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Warchild #2
Burndive
From the author of the acclaimed and bestselling debut novel Warchild comes a new action-packed adventure about a young man's journey into adulthood amid interstellar war.
432 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 1, 2003
28 people are currently reading
474 people want to read
About the author
Karin Lowachee
62 books357 followersKarin was born in South America, grew up in Canada, and worked in the Arctic. Her novels have been translated into French, Hebrew, and Japanese, and her short stories have been published in numerous anthologies and magazines, some of which were edited by John Joseph Adams, Nalo Hopkinson, Nisi Shawl and Ann VanderMeer. When she isn't writing, she serves at the whim of a black cat.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 84 reviews
December 30, 2022
Well, I burned through this second book in the series (pun intended) in a day and while I didn't love it with quite the passion I did its predecessor, WARCHILD, I did enjoy it. This universe is so compelling, and these characters are so well written that it's hard not to simply want to spend more time with them and get to know them better. In other words, I am invested, which is some of the highest praise I can give a book.
On to Book 3 because how could I not?
On to Book 3 because how could I not?
August 8, 2017
Warchild, Burndive, Cagebird
Interesting series. I got these because I'd seen them highly reviewed somewhere; of course, now I don't remember where.
In many ways, they're basic military SF - I'd recommend them, with some reservations, to fans of Lois McMaster Bujold, maybe CJ Cherryh.
Each one has a different young man as the protagonist, but they follow one timeline, and link to each other, with many shared characters.All of them are very homosensual. All the young men are super-cute, and there is much tousling of hair. (Is the author's hair an erogenous zone? It's really non-stop.) At times I was like, "Um, am I reading yaoi here?" At other times... well, it gets disturbing. That's where my reservations arise. I wouldn't normally 'warn' any reader off a book for content, but if you are sensitive about child abuse, I would not recommend the second two in this series, and especially not the third, due to explicit scenes of rape and abuse. It doesn't just discuss it, but while condemning the perpetrators, it's still oddly mixed with the eroticism.
The first one is the best of the bunch. Not necessarily BECAUSE, but it is much more restrained and understated. You know bad things happened to the protagonist, but he is in denial, and refuses to talk about them. This actually makes the trauma very real and believable. With the second and third, I almost felt like the author was just trying to see how far she could push it...
The first book, Warchild, sets up the world: Humanity has become spacefaring, and discovered a moon full of valuable resources. Unfortunately, it was already colonized by an alien scientific mission. Humans try to take over, and a war starts. Some humans sympathize with the alien cause, and go over to their side. Meanwhile, vicious starfaring pirates take advantage of the social instability, and prey on whoever and whatever they can get their hands on. One of the worst of the pirates is Falcone, a former space Marine captain with an obsession with raising young boys to be his proteges... and treating them in ways that leave them horribly damaged, in the process. The main character here, the adorable Jos Musey, is orphaned by an attack by Falcone on his family's merchant ship, and taken by Falcone, who has plans for him. However, Jos takes advantage of the chaos of an alien attack to escape... and finds himself in the hands of sympathizers, who train him in alien martial arts. Next, he's sent undercover to infiltrate the marines...
These are are kind of 'familiar' scenarios, but the book does a great job of portraying emotional manipulation and conflicting loyalties.
Burndive is the second book. (And kind of oddly titled - a 'Burndive' is virtual reality hacking, and there is very little of it in the book... less than in the first book.) The protagonist here is, of course, cute. He's the son of the most famous Marine captain, and a bit of a celebrity. He's also a spoiled brat, and not really nearly as compelling a character as that of Jos. Ryan (the spoiled celeb), has a bit of a drug problem, but his bigger problem is assassination attempts... his father's attempts to make peace with the aliens haven't gone over well in some circles, and some people are more than willing to kill him to get to his dad. The dad takes him aboard his ship - both for safety, and as a bit of a boot camp program to whip him into shape and get him to grow up a bit. Space action ensues... and we learn more about Falcone, the captain, Azarcon, and why he hates pirates more than aliens.
In the third, Cagebird, we get to see things from the point of view of the 'bad guys.' The protagonist here is Yuri - yet another of Falcone's proteges. This one hasn't run away or escaped... he's become a captain under Falcone's command. However, he's far from not-messed-up - he's full of emotional conflict, and has a tendency to cut himself. Of course, he's also a bad-ass that will just as soon kill you as... The narrative switches from showing how Yuri got to where he is, with training (mostly to be a prostitute) under Falcone, to the present, where military and political negotiations involving pirates, symps, aliens, marines, and the human HubCentral government are ongoing.
These three books are all there are to the series; but it doesn't really feel quite done. The second two concentrate on Falcone's story arc - and really neglect the part of the story that has to do with Niko (the Warboy) and the alien/human conflict. There's definitely room for another book here.
Interesting series. I got these because I'd seen them highly reviewed somewhere; of course, now I don't remember where.
In many ways, they're basic military SF - I'd recommend them, with some reservations, to fans of Lois McMaster Bujold, maybe CJ Cherryh.
Each one has a different young man as the protagonist, but they follow one timeline, and link to each other, with many shared characters.All of them are very homosensual. All the young men are super-cute, and there is much tousling of hair. (Is the author's hair an erogenous zone? It's really non-stop.) At times I was like, "Um, am I reading yaoi here?" At other times... well, it gets disturbing. That's where my reservations arise. I wouldn't normally 'warn' any reader off a book for content, but if you are sensitive about child abuse, I would not recommend the second two in this series, and especially not the third, due to explicit scenes of rape and abuse. It doesn't just discuss it, but while condemning the perpetrators, it's still oddly mixed with the eroticism.
The first one is the best of the bunch. Not necessarily BECAUSE, but it is much more restrained and understated. You know bad things happened to the protagonist, but he is in denial, and refuses to talk about them. This actually makes the trauma very real and believable. With the second and third, I almost felt like the author was just trying to see how far she could push it...
The first book, Warchild, sets up the world: Humanity has become spacefaring, and discovered a moon full of valuable resources. Unfortunately, it was already colonized by an alien scientific mission. Humans try to take over, and a war starts. Some humans sympathize with the alien cause, and go over to their side. Meanwhile, vicious starfaring pirates take advantage of the social instability, and prey on whoever and whatever they can get their hands on. One of the worst of the pirates is Falcone, a former space Marine captain with an obsession with raising young boys to be his proteges... and treating them in ways that leave them horribly damaged, in the process. The main character here, the adorable Jos Musey, is orphaned by an attack by Falcone on his family's merchant ship, and taken by Falcone, who has plans for him. However, Jos takes advantage of the chaos of an alien attack to escape... and finds himself in the hands of sympathizers, who train him in alien martial arts. Next, he's sent undercover to infiltrate the marines...
These are are kind of 'familiar' scenarios, but the book does a great job of portraying emotional manipulation and conflicting loyalties.
