Book Review By Dimitri Melamoud
The Bug Wars by Robert Asprin

This book describes us how the reptile warrior race of Tzen fights a war agains a coalition of 4 different types of giant insect creatures. The characters are mostly flat and there's at some points a feeling that those reptiles are only humans in a reptile suit. Also, we don't know much about their homeworld, except that they live in a swamp enviroment (They call their world "The Black Swamps"), because none of the plot is actually happening there, but on two or three insect-inhabited planets. The insects themselves seems dumb and weak, the Tzen just slaugher them, even with weapons such as throwing knives (Reminds me of bad shooter films. see: Rambo). It seems that the insect are only partly sentient, and their only advantage over the Tzen is, of course (like in Starship Troopers, Ender's Game and any other film about insect aliens), their numbers. The human race is unknown to the Tzen at all, and even the idea of mammal sentients is peculiar to them. It is a good book for a boring weekend perhaps, not for serious reading.


Plot
Tone of book - very upbeat
FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION? - science fiction story
War or Invasion Yes
Major kinds of combat: - hand to hand - guns - - - - air battles
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Descript. of chases or violence - 40 %
planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 30 %
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 10 %
Descript. of society, phenomena (tech), places - 20 %

Main Character
Identity: - Male Alien
Profession/status:
How sensitive is this character? - middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Average intelligence
Physique - average physique

Main Adversary
Identity: - an entire race

Setting
Terrain
A substantial portion of this book takes place on a non-Earth planetary body: - unfriendly aliens
Planet outside solar system? Yes

Style
Person? - mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death? - moderately detailed references to deaths
scientific jargon? (SF only) - none/very little science jargon needed
How much dialogue? - little dialog
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