2011 SF, first of a five-book series. Ia is a precognitive who
foresees the collapse of human civilisation… unless she takes a
specific path, which starts with becoming a space marine.
This is not a good book. The material is derivative (why, yes, we
have read stories of space boot camp before) and infodumpy (we will
list and describe all thirteen types of ammunition fired by the
standard space marine projectile weapon). The writing is clunky and
often ungrammatical:
Not that the tunnel was warm, but her exertions were taking its
toll.
or simply repetitive:
"I'll cover this mission, and see what help we can get," Sranna asked.
"Discreetly, but you'll need whatever help you can get."
(Asked?)
And the lead character has All The Powers: she's a heavyworlder who is
stronger and faster than any normal human. She's pre- and
post-cognitive to the point that it can tell her all sorts of trivial
things (when and where to throw a rock to head off an animal attack on
a refugee camp, where and when to move to win a fight) as well as the
big stuff (she knows all the things that might go wrong on every
mission she's on, and how to avoid them). In her spare time she writes
letters like
Hugo is not the best partner for you. Tell him he deserves someone
who has more in common with him, and that you are moving. Take the
job offer in Capsicum Warren; it will lead to something better.
Ignore the job offer in Greenleaf, it's not as good as it looks.
Make sure you have moved by no later than TS 2513.10.02. Once you
do, look for the man with two earrings in his left ear. Forgive him
on the second date, ignore the incident on the third. Avoid the trip
to Halfway Warren TS 2633.04.23-27 at all costs, extended family
included. The disaster would be restricted to your family, but with
far-reaching consequences. Do not go. Otherwise, live long and well.
She's electrokinetic and can control any computer from a distance and
heal herself from power supplies. She can grab tranquiliser darts out
of the air and throw them back at her attackers. She can put people
"into the timestreams", showing them what she sees, and afterwards
they are her devoted servants. She can deal on nearly equal terms with
the hidden energy beings who sometimes take over humans, and whom
nobody else knows about. She's dedicated three years of her life to
being perfectly ready to enter basic training. She also has a great
singing voice and a gift for improvisational rhyme, as well as
naturally white hair (isn't unusual hair colour on the Mary Sue
checklists?).
And yet, and yet, Johnson just manages to pull it off, by making the
thing Ia is fighting against so huge (and, at this point in the
series, so ill-defined) that it seems as though it might just
plausibly be a fitting challenge for this person who is so incapable
of failure that she has to fake mistakes in order to look realistic.
And apart from the infelicities, the writing does a decent job of
keeping things moving, particularly in action scenes.
So this is very definitely light and undemanding reading. Do not
expect much, and you will not be disappointed. But if you can
calibrate your expectations correctly there is definite enjoyment to
be had here. I'll be amazed if Johnson doesn't drop the ball when the
big nasty has to be described in a bit more detail, but I'll read
along and find out. Followed by An Officer's Duty.
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