Burndive is the second book. (And kind of oddly titled - a 'Burndive' is virtual reality hacking, and there is very little of it in the book... less than in the first book.) The protagonist here is, of course, cute. He's the son of the most famous Marine captain, and a bit of a celebrity. He's also a spoiled brat, and not really nearly as compelling a character as that of Jos. Ryan (the spoiled celeb), has a bit of a drug problem, but his bigger problem is assassination attempts... his father's attempts to make peace with the aliens haven't gone over well in some circles, and some people are more than willing to kill him to get to his dad. The dad takes him aboard his ship - both for safety, and as a bit of a boot camp program to whip him into shape and get him to grow up a bit. Space action ensues... and we learn more about Falcone, the captain, Azarcon, and why he hates pirates more than aliens.
In the third, Cagebird, we get to see things from the point of view of the 'bad guys.' The protagonist here is Yuri - yet another of Falcone's proteges. This one hasn't run away or escaped... he's become a captain under Falcone's command. However, he's far from not-messed-up - he's full of emotional conflict, and has a tendency to cut himself. Of course, he's also a bad-ass that will just as soon kill you as... The narrative switches from showing how Yuri got to where he is, with training (mostly to be a prostitute) under Falcone, to the present, where military and political negotiations involving pirates, symps, aliens, marines, and the human HubCentral government are ongoing.
These three books are all there are to the series; but it doesn't really feel quite done. The second two concentrate on Falcone's story arc - and really neglect the part of the story that has to do with Niko (the Warboy) and the alien/human conflict. There's definitely room for another book here.
November 10, 2015
I am a fan of this woman's writing. I really am. I didn't know precisely how I will take to a completely different character than Jos. Jos Musey was a brilliant protagonist. He had everything that usually takes me in. True grit and true suffering without the slobbery romance. The short period in which he left his innocence of childhood and gotten stuck in forced adulthood with nobody to trust got my soul twisted for him. I was there when he found himself, I was gutted when Warboy sent him away. It felt so wrong but yet so right. Karin Lowachee is an amazing author.
I didn't know what to think of Ryan. How the hell do you switch from so much essence to a spoilt little rich boy, with his spoilt little problems? I wanted to shove him out of the airlock at the soonest available moment so we could focus on Jos again. Ryan seemed so much less, while Jos was so much more. It took me a while to get into it because of the difference in characters. I was amazed in a way that Karin chose to take focus away from Jos and give it to someone so undeserving. That was until I read some more. That was until I have seen just how an abandoned boy struggles to cope in the presence of his father the legend. A man that the whole universe knows and respects, a man that is responsible for making him famous – simply by being his father. A man that he saw tree times in his life and knows nothing about.
I hated Ryan, I hate the moan of the rich and lazy, telling everyone that will listen just how sad and hard their life is.
I found myself understanding Ryan, and understanding his frustration. Every single word that came out of his mouth was already tailored to fit someone else's purpose. Every freedom he had he enjoyed within a gilded cage. Once the world started burning all around him he was taken from it and thrust in a coldly regimented world of his coldly regimented father that loves him passionately..... This was a damned good book.
I didn't know what to think of Ryan. How the hell do you switch from so much essence to a spoilt little rich boy, with his spoilt little problems? I wanted to shove him out of the airlock at the soonest available moment so we could focus on Jos again. Ryan seemed so much less, while Jos was so much more. It took me a while to get into it because of the difference in characters. I was amazed in a way that Karin chose to take focus away from Jos and give it to someone so undeserving. That was until I read some more. That was until I have seen just how an abandoned boy struggles to cope in the presence of his father the legend. A man that the whole universe knows and respects, a man that is responsible for making him famous – simply by being his father. A man that he saw tree times in his life and knows nothing about.
I hated Ryan, I hate the moan of the rich and lazy, telling everyone that will listen just how sad and hard their life is.
I found myself understanding Ryan, and understanding his frustration. Every single word that came out of his mouth was already tailored to fit someone else's purpose. Every freedom he had he enjoyed within a gilded cage. Once the world started burning all around him he was taken from it and thrust in a coldly regimented world of his coldly regimented father that loves him passionately..... This was a damned good book.
June 19, 2013
've got to be honest, I'm not even sure where to start. Maybe the best thing I can say about this book is that it's so good -- and I enjoyed it so much -- that it makes me want to change all my other 5-star books to a 4, so that the 5-stars I give BURNDIVE mean something special.
You can find a synopsis of the book in other reviews, so I won't repeat it.
Sufficient to say that I stumbled on WARCHILD (the first book in the inter-connected trilogy) accidentally and found myself completely and utterly immersed in a detailed, nuanced, dark and vibrant world filled with characters I deeply came to care for. BURNDIVE continued the storyline, sort-of, through the perspective of another character, and everything about it struck a chord with me: the father-son relationship, the genuine affection between a bodyguard and his client that becomes a type of brotherhood, the helplessness the main character feels when events beyond his command spin out of control around him.
Best of all, the story has some of the touches I've come to associate with Karin Lowachee, which marks her as a very, very talented author: she sneakily changes POV, which has a way of underscoring the main character's state of mind among other things (ie, whether he's distancing himself from the world, in a 3rd person perspective, or allowing himself to live in it, as a 1st person perspective); as well as the hard things people can do to test their love for each other (the way that Warboy put Joss in a dangerous position in WARCHILD is keenly reminiscent of how Sid's relationship with Ryan's mother affects Ryan).
This was a phenomenal story, and my only regret right now is that I didn't order the 3rd book in the series last week, so that I could start reading it today.
You can find a synopsis of the book in other reviews, so I won't repeat it.
Sufficient to say that I stumbled on WARCHILD (the first book in the inter-connected trilogy) accidentally and found myself completely and utterly immersed in a detailed, nuanced, dark and vibrant world filled with characters I deeply came to care for. BURNDIVE continued the storyline, sort-of, through the perspective of another character, and everything about it struck a chord with me: the father-son relationship, the genuine affection between a bodyguard and his client that becomes a type of brotherhood, the helplessness the main character feels when events beyond his command spin out of control around him.
Best of all, the story has some of the touches I've come to associate with Karin Lowachee, which marks her as a very, very talented author: she sneakily changes POV, which has a way of underscoring the main character's state of mind among other things (ie, whether he's distancing himself from the world, in a 3rd person perspective, or allowing himself to live in it, as a 1st person perspective); as well as the hard things people can do to test their love for each other (the way that Warboy put Joss in a dangerous position in WARCHILD is keenly reminiscent of how Sid's relationship with Ryan's mother affects Ryan).
This was a phenomenal story, and my only regret right now is that I didn't order the 3rd book in the series last week, so that I could start reading it today.
October 20, 2023
Warnings:
- violence, mentioning of rape
- no romance, no LGBTQ+ characters. This book is mislabeled.
- non-existing editing
- switching POVs from 3rd to 1st at the end of the book - justifiable, but it still takes you out the story for a bit.
For the story: 4 stars for some stupid ass decisions made by some characters, but my impression - and rating - might have beendistracted by some stupid ass editing impaired due to the editing nightmare
For the editing: supermassive black hole, which is known as 1 star here on GR
3.5 stars total, but rounding up to 4 because I am really looking forward to book 3.
