March Upcountry (March Upcountry (Paperback))

by John Ringo and David Weber

Book Overview

March Upcountry This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743435389
• Release Date: May 2002
• Publisher: Baen
• Length: 608 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.8" x 1.0" x 4.2"

Customer Reviews

Spoiled brat meets reality

Prince Roger McClintock is a embarrassment. Everyone in his regal family is either too busy to deal with him, or has a bigoted reaction to his close resemblance to his disloyal father. Not even his mother, the Empress Regnant, can break through her instinctive emotional response to engage her son as a human being, treating him as a potential traitor and security risk before she treats him as her child. Instead, she shuffles her responsibilities in regard to Roger off onto flunkies and servants. Predictably enough, Roger grows up spoiled, self-indulgent, and reckless. Factions at Court try to manipulate the young prince, with varied success, further fueling suspicions as to his loyalty and stability. Fortunately for the Empire, while the Empress has a dangerous blind spot bordering on gross dereliction of her Imperial Duty when it comes to her youngest child, she has the sense to employ top-flight servants and flunkies, and to keep her military bodyguards free of court politics. This fact will become critically important not only to herself and her son, but her empire as a whole.Roger is sent packing, over his immature objections, on a state visit to participate in a boring and unpleasant, but politically necessary ceremony on an unpleasant and distant world. Along with him are bundled his immediate staff, and a contingent of his long-suffering and generally contemptuous bodyguard. Along the way, the military transport in which the prince is traveling is sabotaged and critically damaged by a pre-programmed 'zombie' traitor, and the ship is left limping towards the only star system within reach. Things go from bad to worse as they stumble upon a force of hostile warships sneaking about in Imperial territory and clearly up to no good. Convinced that the only habitable planet, Marduk, has been compromised, and determined to prevent the capture of a member of the Family Royal by the fanatical and generally unprincipled foe, Prince Roger is bundled off in a shuttle force with as many of his bodyguard as will fit, again over his immature objections. Meanwhile, as the shuttle force makes its way to a covert planet-fall, the crippled transport makes a stand against the opposing force, managing to destroy the last of them by a suicidal ruse.Landing on the far side of a large planet from the only human base, facing a hostile terrain and climate, Prince Roger's force must figure a way to march clear around the globe and assault the enemy troops holding that base, with only a long company of 'lightly' equipped Marine-bodyguards. Further worsening matters is the facts that they must make their way on foot, and they have roughly six months in which to make this epic journey, because the flora and fauna of Marduk are markedly lacking in certain critical human dietary requirements, and there are only enough nutritional supplements to last the assembled force half a year. It's "Get to the base, or starve trying."Soon after the March Upcountry begins, the prince be

Bring on the Marines!

His Royal Highness, Prince Roger Ramius Sergei Alexander Chiang MacClintock was a royal pain in the ... well, he was a pain. His older brother, Prince John, was Heir Apparent and already a galaxy renowned diplomat. His sister, Princess Alexandra, would be one of the best Fleet admirals even if she did not have her family connections. But Prince Roger showed no interest in anything except hunting big game and dressing well. Alexandra VII, Empress of Man, was determined to keep her youngest son out of direct danger. Therefore, she sent Roger to a remote planet named Leviathan as a show of imperial support. The Bronze Battalion was to transport and guard the prince during it all. While en route, the military ship was sabotaged and then was under enemy attack. Very few survived and were stranded on the planet Marduk. The Marines would have to trek half way around the globe in hope of commandeering an imperial ship for a return to Earth. However, the natives were NOT friendly! Even the local fauna would try to eat anything that moved! The heat and almost constant rain made things worse. Prince Roger would just have to get over himself and grow up FAST! ***** First off, ignore the awful cover art, I don't believe it is the fault of the authors. No, the female Marine is NOT ballet dancing. No, Prince Roger does NOT look that way. In fact, the prince has very long, blond hair that any woman would envy. One Marine referred to it as "the hair of Lady Godiva." Other than the cover art, the book is beyond excellent! The story is VERY well written, realistic, has a touch of humor, and the Marines can really kick BUTT! The prince matures steadily and even becomes an asset to the team! He also has the most awesome assassin program in his "toot". All-in-all, this is highly recommended reading! *****

More than the sum of its authors.

