# Frank Reviews: No Battle Fought, by Phil Guesz



## M. LeRenard (Jan 4, 2012)

Back again, after, like, six months, which because of graduate school is about how long it took me to finally finish the book I'd been reading (which is not to say the book was boring; on the contrary, keep reading this review).  Now, this is a sequel to a previous book I've reviewed on here, which can be found in this old thread (please don't necro), so I'll just leave that link for reference if you want to know more about the author and whatnot.

Now, I'm going to start by saying I might be a bit biased, because this book discusses a subject I'm particularly keen to thinking about, which is the idea of transhumanism and bioethics.  I'll try not to spoil anything, but what we have here in this book is a very, very good discussion of some rather intriguing and controversial issues, including the ethics of doing things like genetically engineering more capable people or merging the mind with technology.  This is all done against the clever backdrop of forgoing pretty much all traditional ethics in order to win a difficult war against a ruthless opponent.  So sort of a 'what if we had to do this' thought experiment.
I'll be brief and say that this is the kind of science fiction that got me into the genre in the first place.  If you've ever watched Star Trek: the Next Generation, you'll know what I'm talking about.  While there's loads of really intense, high-paced space battles and crap going on (which are very smooth and tons of fun, just like in the first book), the real meat of the book is in the ethical dilemmas that the characters are forced to confront, things that you and I may never have to deal with but which ought to be considered due to the directions our technology seems to be taking us.  But what I REALLY like about this book is that it doesn't take a standard position on these things at all.  This isn't your usual 'Man shouldn't tamper with nature' baloney that stems from ye olde Christian philosophy that characterized those old 50s sci-fi movies about giant killer monitor lizards and the like (really, it seems more a counter-argument to them).  It's this weird combination of a hopeful view of where we could go mixed in with a nightmarish scenario of brutal, merciless combat.  Where the first book was written from a child's perspective, now our hero Mr. Longo is quite a bit older and more keen to notice the subtleties of life, and the writing really reflects this.  We get a lot more questions and honesty here than in the first one, and characters have much more depth and intelligence.  Plus, the ending is just fucking awesome, and will be hard to top.
I really don't have too much more to say about it.  If you like good, thoughtful, exciting science fiction, by all means, read this series of books and you won't be disappointed.  I've become a fan by this point, and I really don't ever say that lightly.  This is one of those buried gems that you may never hear of anywhere else, so if you're reading this review, take this opportunity and go get acquainted with Phil Geusz' work.

PS: I suppose I should mention that it has exactly one anthro character, but she has a pretty central role to the whole philosophy of the book, so I guess it's classified as 'furry fiction'.  And actually, I think this is what most furry fiction should really be aiming toward.  It's on Amazon, so go check it out.


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## DarrylWolf (Jan 4, 2012)

Is it in any way related to Phil Geusz' other work in science fiction, Resisting Arrest?


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## Aden (Jan 4, 2012)

Well hell, I've been looking for books to use my christmas amazon gift card towards. This sounds right up my alley.


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## M. LeRenard (Jan 4, 2012)

DarrylWolf said:


> Is it in any way related to Phil Geusz' other work in science fiction, Resisting Arrest?


I'm pretty sure it's an independent series, but I've never read Resisting Arrest, so I wouldn't know if there are any subtler connections.


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