=@.@= =@.@= =@.@=
Was this book ever edited or proofread? I mean on top of butchered punctuation, capitalization, misspelled names and some really messed up formatting in a few places. I have an impression this book was hand written and then OCR-ed (scanned image to PDF). More reason to proofread.
Here is a short sample from the long string of covfefes*:
"Sony" instead of "sorry"
And I am like, "Wait! Are they shopping for a new TV in a middle of an existential crisis?" 🤔
"You didn’t faiow what to do with it?”
Translation:
"He was going to get escorted liverywhere ."
Translation:
"Give me tihe conip "
Translation:
"You'll just give them ahimo "
Translation:
"His sight bfamred and blackened... from what, he had ao idea, but his pip on the hatch handle was the only thing keeping him upright."
Translation:
Go and puzzle THOSE ONES ^^ out, dear reader. Any suggestions? Drop them in the comments!
=@.@= =@.@= =@.@=
I just effing can't 🤣 with this book🤣😂 In a span of 2 short paragraphs:
It wasn't like the one at home (a dishwasher) and he hadn't paid attention when his falfcer had shown him.
"I'm finished in there if you wanted to go," his fattier said.
I am crying here 🤣🤣😂😂
"Luke! I am your falfcer ...um fattier ...whatevs ..."
Oh, God! *dies laughing*
=@.@= =@.@= =@.@=
The 19 year old MC Ryan is going through a stretch of very traumatic events in his life without the appropriate professional help or an adequate support from the adults in his life (his mother, grandparents and never-present father, or his bodyguard). They all harp on him and keep pushing until he is ready to break over and over again. The kid is seriously depressed, but to the adults he is "lazy".
The story is intense and heartbreaking, and yet I keep laughing my brains out, spilling my coffee (twice), almost ending up ROFLing (once) cause I dropped a teaspoon and tried picking it up while having a laughing fit... so - yep, that happened. All this while Ryan was going through yet another traumatic - physically and mentally - event. But Ryan's "pip on the hatch", holding him up while his vision was "bfamred"-ing doesn't leave you much choice: watch the poor boy suffer and laugh your head off at the same time.
That kinda of sh*t happens every few sentences on some pages and I am getting very close to DNFing no matter how good the story itself is. I simply can't follow the story and appreciate the seriousness of the situations Ryan finds himself in. The author must really hate her readers to not even try and run the text through Word.
*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covfefe
- violence, mentioning of rape
- no romance, no LGBTQ+ characters. This book is mislabeled.
- non-existing editing
- switching POVs from 3rd to 1st at the end of the book - justifiable, but it still takes you out the story for a bit.
For the story: 4 stars for some stupid ass decisions made by some characters, but my impression - and rating - might have been
For the editing: supermassive black hole, which is known as 1 star here on GR
3.5 stars total, but rounding up to 4 because I am really looking forward to book 3.
=@.@= =@.@= =@.@=
Was this book ever edited or proofread? I mean on top of butchered punctuation, capitalization, misspelled names and some really messed up formatting in a few places. I have an impression this book was hand written and then OCR-ed (scanned image to PDF). More reason to proofread.
Here is a short sample from the long string of covfefes*:
"Sony" instead of "sorry"
And I am like, "Wait! Are they shopping for a new TV in a middle of an existential crisis?" 🤔
"You didn’t faiow what to do with it?”
Translation:
"He was going to get escorted liverywhere ."
Translation:
"Give me tihe conip "
Translation:
"You'll just give them ahimo "
Translation:
"His sight bfamred and blackened... from what, he had ao idea, but his pip on the hatch handle was the only thing keeping him upright."
Translation:
Go and puzzle THOSE ONES ^^ out, dear reader. Any suggestions? Drop them in the comments!
=@.@= =@.@= =@.@=
I just effing can't 🤣 with this book🤣😂 In a span of 2 short paragraphs:
It wasn't like the one at home (a dishwasher) and he hadn't paid attention when his falfcer had shown him.
"I'm finished in there if you wanted to go," his fattier said.
I am crying here 🤣🤣😂😂
"Luke! I am your falfcer ...um fattier ...whatevs ..."
Oh, God! *dies laughing*
=@.@= =@.@= =@.@=
The 19 year old MC Ryan is going through a stretch of very traumatic events in his life without the appropriate professional help or an adequate support from the adults in his life (his mother, grandparents and never-present father, or his bodyguard). They all harp on him and keep pushing until he is ready to break over and over again. The kid is seriously depressed, but to the adults he is "lazy".
The story is intense and heartbreaking, and yet I keep laughing my brains out, spilling my coffee (twice), almost ending up ROFLing (once) cause I dropped a teaspoon and tried picking it up while having a laughing fit... so - yep, that happened. All this while Ryan was going through yet another traumatic - physically and mentally - event. But Ryan's "pip on the hatch", holding him up while his vision was "bfamred"-ing doesn't leave you much choice: watch the poor boy suffer and laugh your head off at the same time.
That kinda of sh*t happens every few sentences on some pages and I am getting very close to DNFing no matter how good the story itself is. I simply can't follow the story and appreciate the seriousness of the situations Ryan finds himself in. The author must really hate her readers to not even try and run the text through Word.
*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covfefe
May 21, 2019
Note: the kindle edition of this book is riddled with errors. It's like a bad scan that was never proofread. for $9.99 I expect better of Amazon.
That said, this book was good. It was about a young man traumatized by violence in the midst of interstellar war and piracy.
That said, this book was good. It was about a young man traumatized by violence in the midst of interstellar war and piracy.
January 13, 2023
I didn't end up accounting for this in the star-rating, but the OCR on this Kindle edition is absolutely atrocious. Many sentences have several words that incorrectly scanned and the whole book is an exercise in parsing.
A teenager going through a rough, violent time; growing, connecting to people, looking to make a difference... Sounds a bit like WarchildWarchild? Yes, but while it plays in the same universe and we meet many of the same characters the teenager and their problems are very different. That said, there's again a lot of passivity/lack of choice on part of the protagonist that can be hard to read through.
While the book answered a number of world building questions/doubts that I had from the first instalment it still made me feel like things weren't quite... solid. I'm curious if this will change in the next volume!
A teenager going through a rough, violent time; growing, connecting to people, looking to make a difference... Sounds a bit like WarchildWarchild? Yes, but while it plays in the same universe and we meet many of the same characters the teenager and their problems are very different. That said, there's again a lot of passivity/lack of choice on part of the protagonist that can be hard to read through.
While the book answered a number of world building questions/doubts that I had from the first instalment it still made me feel like things weren't quite... solid. I'm curious if this will change in the next volume!
January 6, 2017
Not this book's fault, but I went into this series thinking it was going to be about the two main characters from the first book. It's not. Every book in this series is about different characters and what they see/do/think/feel during the war. This book was about the son of the captain of one of the humans' deepspace battleships.
