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A review by oleksandr
Stormblood by Jeremy Szal
3.0
This is a military SF /space opera debut novel by [a:Jeremy Szal|8296791|Jeremy Szal|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1483078639p2/8296791.jpg]. I read is as a part of monthly reading for September 2020 at SFF Hot from Printers: New Releases group.
The story is about Vakov Fukasawa, a human, who lived in a colony planet called New Vladivostok. As a young boy he was recruited by an alien intergalactic governing body of Harmony against a brutal invading empire of Harvest. “Reapers to clear the Harvest away.” – was a chart of Harmony’s bio-modified soldiers and he was one of them. They were changed using a virus from an extinct alien race, which gave them almost superpowers (including a kind of spider sense and quick regeneration), but made almost impossible to withstand urges and mood swings. It is known as stormtech or stormblood.
Seven years passed after the war, which Reapers helped to win. Now Vak is living in an asteroid turned space post called Compass, one of the major Harmony’s space hubs. After some recovery, Vak, together with a hacker genius Grim, is in semi-legal business of helping clients getting what they need. In this case attempting to steel a genome from an organized crime lab. However, the work hasn’t gone smoothly and quite soon Vak in in the middle of political and social crisis.
The start of the novel was quite strong and the concept – quite interesting. This is more a story in SF entourage than true SF, with wars between hi-tech aliens won by grunts, even in hand-to-hand combat; the asteroid has no problems with different gravitation pull, etc. This is no different from say, Star Wars, so this is only a problem if one expects SF.
The story is partially a variant of a soldier, who was addicted to drugs during the war and now in a painful withdrawal/recovery. To some extent as a story set after the global conflict as opposed to mil-SF in the middle of it, it reminded me of [b:Embers of War|30748899|Embers of War (Embers of War, #1)|Gareth L. Powell|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1502367097l/30748899._SY75_.jpg|51294683], despite the plots are quite different. In addition, there is a history of abusive parenting, a family turned against each other…
While the beginning was strong, the story weakened as it progressed, so the result is just an average space opera
The story is about Vakov Fukasawa, a human, who lived in a colony planet called New Vladivostok. As a young boy he was recruited by an alien intergalactic governing body of Harmony against a brutal invading empire of Harvest. “Reapers to clear the Harvest away.” – was a chart of Harmony’s bio-modified soldiers and he was one of them. They were changed using a virus from an extinct alien race, which gave them almost superpowers (including a kind of spider sense and quick regeneration), but made almost impossible to withstand urges and mood swings. It is known as stormtech or stormblood.
Seven years passed after the war, which Reapers helped to win. Now Vak is living in an asteroid turned space post called Compass, one of the major Harmony’s space hubs. After some recovery, Vak, together with a hacker genius Grim, is in semi-legal business of helping clients getting what they need. In this case attempting to steel a genome from an organized crime lab. However, the work hasn’t gone smoothly and quite soon Vak in in the middle of political and social crisis.
The start of the novel was quite strong and the concept – quite interesting. This is more a story in SF entourage than true SF, with wars between hi-tech aliens won by grunts, even in hand-to-hand combat; the asteroid has no problems with different gravitation pull, etc. This is no different from say, Star Wars, so this is only a problem if one expects SF.
The story is partially a variant of a soldier, who was addicted to drugs during the war and now in a painful withdrawal/recovery. To some extent as a story set after the global conflict as opposed to mil-SF in the middle of it, it reminded me of [b:Embers of War|30748899|Embers of War (Embers of War, #1)|Gareth L. Powell|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1502367097l/30748899._SY75_.jpg|51294683], despite the plots are quite different. In addition, there is a history of abusive parenting, a family turned against each other…
While the beginning was strong, the story weakened as it progressed, so the result is just an average space opera