Review: The Mercenaries

The Mercenaries by H. Beam Piper
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"and when he saw her, his heart gave a little bump, like a geiger responding to an ionizing particle. It always did that, although they had been together for twelve years, and married for ten."

I knowww, it has nothing to do with the scifi but I just adored the above quote and wanted to share it. How sweet! And at least it demonstrates that Piper's prose is not entirely mechanical in this story. I thought the language employed was marvellous.

"in a world where soldiers must use the weapons of science and scientists must learn the arts of violence."

Written in 1950 and set in 1965. This short involves a small group of contracted soldier-scientists. It's a chemistry and particle physics heavy narrative, the team have developed a new type of weapon which is described at length. One among their number is a traitor and most of the narrative is taken up by the group discussing what to do with the person.

"Let us give him his pistol, and one cartridge, and let him remove himself like a gentleman."

So, I suppose this is about how necessity can suppress ethics. Or how science and technology are entwined with the military and its way of thinking. Perhaps I missed the optimism that other readers noticed.

The characters were quite good, especially for such a short story, but mostly because of the brevity I also thought it was a bit of overkill.

For me the most interesting part was the chemistry of the new projectiles they were developing and the whole discussion about what to do with the traitor while mildly entertaining, was inane.

Just for kicks, I'll mention that I spotted a reference to a "General Hammond, back in Washington" - a nice but silly Star Gate moment.

Also just for fun, here's one more quote from the story which I liked.

"Oh, my dear!" Suzanne protested. "That but stinks! The great Adam Lowiewski, descending from his pinnacle of pure mathematics, to perform a vulgar experiment? With actual things?" The Frenchwoman gave an exaggerated shudder. "Horrors!"

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