Seems like it’s been a while since I read one of these books and it has. I read “Demon World” in September 2025. But these books are still great books to read even after 25 of them. We’re still reading about the exploits of Centurion James McGill. He’s one of the most interesting Legion Varus soldiers that has attracted the attention of the Galactics on many occasions.
Yet, in this book all he wants to do is go fishing. There seems to be a huge catfish named Old Methuselah that’s swimming around in the swamp waters near McGill’s shack. This fish has been notoriously hard to catch by everyone that has tried. That’s why he’s called Old Methuselah; he’s lived a long time just swimming around in the Satilla River. But McGill is now ready to go catch the fish and end his way of life. Then his tapper starts going off!
Strangely, when McGill looks to see who’s calling and realizes that it’s Galina Turov, he wants to run into the swamp and go fishing. That’s strange since usually seeing Galina coming to his shack means he’s in for some wonderful night. But, McGill stands on his porch in his chest-high waders and asks Galina what she’s doing there.
What she tells him starts the both of them on a very strange trip. A long time ago, McGill had told Galina that she and he should go on a pleasure cruise one day. Just the two of them and not war-fighting or Hegemony slugs to worry about. Now Galina says she’s already booked them a cruise and they have to leave now! Strangely, McGill decides to go with her. He packs a small bag of clothes and then gets in Galina’s aircar. The only reason McGill does this is because Galina was begging him to go with her on this cruise. That’s not like Galina, she never begs, just orders mostly. So, something was up but she wasn’t telling right now.
So how does this result in McGill going to Hell World. Well, McGill and Galina have a history that caused Servant Alexander Turov, Galina’s father, some serious problems. One of which was when they freed Drusus from his brain-tank and now that individual has a new body and is the leader of a rebellion. Yet, Servant Turov isn’t ready to make McGill pay for that transgression just yet. No, he needs him to do some scouting. It appears that something resembling Silicoids and their crystalline drones are operating on a planet called Infernus and Turov wants to know the extent of their invasion. McGill is going on a scouting mission, probably one-way, but that’s of no concern to Turov as long as he gets the info he wants.
This is a typical situation for James McGill, except he doesn’t usually have to pay for his past transgressions, usually. So, McGill and a Saurian named Rassh are teamed up and teleported to Infernus. They are there just to scout the area and find out what is actually going on. When they had the information they needed, they were supposed to signal a pickup starship that would take them back to Earth. Of course, that wasn’t going to happen. McGill and Rash both find out just how violent and destructive the planet Infernus can be when they are both caught in a lava tube flowing with fresh lava.
Of course, McGill eventually gets revived with one of the mystical alien revival machines. He’s back at Central HQ and immediately finds himself arrested. It seems like the Galactics are now interested in some of McGill’s past activities which could very well result in his demise and the extermination of the entire human civilization! Typical McGill problems.
There’s a lot of fighting in this book, a lot of dying and of course being revived. Infernus is not very hospitable to human life but the mission must be completed at all costs. There’s going to be a lot of dying.
This definitely isn’t the last book in this series. Book 26, “Spawn World” is now available on Amazon. It’s on my reading list.
[Note 1 (12/23/2025): I’m no longer associated with Amazon and will no longer provide any links to books from that website. You can usually find books that you like at your usual source.]
[Note 2: As of 12/03/2023, this will not be posted on Amazon since I have been banned from posting reviews for some unknown reason. ]