The Damned Trilogy

Did You Know?

• Kirkus Reviews criticized A Call to Arms as having no plot or action.
• Publishers Weekly praised The False Mirror for being an improvement over the first book and having more depth.
• The Spoils of War was published on April 1, 1993.

Plot summary

Two major alien civilizations, the Amplitur and the Weave, have been fighting a war for several millennia. The Amplitur are a slug-like species with telepathic and mind-controlling abilities, which they couch as suggestions, and they attempt to join all sentient species in what they call the Purpose, an alliance they guide to some unknown end. The Weave is a confederacy of species allied in opposition to the Purpose. Most fighting takes place on planetary surfaces and is relatively restrained, as the war aims to convince and control opponents rather than destroy them. However, most sentient species have evolved to be incapable of committing violence against other sentients, leaving a shortage of warriors on both sides. The Amplitur, with their mind control, have gradually pushed the Weave back for centuries. A Weave scout ship discovers Earth and finds humans uniquely suited as allies: they can fight, adapt to varied environments, have few compunctions about war, and become enthusiastic when their aggression is focused on non-humans. Weave xenopsychologists determine that Earth's fragmented continents resulted in a species that evolved to fight and kill for dominance. Humans have no problem hunting non-humans, which appalls the Weave, but they cannot deny the efficacy of human combat troops. Humans are also physiologically immune to Amplitur mind control.