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While traveling to Hedon for a much needed furlough of R&R, the UNIT is stranded on Elaine of Avalon when their fighter encounters mechanical problems. While making repairs, one in their company, the former Admiral Varn Tarl Sogan, War Prince of the Arcturian Empire, is none too welcome. Conspiracy is afoot to bring harm to Capt. Sogan and his comrades. Yet the greatest danger on Elaine of Avalon may not be its human inhabitants, but the monstrous creatures of its seas: the Barracands, two to three meter eating machines; and the over one-hundred foot Leviathan with teeth the size of sabers. From every quarter the STAR COMMANDOS must defend one another from a hostile populace and a deadly environment if they are to escape back into the safety of space.
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“An exciting account of future heroism among the stars and victory from defeat, written to keep one reading impatient at any interruption. The Star Commando adventures are excellently handled action tales outstanding of their kind and this is one of the best. Time spent reading it was like a grand vacation for me.”
Andre Norton |
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Reviews: Star Comandos - Pariah by Jacqueline Lichtenberg.
P. M. Griffin gives us the 11th installment in her long running Star Commandos series that I’ve raved about for years. In Star Commandos: Pariah, we focus on the aftermath of the war fought in the first 10 volumes. An Admiral and Arcturian War Prince has joined the commando unit responsible for many defeats of his side during the war. He is telepathically bonded to the woman who commands the unit. But among her people, he is regarded with open hatred. Genetics is an issue, but so is culture and values.
This installment is the story of this Arcturian War Prince, Varn Tarl Sogan, brought to second in command under the woman he loves, going among her people – who hate his kind, and him in particular for his victories in the war.
This novel examines hatred, helplessness, love and peace from so many angles I can’t count them. There is the question, “What do the great warriors do when the war is over?” What if you’ve read the omens wrong? When you willingly give your life to the greater forces, what if they don’t let you die? 12th and Final volume coming in 2004!
Reviewes: RevDorothyL "DorothyL" (Nashville, TN USA) Posted on Amazon.com
The 11th and penultimate book in the STAR COMMANDOS series by P.M. Griffin, STAR COMMANDOS: PARIAH in a sense continues the work of WATCHDOGS OF SPACE (#10 in the series) by focusing in on one particular social problem that had been pushed to the back burner too many times by our heroes: virulent hatred and mindless violence or constant persecution against Commando-Captain Varnt Sogan because he 'looks like' one of the Federation's former Arcturian invaders.
(He actually IS one of the former Arcturian invaders, of course, but since we all know that he acted honorably and mercifully during the war and saved a Federation world at the expense of everything he held most dear, plus saving a number of other Federation worlds since joining the Commandos, it's no fun to watch him get kicked in the teeth, metaphorically speaking, by the people who owe him so much.)
This time around (unlike in, say, #3 MISSION UNDERGROUND) there was no 'mission' to take precedence over caring for our Commandos' own (no "planet-buster bomb" to be defused, etc.), but only friendships to be acknowledged, trusted, and finally purposefully nurtured, as a bulwark against the hatred of a few cowards. And, of course, new avenues to be explored for using their unique gifts and learning to truly enjoy the life and peace Islaen, Varn, Jake, Bethe (and Bandit) have worked so hard to protect.
The ending was clearly setting up some major resolutions and changes (no more "Bonanza Syndrome"-like stasis in regard to key relationships or "three-steps-forward-and-two-steps-back" or "dysfunctional universe's business as usual" for our heroes), and I was so eager to continue the story that it was hard to MAKE myself turn out the light and get a few hours sleep when I'd finished this book, rather than staying up the rest of the night reading the final volume, STAR COMMANDOS 12: WAR PRINCE.
If you've read P.M. Griffin's other novels set in this series or in the various fictional worlds of Andre Norton, you won't want to miss PARIAH. And if you've never read Griffin's works before, but grew up on Andre Norton, found a happy refuge in Anne McCaffrey, and have a great delight in the worlds of Lois McMaster Bujold and others, you should probably try the STAR COMMANDOS series -- some high quality escapism about midway between Norton and Bujold in style and sensibility.
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Archebooks Publishing