Legionnaire

"This was a decent enough military scfi book, but I don't think I will continue the series. The characters are not as developed as I would have expected by the end of the book."

"Merde! The French Foreign Legion is tough. I had seen a passing reference to the Legion in another book - something along the lines of "a legionnaire will drop dead before he stops marching." These guys were supposed to be the hardest of the hard-core. There doesn't seem to be much decent written about the Legion in English, but Simon Murray's "Legionnaire" seemed to get reasonable reviews.<br/><br/>And I've got to confess - I loved this book. Murray's unflappable, deadpan commentary livens up a book which would otherwise be overwhelmingly bleak. Murray's time in the Legion had its fair share of boredom, brutality and close calls with death (although fewer than I would have expected). He doesn't shy away from describing the senseless violence of the Legion, but he also always seems to find a bit of good in every bad experience.<br/><br/>His writing style and perspective seem to be those of a much older man. Throughout his 5 years, he portrays himself as maintaining an aloof manner and a stiff-upper-lip British sensibility that I find a bit difficult to believe... but who am I to judge? The guy ran away from home and joined the French Foreign Legion at age 19 - and thrived.<br/><br/>But man - is the Legion rough. I hadn't realized it, but anyone can join the French Foreign Legion - you don't actually have to be French. But, given that joining the Legion is like volunteering to get a burning poker jammed into your spleen... recruits end up mostly being criminals fleeing from justice. They hail from all over the place - but predominantly Western Europe. But your fellow soldiers aren't the ones to worry about - it's your commanding officers who can really make your life hell. The sadism of some of these guys is incredible. Murray spends a lot of the book detailing his adjustment to the brutality of his first year in the Legion.<br/><br/>Murray was also in the Legion during a critical period of its history. During Murray's 5 years, Algeria was agitating for its independence and the Legion staged a putsch to try to prevent the French government from allowing Algeria to break away. Although Murray wasn't actually involved in any of the violence, it's fascinating to hear his perspective on the chaos and confusion that sloshed around the Legion at that time.<br/><br/>It's a pretty incredible story, made even more so by the fact that Murray went on to found Orange (the telecom) and became chairman of DeutscheBank Asia. His life story is nuts - although it made a bit more sense when I found out that his family was super wealthy. But still!"

"Military sci Fi by folks who understand the military. Quite entertaining. KTF."