The seventh Legion of the Damned novel (after 2004's For Those Who Fell
) continues the unapologetically brutal military SF saga with a pedal-to-the-metal plot jam-packed with intrigue, deep space adventure and futuristic combat. With an interstellar war looming, Marcott Nankool, the president and CEO of the Confederacy of Sentient Beings, and his entourage are captured by the Ramanthians, a ruthless insectoid race bent on nothing short of complete dominion over all other intelligent species. Keeping their identities a secret, the POWs are shipped to a labor camp on a remote jungle planet about to become the hatching ground for billions of newborn (and ravenous) Ramanthians. Against the orders of the ambitious and unethical vice president, Legion Gen. William Booly and Capt. Antonio Santana mount an all but impossible rescue mission. Blending hardcore military fiction with elements of sociological science fiction à la Alan Dean Foster's Commonwealth saga, this adrenaline-fueled Clancyesque adventure is Dietz in top form. (Oct.)
