Better to Beg Forgiveness-Michael Z. Williamson

Better to Beg Forgiveness
Michael Z. Williamson
Baen, Nov 2007, $24.00
ISBN: 9781416555087

New Celadon is an impoverished nation on an extremely poor planet in the middle of nowhere. The UN had hired contract guards to protect the country’s leader, President Bishwanath, but withdrew their support of him once their megacorps CEOs decide he could not be bought as graft makes the universe go round. The UN also abandoned the contractors sent to keep him safe and continue to foster the civil war that is further devastating the already destitute country.

When word reaches the UN that the ethical president is dead, they begin the plan to replace him with someone better attuned to exploitation. However, the UN has just made their second error. First they should have kept the mercenaries guards on the payroll; discarded and admiring the courage of Bishwanath they became loyal to him. Second they will learn to their regret that Bishwanath’s death was slightly exaggerated as his protectors keep him safe even as they begin the plan to get him out of the country preferably off planet alive.

Michael Z. Williamson (if I didn’t know better I would say he is an alias for John Bolton) makes no apologies when it comes to UN officials’ thirst for corruption and greed; although ironically the American and Iraqi governments and industry could easily replace the UN based on the IG findings. Additionally with the recent accusations re private protection guards using excess force based on the principle of BETTER TO BEG FORGIVENESS, turning these mercenaries into loyal heroes doing an unpaid job seems only possible in a biting satire that revises President Eisenhower’s farewell speech to beware the UN industrial complex. That is the beauty of Mr. Williamson’s supernova-action packed futuristic outer space thriller that never slows down as hired guns either try to save the ethical Bishwanath or kill him.

Harriet Klausner