The IX is, basically, an entertaining military sci-fi novel,
with some time travel elements. An alien race, it’s civilisation collapsing
under the weight of screaming monsters known as ‘The Horde’ hits upon a
desperate plan for survival, and begins transporting “suitable candidates” from
Earth to fight the horde and preserve what’s left of their legacy. As a
premise, it has its roots in the classic military sci-fi of the seventies and
eighties, with shades of works like Pournelle’s Janissaries or King David’s
Spaceship. It may not quite hit the high bar set by its antecedents, but it’s
still an entertaining read.
From a plot point of view, the focus is on the
cross-temporal group of humanity brought to a new world. They’re a mish-mash of
soldiers, warriors and their antagonists, from across human history, and into
the future – from Roman legionnaires through to Eco-terrorists and the team
sent to apprehend them. This mix of cultural viewpoints and mutual antagonisms
has some promise, but doesn’t deliver as far as it might. Faced with the
ravening alien Horde, the group largely bands together for mutual protection,
and the simmering tensions are mentioned near the start of the book, and
quickly forgotten. This actually works, in service to the circumstances drawn
by the plot, it was just a shame to see such a great source of conflict brought
up briefly, and then ignored. That said, there’s a whole host of other
conflicts waiting in the wings, as the narrative gets rolling – which I won’t
spoil here, but do provide several surprises.
There’s a fairly vast cast of characters as well, and they’re
functionally done, though again, somewhat in service to the plot. We do get
some glimpses of depth, especially from the leader of the Legionnaire’s, and
from the leader of the anti-terrorist team, so the reader isn’t totally left
with ciphers – however, it would have been nice to see a little more of other
characters. We do get a view on another pair, as they attempt to go on a
vision-quest across time and space to gain understanding of their circumstances.
This, again, sounds odd, but it’s written well enough that it actually works –
the mystical bent doesn’t quite gel with the rest of the text, but the
descriptions are done well, they push the plot forward, and we learn more about
these two characters through their shared vision experience than many of the
others, It’s a bit different in tone to the rest of the text, but certainly
serves a purpose, and is an interesting read.
The main focus of the text, though, is in the battle with a
relentless enemy. With securing the redoubt in which the humans find
themselves. In exploring the world of the aliens that summoned them there, and
discovering what horrors befell that civilisation, why it happened, and what
they need to do to survive. There’s a lot of warfare here, using equipment from
a variety of periods, and a lot of tech-talk as characters return various
pieces of technology to use. And it’s all very well written, and seems to be
accurately drawn as well; the battle scenes are epic, compelling, and had me
turning pages to find out what happened next. The exploration, the sense of camaraderie
amidst tension, was also very well evoked, and left me wanting to read more.
The description of the world is excellent – clean, descriptive prose, giving
imagery that dazzles and terrifies in equal measure.
With all that in mind – The IX is a good military sci-fi
novel. It has a lot of potential, and it lives up to most of it. There’s some
minor flaws, but they in no way spoiled my interest or level of entertainment.
If you’re going in looking for a book in this specific genre, then this is
going to serve up a good portion of what you’re looking for – excitement,
gunfire, tactics, heroism, villainy, mystery, wonder; it’s all here. If that
sounds like what you’re looking for, this is worth the read.
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