The premise: from BN.com, which is also the backcover blurb: The Erasmus System is a sprawling realm of slavery, smugglers, spies—and constant, creeping decrepitude. Here everyone who is not part of the ruling Four Families is a slave of one kind or another. But the Guardians, a special-forces branch inside the United World Government for Earth, have deemed Erasmus a “hot spot.” Somehow, it is believed, this failing colony intends to launch a war upon the solar system.

Ex-Field Commander Terese Drajeske, now a mother of three, has been called back to active duty and sent to Erasmus, ostensibly to investigate the murder of her colleague—and friend—Bianca Fayette. At first blush, the death defies explanation: Bianca was immortal. But beneath that single murder lies a twisted foundation of deceptions. Suddenly Terese is plunged into a vortex of shattered lives, endemic deceit, and one dreadful secret. In this society without hope, someone has put into motion a plan that will cast humanity into chaos. And Terese, who has given up her family and her sanity to prevent war, may be asked to make the ultimate sacrifice….

My Rating

Give It Away: this is a hard book to rate, because in truth, the ending alone is what MADE this book and is what will make me seriously consider a sequel. Whether there will be a sequel or not, I don't know, but I definitely won't ignore future offerings from this author, and that's all based on the strength of the ending. That said, Anderson's complex plot is such that, while it leaves you guessing as to what's REALLY going on, it also keeps your head in a cloud, making it difficult for the reader to figure it out for herself. It's not an easy book to classify either: it's kind of military-SF, kind of space opera, and kind of . . . I'm not sure what. Yes, it's SF, but on one hand, while it reads like SF and will appeal to readers of both genders, on the other hand, there's something about it that doesn't read like SF at all, and not in a good way. I think it's the cloud I felt I was reading through, and hey, maybe that's just my problem. :) I will say that if you figure out what's REALLY going on before it's revealed, you should give yourself a pat on the back, because I sure couldn't connect the dots, not until I was supposed to. :)

Review style: we're dividing this sucker up. Likes and dislikes, because I think it'll help me wrap my head around the book. Spoilers? No. I don't think I could spoil this if I tried. :) So if you're interested in the FULL review, feel free to head to my LJ by clicking the link below. As always, comments and discussion are most welcome. :)

REVIEW: C.L. Anderson's BITTER ANGELS

Happy Reading! ( )

I picked up this book based on a Big Idea post before I discovered that the author is Sarah Zettel (whom I already like) with a new nom de plume. She gives us a fine far-future intrigue, with several viewpoint characters caught up in schemes where no one really knows what’s going on. I was particularly impressed by the depiction of a society that has managed to both keep a lid on humanity’s natural warring tendencies and cope with the societal effects of radical life extension. There is a subtle metafictional element as the author hints at tropes from softer space opera genres to put more possibilities in the reader’s mind when trying to unravel the conspiracy, then eventually resolves it in a different way; I found it disconcerting at first when she rang a few “cheesy paranormal romance” alarm bells, but by the time she pulled it with a second genre I found the effect amusing. ( )

I found this very impressive for a first novel. It seems war is going to break out from
a brutal system based on slavery. The good guy's (the guardian's) main agent on the
spot is killed in a robbery and a retired agent, Terese, is brought in to replace here.
The problem is that the threat of war is a cover for a much nastier plan...

The writing is good too. My one carp is that I did not find the description of Terese's family life
convincing. ( )

http://bactra.org/weblog/algae-2009-1... ( )

The Guardians endorse peace. Mostly. Though the rules and edicts strictly forbid any Guardian from killing--even in self defense--the Guardians are not altogether without violence and certainly have enough cunning. Terese lived these edicts once, before she was horrifically tortured and before she retired. Now she tries to live life with her family and forget any duty except to her three children and husband. However, Terese's life is turned upside down when the woman who saved Terese from torture is murdered. Not only is Bianca murdered, but as she died she named Terese as her replacement. Despite reservations, Terese finds herself heading off to one of the 'hot spots' of utmost danger: Erasmus system.

Bitter Angels is a little bit military sci-fi, a little bit spy novel, a little bit ambiguous. The story is ambitious, stretching across worlds, a large cast of characters, and layer upon layer of plot.

Getting into Bitter Angels is a little bit difficult. By which I mean that the author begins with an incredibly off-putting prologue that means nothing until about 300 pages later--and even then doesn't really serve any purpose. Feel free to skip these 4 pages.

