Legion of the Damned

By: William C. Dietz

Narrated by: Donald Corren

Length: 13 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's Summary

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.

One of Sci-Fi's Best

This book is the first of a Hall of Fame style series. William C. Dietz gives a text book lesson, in Legion of the Damned, on how to start off a sci-fi series that will define a career. Legion of the Damned not only successfully makes you buy into the main character and want more when the book concludes, but it also provides the depth of scope and color necessary to make the series outlast its main characters. It makes the story become about the world the author has created and the main characters your means of traversing that world and seeing the beauty of the imagination that is the author. His description of his characters and the world in which they live make you feel as if you are present, and his depictions of battle show a defined clarity in the process of laying out not only the combatants but also the desired direction of your interest. This diligent action allows the reader to buy into the story and thus creates a vested desire to see it to its conclusion. This is a book and a series that no serious sci-fi fan should be without.

The narration of this book by Donald Corren is superb. His characterization of the differant characters with his voice is done with a master's skill. This is not a simple narration, but as close to a reader's theater as you will find with a single narrator. His dedication to correctly dramatizing Dietz's work is truly admirable. It truly is the way this work should be presented. Donald Corren is to be commended for his accomplishment.

12 of 12 people found this review helpful

Worth the price of admission

Reminded me of the Robert A. Heinlein books I loved as a kid. A blend of techno-nerd science fiction and a good ole fashion inner-species love story. I was happy to see the series has many more volumes.Narration was comfortable and a good fit. I have just downloaded the next two books in the series and I am looking forward with optimism and anticipation to the continuation of a very satisfying book.

12 of 12 people found this review helpful

Who says that being stubborn is a bad thing!

Yep, if I wasn't stubborn, I probably wouldn't have gotten past the first hour of this audiobook. It starts out grudgingly slow, and extroadinary detailed. All of the details seemingly don't mean anything to you, and you realize that you are losing interest, before you can even decide if you like the story or not.

However, my head-strong mentality mixed with my natural stubborness told me to push ahead, keep on trucking, and see if this story is really a wonderful train wreck, or simply a train wreck gone bad.

I was presently suprised around hour 2 when the tide started to turn in the author's direction: the details started to come together, the characters started to make sense, and the story truly started to materialize into something with a ton of potential!

If I only knew what was in store for me at the time. If I had listened to the negative reviews, if I had succumbed to the boring and drawn out introduction, I too would have given up on this gem. It's one of those books you either love or hate. I hated it in the beginning, loved it by end. Well, that's not completely accurate, I loved it way before the end, I just didn't know it yet.

The author weaves a fantastic story that is inherently chaotic with a horde of characters (I stopped counting after 30), constantly switching storylines and scenes (usually across impossible distances), and all the while providing a fountain of information that, as a normally attentive listener, I found myself constantly losing track of some of the litte details that can define a character.

I couldn't imagine reading the print version of this book without driving off a cliff in the process. The style that the book is written in is difficult, but ultimately quite satisfying.

Yes, there is a ton of action and battle scenes of all types. Yes there are cheesy romances, even between cyborgs, but hey, it is science fiction, what do you really expect!

Be patient, listen closely, and feed your stubborness, and you too will appreciate this complicated sci-fi work of art.

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

Enjoyable Read

I quite enjoyed this book and am partway through Book 2 in the series right now. Yes there are some sci-fi tropes in the book, but they don't get in the way of a pretty darn good story. The geopolitical situation outlined in the book is complex enough to keep things moving along with many different angles to consider. There were also plenty of very interesting concepts (paranoid aliens? love 'em) that pop up throughout the book and I, like some other reviewers, enjoyed the backstory of the French Foreign Legion as well. While it is not Great Literature, if you are looking for an enjoyable military sci-fi book I don't think you can go wrong.

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

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.

8 of 9 people found this review helpful

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.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Once of the good Sci Fi books

This is a good Sci Fi book. I originally read it when it was first released to paperback. While others have criticized the writer for too little character development it is hard to devote pages and pages to character development when the character will be killed off. I do with they would have used the narrator from the Lost Fleet series though.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

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.

10 of 12 people found this review helpful

Soft Porn Sci Fi

What disappointed you about Legion of the Damned?

After a hour or two I've given up. One soft porn chapter after another. I am very disappointed based on the reviews.. Not my style...

What was most disappointing about William C. Dietz’s story?

Sex, nudity, sexual torture, cyborg sex, clone sex, multipartner sex - and that just the start. No thanks.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointed.

11 of 14 people found this review helpful

Good military sci fi

If you like an updated and harder version of Robert Heinlein's military work mixed with a bit of space opera, then look no further. A bit derivative in parts, but generally well written. The rest of the series are in a similar vein and are consistent with the story line. Traditional sci fi with a few interesting alien species and "good guys" with flaws. A good read.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful