes in the entire book are just missing, and seriously questioning that "unabridged" label on the store-page.

The narrator delivers a solid, lively performance, and his voice fits the tone of the book overall rather well. I caught him seeming to forget what voice he used for a particular character a few times, but they were mostly minors, and I could forgive a slip-up or two. I also got a kick out of him doing his "Radio Voice" for the cyborgs. It sounds like he's cupping his fist in front of his mouth and holding his jaw sideways like you did when you were a kid. The only thing missing is the "kshhhk" sounds.

Like I said earlier, My experience of the book was positive, dispite the flaws and schlocky feel. That was mostly because I loved the joy and enthusiasm that went into the world-building, and found myself wanting to spend more and more time in this universe. I can only really hope he learns in later entries to the series that he can't get away with leaving the climax out of a major arc and then just telling us it happened somewhere off-screen.