I really enjoyed this book. In part because it's not what you think it's going to be when you first start reading it... how good can a book about prisoners dropped onto a planet to fend for themselves be? It's great to see the group come together and work on forming a functional society.

Turns out this is a book in a series and I really want to get the other two and read them as well. ( )

In 2115 Bando Nicos is a twenty-seven year-old inmate of "The Crotch", the Union of Terran Republics' prison for incorrigibles in Greenville, Mississippi. Like many other prisons, The Crotch is shut down and the entire population deposited on the planet Tartaros, named for the lowest level of hell, the galaxy's dumping ground for the unwanted. Soon after they are abandoned in the sandy desert of Tartaros, the seventeen thousand-plus population is reduced to three thousand. The remaining "sharks" decide they must band together if they want to survive, and elect a leader who makes Bando the first police officer of the newly-christened Razai gang. With the help of pre-teen killers, homicidal maniacs, and political dissidents, Bando makes up the brutally simple Law of the Razai as they travel in search of a place of refuge. In between trials and fights for survival against the gangs already in residence, Bando and his compatriots must think about the meaning of justice, and Bando examines his own heart to see if he is worthy of the trust placed in him.

This edition contains all three books in the series: INFINITY HOLD, KILL ALL THE LAWYERS, and KEEP THE LAW, and features a lengthy introduction by the author (in which he hints that there may be more Tartaros books in the future). ( )

I really liked this book. A band of convicts is landed on a prison planet. No guards, nothing but the gear on their backs and a drop-shipment of food and other such survival necessities. Only, the convicts currently residing on the planet know where the new prisoners are to be dropped, and are there waiting. Enter Nicos Bando, unrehabilitatable con, age 27. He's with the new bunch. They get organized just to get out of the drop zone alive. Then they stay fairly organized, and the leader makes Nicos the sole "policeman" of the group. The laws are simple, straight forward, and easy to understand. The punishment for violating those laws are equally simple, straight forward, and easy to understand: if found guilty, you pay resitution (maybe) or you die (usually).

I thought this was pretty awesome: even chaos needs a little organization, even anarchy has a couple of rules. Even prisoners and convicts understand that, when there is strength in numbers, ya gotta keep them numbers all going in the same direction. That takes organization, rules, and enforcement, or survival is no longer an option. ( )