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oleksandr 's review for:
Embers of War
by Gareth L. Powell
This is a military SF with a twist that won British Science Fiction Association Award for Best Novel in 2018. Currently I prefer British SF to the USA one and therefore decided to read it. I read is as a Buddy read for April 2020 at SFF Hot from Printers: New Releases group.
The story starts with a bang: there is some space battle and one of the sides to speed up capitulation of the other orders bombing of a planet with a sentient forest.
Then we are brought a few years forward, the war is over and one of the ships that did the bombing, named Trouble Dog defected from the Navy (for it/she is sentient) and joined an organization that helps people in distress across the galaxy. The ship’s captain is Sal Konstanz, who was a medical officer of the losing side during the war. Together with the saved marine Alva Clay and spider-like hermaphrodite alien technician/mechanic Nod they try to save lives. The space liner is torpedoed by unknown hostiles at a peculiar star system, where planets are carved into abstract sculptures. One of the passengers on the liner was a poet Ona Sudak, who harbors a secret for which possibly the liner was shot. On the way to the crash site Trouble Dog acquires more passengers with own agendas.
The setting is interesting, characters are diverse and there story more or less flows. At the same time, changing point of view every single chapter is a bit disorienting at the beginning because a reader (at least me) isn’t invested enough in character to recall them instantly. A very idea of post-war mil-SF with characters, who try to atone for their sins is quite strong.
What makes this book less than great is that the idea isn’t followed through by the author: repentant characters have no qualms of conscience for killing others whom they see as ‘bad’, just like they did during the war. The social issues are also quite one sided, as one of the characters states:
“The Conglomeration despised us because they thought we cared nothing for the traditions of Old Earth. They thought we were reckless and naïve in our openness to alien ideas and influence, and the way we embraced new philosophies, new arts and new gods. We believed in universal healthcare and common ownership of resources and infrastructure, while they worshipped the free market and the individual accumulation of wealth and power for its own sake.”
So, there are clearly good socialists, who lost to bad capitalists, described as two-dimensional cartoons.
An interesting but not groundbreaking novel in the tradition of Culture series by [a:Iain M. Banks|5807106|Iain M. Banks|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1352410520p2/5807106.jpg], which hasn’t lived to its full potential.
The story starts with a bang: there is some space battle and one of the sides to speed up capitulation of the other orders bombing of a planet with a sentient forest.
Then we are brought a few years forward, the war is over and one of the ships that did the bombing, named Trouble Dog defected from the Navy (for it/she is sentient) and joined an organization that helps people in distress across the galaxy. The ship’s captain is Sal Konstanz, who was a medical officer of the losing side during the war. Together with the saved marine Alva Clay and spider-like hermaphrodite alien technician/mechanic Nod they try to save lives. The space liner is torpedoed by unknown hostiles at a peculiar star system, where planets are carved into abstract sculptures. One of the passengers on the liner was a poet Ona Sudak, who harbors a secret for which possibly the liner was shot. On the way to the crash site Trouble Dog acquires more passengers with own agendas.
The setting is interesting, characters are diverse and there story more or less flows. At the same time, changing point of view every single chapter is a bit disorienting at the beginning because a reader (at least me) isn’t invested enough in character to recall them instantly. A very idea of post-war mil-SF with characters, who try to atone for their sins is quite strong.
What makes this book less than great is that the idea isn’t followed through by the author: repentant characters have no qualms of conscience for killing others whom they see as ‘bad’, just like they did during the war. The social issues are also quite one sided, as one of the characters states:
“The Conglomeration despised us because they thought we cared nothing for the traditions of Old Earth. They thought we were reckless and naïve in our openness to alien ideas and influence, and the way we embraced new philosophies, new arts and new gods. We believed in universal healthcare and common ownership of resources and infrastructure, while they worshipped the free market and the individual accumulation of wealth and power for its own sake.”
So, there are clearly good socialists, who lost to bad capitalists, described as two-dimensional cartoons.
An interesting but not groundbreaking novel in the tradition of Culture series by [a:Iain M. Banks|5807106|Iain M. Banks|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1352410520p2/5807106.jpg], which hasn’t lived to its full potential.