I just finished reading The Weapon by Michael Z. Williamson – which speaks well of it since I actually set aside time to read it (usually all my reading is done on plane flights, so books can sit half-read for months). The description on the book’s dust cover was a bit misleading as the plot described was really the last few chapters and gives away what could have been a surprise (I wonder who makes dust cover decisions). The novel doesn’t have much of a plot until the third part as its mainly about one man’s military career, told in first person going from the main character, Kenneth Chinran, making a decision to join the military and getting recruited to an elite force to his final military operation to end all military operations. Despite the lack of a main plot for two thirds of the book, the novel drew me in pretty quickly.
I’m not sure exactly how many years in the future the story takes place, but mankind has moved on to many planets. The largest entity is the U.N. and thus most people live under the sort of liberal fascism you’d expect if the U.N. and Democratic Underground took over (there’s actually a small dig at Democratic Underground worked into the book). The main character is from the small nation of Freehold, a sort of libertarian paradise on its own planet. I never completely understood the government of that nation other than that there wasn’t much of one and was set up in such a way that the U.N. could demonize them as being a dictatorship despite how they succeeded the U.N. in every aspect.
While government philosophy comes up, the main focus is definitely military. The training of Chinran to become an Operative (a sort of special forces super-soldier) and reasons for the extreme training are all gone into quite explicitly. It all seemed really well thought out, but the novel got really interesting when Chinran had to do some actual field training. More than just fighting skill, it’s about security and exploiting security as well as psych-ops, I always find that fascinating. A large section has Freehold teaming with the U.N. to help settle Mtali – a sort of Middle East the planet complete with Muslim terrorists – to get real combat experience. The attempts at settling the planet was quite well done, and I think it showed a lot of insight into the mind of terrorists without relying on caricatures. Also, it contrasted an efficient military with a much more bureaucratic and PC one of the U.N. (not that the Freehold military was depicted as perfect like the quite utopian military from Starship Troopers).
The final part of the book was the most exciting and the most unsettling. You’re torn between being impressed by how efficiently some Operatives are able to take down a planet where people are completely dependent on government while being repelled by how much carnage there are of innocent citizens. The main character is essentially committing the largest acts of terrorism in human history, and it raises the question of how much innocent life is it right to kill to defend one’s country (the victims are depicted as deluded, not evil). It ended being quite uncomfortable to read as I wasn’t sure where I fell, and in that way I think the novel was a huge success in making me look at some important issues in a new way.
Complaints: The book was at times too vulgar and explicit for my tastes. I hate metrics when used colloquially. Some people and issues were shown two-dimensionally, but, since everything is from the perspective of the main character, that can be forgiven. There was a bit of sermonizing on some issues. There were also too many commas.
Final Verdict: Four out of Five stars. I was leaning towards a slightly lower rating, but I don’t think a book has caused me to re-look at some core issues as much as the violence in this novel has. If you like military SF, then this is a definite buy.
You can check out the first seven chapters here. Next, I’ll probably be reading Williamson’s first novel, Freehold, which is tangentially related to this novel (the main character of The Weapon appears in Freehold and the main character of Freehold appears in The Weapon). SarahK is reading it right now, though, and seems to quite enjoy it despite it involving some lesbianism (she hates that). All of Freehold is available from Baen in it’s free library here.
If anyone else has read The Weapon, I’d certainly love to hear your opinion in the comments.
UPDATE: Laughing Wolf at Blackfive had some of the same reaction to the book.