Review: More Marine Propganda than Solid Story
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 01 16, 2013
I picked 'The Empire's Corps' on the basis of the mostly 4 and 5 star reviews, and I have to say upfront, what were they on about?This is a ponderous story that takes ages to launch and fails to capitalise on many fronts. And even if I were able to forgive the many, many, many grammar and spelling errors, the consistent and constant "Marine's are Good" propaganda just ate away at any credibility it might have had for me. Plus, most chapters started with an excerpt from a supposedly banned book by an academic subsequently banished for his 'attack on the Empire' and I could never reconcile his apparent in-depth analysis of topics that his character seemed to have no knowledge of when interacting with others. Besides which, in an Empire as corrupt and rotten as this one is portrayed as, it is highly unlikely that any single author would be punished quite so comprehensively...seriously, with a population of 40 billion on Earth, nobody would take any notice! And the dynamics of the settlement worlds - let alone the econonmics - make no sense whatsoever, and therefore seemed more plot device than natural consequence of history. (Actually, that may have been 70 billion on Earth...there were two figures given and I was not sure which was correct.)All of which really was a pity, because the premise was quite interesting, and I grew to like the quiet competence in the core characters.So, if you like to read Marine propganda then 'The Empire's Corps' is for you. But if you like to buy proof read novels intelligently hung together, then I suggest you buy something else.