PRICE OF VENGEANCE

On a besieged planet, a warrior battles to save his adopted colony from an alien conqueror in Springs’ military-SF series starter.

In the far future, the human-colonized planet Etrusci has been hit hard by marauding chitins—giant beetle creatures that are reminiscent of those in the film Starship Troopers (1997). A mysterious force field has hindered air travel for 40 years, so the entire human population has withdrawn to the heavily fortified city of New Olympia. One of its defenders is young Liam, a genetically modified Finnian warrior (part of a “subspecies of humans”) who, as a war orphan, was adopted into one of New Olympia’s ruling families, despite opposition from Councilor Licinious, a ruling council member. Licinious and other traitors sabotage New Olympia’s defenses, leaving the city vulnerable to invasion by alien Gothowan warlord Azurius, an aspiring galactic emperor who breeds and controls the chitin as mindless soldiers. Most of New Olympia’s hierarchy are slain in the onslaught, but Liam survives, though he’s presumed dead. Liam, mentored in martial-mystic techniques by a more benign Gothowan, does one-man counterstrikes. Azurius, impressed, invites Liam to join his villainous crew, noting that Liam’s ferocity and his thirst for retribution are key to bringing the lad to the dark side. Only belatedly does Spring provide backstory that all this takes place somewhere in the 30th century or later, and that Finnians were bred for belligerence, but took their destiny into their own hands to be a force for good; a strongly ethical, matriarchal religion seems to be integral. The plot also trades in espionage/combat via out-of-body travel, and even manipulations of time. Much of the tale, however, boils down to somewhat repetitious fight scenes with occasional timeouts for exposition and cackling by the flamboyantly wicked antagonist, who enjoys quoting Shakespeare. That said, Liam’s chronic guilt over committing acts of violence, even in wartime, is a bit atypical for the genre. Action-minded readers will find nothing taxing about the science-related material, nor will they mind the mysticism on the side. Sequels have already been announced.

A serviceable SF/fantasy tale that touches on the pitfalls of violence and revenge.