Clone Corps and Non-Citizen Warriors

One obvious one I'm sure simply slipped the Beast's mind is Timothy Zahn's
Cobra. While Zahn ducks a lot of the psychoanalysis by making them hardwired
implants which actually override a soldier's conscious reflexes, there's no
doubt the novel points a finger at the misunderstandings arising from combat
reflexes in a peacetime setting. Zahn then goes on to give the soldiers a sort
of Gulf War syndrome (painful chronic illnesses due to wartime modifications)
and then makes an argument for why Cobra warriors are still more valuable than
comparably armed soldiers.

But now we're talking about training, conditioning, and treatment of
relatively valuable soldiers. Anyone have a take on Mr.Barclay's original
topic which is a corps of warriors which you consider low-value or would
rather dispose of than reintegrate? I think he was talking about hordes of
clones, but could equally apply to troops you freeze between battles rather
than granting R&R. These could be berserkers, non-humans, non-sentients,
automata, or just grossly abused citizens.

Just to spin another layer of OT, a friend raves about a book which he read,
but doesn't know title or author. The story is about the personality of a
soldier. The personality is backed up at the end of each successful battle or
campaign, then reanimated for the next fight. His memory, as it builds, is a
continuous stream of battles. Curiously enough, the author includes
bits like his contemporaries/peers who often fight the same battles or
against him in the same battles, but have different memories based on whether
they survived that battle or whether their side won. I like the sound of the
book, but obviously don't know how to find it. Anyone else read this one?

Hi Tom,

I've read this; it was a short story actually. They started out cryogenically
freezing the troops, then technology advanced to the point that they cloned
the handful of survivors and imprinted them with Personality Records....The
central character is one such soldier and the irony of the story was that the
enemy conducted a number of raids and 'snatched' a quantity of personality
records; the end result of which our perticular hero is killed by
himself.....I've been digging around my bookshelves in vain for days now!

BIG SNIP

> Just to spin another layer of OT, a friend raves about a book