Because I loved the first book so deeply, and I thought this book was continuing it, I was so disappointed to find out it was about different characters. Also, I strongly disliked (to the point of hating) the main character of this one, so I had a harder time enjoying it.
Ryan Azarcon is a spoiled rich kid. A celebrity. His father is a famous captain, his mother is some powerful government person. He's rich. He's drop-dead beautiful. He's bored. He acts out a lot. He does drugs.
Some bad things happen to him (a terrorist bombing kills one of his family members) and he nearly has a breakdown. After what happened to Jos in the first book, I had to work hard to not roll my eyes that Ryan was reacting so poorly to something much more minor. Something bad? Yeah, sure. But Jos spent many years with no one to trust, kept as a slave, questionably used by the only person he could trust, lost his whole family, and was abandoned multiple times. And Jos handled it much much better. Is it fair to compare the two? Probably not, but I couldn't help doing it anyway.
Ryan ends up on his father's ship, where luckily we get glimpses of some of the characters from the first book. Even Jos and Niko made a (WAY TOO BRIEF) appearance.
I did read it all, and I did enjoy parts of it (everything after Ryan getting on the ship, since then we got to see characters we knew), I just wanted something different.
Because I loved the first book so deeply, and I thought this book was continuing it, I was so disappointed to find out it was about different characters. Also, I strongly disliked (to the point of hating) the main character of this one, so I had a harder time enjoying it.
Ryan Azarcon is a spoiled rich kid. A celebrity. His father is a famous captain, his mother is some powerful government person. He's rich. He's drop-dead beautiful. He's bored. He acts out a lot. He does drugs.
Some bad things happen to him (a terrorist bombing kills one of his family members) and he nearly has a breakdown. After what happened to Jos in the first book, I had to work hard to not roll my eyes that Ryan was reacting so poorly to something much more minor. Something bad? Yeah, sure. But Jos spent many years with no one to trust, kept as a slave, questionably used by the only person he could trust, lost his whole family, and was abandoned multiple times. And Jos handled it much much better. Is it fair to compare the two? Probably not, but I couldn't help doing it anyway.
Ryan ends up on his father's ship, where luckily we get glimpses of some of the characters from the first book. Even Jos and Niko made a (WAY TOO BRIEF) appearance.
I did read it all, and I did enjoy parts of it (everything after Ryan getting on the ship, since then we got to see characters we knew), I just wanted something different.
December 27, 2020
This is the second book in the Warchild science-fiction series. It's less extreme than Warchild in various respects, broadening the reach of the series, rather than being a clone of book one. Spoilers ahead. While I didn't love "Burndive" as entirely as I had "Warchild," I loved it quite well enough to steal time to read it whenever I could, and to order another book by the author before I'd finished.
About my reviews: I try to review every book I read, including those that I don't end up enjoying. The reviews are not scholarly, but just indicate my reaction as a reader, reading being my addiction. I am miserly with 5-star reviews; 4 stars means I liked a book very much; 3 stars means I liked it; 2 stars means I didn't like it (though often the 2-star books are very popular with other readers and/or are by authors whose other work I've loved).
About my reviews: I try to review every book I read, including those that I don't end up enjoying. The reviews are not scholarly, but just indicate my reaction as a reader, reading being my addiction. I am miserly with 5-star reviews; 4 stars means I liked a book very much; 3 stars means I liked it; 2 stars means I didn't like it (though often the 2-star books are very popular with other readers and/or are by authors whose other work I've loved).
November 16, 2015
Burndive is a story of a traumatized boy growing up, and a hope that a long war is coming to an end. I read this without reading Warchild first, so I might be missing some context, but it seemed to make sense. There's a lot going on in this book, and it's fun and fast moving, but has some major structural flaws which I'm going to gripe about.
The first is the protagonist, Ryan Azarcon, child of privilege, child of a broken home, and traumatized survivor of bombings and assassination attacks. Ryan starts out in a bad place: depressed, angry, using drugs and trying to destroy everything around him. Generally, we know that the story is going to be about Ryan growing up and finding himself. that's what stories about 19 year old boys are about. And towards the end, there's some great stuff about old wounds healing and breaking preconceptions, but I'm not sure Ryan earns it. He's too smart and perceptive to be an unreliable narrator, and too mean for me to like.
Second is the FTL and the war. I'm a bit of a nut about the relationship between transit and governance, but I'm not sure that I buy that the ships, stations, and drives implied in the setting would give the plentiful pirates the setting entails. Basically, space is big, pirates need to intercept and board their targets, and FTL ships should just be able to leap away. It probably makes sense somewhere, and most people won't care, but I wasn't able to link up the politics, economics, and technology of the setting in my head.
Third is the Send, the omnipresent news network that invades Ryan's life again and again. His mother is a PR officer, and he has a tempestuous relationship with the news and it's combination of warmongering and celebrity gossip. Since this novel came out in 2003, I think this is a commentary about cable news and the War on Terror, but it could be a lot more pointed, or a lot darker. The divide between the Earth centered Send community, and the personal ties that define the ship-bound pirate culture could have been brought forward more.
There is some other stuff which readers may like or dislike according to their whims. Minor minus was the neologisms. For example, computer hacking is called 'Burndiving' for no apparent reason. Interestingly, this book is also super bi. Ryan has seems to prefer females, but has no problem hitting on men and being hit on in return. Again, I can't tell if it's deliberate or yaoi, but it's a neat point.
So if I griped so much, why four stars? Well, I had a lot of fun reading it, and if the pieces didn't quite come together the way I wanted them to, the individual sentences were really good, enough so to convince me to check out the first book.
The first is the protagonist, Ryan Azarcon, child of privilege, child of a broken home, and traumatized survivor of bombings and assassination attacks. Ryan starts out in a bad place: depressed, angry, using drugs and trying to destroy everything around him. Generally, we know that the story is going to be about Ryan growing up and finding himself. that's what stories about 19 year old boys are about. And towards the end, there's some great stuff about old wounds healing and breaking preconceptions, but I'm not sure Ryan earns it. He's too smart and perceptive to be an unreliable narrator, and too mean for me to like.
Second is the FTL and the war. I'm a bit of a nut about the relationship between transit and governance, but I'm not sure that I buy that the ships, stations, and drives implied in the setting would give the plentiful pirates the setting entails. Basically, space is big, pirates need to intercept and board their targets, and FTL ships should just be able to leap away. It probably makes sense somewhere, and most people won't care, but I wasn't able to link up the politics, economics, and technology of the setting in my head.
Third is the Send, the omnipresent news network that invades Ryan's life again and again. His mother is a PR officer, and he has a tempestuous relationship with the news and it's combination of warmongering and celebrity gossip. Since this novel came out in 2003, I think this is a commentary about cable news and the War on Terror, but it could be a lot more pointed, or a lot darker. The divide between the Earth centered Send community, and the personal ties that define the ship-bound pirate culture could have been brought forward more.
