A Call to Duty by David Weber and Timothy Zahn

Published by Baen on October 7, 2014

The formula for military science fiction follows a predictable arc. The typical story tracks a young man or woman from recruitment to training to war to an ultimate act of heroism. A Call to Duty departs from the formula in some respects by glossing over recruitment and training and focusing instead on the impact of politics on the novel's protagonist. That twist on the formula makes A Call to Duty more interesting than conventional military sf.

Travis "Stickler" Long joins the Royal Manticoran Navy to put discipline into a life that has none. He is called "Stickler" because of his adamant insistence on following military rules. Much of the story's interest comes from the ethical dilemmas he encounters as his desire to obey rules conflicts with friendships and with the pragmatic need to carry out his duty when strict adherence to rules would hinder his ability to succeed.

When the story isn't following Travis, it focuses on the political conflict between Manticore's military and something that is more akin to a spacefaring Coast Guard, tasked with the protection and rescue of merchant ships close to home. Travis' half-brother, Gavin Winterfall, a minor Baron, is recruited by his political betters to support a project to convert old battleships into new, smaller corvettes that will be no longer belong to the Navy. This leads to a political competition that provides much of the story's meat.

The novel's other political element concerns a trade convention on the planet Haven, a leading supplier of military ships. Representatives of various worlds attend the meeting, including poor worlds that can't quite afford warships but still want to protect their merchant ships from piracy. Yet Haven has a hidden agenda, as do the people who want to crash the party so that they can steal a couple of Haven's ships.

A Call to Duty is plot-driven science fiction. It tells a good story while giving only modest attention to character development. That's a common and not particularly troubling problem -- a good story might be enough to ask for in genre fiction -- but the novel would have been better if the characters had been vested with more complex personalities. The last part of the novel is filled with the kind of action that characterizes military sf. It is a little too predictable but reasonably exciting. This is a better political novel than it is an action novel, but the two forms blend nicely.

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