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kaje_harper's review
4.0
This is the near-future story of a man who was orphaned in a failed colonial revolt at age nine, and essentially enslaved (despite calling it a "contract") to a man who runs sex workers and gathers information on his wealthy clients. Remy has grown up to become very, very good at his job. Then he's sent as an unwanted gift to spend time with Adam, a man whose motives are more honorable than Remy ever expected to find, and who is tangled up in the chance of a new revolution.
I really enjoyed the character of Remy, and his struggles to find dignity and control in the life of sex-work and information-gathering that had been forced on him. I thought he was well drawn and believable, against the backdrop of Adam's privileged almost-innocence. And I was cheering for him to break out of his constraints, and pleased that the author didn't just have him suddenly shrug off every remnant of his past and his conditioning. I definitely empathized with him.
The plot was light, but a reasonable backdrop, although the end came too quickly and easily. In a society where, despite the heavy automated surveillance measures, enforcement is still done by humans, I envisioned something far more serious and chaotic. So I felt a little dropped out of the story at the end. But it was Remy who pulled me back in, and sent me looking for the next book to find out how the next part of the story goes.
I really enjoyed the character of Remy, and his struggles to find dignity and control in the life of sex-work and information-gathering that had been forced on him. I thought he was well drawn and believable, against the backdrop of Adam's privileged almost-innocence. And I was cheering for him to break out of his constraints, and pleased that the author didn't just have him suddenly shrug off every remnant of his past and his conditioning. I definitely empathized with him.
The plot was light, but a reasonable backdrop, although the end came too quickly and easily. In a society where, despite the heavy automated surveillance measures, enforcement is still done by humans, I envisioned something far more serious and chaotic. So I felt a little dropped out of the story at the end. But it was Remy who pulled me back in, and sent me looking for the next book to find out how the next part of the story goes.
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