There is some other stuff which readers may like or dislike according to their whims. Minor minus was the neologisms. For example, computer hacking is called 'Burndiving' for no apparent reason. Interestingly, this book is also super bi. Ryan has seems to prefer females, but has no problem hitting on men and being hit on in return. Again, I can't tell if it's deliberate or yaoi, but it's a neat point.
So if I griped so much, why four stars? Well, I had a lot of fun reading it, and if the pieces didn't quite come together the way I wanted them to, the individual sentences were really good, enough so to convince me to check out the first book.
March 14, 2015
Not quite as good as the first one, but I read all of it between 7:30a. & 8:30p. with four hours of work in-between. So it obviously kept my attention. This one didn't have the same alien foreign-language issues as *Warchild* did, but, to my eyes, the main character was less interesting. To paraphrase Joan D. Vinge's Cat: "fuckin' rich kids."
But, my class-war tendencies aside, this wasn't just Ryan's story. It was also his father's story, and his father happens to be a pivotal character in *Warchild*. Lowachee's handling of Captain Cairo Azarcon is something that reminds me of those actors who truly deserve "Best Supporting Actor" at the Oscars. And that's what kept me reading. Which is why this got four stars instead of three.
I liked Ryan's interfacing with Jos - it gave me a look outside of the narrative context of the main character of *Warchild*; and Lowachee provided enough of an introduction to Yuri, main character of the next novel, *Cagebird*, that I went ahead and ordered it because my library system doesn't own a copy.
AND (best thing a writer can do with a series): I want to know what happens next.
Was I as emotionally invested with Ryan as I was with Jos? Of course not. I couldn't relate to his world (no spoilers, I'll just say that a couple of brief interactions with Jos elaborated my feelings completely) but I did have someone in my life who probably could relate, so it wasn't totally (pardon the pun) alien. And I also truly engaged with the sections of the book that dealt with Captain Azarcon. I'm hoping that the same proves true for the third novel and Falcone, even if that character is an unmitigated bastard.
This one might rate a re-reading - I went through it fast enough that I didn't get the writing insights that I did with *Warchild*, but I'm hoping the third novel makes up for that.
My one nit is that the final section of the novel seems rushed. Ryan has a "pivotal realization" and then a "pivotal event", which, while handled well, are a little too late in the narrative. Can I believe that his inherent narcissism makes it that late? Absolutely, which is why, ultimately, it's the characters that kept me reading as well as order the third book for $20.00+ to get it to arrive next Monday when I could have spent $8.00 and waited two weeks.
But, my class-war tendencies aside, this wasn't just Ryan's story. It was also his father's story, and his father happens to be a pivotal character in *Warchild*. Lowachee's handling of Captain Cairo Azarcon is something that reminds me of those actors who truly deserve "Best Supporting Actor" at the Oscars. And that's what kept me reading. Which is why this got four stars instead of three.
I liked Ryan's interfacing with Jos - it gave me a look outside of the narrative context of the main character of *Warchild*; and Lowachee provided enough of an introduction to Yuri, main character of the next novel, *Cagebird*, that I went ahead and ordered it because my library system doesn't own a copy.
AND (best thing a writer can do with a series): I want to know what happens next.
Was I as emotionally invested with Ryan as I was with Jos? Of course not. I couldn't relate to his world (no spoilers, I'll just say that a couple of brief interactions with Jos elaborated my feelings completely) but I did have someone in my life who probably could relate, so it wasn't totally (pardon the pun) alien. And I also truly engaged with the sections of the book that dealt with Captain Azarcon. I'm hoping that the same proves true for the third novel and Falcone, even if that character is an unmitigated bastard.
This one might rate a re-reading - I went through it fast enough that I didn't get the writing insights that I did with *Warchild*, but I'm hoping the third novel makes up for that.
My one nit is that the final section of the novel seems rushed. Ryan has a "pivotal realization" and then a "pivotal event", which, while handled well, are a little too late in the narrative. Can I believe that his inherent narcissism makes it that late? Absolutely, which is why, ultimately, it's the characters that kept me reading as well as order the third book for $20.00+ to get it to arrive next Monday when I could have spent $8.00 and waited two weeks.
June 26, 2015
character study number 2 of the warchild series brings us to ryan azarcon, rich kid son of the famous captain azarcon and pr specialist songlian lau. he makes for an interestingly different experience to jos because ryan is, in a word, obnoxious
i mean don't get me wrong, it's an entertaining kind of obnoxious! he's spoiled but he's also funny and ridiculously emotionally open, you go through a entire book of repression station in warchild and it's a whole new world switching to ryan who's never met a feeling he didn't want to express
also jos comes back as i'd hoped and let me tell you right now, their interactions are AMAZING, i was just about dying inside imagining the internal '????? ! ???' he was probably experiencing every time they encountered each other
in all, a pretty great experience except for one thing
so yeah. i didn't love it like i loved warchild but a pretty good time regardless. 3 stars
i mean don't get me wrong, it's an entertaining kind of obnoxious! he's spoiled but he's also funny and ridiculously emotionally open, you go through a entire book of repression station in warchild and it's a whole new world switching to ryan who's never met a feeling he didn't want to express
also jos comes back as i'd hoped and let me tell you right now, their interactions are AMAZING, i was just about dying inside imagining the internal '????? ! ???' he was probably experiencing every time they encountered each other
in all, a pretty great experience except for one thing
so yeah. i didn't love it like i loved warchild but a pretty good time regardless. 3 stars
December 26, 2016
It's hard to tell how good the book is...
This is apparently the result of a scan/OCR that was never given even a cursory edit or a spell check. While most words make sense, not all of them do. Father regularly turns into "fattier," for example. And many many sentences are unintelligible.
I think this is a bit of a harder read than the first book anyway because she starts it off with more invented idiomatic language. But maybe that's just more typos, who knows?
Anyway, this follows the Macedon's captain's son, Ryan. For the first 2/3 he's a pretty unlikeable character without much going for him, but he gets it together a bit at the end. The much loved characters from the last book are only supporting characters in this one.
The lack of editing is just disgraceful for such an expensive book.
This is apparently the result of a scan/OCR that was never given even a cursory edit or a spell check. While most words make sense, not all of them do. Father regularly turns into "fattier," for example. And many many sentences are unintelligible.
I think this is a bit of a harder read than the first book anyway because she starts it off with more invented idiomatic language. But maybe that's just more typos, who knows?
Anyway, this follows the Macedon's captain's son, Ryan. For the first 2/3 he's a pretty unlikeable character without much going for him, but he gets it together a bit at the end. The much loved characters from the last book are only supporting characters in this one.
The lack of editing is just disgraceful for such an expensive book.
May 31, 2020
This was a bit of a rough follow up for me from Warchild - I had expected a continuation of Jos Musey's story and was really looking forward to his emotional development / relationship with Niko. Additionally, I loved Jos as a narrator. Instead I got this spoiled brat Ryan... and while I ultimately really enjoyed his emotional development and his relationship with his father Captain Azarcon, and loved hearing more about the jets (Dorr!), I resented Ryan for being such a brat for most of the book. And taking up all the space. But it was still solid.
