Empire of Dirt

Empire of Dirt (English)
Империја на должност (Syaran)

Author	Serije Daev
Country	Syara
Language	Syaran, English
Genre	Military science fiction
Published	1995
Media type	Paperback Digital
Awards	Syaran Science Fiction Writer of the Year (1995)

Empire of Dirt (Syaran: Империја на должност) is a military science fiction novel written by Serije Daev. The book follows a soldier named Andrev in a future interstellar conflict. The book earned Daev Syaran Science Fiction Writer of the Year in 1995.

Plot

Sometime in the far future (only specified as "centuries ahead" in the book), Adrev is a human colonist living on a planet outside the Solar system. Shortly after completing his secondary education he is approached by a recruiter for the Interstellar Corps, a military organization dedicated to keeping the peace and maintaining the unity of the Human Collective, the political body that is supposed to rule over all of humanity. Andrev jumps at the opportunity to leave what he considers a backwater planet behind and see the universe.

Andrev's illusions are shattered quickly as he is forced to undergo arduous and grueling training both in zero-G and on planetary bodies, under the command of near-sadistic drill instructors. Andrev makes a few friends throughout training only to be assigned to a completely separate unit, where he experiences a mixture of welcoming and dissociation from some fellow soldiers owing to his home world, which is considered by many other soldiers to be a forgettable backwater where nothing good can come from.

Andrev spends the next several years engaged in what he considers "unwarlike wars", spending hours locked inside starships while engaging in space battles that he has no influence over or ability to even see. Planet-side Andrev encounters a variety of different communities across several worlds, some of which have become so distant and separated from the rest of humanity that their language and customs are completely alien to him. Over the course of the novel many of the friends Andrev makes are killed or wounded and sent home, sometimes just days after making their acquaintance. He learns that his mother has passed away four months after it occurred and was unable to attend the funeral, earning the scorn of his father and sister.

Most of Andrev's career is spent chasing down random rebel and separatist groups that often never actually appear, leaving Andrev confused and uncertain of the point of the conflicts. His superior officers often express themselves in hard-to-quantify terms that make it difficult for Andrev to even envision what victory is. Twice he engages in a more conventional battle; both times he is traumatized by the incredible destruction and violence he witnesses, leaving him forlorn and detached. Throughout the rest of his career Andrev is repeatedly posted to far off worlds of little strategic value or natural resources, some of which appear to be nothing but dry soil and dirt, leading him to declare humanity as ruling over an "empire of dirt".

After ten years of military service Andrev is discharged unceremoniously. He is given a small award for his service, a small paycheck and sent on a starship home, where he arrives to find that despite little changing in his home world virtually no one recognizes him anymore; his family largely sees him as an outcast and most of his childhood friends have moved on. Embittered by his experience and unwelcome home, Andrev shortly thereafter leaves his home world behind, asking for a transport to the nearest "dirt planet".

Themes and interpretation

Isolation, senseless violence, and the futility of armed conflict are major themes in the book. Combat in the book tends to fall into two categories; space battles during which Andrev can do nothing but hide in his bunk and has no impact on the outcome, and highly destructive ground battles where many of Andrev's friends are killed in chaotic engagements. The book generally treats military service as both monotonous, pointless, and ultimately futile; most of Andrev's career is spent attempting to control populaces that have little to no connection to the ideals and entities he is supposed to be fighting for and by the end of the novel he experiences significant difficulty readjusting to civilian life.

The book is widely considered to be a means of portraying Daev's own experience at war. A member of the Army of the Syaran Republic, Daev fought in the Granika Border War, the Hayren War, and in the Refusal War as a Royalists. Interpreted in this fashion, the book highlights Daev's own experiences with the wars, namely his lack of connection with the Syaran cause and the nature of the conflict with Ruvelka. Andrev's sense that the wars fought over "dirt" reflect Daev's own interpretations of the futility of the Ruvelkan-Syaran territorial disputes, and the lack of fraternity he had with their native populations. Andrev's own experience coming home reflect Daev's experience as a member of the losing side in the Refusal War, and his return home to a nation that had changed little in some ways but radically in others.

Reception

Empire of Dirt became a bestseller, selling more than a million copies within a year of production. Daev earned Syaran Science Fiction Writer of the Year in 1995 as a result, and the book remains highly popular in Syara.