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Trooper - Crucible
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11th
December 04 |
Rogue Trooper -
Crucible
Gordon
Rennie
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this book from Amazon.co.uk
What to Expect:
Rogue hunting down the Traitor General in Nordstadt, encountering some familiar
characters from Rogue’s past and some new ones.
Review by Richmond
Clements
When I finished
reading this one, I was left with a strong feeling, which I shall share with you
here. Now, I may be wrong, as I was about Bishop in the last review, but what
the hell, here goes.
The feeling I get
reading this is that it’s not the book the Rennie really wanted to write,
and I’ll tell you why I think that.
Firstly, there’s
Rogue himself, and his bio-chip companions. As characters go, they are pretty
two- dimensional, even for drawings. Which is maybe the reason that Rogue appears
relatively rarely in this novel. Indeed, we don’t meet him until page 60
or so and then he crops up every now and then throughout the book, as his hunt
for the Traitor General from time to time crosses the path of the main narrative.
This might sound like a criticism, but it’s not. Rogue is a weak character,
and his lack of depth is all too obvious when Rennie gives his best shot at some
internalising. Fairness also requires me to point out that one of the standout
action sequences (of which there are many) is an encounter between Rogue and a
couple of Nort tanks. The scene is brilliantly written and paced, showing us Rogue
doing what he does best.
For me, in Rennie’s
previous novel Dredd Vs Death, some of the best bits where when he was extrapolating
on what we see on the page, creating an expanded universe. Here we have some stuff
like that, as he speculates on what extra organs Rogue might have to process the
toxins in Nu-Earths atmosphere, or how well he can see and hear. You know, that
fan-boy stuff we love so much.
But the best bits
by far are those between these sections, that Rogue isn’t in. Rennie has
put together a cast of many varied characters: A Souther pilot who is worried
for his son serving elsewhere in the theatre, another pilot who is Rogue’s
‘man on the inside’, an infantry soldier and her view from the ground,
an ace sniper who’s hunting the GI and various other Nort and Souther soldiers
and spies. Rennie
periodically zooms in on one of these characters to let us know where they are
and what they are doing as each of their stories winds its way closer to the others
and the climax of the tale.
And this, I think,
is the novel it feels like Rennie wanted to write. Not a story about Rogue Trooper
and his quest for the Traitor, but a story about the common soldiery and their
life on Nu-Earth.
In the end, Rennie
pulls his various story threads together with the skill we expect from him, and
uses the old Hitchcockian conceit of showing the peril to audience, but not the
protagonists, to effectively ratchet up the tension for the finale. Now, we all
know how the Rogue traitor story thread is going to end, but that doesn’t
matter. Rennie has given enough attention to the rest of the cast so that we’ll
care about their fate at the end, and he leaves enough open at the end to make
me hope for another book.
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