Also loved the way that Sherwood Smith characterizes the Jets in her review: "Lowachee’s boyz are uniformly young, cool, handsome, emotionally scarred and lethally trained. There are many readers who believe that Lowachee's deadly bad boys are the deadliest and the most charismatic in their high-octane PTSD."
Also loved the way that Sherwood Smith characterizes the Jets in her review: "Lowachee’s boyz are uniformly young, cool, handsome, emotionally scarred and lethally trained. There are many readers who believe that Lowachee's deadly bad boys are the deadliest and the most charismatic in their high-octane PTSD."
December 13, 2020
I read an e-copy from our public library. The storyline and character development was great (worth 5 stars), but the frequent typos made it incredibly painful to read.
July 25, 2019
This was a bit of a rough follow up for me from Warchild - I had expected a continuation of Jos Musey's story and was really looking forward to his emotional development / relationship with Niko. Additionally, I loved Jos as a narrator. Instead I got this spoiled brat Ryan... and while I ultimately really enjoyed his emotional development and his relationship with his father Captain Azarcon, and loved hearing more about the jets (Dorr!), I resented Ryan for being such a brat for most of the book. And taking up all the space. But it was still solid.
Also loved the way that Sherwood Smith characterizes the Jets: "Lowachee’s boyz are uniformly young, cool, handsome, emotionally scarred and lethally trained. There are many readers who believe that Lowachee's deadly bad boys are the deadliest and the most charismatic in their high-octane PTSD."
Also loved the way that Sherwood Smith characterizes the Jets: "Lowachee’s boyz are uniformly young, cool, handsome, emotionally scarred and lethally trained. There are many readers who believe that Lowachee's deadly bad boys are the deadliest and the most charismatic in their high-octane PTSD."
January 25, 2021
His father took another sip of his drink and Ryan put away the crackers, and the silence bled between them like a slow reopened wound.
What an exquisite sequel. This book reads exactly like the quote above says, like a slow reopened wound - and I mean that in the best way possible.
The emotional depths Karin Lowachee goes to, man. If you like somewhat unlikeable but complex and interesting protagonists with room for growth and excellent development, this one's it.
September 14, 2021
I was a little worried I wouldn't like this as much as the first one because of the narrator change but after getting used to the different perspective about events in this world I was hooked. I liked being able to see the characters from the first book through a different lens. There's a lot more backstory to certain charcters that were only hinted at in the first. At first I found Ryan to be a bit annoying and entitled but the writing was good enough to make you see inside him and watch for his growth throughout.
June 12, 2023
Burndive by Karin Lowachee is the sequel to Warchild, telling a new story of a new character in the universe of Warchild. I thought this book was easier to read than the first, but there were some parts when I just lost interest and skimmed the pages. Those that were good gripped my full attention and transported me to the universe with strits, symps, and jets. Karin is undoubtedly a good writer, delivering complex characters, plot twists and piercing sentences.
This book is definitely a must-read for those who enjoy reading science fiction!
This book is definitely a must-read for those who enjoy reading science fiction!
November 13, 2016
pretty much seconds from tears throughout this. I think it was all the family love and stoic pain going around. loved the tension between Sid and Cairo as father figures. Ryan couldn't have been a more different character to Jos in the previous book, and that was great and to see them interact was fun.
(but for the love of all things there is no need to switch tense for the final 3rd of the book. I did get used to it but there was absolutely no need for it this time. )
(but for the love of all things there is no need to switch tense for the final 3rd of the book. I did get used to it but there was absolutely no need for it this time. )
January 19, 2022
This is n emotionally fraught character driven story set in adark and complex sci-fi setting. The pacing is somewhat uneven and Ryan, the focus character of this book, is a lot less compelling than Jos from Warchild. Nevertheless it's a well-written book and a very gripping read that I could hardly put down.
August 31, 2025
Burndive further expands the world and intrigues of Warchild. It has a wider scope of events and how everything progresses once peace talks begin between Macedon and Turundlar. Lowachee continues to weave a broad story while still giving depth to her characters and the world she’s created. The relationships between her complex cast are believable and thoroughly human.
February 14, 2023
I really enjoyed this book, even though the main character was often self-absorbed and seemingly shallow, I came to understand how his upbringing made him who he was and how he needed to change that. Great story.
May 16, 2017
My feelings. ;___;
May 7, 2018
This universe continues to be interesting, intricate and beautiful. Characters are faulty, traumatized and terrible, but also loyal, driven and beautiful.
October 25, 2019
Unfortunately didn't enjoy this as much as Warchild. It took me until about 150ish pages in to get really invested. I just wanted to get back to Jos
Read
May 30, 20232023 reread.
February 7, 2012
This book brought about a tiny shard of self-awareness for me and my reading habits. Even though this was a much longer book (400+ pages) than it looked, and because of that it still took awhile to read; I still always had a hard time putting it down and always read double what I had planned. Part of that is the absence of chapters, which, I have to admit, looks daunting when you are flipping through it. This author, Karin Lowachee, is all about using the structure of her writing to emphasize the character's emotional state though and the absence of chapters is a clever way of reflecting Burndive's main character, Ryan Azarcon.
So, back to my tiny revelation... I liked this book much better than Warchild (the first in the trilogy) mainly because of Ryan. Anyone who reads the cover or has read the book already will probably doubt my sanity because of that statement, but there it is. Ryan is a selfish, spoiled, and aloof nineteen-year-old who has his own bodyguard. Not exactly a character that most people would identify with. But he intrigued me to no end, much more so than Jos did in the first book.
When I began contemplating why that was, I realized that I have a long history of liking self-absorbed characters, for lack of a better term. Order of the Phoenix is still my favorite Harry Potter book, partly because of whiny Harry; New Moon was my favorite of the Twilight series, because it is the one that documents Bella's depression; I liked Something Blue better than Something Borrowed, more because of Darcy, than Ethan or London; and I'm sure there are many others that aren't coming to mind at the moment. Now, I could go with the most obvious reasoning and say that I like to read these type of characters because I relate to them, and yes, maybe somewhere inside I have a small piece of me that fits the mold, but that's not why I like reading these books. I mean, I find mirrors annoying, so why would I want to read about myself?
I pondered what connects all of these books for a while and came up with several reasons why I enjoy books about selfish people so much. Reason #1 - They are unpredictable. The typical selfish protagonist has a good character somewhere under that coarse exterior and the constant warring between the two means that you never are quite sure how he'll react. Reason #2 - The character's selfishness is always caused by something, and usually it's traumatic. That means there is usually a pretty juicy background story to the novel. Reason #3 - On that same note, the protagonist usually has to deal with those traumatic events at some point and that creates an awareness of his own attitude and actions. If that good character underneath exists, then he'll endeavor to change. All of that working through the post-trauma and repairing the damage done since is fascinating to me. Reason #4 - While the protagonist is working through all of this, he usually is coming to terms with what kind of a person he wants to be and what he really wants to do with his life. That is one aspect of all of this that I can relate to very well, and so can many others, I believe. Everyone has to go through this at one point or another and some of us never stop doing it. But it is always cool to see a character work his way through that jungle and come out with a sense of direction and purpose.
