Diana Palmer, The Morcai Battalion

The Morcai Battalion

Diana Palmer

Luna, Dec 2007, $24.95

ISBN: 9780373802890

Attempts for peace throughout the galaxy appear impossible and a deadly intergalactic war seems imminent. Most understand that billions will die and whole planets destroyed if the fragile treaty collapses. Yet the Rojok dictator Mangus Lo pushes hostilities with his brutal assaults on planets; his objective to be the lone ruler of the galaxy. In minutes he turned the trial peace planet Terramer with a colony from one hundred twenty federation planets into dust killing ten million.

After failing to prevent the latest Rojok war crime, on board the SSC Bellatrix, horrified Tri-Fleet Strategic Space Command officers Lieutenant Commander Madeline Ruszel, Dr. Strick Hahnson and Captain Holt Stern along with their crew are forced to flee their damaged spaceship. They manage to gain passage on the Holoconcom vessel Morcai, but the divergent groups clash. When a betrayal leaves members of both sides imprisoned and tortured by the Rojok, Holt knows he must unite the two sides if they are to escape to fight another day against an amoral enemy who wantonly kills innocent people in order to terrorize his foes.

THE MORCAI BATTALION is a rewriting modernization (seems odd to state modernizing a futuristic tale) of a 1980s Diana Palmer science fiction thriller. The story line is action-packed with the galaxy containing numerous populated planets at war. Readers will root for the good guys especially Holt, but though limited in appearance, Rojok steals the show with his mental forceless Darth Vader like contempt for everyone else. Not for fans of Ms. Palmer's western romances, fans of stark outer space military science fiction will appreciate this sobering at war thriller.

Harriet Klausner