Just Finished Reading: The Outposter by Gordon R Dickson (FP: 1972)

After half of his life away Mark Ten Roos is finally going home. But he is not leaving an overcrowded Earth as one of the compulsory colonists. No, he is returning as an Outposter, one of the few men and women dedicated to protecting the far flung colonies from random attacks by the alien Meda V’Dan – the same aliens that killed his parents over a decade earlier. But Mark is not driven by the altruistic defence of reluctant colonists. Mark is driven by a much stronger if a less pure emotion – revenge. Mark has studied hard and has planned his campaign meticulously anticipating every move by the aliens he hates and the Earth government whose weakness he despises. He has even gone so far as to anticipate his own death and make it part of his larger plan. Only one element eludes him and only one factor is beyond his control – Ulla Showell, the Admiral’s headstrong and prideful daughter.

As a fan of the author’s Dorsai books I thought I might be in for a treat with this slim volume. I was indeed. Whilst not exactly great literature or even great SF it was certainly entertaining enough and much better (and much more mature) than my previous venture into older SF. Although the overall plot was rather bare bones and simplistic the story was told with style, intelligence and a fair knowledge of history, culture and human psychology. Full of relatable characters with fleshed out back stories who usually communicated in believable dialogue it more than once surprised me with its cleverness. Written by someone who had clearly not simply thrown a bare-bones story together in order to make a quick buck I found it an engaging page turner with a pretty satisfactory ending. Overall a pretty good example of 70’s combat SF with a political and cultural twist. (R)