To finally get back to Burndive, Ryan is a classic example of one of these "wounded" protagonists. He's in an endless downward spiral when you first meet him, with no idea how to get out of it. When his father, Captain Azarcon, realizes how bad it has become he decides to try to pull his son out of it himself. And that's when things get really fun. :-)
The banter between Ryan and his bodyguard/best friend, Sidney, is funny when it's just the two of them, but then they get thrown in with all of the old hands from the last book, and it becomes downright hilarious at times. Getting to see Jos without constantly brooding in his head all the time was refreshing, and actually getting to know the Captain was an unexpected pleasure. All in all, I very much enjoyed getting to know Ryan Azarcon and enjoyed my return to this universe a lot more than I thought I would.
So, back to my tiny revelation... I liked this book much better than Warchild (the first in the trilogy) mainly because of Ryan. Anyone who reads the cover or has read the book already will probably doubt my sanity because of that statement, but there it is. Ryan is a selfish, spoiled, and aloof nineteen-year-old who has his own bodyguard. Not exactly a character that most people would identify with. But he intrigued me to no end, much more so than Jos did in the first book.
When I began contemplating why that was, I realized that I have a long history of liking self-absorbed characters, for lack of a better term. Order of the Phoenix is still my favorite Harry Potter book, partly because of whiny Harry; New Moon was my favorite of the Twilight series, because it is the one that documents Bella's depression; I liked Something Blue better than Something Borrowed, more because of Darcy, than Ethan or London; and I'm sure there are many others that aren't coming to mind at the moment. Now, I could go with the most obvious reasoning and say that I like to read these type of characters because I relate to them, and yes, maybe somewhere inside I have a small piece of me that fits the mold, but that's not why I like reading these books. I mean, I find mirrors annoying, so why would I want to read about myself?
I pondered what connects all of these books for a while and came up with several reasons why I enjoy books about selfish people so much. Reason #1 - They are unpredictable. The typical selfish protagonist has a good character somewhere under that coarse exterior and the constant warring between the two means that you never are quite sure how he'll react. Reason #2 - The character's selfishness is always caused by something, and usually it's traumatic. That means there is usually a pretty juicy background story to the novel. Reason #3 - On that same note, the protagonist usually has to deal with those traumatic events at some point and that creates an awareness of his own attitude and actions. If that good character underneath exists, then he'll endeavor to change. All of that working through the post-trauma and repairing the damage done since is fascinating to me. Reason #4 - While the protagonist is working through all of this, he usually is coming to terms with what kind of a person he wants to be and what he really wants to do with his life. That is one aspect of all of this that I can relate to very well, and so can many others, I believe. Everyone has to go through this at one point or another and some of us never stop doing it. But it is always cool to see a character work his way through that jungle and come out with a sense of direction and purpose.
To finally get back to Burndive, Ryan is a classic example of one of these "wounded" protagonists. He's in an endless downward spiral when you first meet him, with no idea how to get out of it. When his father, Captain Azarcon, realizes how bad it has become he decides to try to pull his son out of it himself. And that's when things get really fun. :-)
The banter between Ryan and his bodyguard/best friend, Sidney, is funny when it's just the two of them, but then they get thrown in with all of the old hands from the last book, and it becomes downright hilarious at times. Getting to see Jos without constantly brooding in his head all the time was refreshing, and actually getting to know the Captain was an unexpected pleasure. All in all, I very much enjoyed getting to know Ryan Azarcon and enjoyed my return to this universe a lot more than I thought I would.
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September 10, 2016Ryan Azarcon is a spoiled brat. He’s also, at age nineteen (three years into his majority on this far-future Hub station called Austra) the “Hot Number One Bachelor.” Good looking, rich, son of extremely famous parents, you’d think he has no reason to be snotty to the media and grumpy to his patient bodyguard of seven years, Sid, as well as to his loving relatives, right?
Wrong. Ryan’s mother is a media star and thinks that living in the public eye is perfect for her son as well as herself. His father is a pirate-hunting ship captain who is so busy fighting aliens, privateers, as well as pirates, Ryan has only seen him four times. His father is also so private Ryan knows little about him, except that he fights with his mother almost constantly whenever he does come home.
In a long series of nesting flashbacks at the beginning, we learn this much about Ryan, plus the fact that his trip to Earth to go to school nearly ended with him being killed in a terrorist attack. The political situation between the aliens, pirates, and the Hub traders is worsening, and his parents are at the center—pulled toward opposing sides.
No wonder Ryan meanders his way to friends who can get him illegal drugs so he can escape mentally, if not physically, from his expensive prison of a home.
His escape lasts until a single party, when once again violence just misses him. The result? His father blazes in-station and sweeps him away aboard his war ship, the Macedon, for safety. Ryan, resisting and protesting all the way, is thus forced to come to terms with a father he’s seen four times in his life.
Meanwhile, the violence, and the stakes, escalate. Ryan’s father, in an abrupt about-face, is no longer fighting the alien “strits” or the privateers who allied with the aliens, he is negotiating a truce with them, so they can all join and go after the real enemy—the pirates. But the government doesn’t trust the truce, the aliens, or Captain Azarcon.
Just about the time Ryan starts coming to terms with the political situation, with his father, with Jos Musey--the mysterious young man his own age who is acting as interpreter between the aliens, the privateer leader nicknamed Warboy, and the humans--and with ship-board life, the government accuses Ryan’s father of having been a pirate.
And then the terror strikes even closer to home; and Ryan gets captured.
This book is emotionally fraught, set in a scary, complex world where no one is quite what they seem. Even the pirates, the threatening aliens, Ryan’s friends, his family, and the good-guy politicians all wear metaphorical masks to hide their real motivations.
The beginning is somewhat slow and probably more Byzantine than many readers might like, with intersecting flashbacks inbetween fairly mundane events as he prowls his home and seeks the drugs. I wish the book had begun when Ryan was fourteen, when he last saw his father—and when other important events took place. But once he is aboard the Macedon, the story-line goes linear, and the pacing takes off like a rocket. The climax finally shifts to another voice, rendering the last part of the story unrelentingly tense and involving.
Lowachee’s boyz are uniformly young, cool, handsome, emotionally scarred and lethally trained. There are many readers who believe that Lowachee's deadly bad boys are the deadliest and the most charismatic in their high-octane PTSD. Lowachee burst onto the SF scene with her previous novel, Warchild, a Warner Aspect winner, with the beginning written in an in-your-face second person present tense that works like a laser strike.
Wrong. Ryan’s mother is a media star and thinks that living in the public eye is perfect for her son as well as herself. His father is a pirate-hunting ship captain who is so busy fighting aliens, privateers, as well as pirates, Ryan has only seen him four times. His father is also so private Ryan knows little about him, except that he fights with his mother almost constantly whenever he does come home.
