A review by depizan
The Caledonian Gambit by Dan Moren

2.0

The devil is in the details and the details are where this book fails. Oh, it's a competent enough spy story, it's just that the sci-fi aspect keeps wandering off. Far too much of the book felt like it was taking place on Earth in the present day. That wouldn't have been a fatal flaw if it weren't for the lack of stakes, a problem that also largely goes back to the worldbuilding. Caledonia, the Illyrican Empire, the Commonwealth...the audience has no preset investment in the well-being of any of these governments or places and the book doesn't give us enough to get invested. Or at least not enough for me to.

Part of the problem is that one of the main characters seems to have no investment in any of them. He's Caledonian, but he enlisted in the conquering Illyrican's military, and then he's been stranded in the back of beyond for five years and...he has no investment in the book's central plot, basically. And when the characters don't care, the audience starts to wonder why they should.

Okay, yes, the other main character had the investment of being a Commonwealth agent, but somehow the stakes still didn't work. The time pressure of the plot never felt like pressure. (Maybe because the whole idea of dragging in this guy because his brother's involved - a brother he hasn't seen in nine years, I might add - didn't feel like desperation so much as "eh, this could work.")

(I'm pretty sure there were also timeline problems in the back story. Like I said. Devil. Details.)