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franklywrites's review against another edition
Having read Starship Troopers only recently, it comes as no surprise that Heinlein is listed at the top of the author's influences. Take the Shilling feels incredibly similar in format and style. I'm guessing the universe it takes place within is the one described in one of the author's interviews: a future where planets are colonised in ideological groups, as the only realistic way such attempts would be funded. The main character practices a religion that means he can't view images or recorded video, and it's interesting to see how this plays out alongside his military career throughout the book.
I enjoyed the story, though I didn't find the combat quite as easy to follow as in Starship Troopers. I did love that most of it took place on a tidally locked planet where its sun was always in a fixed position, leading to terms like darkward and sunward for directions. It did take me an embarrassingly long time to connect the dots between that and the phrase 'a darkly breeze', though!
It's very man-centric, mind, and more so than Starship Troopers felt, bizarrely. The only women of note were an unkind mother, a prostitute (by religion) and a therapist. The prostitute religion was... interesting, and I'm not the greatest fan of how flowery the language got in related scenes. The need to refer to genitalia in French, while appropriate given the character's upbringing, was quite distracting.
It was an easy read, though, and good to see the main character grow and face his past along the way, through many morally questionable events.
I enjoyed the story, though I didn't find the combat quite as easy to follow as in Starship Troopers. I did love that most of it took place on a tidally locked planet where its sun was always in a fixed position, leading to terms like darkward and sunward for directions. It did take me an embarrassingly long time to connect the dots between that and the phrase 'a darkly breeze', though!
It's very man-centric, mind, and more so than Starship Troopers felt, bizarrely. The only women of note were an unkind mother, a prostitute (by religion) and a therapist. The prostitute religion was... interesting, and I'm not the greatest fan of how flowery the language got in related scenes. The need to refer to genitalia in French, while appropriate given the character's upbringing, was quite distracting.
It was an easy read, though, and good to see the main character grow and face his past along the way, through many morally questionable events.
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