Easy to Be a God

Over the course of three centuries, humanity has expanded throughout the Milky Way, survived interplanetary civil war, and now faces first contact with alien civilizations in the lackluster space opera that launches the Fields of Long-Forgotten Battles series from Szmidt (the Rats of Wroclaw series). In a narrative that overly relies on lengthy info dumps, readers are introduced to the ignoble crew of a Recycling Corps ship who discover an alien craft full of butchered humanoids. This plot is left hanging when the story jumps to a top-secret joint operation between the military and a team of scientists studying two opposing alien cultures in the Xan 4 system. The military sends in Henryan Darski on a conditional parole: to gain his freedom, he must prevent a group of humans who’ve styled themselves gods from intervening in the war between Xan 4’s “savage” aliens. Though these extraterrestrials and their rich cultures are marvelously unlike humans’, the exposition is so focused on the weird that it fails to provide any understanding of the basics. Henryan’s motives, meanwhile, become increasingly vague as he’s dragged deeper into the scheming of the god conspirators, military police, and top brass. The potentially thought-provoking exploration of how technologically advanced civilizations might play god with more primitive life-forms is all but lost thanks to the disappointing execution. This is one to skip. (Mar.)