If there's one thing science fiction does really well, it's war. From Starship Troopers to Battlestar Galactica the genre has always loved stories about duty, honour, bravery and, it goes without saying, blowing lots of things up.
Alien Legion, originally published in the 80s, is no exception. It deals with Force Nomad, the penal division of the Tophan Galactic Union's armed forces. The members of Force Nomad are enough to give Lee Marvin himself pause for thought, a motley bunch that includes an idealistic human forced into Legion service to get his inheritance, a former pro-wrestler, a sociopath, an ex-general and a petty thief amongst others. Throw in the fact that the pro-wrestler looks like an armadillo, the ex-general is a cross between a dog and a kangaroo and the petty thief is an unusually shifty looking lizard and you can start to see where the series is coming from.
It'd be very easy to do the Dirty Dozen In Space with Alien Legion but Zelenetz refuses to take the easy way out. Instead, each story plays out on three separate levels with the events themselves, the character's reactions to them and the reasons for those reactions being explored. Nothing happens without a reason in Alien Legion, a fact best demonstrated by 'The Killing Zone'. When Montroc is injured and left for dead, his struggle to survive takes in his father's demands for him to join the Legion, the reason why he was left to die and in turn the reason why another Legionnaire risks prison time to rescue him. Dark, fast paced and thoughtful, it's the best story in the book.
Intelligent and at times extremely dark, Footsloggers is an unusually good sci-fi war story. The characters are sympathetic, the background is interesting and complex and the whole thing rattles along at top speed. Fast, pulpy, smart and above all else great fun, Footsloggers is well worth your time. So what are you waiting for Legionnaire? That book won't read itself!
