A Rage for Revenge

The War Against the Chtorr #3

by David Gerrold

Still reeling from the alien plagues that killed two-thirds of the planet's population, humanity now confronts the most deadly enemy Earth has ever known - the giant man-eating Chtorr. Lieutenant James McCarthy has grown to manhood under the shadow of the terrifying invasion of the Chtorr. As a student, he learned all he could to understand their alien behavior. As a Special Forces commando, he made violent first contact. Now this battle-hardened warrior faces a profound challenge. Captured by an anarchistic band of men and women known as renegades, McCarthy must secretly gather vital information while fighting indoctrination into their cult - which serves and worships the Chtorr.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Horror, Military Science Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Post Apocalyptic, Audiobook

517 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published March 1, 1989

Reviews

[Ubiquitousbastard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am immensely glad that I didn't read this book first. (I read the fourth one first because it had a sick cover). It's not that this book is bad, because it isn't. It's because if I wasn't already invested, the extremely morally dubious subject matter would almost certainly have turned me off of the series. While I love the other books for their ability to make tragedy and darkness beautiful, this book is just painful. Again, not painful because it is badly written, but painful because of its very dark themes.

Actually, re-reading this as an adult, there are some aspects that are a bit harder for me to swallow (ugh, bad choice of words) than when I was a teenager. The protagonist having sex with children, (due to brainwashing) but then later wanting it on his own, is just too much. I didn't realize how squicky and awful that was when I was fifteen and had crushes on men over thirty. I'm finding myself trying to make excuses, but at this point I'm not even buying them. But I suppose that's the point of this whole series. It's not a happy hugfest where everything turns out great and the heroes are heroic. Everything is terrible, and everyone sucks. This is also a bit hard for me to handle since me and the protagonist share just a bit too much in common.

I'm also not sure if it was my mood or the book itself, but I was definitely in a dark place today when re-reading this. It really might be a bit of both. So this book is certainly not for the faint of heart. Ew, a cliche, but I don't really know how else to express how very dark this book is, and how much it causes an uncomfortable amount of introspection. At least it does for me.

I can safely say that this is my least favorite book in the series thus far, although it is still far better than most of the books I've read.

[Bon Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this might be the best book in this fantastic series. What have we here? Main plot, limericks which are hilarious and could be the book on their own, same for Solomon Short.. I mean, how one dares putting ALL their talent in one book and yet keep producing is beyond me. I guess that's the reason we'll never see part 5 :)

[Clinton Sheppard · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit too much psychobabble. I get tired of reading about the main
character's mental problems.

[Bravo27 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anche questo terzo capitolo della serie mantiene il livello molto alto di qualità dei primi due. Come era già successo con il secondo romanzo, anche qui ritoroviamo per la maggior parte i soliti protagonisti, ma inserirti in un nuovo contesto, come se fosse un nuovo livello di un video gioco. L'invasione della terra continua e in questo libro l'autore si concentra sulle iterazioni tra gli umani e i vermiciattoli (compresi tutte la flora e fauna che si sono portati dietro). Vengono sviscerati sia gli aspetti fisici che psicologici, seguendo il nostro protagonista e le sue avventure. Il mix tra azione e divagazioni socio-politiche è il punto forte del romanzo.

[Tim]

