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An Oblique Approach | Rating | |
| A | |||
| Eric Flint and David Drake | |||
| Series | Related Books | ||
| The Belisarius Saga | An Oblique Approach, In the Heart of Darkness, Destiny's Shield, Fortune's Stroke, The Tide of Victory, The Dance of Time | ||
In broad terms, this series is much like The General, another series cowritten by David Drake. A great general - Belisarius - is given a big help over his enemies by a being with a lot of advanced knowledge and enhanced senses. If the general manages to overcome his enemies, humanity will progress towards ever greater thngs. If he fails, the planet will fall into tyranny and stagnate. The comparison is especially apt in the first two hundred pages or so, which is more-or-less a straight telling of a battle. Belisarius' tactics, character, and setting are all remarkably like that of Raj Whitehall, the star of The General series.
Of course, this is somewhat understandable, as Drake has admitted that Raj was based on the real Belisarius.
But the books stop being so interchangable after those two hundred pages. Belisarius, unlike Raj, decides to mount a small expedition to the enemy he knows will press his home in a few short years. Thanks to Aide, the crystal that gives him visions of the future, he knows that India's Malwa empire is spreading its atrocities across the subcontinent. He goes there to see the empire that he will eventually have to fight, and to organize a resistance in that country.
The greater portion of the book is taken up by the voyage there. But it is not boring. Nor does it read as hackneyed, even when pirates attack his ship. The battles read as real, and the tactics are quite understanable even to a nonmilitary man like myself. Even the strategy, when it is divulged, makes sense, and it is certainly twisty enough to convince a reader that Belisarius is either a great planner or a damn lucky devil.
The one problem I found with the novel was that in one spot the narration gave away an awful lot in regards to future plot and how the war goes. It states outright something to the effect of, "Years later, when the war was won..." and mentioned a few characters, detailing which among them would live and which would fall. It changes the tone of the series from, "Will they succeed?" to "How do they succeed?" and is rather irritating for it.
Still, this is excellent military fiction, even though there are really not all that many battles in the book. But it is still very worth reading. I was rarely bored.
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