Book Review: The Dragon's Nine Sons by Chris Roberson

Reader #82 wrote:THE DRAGON'S NINE SONS by Chris Roberson is set in the same "Celestial Empire" alternate history universe as many of Roberson's other stories (including the Sidewise Award winner, "O One"). This universe supposes that the Chinese did not curtail their exploration in the 15th century, but went on to reach and colonize North America, and eventually expand to control almost the entire world. This story is set after Mexica has successfully broken away from the Han Empire, and during a space race/war between the two. It is sort of a "Dirty Dozen" in space (though with nine rather than twelve soldiers)--a band of misfits under death sentences sent on a suicide mission. As the first novel Roberson has written in the series, THE DRAGON'S NINE SONS suffers from some problems that one would not have in short stories. For example, there is (to my mind) far too much fore-shadowing at the ends of chapters (e.g., "That was the intention, at any rate. As with so many things, though, the reality fell far short of the ideal."). I also have a quibble with the method required to start the Mexic engines. (Without saying too much, let me just say that while it sounds plausible in theory, the exigencies of battle might cause problems if a ship is understaffed.) Given this method, however, the "practical joke" one Han character plays is so clearly stupid that one is reminded of Damon Knight's term, "idiot plot". Indeed, there seems to be a fair amount of coincidence and contrivance in the story. The most egregious, is how the characters justify the killing of women and children in a Mexic stronghold in their plan. Perhaps the idea is that the reader should *not* agree with them and should see it as an example of how the military rationalizes all its actions, however immoral they may seem. (On the other hand, one character explicitly condemns an action that directly copies a decision from World War II that most people accept as necessary--and no, it's not the atomic bomb.) And one final minor complaint: the copy editor at Solaris does not seem to know the difference between "flout" and "flaunt". The story itself has more of straight military science fiction and less of the "Celestial Empire" background than Roberson's short stories, and as such is a reasonably enjoyable read, even if not as "pure" an alternate history. Grade: B.