The author's intro to this book reads in part, "This particular episode of The War Against the Chtorr includes a number of chapters of heavily didactic material." You know what the nation's sci-fi fans think when they read on page v of a 517-pp. novel that there are a number of chapters of heavily didactic material to come? "FUCK YEAH! Gimme more of that white-hot didacticism!" But the book is actually better than that, the best in the series so far, besides at least a hundred and fifty solid pages of philo-lite and thirty-six "Huh?"s (though to be fair, some of those aren't straight one-line "Huh?"s, and one is spoken by a character other than the protagonist). Gerrold achieves something really skillful with the cult that the protagonist falls in with, whose leader is seriously creepy without Gerrold ever once telling the reader directly, "He was seriously creepy," like he would've done in the earlier books, instead expertly showing the audience instead, and not in the expected creepy ways but in authentic-seeming cultlike ways--the leader and his cult are friendly, smart, and caring, and when the crack finally appears it feels realistic--really genuinely well done. In the rest of the book the Chtorrans are making heavy inroads into colonizing the planet, and humanity is basically stuck wondering what to do. This is the first book in the series where the reader gets the impression that the world actually is far less populated than it once was, too. So I could've done without the tell-don't-show philosophizing (I kept thinking back to Infinite Jest's constant but much, much more interesting and entertaining philosophizing--some writers can pull it off, some can't) and some of the more embarrassing group-hugs, and there's some disturbing sexual stuff that made me look a little askance at the author's photo, but all in all it's a good read. /// 9/19/2008 addendum: You know what I forgot to mention in the original review? All the kiddie sex. The protagonist has sex with kids. And god in retrospect the philosophizing is really grody and goes on forever. I need to get the fourth book out of the way soonishly.

[Sandra]

Not a good sign when an author starts a book by saying "I know I'm not supposed to explain my work but I'm gonna do it anyway. If you're annoyed by it I meant to do that."
Really? I'm meant to be annoyed by how stupidly and unrealistically your characters behave? I'm meant to be annoyed by the way you're writing the same lectures for the third time? Eh.

I hate his protagonist with children. The first things he does is 1) lie to them; 2) overstep boundaries (he himself had pointed out just before). Not to mention he abandons a lost child and a comatose child he adopted.

I hate how people from completely different backgrounds use the same kind of language to express same kinds of not so common, hard to explain concepts. Maybe can be explained by nationwide brainwashing programme, but I doubt it can be made so similar all over such a big country, I think it should have differed significantly for different people.

It took me ages to write this review because it's like the most annoying book but I can't stop reading it, because the invasion stuff is really interesting. I'm beginning to wonder if the series works if one skips this book. I think this was the most annoying one yet.

[Scott S. · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Ugh, this series. Good narration, good writing, fascinating premise, but so many faults too. Book 3 and still so much unknown? Gerrold's liberal tendencies to do away with societal norms like family, church and patriotism. Not to mention the pedophilia... Gerrold is probably a pedo or he wouldn't write about it so much.

The things above are enough that I would've quit most any other series that mentioned them, but I dunno, I guess I've got this morbid fascination to see where it's all going. Maybe Gerrold was thinking the same thing. Only one more released book in this unfinished series that he has been "working on" for TWO DECADES.

This definitely was the weakest of the series so far though. Too much self righteous enlightenment talk and not enough worm burning.

Why am I still listening to this series?

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A bit more philosophical than the previous books in the series; a great continuation of Gerrold's brilliant take on alien invasion by ecological infestation . . .

[Gunther Rogahn · Rating 1 out of 5]

I refuse to read anything by this jackass until he finishes this series. He's been lying about it for 20 years or so.

[Gilles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lu en anglais. Troisième tome.

Les terriens commencent à réagir à l'invasion des Chtorriens, mais il est peu-être trop tard. L'écologie chtorrienne s'étend de plus en plus rapidement et annihile l'écologie terrestre. Sans compter que des renégats humains, qui adorent les vers géants, mettent des bâtons dans les roues des défenseurs.

Le roman fait digression à mon déplaisir. Une grosse partie du roman se concentre sur des techniques de manipulation psychologique plus ou moins convaincantes, ce qui fait l'intrigue principale est laissée un peu en suspens.

Le roman est plutôt lent avec quelques parties intéressantes, mais pas assez pour me plaire vraiment.

J'ai aimé, mais la lecture était moins intéressante. j'ai tout de même hâte de voir comment tout cela va finir.

