Peacekeepers by Ben Bova (1988)

[EricWard]

In the near-future, a massive nuclear conflict has necessitated the formation of an International Peacekeeping Force (The IPF or Peacekeepers). The book is not about them, however, but a group of mercenaries that do the IPF's dirty work.

The story was certainly well-written, but I had a lot of problems with it. It's presented as the "real story" written by the IPF's archivist, but he wasn't present at any of events described. He talks about bugs and such to get the information, but then the characters internalize constantly. How is the narrator supposed to know this? The main characters are quite underdeveloped, with minor characters stealing the attention most often. One character in particular is supposed to be this super-charismatic mountain of a man but there's little about his actions to actually reflect this.

And then there's the plot. Take one of the forgettable James Bond or Tom Clancy movies from the 90s and just copy paste. Muslim terrorist wants to use nukes to overthrow the West. He has poorer governments in his pocket. Nothing too exciting.

All in all, it's a very forgettable story, albeit told well. There are better Ben Bova books out there. Skip this one.

 

[AE35Unit]

Can you recommend a good Bova book to start with?

 

[EricWard]

Can you recommend a good Bova book to start with?

His Grand Tour Series is probably a good bet. I read the first two a while ago, but the internal chronology and the publishing chronology were out of order so it was tough to keep track of. Privateers (1985) is the first one.

 

[Rodders]

Yeah, I enjoyed the grand tour and the moon war books a lot.

 

[AE35Unit]

His Grand Tour Series is probably a good bet. I read the first two a while ago, but the internal chronology and the publishing chronology were out of order so it was tough to keep track of. Privateers (1985) is the first one.

I take it theyre not standalones like Banks' Culture novels?

 

[J-Sun]

I take it theyre not standalones like Banks' Culture novels?

I doubt you're still wanting an answer and certainly there's someone on the board who could answer better than me if you were, but, based on what I've read of and about them, it seems that, while they have overlapping characters and threads and there are definitely more tightly connected subseries in the set (Mars books and maybe the Jupiter books and others), each subseries and all the singletons are pretty independent from each other. So more interconnected than Banks, but less than most series. Kind of like Cherryh's Union/Alliance stuff, actually.