As promised, here is the second installment of this serial. If you read the first part you will remember that Legionnaire Brandon Maddock, after beating up a pesky corporal in a dive bar in the village négre , used some sportsmanlike moves to evade the Legion’s street patrol. Making his way back to the barracks he promptly told the guards to arrest him. Part 2 picks up from there and off to the penal company goes impetuous Brandon. He miraculously took a light sentence of only two months but his anger and a touch of cafard tacked on another several weeks. He eventually returns to Sidi Bel Abbes a much leaner and stronger man and much more in control of his emotions. He puts in for a transfer to Morocco and finds himself serving in an isolated block house just south of the Spanish line in the Rif Mountains. Again Maddock becomes restless and casts his lot with eight fellow deserters.
I like the long stories, usually serials, written by Surdez. He seems to not hold back on the details as much as he would have when working on a 10-20 page short story. Here we get rich backgrounds of the Legionnaires in this story that make each one very unique. The lead character becomes someone we care for and is often fallible and endearing. Also the lore of the Foreign Legion that Surdez writes about becomes richer and much more a part of the story than in his shorter works.
Mon Legionnaire 