[James Gustafson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even more than the first two, this book is as much meandering through philosophical and psychological wildernesses as it is telling a traditional science fiction story. In fact, the slog gets rough in the first half of the book. Then it gets ... strange and unnerving.

Your mileage may vary, but the second half of this book shines. All the disparate pieces of confusion and revulsion start to fall weirdly into place. By the end you nod and tip your cap to Mr. Gerrold. I see what you did there, sir. Well played.

[Lara · Rating 1 out of 5]

The author's note at the start of the book warned me about didacticism. It did not warn me about child molestation (twice over!), the 25-year-old main character being told flat-out that if the traumatized 13-year-old wanted to have sex with him as proof of love, he should allow it, and an actual baby being fed to an alien because the cult leader convinced the mother that since they were all there to serve their "new gods", it would be an honor for her to serve by feeding it her most easily-available meat.

Honestly, I'm sorry I finished it, and I don't know if I want to try book 4.

[Aerik · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is sick, and in a better world people would not feel free to write fiction where the protagonist fucks kids without consequence. I read this series when I was a teenager, and almost stopped with this entry (only book I've thrown across the room). My ratings for all the books reflect my feeling about them at the time. I was very impressed by the ecological invasion, and it's still a great idea, but, having formed a more complete worldview in the years since, I've developed an intense disgust of David Gerrold.

Vile.

[Matthew Smonskey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic and often challenging read. The brutality and thoughtfulness make a wonderful pairing.

[James]

A Rage for Revenge (War Against the Chtorr, Book 3)

[Taueret · Rating 3 out of 5]

way too pedo-y for me

[Jim N · Rating 4 out of 5]

David Gerrold warns the reader right up front that this novel is didactic and he's not kidding. There's a great deal of moralizing but it's done with purpose. This isn't the strongest book in the series but it may be the most memorable and I think it's the entry in which the series' key themes are most prominent. One of the most interesting aspects of the War Against the Chtorr novels is they're not simply a rip-roarin' military science fiction yarn about humans battling huge, purple alien worms. The series is also about humanity, about change and adaptation. Before it even begins, a substantial portion of the human race has been wiped out by a series of plagues. Everyone remaining is deeply scarred by those events. Faced with an ecological invasion that seems almost unstoppable, humanity's psychological response becomes as important as any scientific or military reaction to the Chtorran threat and that response is varied. We experience it in this series primarily through the protagonist, Jim McCarthy, who is young, thoroughly messed up and often angry, frustrated and confused. His psychological state is well-established in the first two books, as is his vulnerability, and that's crucial to understanding his behavior in this one.

In A Rage for Revenge, Jim finds himself captured, manipulated and indoctrinated into a cult. The cult represents one of the aforementioned adaptations to the alien Chtorran presence. It's an effort to live in harmony with the Chtorran ecology. Gerrold handles this quite well and the chapters involving the cult are both believable and unsettling. The section that follows is unnerving too and the book deals with difficult and uncomfortable themes (including pedophilia) in ways that some readers will find hard to handle. However, when viewed within the larger psychological context described above, I think it works. In other words, we're supposed to feel uncomfortable.

Much of the aforementioned didacticism involves chapters describing the Mode training, another (and controversial) human response to the invasion, designed to help humanity successfully hold itself together and find a winning strategy.

None of these books are for the timid or easily offended. In addition to the controversial themes mentioned above, this one features dirty limericks at the beginning of every chapter (for reasons explained in the book).

I've read this novel 3 times now and although I don't think it's one of the best books I've ever read, it's certainly among the most memorable. As good as it is in some places, it's didactic nature wears a little and there's an aspect of the story near the end that doesn't quite ring true to me. Nevertheless, I recommend it.

[Nicolas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book about belief, truth, freedom, and responsibility. It is a didactic novel in the best sense of the term, alternating between McCarthy's time at the Mode Training (a sort of personal effectiveness seminar) and his indoctrination by a cult of Chtorran renegades (people who have forsaken the human race to ally themselves with the Chtorr). There are lessons in this book that are just as important now as they are in the imagined world of the Chtorr War.

