The Profession by Steven Pressfield

Published by Crown on June 14, 2011

The Profession is simultaneously a science fiction novel (to the extent that it's set in the near future), a military novel (although most of the fighting is done by private armies), and a political thriller. The novel works best as a cautionary tale; as a representative of any (or all) of those genres, it's lacking.

In the 2032 imagined by Steven Pressfield, private mercenary forces, primarily serving foreign governments and multinational petroleum companies, are all over the Middle East. Gilbert "Gent" Gentilhomme, who believes himself to be the reincarnation of an ancient warrior, works for Force Insertion, the largest of the private armies. Told in the first person from Gent's perspective, the story begins with furious action as Gent leads a team of mercenaries on a rescue mission. Gent's next mission (in Tajikistan) is assigned by the CEO of Force Insertion, James Salter, a former general and current narcissist who has an agenda beyond that of Force Insertion's customer base.

Cautionary tales can make compelling fiction (1984 is an enduring example); The Profession misses that mark. About a third of the way in, the action halts so that Pressfield can explain the rise of private armies. A longish chapter in the middle recounts Gent's African exploits while he was still a Marine and explains Salter's military downfall -- a Heart of Darkness diversion that contributes little to the plot and adds to character development in only a superficial way. This is followed by another longish chapter that relates the (future) history of the Middle East which, like the (past) history, has a lot to do with war, oil, and American and Saudi politics. All of this mood-deadening exposition acts as a drag on a story that depends on action to justify its billing as a thriller.

The book becomes interesting when Salter decides to engage in a rather aggressive act of nation-building. Salter is a truly scary dude. He describes himself as a warrior who worships "the god of strife," a fighter who strides "into harm's way for no cause, no dream, no crusade, but only for the striding itself and for the comrades at my side." This is the kind of megalomaniac who starts wars solely because he likes war. Whether Salter's actions (and, more importantly, the reactions in the United States and the rest of the world) are plausible is questionable, but this is a work of fiction; I won't downgrade it for telling an unlikely story. I will, however, criticize Pressfield for creating characters who are stereotypes and for killing the novel's momentum in the middle chapters. I liked the beginning and the ending (it avoided the predictable finish that I was dreading) and I appreciated the story's cautionary value, but as a novel The Profession has serious problems.

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