Book Review: Their Master's War

Book Review: 'Their Master's War' by Mick Farren

4 / 5 Stars

'The Master's War' (295 pp) was published by Del Rey / Ballantine in January 1988. The cover art is by David Schleinkofer.

'Master's' is a loose sequel to Farren's 1985 novel 'Protectorate', which I reviewed here.

For a young man named Hark, a member of the Ashak-ai tribe, life on his un-named planet means nothing more than eating, drinking, fighting, procreating, and dying of old age. Nothing has altered this primitive lifestyle for centuries.

But now, something is going badly wrong. The skies are filled with electrical storms that blow vast clouds of dirt and dust over the drought-stricken landscape. The herbivores upon which the Ashak-ai depend for sustenance have vanished, and parties of hunters from rival tribes are trespassing on the hunting grounds in a desperate search for food. 

The Ashak-ai shaman begins to murmur about the fulfillment of a prophecy: the time is coming for the Gods to once again appear in the land. And in the Valley of the Gods, representatives of the young men and young women of all the tribes will gather, and await whatever fate the Gods have planned for them.

What Hark soon will learn is that he and all of the other tribesmen and tribeswomen seeking the favor of the Gods are nothing more than cannon fodder reared by the omnipotent aliens known as the Therem. Along with an entire ecology of other humans and aliens conscripted from seed planets all over the galaxy, Hark will fight in the war for the Therem against their hereditary enemy, the Yal.

But as one bloody campaign after another unfolds with no sign of victory, Hark and his fellow humans will begin to question why they must die for their masters' aims and ambitions............

'Their Master's War' is an entertaining military sf novel. While it inevitably evokes the same war-is-hell flavor of Haldeman's The Forever War (and what 80s military sci-fi novel wouldn't), it has its own distinctly cynical viewpoint regarding the actions of its hapless human draftees. 

The reason I didn't award it a five-star rating is because the narrative takes its time in establishing its lead characters and settings. As a result, once the forecasted rebellion finally takes place, it has only a few short chapters with which to be accommodated, giving the ending of the novel something of a rushed quality.

Summing up, if you like military sf, or just a good space opera, 'Their Master's War' is a good example of how the subject was dealt with in a shorter-length novel. Copies in good condition can be had for under $10 from your usual online retailers, so it's worth searching out.