Also, it happens to be a pretty damn good story about fighting and understanding aliens that are terraforming the planet Earth as they devour the human race. A two-fer!

But I would be remiss in pointing out that this book contains triggering content. There are several scenes in this book (especially related to McCarthy's time with the cult) which are deeply disturbing and/or troubling. It is not shock for shock's sake, but that won't matter to most people.

[Fred D · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very fascinating book with a unique spin on the alien invasion story. Prior to invasion, the aliens attempt to 'reverse terraform' the Earth by introducing plant and animal life from their home planet that wipe out Earth's native flora & fauna to make the envirnment more suitable to them. Earthlife easily gets out-competed. First, alien microbes are introduced that wipe out 90% of the human population. Civilization collapses, and the survivors are left to try and desperately hang on as wave after wave of deadly alien flora and fauna are introduced. Very violent book, very dark. I never finished the series, so I don't know what happens at the end of the last book. I only made it through the first 3 books.

[Adrian Hunter · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this yet more years after the second book, and after re-reading the UN-abridged version of the first. Well, I may have well just stayed with the first. This book delved deeply and at great length about what it meant to be "human" in this books' universe, and it was all rather new agey confusing. Almost no revelations about the Chtorr, and those that were there were just as confusing as the new agey stuff, as it's all supposition on the characters parts. They never come to any real conclusions and leave even more questions. These quesiton are left in the "Oh, GET ON WITH IT" kind of way, and not so much the "ahaaaaa!" kind of way. It really was an effort to finish this book.

[Christopher Schneider · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best (albeit, unfinished) alien invasion series I know. Trying to be patient in waiting for him to close the loop on this one. I balk at recommending this one to others only because I don't want them to experience the same 21+ year wait that the rest of us have had to deal with since he published the "latest" book in the series, A Season for Slaughter. However, to be fair, I have no idea how the hell he is going to tie this all together, and I admire the man's ambition for taking on such a project that was supposed to be a trilogy.

[Juniper · Rating 1 out of 5]

Maybe 1.5 stars since I finished reading it. Absolutely way too much new-age philosophy... the 10 page author intro defending the didactic nature of the book should have been a warning. The pedophilia ended up being minor and felt like an attempt at being edgy. It certainly didn't do much for the plot. I'll likely still continue reading the series. The overall theme is solid and interesting and I need some closure... though I notice book 4 was published in 1992 and book 5 is slated for 2015.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

The War Against the Chitorr is one of the best works in the genre of military science fiction but it is incomplete. Currently- it ends with book 3. I really wish that David Gerrold would get back to this series as it has interesting characters and a unique premise: the invasion of earth by an alien ecology.

[Robert Bush · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were times while I was reading this book that I thought, "If this is what the human race becomes, maybe it has no business surviving."

And then I got to the end, and I now wonder; is that the big picture Gerrold was working toward? Is he painting a race that has come to point where it has to transcend survival and become something more?

[NumberLord · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of the Chtorr invasion continues, but this book is broken up by Jim's experience with "Mode Training" (which might be interesting in its own book, but interferes with this one). The story continues, but doesn't really advance.

[Mark · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm not doing a full review. A section of this book has ambiguous bits about pedophilia and a child having sex with another child. I found this section very disturbing and that feeling remained with me long after I finished the book.

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm completely unequal to talking about these books right now. If they sound interesting to you, read them; if they don't, give them a chance anyways. There's way more in there than the back cover could every suggest.

[Robyn]

A former boyfriend introduced me to the series, which at the time we thought would be rounded out by a fifth book within a couple of years. How naive we were! Don't know how the War Against the Chtorr books were never added to my GoodReads account.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

The War Against the Chtorr rages on! So far, so great. What a ride!

[Randy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Third book in the Chtorr invasion series.