I checked out this book solely based upon name recognition, Weber's name specifically. In retrospect, I would consider my choice a good one. The basic concepts that I looked forward from Weber, e.g. character development, integrity, honor, courage, ethics, determination, and emotion, were present in the protagonists. The military maxims used in this book are the same as the ones used in Weber and Ringo's books. This book, and consequently the future series, combines the strengths of both authors to create a work that none alone could have achieved.This book can be categorized as an "adventure with sci-fi themes". Which means that the heroes will be enmeshed in local politics with no way to get home and have to use the "Peace through superior firepower maxim" through powered armor and energy weapons vs black powder firearms. The main character, Prince Roger, is a rather complex singularity in himself. This dude, is Heir Tertiary to the Empire of Man, which I can only guess at is one of a few galactic empires. The politics resemble The People's Republic of Haven, e.g. backstabbing, power plays, uprisings, chaotic controls, etc. Roger however is not cut out of the same cloth as the Empress. He is more accurately compared to those liberal aristocrats that get in the way of the military, the same military that is protecting everyone in the Empire. He acts like a spoiled child who wants attention. Out of this rough diamond stone, is a potential for greatness. Whether he survives the process remains to be seen.The first part of the story highlights Weber's distinct touch. It classifies the rules of space combat in that particular universe. Something happens on Roger's assault transport and they have to fight off some enemies. The engagement is very reminiscent of skirmishes in Honor Harrington. This is opposite that of John Ringo's works. He only obliquely describes military naval engagements in his "6 billion Humans vs 6 trillion X 10 to the power 5 aliens" universe. Ringo's strength is that he has lived the life of an infrantry grunt. Therefore his writing reflects his ground pounder history. He has a flare for writing about power armor and plasma weapons. His theme is high quality, low quantity, superior mind vs low quality, high quantity, inferior mind. Which is similar to Weber's numerically superior Peeps vs the technologically superior Manticorans. The ideologies of the two writers fit together to create a series which features the Marine side and the Navy side. Once they get off the planet in Book 3, the politics of Weber starts.

Not deep thought, just a good read

If you're looking for deep thoughts on the future of warfare or somesuch, go elsewhere. If you want a space opera that keeps going, this is the place. The prince is shown to be a royal pain in the butt, but then, that's what royalty tends towards, until someone takes a shot at them. The Marines are shown as true to life. Someone made a comment about the constant swearing by the Marines. Well I'm here to tell you, in a combat situation, proper language and etiquette are the first things out the window. And these Marines seem real to me.The problems shown with procurement of weapons is realistic. One only has to look back at the problems of the M-16 rifles during the Viet Nam war to see that every problem is not ironed out before a weapon system goes to the troops.As far as the romance, or lack thereof, hey, it's a combat novel. If you want romance, go to the bodice ripper aisle.I like the characters. I am starting to like Prince Roger more and more, as I suspect the authors planned. The rest of the cast is shown to be human, even the aliens. They are us, and we are all in the fight.Buy this one, I don't think you'll regret it.

Weber and Ringo ring changes on Xenophon

The Greek Xenophon wrote about a mercenary company forced to march back through a hostile Persia. His book, Anabasis, is often translated March Upcountry. This re-telling of the story takes the spoiled brat youngest son of the Empress of Man, a small company of his bodyguards, and drops them unexpectedly on a very hostile planet with limited supplies and a very long way to walk. David Weber, author of the Honor Harrington series, and John Ringo, new SF luminary whose books _A Hymn Before Battle_ and _Gust Front_ have given new meaning to inviting your enemies for dinner, have written a great space opera about visiting exotic places, meeting strange people, and mostly killing them. Along the way, Prince Roger does some growing up, and begins to learn the responsibilities that go along with his privileges. Once again, Weber and Ringo have written a "one sitting" book...allow enough time to finish the book once you start, because you won't want to put it down.