DiLouie (Paranoia
) flavors Kipling’s “The Man Who Would Be King” with a dash of Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War
to create this rollicking military SF farce. Lawrence Dobbs and Timothy Muldoon are long-service NCOs in the Colonial Marines—very long service, over 800 years. They’re the kind of men who can conquer a planet all by themselves, but times have changed, and it’s just not the same Federation they signed up for. When they hear of a world where the natives have discovered the secret alchemical formula for gold, they gather up a team and make plans to rob the place blind. DiLouie spices up Dobbs and Muldoon’s adventures with loony ideas, from a computer virus that plays dice games with fate to a doomsday machine containing the maniacal consciousness of the last emperor of planet Xerxes. Fans of humorous science fiction will find plenty to enjoy in this time-traveling, galaxy-crossing romp. (May)
