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trike's review
3.0
This is a darker version of Meluch's Tour of the Merrimack series, with some harder SF elements underneath, but it's still action-packed. In tone and content, this is very much a bridge novel between her debut novel [b:Sovereign|2158471|Sovereign|R.M. Meluch|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1332867762s/2158471.jpg|627011] back in the '70s and her more recent Merrimack books.
Having just rewatched Rogue One last night, I find comparisons between this book and that film are inevitable. Just as Rogue One is the darkest entry in the Star Wars franchise, so this is the grimmest entry in Meluch's oeuvre. A lot of heavy emotional themes and hardcore violence with lots of death abound here.
The book starts off with a dark prelude, then does that "two years earlier" thing so popular in many stories, downshifting into a much lighter adventure. But that death-infused shadow hangs over the witty banter which propels the universe-building forward. Knowing Meluch's work, I was pretty sure the Scalzi-before-Scalzi tone was there to lull the reader into a false sense of security, that somehow the dark scene in the prologue would have a twist to make it better. And she does hint at that, with the introduction of amazing high-tech healing devices, immortal humans, and other goodies.
Spoiler: it stays dark.
Which is fine. While Scalzi-esque lightweight space opera is fun, and often preferable escapism, it's nice to read stories with teeth now and again.
The reason I give this 3 stars instead of 4 is because it feels like there's something missing. The immortals exist, but we're never given an explanation of how or why they came to be. Given that she devotes entire pages to how FTL works, how the various solar systems work, and how language has changed, it's an odd thing to leave out. I kind of think she was saving it for a sequel which never materialized.
Thematically, the immortal humans are key to the story, offering a contrast to the sacrifices and tragedies regular mortal humans experience, but it's a bothersome blank at the heart of the story that I kept waiting to be revealed. Maybe that's why there weren't any follow-ups to this book. Of course, the graphic torture scenes certainly didn't help. While important to the development of two of the characters, it's not a lot of fun to read about.
Anyway, it's still worth the read, because she writes cracking good action scenes and the story has a nice payoff once everything comes together.
Having just rewatched Rogue One last night, I find comparisons between this book and that film are inevitable. Just as Rogue One is the darkest entry in the Star Wars franchise, so this is the grimmest entry in Meluch's oeuvre. A lot of heavy emotional themes and hardcore violence with lots of death abound here.
The book starts off with a dark prelude, then does that "two years earlier" thing so popular in many stories, downshifting into a much lighter adventure. But that death-infused shadow hangs over the witty banter which propels the universe-building forward. Knowing Meluch's work, I was pretty sure the Scalzi-before-Scalzi tone was there to lull the reader into a false sense of security, that somehow the dark scene in the prologue would have a twist to make it better. And she does hint at that, with the introduction of amazing high-tech healing devices, immortal humans, and other goodies.
Spoiler: it stays dark.
Which is fine. While Scalzi-esque lightweight space opera is fun, and often preferable escapism, it's nice to read stories with teeth now and again.
The reason I give this 3 stars instead of 4 is because it feels like there's something missing. The immortals exist, but we're never given an explanation of how or why they came to be. Given that she devotes entire pages to how FTL works, how the various solar systems work, and how language has changed, it's an odd thing to leave out. I kind of think she was saving it for a sequel which never materialized.
Thematically, the immortal humans are key to the story, offering a contrast to the sacrifices and tragedies regular mortal humans experience, but it's a bothersome blank at the heart of the story that I kept waiting to be revealed. Maybe that's why there weren't any follow-ups to this book. Of course, the graphic torture scenes certainly didn't help. While important to the development of two of the characters, it's not a lot of fun to read about.
Anyway, it's still worth the read, because she writes cracking good action scenes and the story has a nice payoff once everything comes together.
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