2020 young adult SF, middle volume of a trilogy. Maseo Kaytu has done
the previously impossible and operated one of the mysterious CAV
weapons as its pilot rather than as a remote controller. What next?
As a story of soldiering, this is a fair bit more gritty than a
lot of young adult material. Friends die, and not always for important
reasons; sometimes it just happens. Various secrets have to be kept
from some people and shared with others. Kaytu is sometimes on the
simplistic side, as he takes most of what he's given at face value and
an eventual act of rebellion shocks even him; but as a combination of
someone native to this quite odd world, and an anchor point for the
reader, he works pretty well.
There's more worldbuilding here, and speculation, and the gradual
uncovering of how things fit together is great fun. The squad bond
that was a standout element of the original book is back, and for that
alone I'd recommend this series, for understanding a part of the
military mindset that has nothing to do with uniforms and salutes.
"That vend"—Li pings a new machine in the corner—"will provide
unlimited stim-chords at no charge. I'm legally obliged to inform
you that prolonged use may cause psychosis and/or syncopal fugue."
"So we should use them wisely?" Werz asks.
"Either that," Li says, "or we should do the job."
This is a middle volume, of course, but it manages to be one with a
climactic battle at the end, and big (though incomplete) revelations
about what's been going on all this time. And at the same time it
manages to remain human in scale.
"A single warhead. Worthless. It's like being a kid again, taking
potshots at balcony parties with my mom's crappy old shell-gun."
"Tell me you didn't actually do that." M'bari stares at her. "Why
fire a shell-gun at innocent people?"
"I was just a kid," Cali explains. "I didn't have a rifle."
It still feels a bit odd, perhaps because it's being written to appeal
to people who aren't me, but it holds together through the problems.
Strangely appealing.
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