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In Fury Born | Rating | |
| B | |||
| David Weber | |||
| Series | Related Books | ||
| N/A | Path of the Fury, In Fury Born | ||
For years, after first reading Path of the Fury, I had hoped to see a sequel on the shelves. There certainly is room for one; the book is, at its heart, an origin story. It tells how Alicia DeVries came to be. So when I first learned of this novel, I was ecstatic.
Alas, this is not a sequel. It's not even a proper prequel. It is an expansion of Path of the Fury. Now it is the full origin story, from Alicia's graduation as a private in the Imperial Marines through her career in the Cadre and beyond. Beyond, because the second half of this eight-hundred-plus page behemoth consists of the full text of Path of the Fury, with a few minor modifications and edits. The new text is limited to Alicia's earlier days, too; there is absolutely nothing added afterwards. The two books end at exactly the same place.
As can be expected, then, In Fury Born has all the plusses of the original, as well as a few extras. Alicia is a very strong character even before her more esoteric abilities get grafted on, and Weber fans will like her immensely. As usual, there is plenty of shooting going on, supported by good tactics and strategy - another hallmark of Weber's books. He also gives a fascinating and largely plausible peek at the capabilities of the infantry of the future, once technology gets good enough. And, of course, the culmination of it all, when Alicia finds her own personal allies in a hunt for pirates who are ravaging whole planets, is a great story in its own right.
But it also contains all the flaws of the original, as well - and, again, a few more besides. Alicia is of course overpowered, once she meets those allies - a spirit out of Greek myth that grants her some mental abilities such as reading minds and projecting false images into them, and an AI housed in a top-of-the-line warship with a crew of one. This discrepancy between her abilities and resources and that of every other character worked in Path of the Fury (if barely) because most of them are because of her intangible helpers. But in this new version we learn she was at the high end of the point curve even before then. Second in her class overall at boot camp, graduating high school four years early, getting a five-year college degree in less than four... the woman's inhumanly good at anything she does. True, Alicia does have to be damn good if she's to gain entry to the Cadre - they only recruit the very best, after all - but there's a difference between "the very best" and "superwoman," and Alicia is definitely the latter.
Weber also trots out one of his favorite themes, that of the ambitious politician whose contempt for anything having to do with the military - including their informed advice regarding a politically volitile situation - creates a mess. It is rare, in one of his books, for those overseeing the military to ever fully think out consequences and contingencies, and it always falls on the noble fighting men and women to clean it all up. Which they do with skill and speed, perfectly demonstrating who was right all along. This wouldn't be such a problem if it wasn't so very eggregious. These situations do exist - just look at current events for an example - but Weber's politicos are so inept and so contemptuous of the military. And so common; there's an element of this in almost every one of his novels. But this is the most blatant display of it since, possibly, his own The Honor of the Queen.
These are all problems, to be sure, and large ones. But they are flaws in an otherwise excellent book. Alicia's driving personality and the missions she finds herself embroiled in are no less than captivating. I can hardly be upset that what was only hinted at in Path of the Fury is fully fleshed out here.
If that earlier version was an origin story, then In Fury Born, as its title suggests, is even more of one. It tells the complete story. There is no need to get the original, either, as this novel includes the entire thing as its second half; no doubt this is why Path of the Fury isn't listed in Weber's bibliography at the front of the book. Baen didn't want people upset that they'd felt the need to buy a precursor that would ultimately prove to be redundant.
So readers have a choice. They can search out the original, or they can buy this, the director's cut. And although I think it a more flawed work, I recommend the more recent version. It is longer, more complete, more well rounded. And it's a lot easier to find on the store shelves, for that matter.
And there is one thing that heartens me immensely about this expansion. With the author's attention brought back to one of his first novels in order to rewrite it more fully, perhaps this means that the sequel I've been yearning for for so long is finally a viable prospect.
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