The beginning ramps up the interest as soon as the story begins to settle upon Terese's decision, in my opinion. She is by far the most interesting character in Bitter Angels and truly the person the entire story revolves around and hinges upon. Her dilemma of choosing between two types of duty is heart wrenching--should she serve her duty to her family or to preserving the peace? And if she enjoys one more than the other, should she feel guilty?

Although the middle sags a little under the weight of Anderson trying to dispense information, I think it's made bearable by the details. The cast is strong, if not as strong as Terese. (Particularly Amerand, Siri, and Vijay.) Additional technological and social details like the companions (which are basically implanted best friends into the minds of each Guardian) and the Clerks (who watch over everything and provide Big Brother-esque surveillance) are intriguing as well as disturbing.

The only other problem I had with Bitter Angels was a few sketchy parts in the plot, which always seemed to be in regards to Bianca. However, these are easily looked past when considering the truly powerful other elements of the plot. Especially the end makes up for any slack in suspense through the rest of the novel, because I was utterly struck by the last three pages.

In the end, I recommend Bitter Angels with qualifications. It has some truly excellent questions and elements despite some slow parts, a few sketchy sections of the plot, and an utterly useless prologue. Bitter Angels is an incredibly ambitious and riveting novel. And I truly hope to see more of Terese and Amerand in another book. ( )

I picked this up after reading the author's comments about it on John Scalzi's blog (see the link to the published review). Her main point is that conflict makes for good story telling, war makes for conflict, so lots of SF is about war. Her premise was to try and write about peace instead. What would it mean to be a peaceful society and what lengths would that society go to in order to maintain peace, without become totalitarian eugenicists. Not an easy task, as she says "For starters, I realized I had to make a peace where people were not completely peaceful. Nobody is or wants to be completely peaceful all the time..." All of that made me think this could be a really interesting story, so I tracked down a copy and read it. Does she succeed in writing an interesting story about peace and maintaining the peace?

In this universe Earth is the hub of an interstellar human-only (apparently there is no other intelligent life out there) society. It guarantees freedom of movement, religion, thought, etc. Presumably governments are freely elected. Outside of it are various splinter human groups that aren't necessarily peaceful, and don't necessarily provide all the same privileges. In United World Government people can live centuries, even be immortal (but they have to continue to choose to be immortal and start over with a new job, no money, etc. at least once a century) and a group called the Guardians is there to protect the UWG and the peace. Think CIA plus FBI plus Delta Force, only not allowed to kill anyone, with technology that would make Q drool. The Guardians go to the frontier and keep an eye on the bad guys and make sure they don't get out of hand.

Terese Drajeske is a former guardian, happily retired after being captured and tortured in the line of duty, eventually to be rescued by her friend, mentor, and colleague Bianca Fayette. Of course, she doesn't stay that way because Bianca has been killed in the Erasmus System and her dying wish was for Terese to rejoin the Guardians, investigate her death and stop the bad guys. Who are the ruling family running the Erasmus system, engaging in slavery, human experimentation, panopticon like surveillance, and apparently scheming to start a war that will destroy the UWG.

If that sounds like a novel about "peace" to you, I'd be surprised. Without having read CL Anderson's own description of how she got started on the novel, I would probably have noticed the aggressively non-lethal policy of the Guardians as an interesting twist but not much more. The problem is, as she said, conflict is what makes for a story. So the novel isn't very much about that peaceful society. It is about the conflict at the edges of it, and skating the very fine line between "peace" and "not peace". In a lot of ways it could just as easily be a western, kind of like The Lone Ranger, the good authority figure riding in to save the downtrodden from the bad guys, only with more of The Wild Wild West aspect of superior tech and never actually killing anyone. At a couple of points it is pretty clear that the *only* thing preserving the Guardians and the UWG is their superior technology, and if they were to lose that edge they'd be a long way up the proverbial creek without any kind of paddle.

Thinking about that aspect of it made me realize that Anderson's starting point isn't that unique. For example, Ian Bank's Culture novels start from a similar premise, except that the society of The Culture *has* met a hostile and technologically equal or superior society.

Biter Angels is a terrific first novel - well written, well paced, interesting & well realized characters. There are some very interesting ideas behind the novel, and they poke through without becoming preachy or distracting. I think CL Anderson is going to do very well and I'm going to enjoy reading more of her books. ( )