2004 military SF, first of a series of twelve books so far with at
least two more planned. Kris Longknife, daughter of the Prime Minister
of the long-settled world of Wardhaven, joined the Navy to get away
from politics. But as the old alliance of humanity falls apart, it's
not going to be that easy.
In many mil-sf books (and much military fiction in general), the
military are Right (unless they're Bad Soldiers) and the politicians
are Wrong. Here, refreshingly, that's not the case: our heroine's
family are politicians as well as military, the opposed politicians
who are clamoring for separation from Earth have at least some valid
points, and the old soldiers, the ones who were in the big war against
the aliens seventy years ago when they were young and foolhardy, are
harking back to their glory days and suggesting that a good war is
just what these young people need to shape them up a bit. That may not
be much political sophistication, but by mil-SF standards it's
revolutionary.
The weakest part is the initial action sequence, as Kris has repeated
flashbacks to a traumatic event in her childhood while flying a combat
drop. It's a blatant device to tell us about her background, but it
feels out of place in an adult even if she's in a stressful situation.
After that, she's home on furlough, sent to a colony world where the
infrastructure has collapsed and the relief mission doesn't seem to be
doing anything about it, home again, and then off on a fleet operation
as Earth, Wardhaven and other powers send ships on a diplomatic
mission. And of course you've read the title…
Yes, all right, Kris is rich and skilled and a natural leader, and has
a pet AI that cracks computers for her. But also she has a surname
that leads all her superiors to assume she's just racking up military
service points for her future political career, everything she does in
public will be given a political interpretation whether she wants it
or not, and with two famous war-hero grandparents she's so thoroughly
internalised the idea of having no other choice but to do the Right
Thing that she sometimes fails to see how many other Right Things are
possible.
The world-building is decent on a technological level, though
reconfigurable smart-metal, used for combat spacecraft as well as for
some other devices, seems much higher tech than the rest of what we
see (hand weapons still fire bullets, for example). Not every device
works flawlessly every time. There's been some thought put into the
design of the spacecraft. But tech and space battles aren't the focus
of this book, and there aren't many rivets to count here; it's much
more about the people.
The world-building on a social level is perhaps aided by the fact that
this isn't Shepherd's first visit to this universe: there's an earlier
trilogy dealing with what those grandparents got up to. I haven't read
those, but I may well go back and do so.
No sex scenes. No long lingering description of the heroine's
appearance. No boot camp sequence. This is a breath of fresh air in
my military SF reading, even if it does also include a Highland
Regiment that apparently comes from England. Followed by Deserter.
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