Tactics of Mistake was recommended to me by my best friend. It was not owned as a single volume by any of my county libraries, but I was able to check out Three to Dorsai!, an omnibus volume which contains it. The interludes in the omnibus volume tell us that there were prime characters in human evolution. The protagonist of the first book in that omnibus, Necromancer was one of them. The protagonist of this book, Lieutenant-Colonel Cletus Grahame of the Expeditionary Forces of Earth's Western Alliance, is another.

Grahame is a scholar of tactics and strategical considerations. He plans to write twenty volumes on the subject. He's working on the fourth. Grahame does not appear to advantage in the first page or two of the book, particularly not to those seated at a table he comes to: Dow deCastries (Secretary of Outworlds Affairs for Earth's Coalition of Eastern Nations), Pater Ten (who has an eidetic memory), Mondar (an Exotic human), Colonel Eachan Khan, and his daughter, Melissa Khan.

NOTES:

Chapter 1: Colonel Eachan notes a medal that Lieutenant-Colonel Grahame wears.

Chapter 2: Grahame brings up the tactics of mistake, which is what's in the book he's currently writing. This is where he plays the shell game.

Chapter 3: Colonel Khan was a lieutenant-general in the Royal Army of Afghanistan before the revolution 12 years ago. He left to join the Dorsai after the new government enforced their death penalty for anyone who sang the old Afghanistani [as stated in the book] anthem. His daughter wants them to go back to Earth and wants deCastries' help.

Chapter 4:

a. The command car Grahame and others are in is attacked.

b. The rest of that verse about the nail is '...For want of a rider, the battle was lost. For want of a battle, the kingdom was lost, And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.'

Chapter 5: Grahame refers to Arvid Johnson as a first lieutenant, then some pages later, as a second lieutenant.

Chapter 6:

a. Grahame has an interesting experience when he goes to Mondar's study. It appears to involve Paul Formain of Necromancerand Sir John Hawkwood.

b. Mondar talks about the Chantry Guild and some events from Necromancer, mentioning Walter Blunt and Paul Formain.

Chapter 7: Grahame uses an electric horse to good effect.

Chapter 13: Grahame meets some guerillas.

Chapter 17: Foolish Bill Athyer angrily responds to advice from Grahame.

Chapter 18: Grahame proposes.

Chapter 19: The wedding doesn't quite go as originally planned.

Chapter 20: Reading Grahame's writings has changed Athyer.

Chapter 22: Grahame has a 3-month-old son.

Chapter 24: Look here for two lines of a sad song composed by an Ap Morgan family member who died in a campaign before Grahame was a Dorsai.

I didn't like Cletus Grahame off and on during the book, but I did enjoy the ways he outwitted various opposing forces on various planets. I did like his ideas for the Dorsai. I'm not a big fan of science fiction military books, but by the end I liked this one. ( )

There's a lot more action in this book compared to the last one. We've also gone back in time, a century before the first book, to learn about the origins & the real strength of the Dorsai. A good, quick read with a neat ending.

The series is still going strong. On to the next book, [b:The Spirit of Dorsai|263119|The Spirit of Dorsai (Dorsai/Childe Cycle)|Gordon R. Dickson|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173239011s/263119.jpg|2178639]. ( )

Tactics of Mistake by Gordon R. Dickson is the Dorsai novel where it all began, so a prequel in many ways. This was a book I mooched along with Soothsayer in order to receive The Wind Crystal from a BookMoocher in Australia. All three are also registered with BookCrossing (my first experience with this). I think I will happily return Tactics of Mistake to the flow.

This book was moderately interesting, but not a keeper for me. I've read only one other Dorsai novel, which I liked well enough, though, once again, not enough to keep. These are books in the militaristic SF tradition about the ultimate warrior society. Which is to say, they are short on characterizations and dialogue, concentrating on action orchestrated by the idealized hero who can do no wrong.

This book features Cletus Grahame as the protagonist (straight white guy, of course) who revolutionizes warfare. What starts as a bloody contest between the Western Alliance and the Eastern Coalition (both Earth-based powers), or rather between their frontier planet catspaws, becomes the beginning of an independence movement. Not surprisingly, the Earth powers unite in an attempt to quash the outplanets. The whole thing is framed as a personal contest between Cletus and Dow deCastries (the straight white antagonist). Throw in a half-baked not particularly believable romance and some secondary characters who are turned around by our hero, and you have standard old-style science fiction. I think it also reflects the Cold War struggle as well, which adds to the sense of being dated.

There are some minorities included in the story. Melissa Khan (the love interest) and her father Colonel Eachen Khan are Afghani. They are the crux of the story, and provide Cletus Grahame entree to the Dorsai planet and its mercenary operations. The only obviously black person is Major Swahili, and his portrayal is perhaps the most negative. When Grahame starts leading the Dorsai to bloodless coups, he decamps because he loves the violence, killing, and personal risk and courage involved in warfare (in other words, he's the savage--pretty standard stereotype). Many of the names peppered through the book give it a multicultural feel: Lu May, Ad Reyes, Tosca Aras, and so on. With respect to the single female character, I will lift this quote directly from a review of Dorsai! because it applies equally well here: "Dickson also maintains his inability to write convincing female characters, is a step forward and a step backward, she's a strong, opinionated character, it's just that all her opinions are wrong and she spends most of the book making snide judgements about that clearly make her look stupid" (names changed to reflect current novel.

Perhaps the most interesting science fiction element for me is the concept of the Exotics, or the Association for the Investigation and Development of the Exotic Sciences. This group is all for revolutionizing human society by fostering "the seeds of further evolution." Our hero rejects their invitation with the observation, "You Exotics are essentially ruthless toward all men, because you're philosophers, and by and large, philosophers are ruthless people." It's a strong statement, and I'm not sure I agree with him, but I think I understand where he's coming from. This was the basic thesis in Seeing Like a State, which explores how ideas about social engineering when married to totalitarian political power lead to some truly devastating events.

So, moderately interesting, not particularly unique or original. Worth a quick read, definitely not written for female audiences (but then, how much from 1971 was?). Feels dated in many ways. Pretty classic Dickson. ( )

I tend to agree with TimothyBurke's assessment. This story is a Geek's dream fulfillment. Cletus is the misunderstood genius that can see and understand what no one else around him can.

While I haven't read all of the Dorsai books, this is definitely the best. I first read it as it was being published in serial form in Analog magazine. Have reread it a number of times since then.

Can I say that this is my favorite SciFi story without too much incrimination?! :-) ( )

Although this book has some interesting ideas, like the tactical use of underwater bulldozers, some of the tactical situations boil down to 'Grahame is a genius, therefore whatever he guesses about the enemy's tactics will be correct'.

Real life really isn't that simple. ( )