I recently picked up The Bastard Legion as an audiobook, and I quite enjoyed it. It was a bit different from my typical read: a sci-fi story about a criminal mercenary team and their various shenanigans in space. It’s the second book in the series, but I haven’t read the first and had no real difficulties understanding what was going on. I started it expecting it to be a bit less serious and a bit more comedic than it was, I’m not entirely sure why, but overall I enjoyed the story a fair bit.
There’s a fairly large array of characters throughout. The main one, Miska, is on a mission to find her father’s killer, while also maintaining control of her Bastards. For a short book, the cast is pretty large and you don’t get too much of a view into each individual motivation, which is partially because a lot of them simply want to survive.
As such, the book is much more action-centric, and it was quite fun to watch the various missions The Bastard Legion go through, and how they affect Miska. As you can probably imagine, a troupe of criminals with bombs in their heads doing various missions is quite violent, which does lend to the militia feel of the legion. There was probably a bit too much focus on plot and not enough on character for my tastes. It was, however, a really good book.
The world is interesting: the Legion visits a plethora of planets/space stations. The reader is given a good view of the space culture, and how Earth and space have evolved from where people are today to this different system. I really liked the little worldbuilding touches.
I would recommend The Bastard Legion to people who enjoy:
- Science-fiction
- Action packed books
- Female MCs
- Diverse casts