In a long series of nesting flashbacks at the beginning, we learn this much about Ryan, plus the fact that his trip to Earth to go to school nearly ended with him being killed in a terrorist attack. The political situation between the aliens, pirates, and the Hub traders is worsening, and his parents are at the center—pulled toward opposing sides.
No wonder Ryan meanders his way to friends who can get him illegal drugs so he can escape mentally, if not physically, from his expensive prison of a home.
His escape lasts until a single party, when once again violence just misses him. The result? His father blazes in-station and sweeps him away aboard his war ship, the Macedon, for safety. Ryan, resisting and protesting all the way, is thus forced to come to terms with a father he’s seen four times in his life.
Meanwhile, the violence, and the stakes, escalate. Ryan’s father, in an abrupt about-face, is no longer fighting the alien “strits” or the privateers who allied with the aliens, he is negotiating a truce with them, so they can all join and go after the real enemy—the pirates. But the government doesn’t trust the truce, the aliens, or Captain Azarcon.
Just about the time Ryan starts coming to terms with the political situation, with his father, with Jos Musey--the mysterious young man his own age who is acting as interpreter between the aliens, the privateer leader nicknamed Warboy, and the humans--and with ship-board life, the government accuses Ryan’s father of having been a pirate.
And then the terror strikes even closer to home; and Ryan gets captured.
This book is emotionally fraught, set in a scary, complex world where no one is quite what they seem. Even the pirates, the threatening aliens, Ryan’s friends, his family, and the good-guy politicians all wear metaphorical masks to hide their real motivations.
The beginning is somewhat slow and probably more Byzantine than many readers might like, with intersecting flashbacks inbetween fairly mundane events as he prowls his home and seeks the drugs. I wish the book had begun when Ryan was fourteen, when he last saw his father—and when other important events took place. But once he is aboard the Macedon, the story-line goes linear, and the pacing takes off like a rocket. The climax finally shifts to another voice, rendering the last part of the story unrelentingly tense and involving.
Lowachee’s boyz are uniformly young, cool, handsome, emotionally scarred and lethally trained. There are many readers who believe that Lowachee's deadly bad boys are the deadliest and the most charismatic in their high-octane PTSD. Lowachee burst onto the SF scene with her previous novel, Warchild, a Warner Aspect winner, with the beginning written in an in-your-face second person present tense that works like a laser strike.
January 1, 2013
I quite enjoyed this. I'd never read any Karin Lowachee before, and I certainly intend to go seek out "Warchild," now.
Ryan lives a very difficult life, and one that is easily misunderstood as elite, easy and comfortable. He is the son of two very well-known people, an imfamous starship Captain father and a wealthy socialite mother, and often the topic of discussion on the space station where he lives. Indeed, he was recently voted "Hot #1 Bachelor." But a year ago, he witnessed the bombing of his grandfather's embassy, and the notoriety he gained as witness to the event (not to mention the media spin on his facial reactions to the event, sent out on the 'net at regular intervals), has given him even less freedom. He has lived with a bodyguard for seven years, and emotionally, he's about ready to burn out.
Then more goes wrong, in a big way, and it seems like death and violence are coming home to roost. His father makes some bold (and illegal) decisions amidst the ongoing war between humanity and an alien race, and once more Ryan is centre-stage in an entirely unpleasant way.
The characterizations in this book are just wonderful. Ryan himself is a complex individual, who, even when you want to shake him for being obstinate and unforgiving, is so very plausible and real - and wounded - that you can't help but feel a great deal of empathy. The surrounding cast of characters, from Ryan's bodyguard Sid, to his mother, to his father and the crew of his father's ship, are all just as well written, with nuance and emotional plausibility that maintain this very character-driven novel, even through parts where it doesn't seem that much is happening at all. You get to know these people, and thier feelings, very well.
Ditto the aliens. They are not all that humane, and Ryan has a good point once or twice in mentioning that it is rather ridiculous to expect something non-human to be humane, but even better, Lowachee doesn't simply 'explain' their uniqueness away with off-the-cuff biological or psychological investigations. They remain alien, and quite incomprehensible, and brava for it being so. Their human sympathizers are likewise a riddle, and I'm glad to say, equally left mysterious.
The politics of Lowachee's galaxy are likewise well developed and plausible, with a solid multi-factional conflict that is thriving in the war atmosphere, and may see peace as a threat on more than one front. Intellectually, some of these political movements pose a bit of a challenge (I once or twice had to flip back to recall which name aligned with which party or ideology), but the work is worthwhile. I certainly hope this isn't the last we've seen of this world, nor the characters introduced in this book.
There are no shortcuts in this book, and even when in one or two dry sections of near non-action, I found myself compelled to keep reading. I cannot recommend highly enough the characters nor the settings of this galaxy.
Ryan lives a very difficult life, and one that is easily misunderstood as elite, easy and comfortable. He is the son of two very well-known people, an imfamous starship Captain father and a wealthy socialite mother, and often the topic of discussion on the space station where he lives. Indeed, he was recently voted "Hot #1 Bachelor." But a year ago, he witnessed the bombing of his grandfather's embassy, and the notoriety he gained as witness to the event (not to mention the media spin on his facial reactions to the event, sent out on the 'net at regular intervals), has given him even less freedom. He has lived with a bodyguard for seven years, and emotionally, he's about ready to burn out.
Then more goes wrong, in a big way, and it seems like death and violence are coming home to roost. His father makes some bold (and illegal) decisions amidst the ongoing war between humanity and an alien race, and once more Ryan is centre-stage in an entirely unpleasant way.
The characterizations in this book are just wonderful. Ryan himself is a complex individual, who, even when you want to shake him for being obstinate and unforgiving, is so very plausible and real - and wounded - that you can't help but feel a great deal of empathy. The surrounding cast of characters, from Ryan's bodyguard Sid, to his mother, to his father and the crew of his father's ship, are all just as well written, with nuance and emotional plausibility that maintain this very character-driven novel, even through parts where it doesn't seem that much is happening at all. You get to know these people, and thier feelings, very well.
Ditto the aliens. They are not all that humane, and Ryan has a good point once or twice in mentioning that it is rather ridiculous to expect something non-human to be humane, but even better, Lowachee doesn't simply 'explain' their uniqueness away with off-the-cuff biological or psychological investigations. They remain alien, and quite incomprehensible, and brava for it being so. Their human sympathizers are likewise a riddle, and I'm glad to say, equally left mysterious.
The politics of Lowachee's galaxy are likewise well developed and plausible, with a solid multi-factional conflict that is thriving in the war atmosphere, and may see peace as a threat on more than one front. Intellectually, some of these political movements pose a bit of a challenge (I once or twice had to flip back to recall which name aligned with which party or ideology), but the work is worthwhile. I certainly hope this isn't the last we've seen of this world, nor the characters introduced in this book.
There are no shortcuts in this book, and even when in one or two dry sections of near non-action, I found myself compelled to keep reading. I cannot recommend highly enough the characters nor the settings of this galaxy.
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