What happens when the Empress of a good bit of the known galaxy treats
her third son like a mushroom (e.g., keeps him in the dark and, well, you
get the idea) from his childhood until he grows to adulthood because he
resembles his treacherous father a little too much? You get Prince Roger
MacClintock, good-looking, bored, possibly disloyal, unskilled (except at
a few things he genuinely likes) because he’s never been trusted to do
anything important.

You get Prince Roger MacClintock, possible tool of the Empress’s enemies.
You get Prince Roger MacClintock, obnoxious, ill-tempered, and petulant,
the burden of the Bronze Battalion of the Empress’ Own Regiment. They’ll
keep him alive, die for him if necessary, but that doesn’t mean they need
to respect hiim–and they don’t.

And then the ship that’s taking Prince Roger and his bodyguard to show
the flag on a remote planet is sabotaged. Prince and bodyguard have no
choice but to land on Marduk, an extremely unpleasant place with only one
starport where they can find a ship back home. And because that starport
has just been taken by the forces of the neighboring star empire, they
have to land in secret halfway around the planet or risk getting blown
out of the sky.

This is a war novel, of the sort for which both David Weber
and John Ringo are already known; it’s also a coming-of-age
novel. Bravo Company is going
to have to do considerable fighting to get the Prince safely home; but
the Prince is going to have to pull his weight and earn the respect of
his troops. Roger’s growth through the novel adds some needed depth to
what would otherwise be a fairly shallow (if exciting) science fiction
adventure.

I feel kind of like Deb English felt last month: I’m not at all sure that
this is a good book, but gosh I had fun reading it.

March Upcountry takes Roger and the gang half the way home;
the story is continued in March to the Sea, which is now out
in hardback (I think). I’ll wait for the paperback, but I’ll definitely
buy it when it comes out.

Oh, and my thanks go to my brother Chuck, who passed this one along
to me.