Reviews for Death's Head

The average rating for Death's Head based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-09-04 00:00:00 Spencer Galvin "You're right, he's human." "Plus?" "One point eight percent something else." I'll come straight to the point: this book is pretty hardcore. I've been rummaging my mind for suitable words to describe it, but I'm still falling short. As a stop-gap, in the meantime, I'll probably have to settle for something like bleak and brutal. What we have here is something akin to an x-rated and unsanitized version of the Sten books (the protagonist even boasts a similar sounding name, but that is more than likely just a coincidence). Expect a lot of explicit sex and gory violence. In fact, this book has an exceedingly limited regard for reader sensitivities. Since the author (cleverly) utilizes a first-person present tense point of view, there is an immediacy that sometimes borders on unnerving (or at the very least uncomfortable), given the nature of the novel. It used to be me that made people nervous; now it's my wrapping as well. Black combat armor, black visored helmet, black gloves… And that dinky little silver skull on the front of my helmet, just in case anyone's too stupid to realize the obvious. Let's take a moment to discuss the protagonist. Despite the intimate nature of the narrative, the reader is never really inside his head. You're never quite sure of his motivations, and the author manages to hide plot surprises in the first-person depiction to an impressive degree. While Sven Tveskoeg is not what you might call a nice guy, he has a streak of decency that he seems to want to impress upon the reader. He frequently implores insight into his actions; he wants the reader to "understand". The soldier behind grabs the launcher and swears as red-hot steel burns his hands, but he still has time to fire off a rocket before shrapnel opens his stomach and he stumbles, torn between reloading and the need to repack his own guts. Death's Head boasts one the most brutal and uncompromising futures in all of Science Fiction, with High Tech armies waging wars of attrition costing hundreds of thousands of lives. To the victors belong the spoils, too (i.e. "rape and pillage"). This level of mayhem, and the generally seedy tones of this gritty universe, makes it easy to miss the rather clever streak running through the novel. Such as the small reveals about the nature of the protagonist, the foreshadowing, the interesting aliens, the enlightened and uplifted, the interesting world-building (specific example: the worm of Paradise) et al. Oh, and there's a talking gun. There's confidence and there's arrogance, and then there's blind stupidity, which is closer to the previous two than most people imagine. In the end, not all the protagonist's decisions make perfect sense. He remains an enigma (if not a bigger one than at the novel's start). There are some themes of redemption, but more notably, he remains true to himself. All in all, my curiosity has been truly piqued regarding Sven's true nature and mad skills abilities (there are a few tantalizing glimpses, but he is as much in the dark as the reader, apparently) and his manifest destiny. This is one dude you don't want to mess with! So, in conclusion: yes, it's a rough and tumble, down and dirty, sometimes offensive, story. But it's also well written (the workmanlike, conversational first-person approach works very well to put you in the boots of the man on the ground) and very, very well paced. With more grey areas than not, this book will not be for everyone, but it is a fine entry into the Military SF genre, and should appeal to readers who like their fiction gritty. As of writing this there are three Death's Head books. The author seems to be an enigmatic figure himself, so there's no telling if and when there are going to be any more books. I've already ordered book two: Death's Head Maximum Offense. "Kaboom," says the gun. I have to agree.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-02-24 00:00:00 Charles Madison Well, I know I'm enjoying a book when everything else stops until I've completed it. This had its faults, but probably the same faults as mine in that the reader is too hooked into the action to take in all the detail. I was confused about the political set-up here until the end, and the snake heads were right out of Stargate Atlantis, but none of this was enough to distract me for long. David Gunn's Death's Head started off loaded with violent action and horror and continued in that vein, so I was hooked from about page two, then hooked landed gutted and fried in batter as soon as the talking gun put in an appearance. Yeah! Fuck the literarty-farty crap in the SFF world that has the self-proclaimed arbiters of taste creaming their panties. Take those oh-so-worthy tomes and shove 'em where the sun don't shine. This took me right back to the fun I had reading E. C. Tubb's Dumarest saga, Edgar Rice Burroughs John Carter on Mars or the old Robert E Howard Conan books! Only those were books I enjoyed as a teenager … um, perhaps I haven't grown up … do I want to? Nah. Nice to read unpretentious solid cover-to-cover entertainment without any concessions to the pc-focus-group-bullshit age we live in. Nice to read something that isn't a dreadfully sincere allegory on our times, or a sophomore comment on this that or the other political, social, racial, religious or environmental situation by some prick having an attack of literature. It's often the way when describing books to compare them to other books, or films - whatever. This I would call Starship Troopers meets Commando. Great fun.