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Read The Bug Wars (1993)

The Bug Wars (1993)

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Genre
Rating
3.48 of 5 Votes: 1
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ISBN
0441073735 (ISBN13: 9780441073733)
Language
English
Publisher
ace

The Bug Wars (1993) - Plot & Excerpts

This book has a really fun concept. A space-faring race of lizard men are embroiled in war with a "coalition" of insect species. Having received their advanced technology from a peaceful race of now extinct highly advanced benefactors, both forces have similar weaponry and technological abilities.The harsh reality of this book is that it really isn't very good. The editing job wasn't up to par. I can't recall reading a published work with so many spelling errors in it before. The entire book is written in first person perspective from a lizard man named Rahm's point of view and follows his progression up the ranks of the Warrior caste of his society(or Empire as they call it). First person perspective is not bad on its own. However, the author spends a great deal of time trying to model the antisocial duel ready bestial nature of the Tzen(lizards) while simultaneously spending the entire book making a hypocrisy of it.Tzen warriors don't talk to one another, they don't socialize, and they certainly don't think. Yet the book is almost entirely dialogue involving feelings between the crews and showcasing a highly developed and etiquette filled language.Unfortunately this is only the beginning of the long list of oddities in the book. The wars aren't really wars and the battles are almost entirely talked through rather than shown. The technologies in the book don't make sense even from a reasonable standpoint. (You can't use hand held melee style weapons from a moving aircraft and ants can't manipulate technology and devise new electronics and devices.) Among the other nonsense occurrences of the book are a nocturnal species of lizards who can't fight in the dark without special sonar helmets and an apparent confusion by the author as to which planets are which and how exactly events occurred in early segments of the book he had written.I can't say this book was good at all. I want to give it two stars because: I like bugs, lizards, space, and science fiction settings.I have to give it one star because: I really can't say it was ok.

What do You think about The Bug Wars (1993)?

"I'm not sure this is the book I would have picked out for you," my husband said when he saw me reading it.The Bug War, written in 1979, is a very strange book. My husband read it when he was eleven years old and I've seen his beat-up paperback on our bookshelves for years. I was looking for something to read last week and wondered if Ender's Game (about the wars with the Buggers) had been partially inspired by Robert L. Asprin's first novel. So I decided to read it. The story is told from the point of view of a cold blooded sentient creature, Rahm, a commander fighting for The Empire. A member of a race called the Tzen, Rahm leads his warriors on three missions in the course of the novel. Their objective is to destroy sentient insects: Wasps, Leapers, Ants, in order to inhabitant their planets as they expand their own colonies. What's interesting about the book is the way Aspirin tries to relate the thought process of a creature who is decidedly not human. When anyone under his command disobeys him, the commander does not hesitate to kill them. He has no connection to his own offspring. And though he strives to understand other castes (the Technicians, the Scientists), he has little natural curiosity or concern for anything outside his narrow scope. The book is a little disjointed. For a story about reptiles in flying machines and interspace domination, surprisingly little actually happens in the plot. There are long periods of waiting for the commander and for the reader. There is also a little too much weapon cataloging and a little too little character development for my taste. Still, I enjoyed the book. And I understand that Asprin went on to write dozens more highly acclaimed science fiction books, which makes me glad to have read one of his first novels.
—Jennifer Margulis

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