W J Long Iii

This book starts off fast-paced, feeling like a relatively standard science fiction action story, where our main characters (who are mercenaries) are trying to get one last job in while they can pretend they don't realize the war is over. The plot at this point is very straight forward, and it felt to me like the book was going to be a fast read based on the pacing of this opening section. And then... disaster strikes a couple of members of our team, there is a fade-to-black, and the book jumps 6 years into the future.

At that point in the book, I felt there was a tone shift. It seemed to me that it went from being a traditional science fiction action book to something a lot more lyrical—still definitely science fiction, but the focus wasn't on the action anymore. The focus was on the setting, the people, the world... and the action was secondary. We only learned what happened over those 6 missing years gradually, and I was very confused about the situation and what (and who) was still important for a large chunk of the first quarter of the book. This change in tone and focus was interesting, don't get me wrong. But it took me a while to adjust to it after the switch from the more traditional opener.

I enjoyed many of the characters in this book. I especially liked Claude and Vision's sections. They seemed to be the main characters in the story, even though they were by no means the only POV characters. And on that note... there were a LOT of POV characters. Too many, in my opinion. I think the book would have been better served by cutting out the chapters written from the POV of minor characters, which could partly serve to enhance the tension as the reader knows something has happened but doesn't know what. In my opinion, keeping 4 or 5 POVs is plenty. Instead, just off the top of my head I can think of at least 10 POV characters, even though some only had a chapter or two.

I also noticed that there was a lot of repetition in this book—partly because of the several POVs meaning we got multiple characters' opinions on the same thing, but also there were times when recent events were rehashed after spending a chapter or two in someone else's POV. It felt to me like more recapping than was necessary.

I think the worldbuilding was my favorite part of this book. The silver, Psyonics, and all the mish-mash of tech blends together to make a fascinating setting for the story. I particularly liked the history of how humanity came to be where they are in this series, with minimal (but present) links to some bits of our pop culture and history.

I also appreciated that we got to see the motivations for the antagonists as well as the protagonists. (I wouldn't cut those POVs, for the record.) It was interesting to me to see that there was character growth for several characters, and not just the good guys.

In short, I feel that this book has incredible potential. I think that the worldbuilding and the plot are very strong, and lots of the descriptions were great and written in prettier prose than usually found in science fiction. (Which is a good and distinctive thing.) However, I think that the length and plethora of narrators holds it back. I think that if some of the minor POVs were cut, requiring less recapping, that would go a long way toward improving the book overall.

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I read this book as part of the judging process for the 3rd Self Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC3), and I was provided a review copy for judging purposes. My opinions are my own and do not reflect the thoughts of my SPSFC3 team or the competition as a whole.… (more)