“I gulped down Ballistic in one long read, staying awake half the night, and now I want the next one!” —George R. R. Martin
There is a personal price to pay for having aligned with the wrong side in a reckless war. For Aden Jansen it’s the need to adopt a new identity while keeping his past hidden. Now he’s integrated himself aboard the Zephyr, a merchant ship smuggling critical goods through … smuggling critical goods through dangerous space. But danger is imminent on planet Gretia, as well. Under occupation, torn between postwar reformers and loyalists, it’s a polestar for civil unrest.
Meanwhile an occupation forces officer is pulled right back into the fray when the battle alarm is raised, an ambitious heiress is entangled in a subversive political conspiracy, and an Allied captain is about to meet the enemy head-on.
As Aden discovers, the insurgents on Gretia—and in space—are connected, organized, and ready to break into full-scale rebellion. History is threatening to repeat itself. It’s time that Aden rediscovers who he is, whom he can trust, and what he must fight for now.
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I gulped down Ballistic in one long read, staying awake half the night, and now I want the next one!
This is a fantastic sequel to Aftershocks, that delivers the ever changing of deeply interconnected system of worlds already scarred by war. Aboard the Zephyr, Aden feels he has found his place among the eccentric crew while holding his secrets close to his chest but even those may break a part as the crew takes a job smuggling a very deadly item that if it were to fall into those with a nefarious mind could create a shattering series of aftershocks even more harshly than previously experienced. And even when it’s agreed upon to do the correct thing regardless the weapon they discover they’re delivering, those whom were suppose to receive the weapon won’t let them escape their pledge of delivering without something in return, leaving the crew desperate for a way out. The moment a bomb is unleashed upon Rhodia, chaos takes over the uneasy peace that was holding after the first war; once more drawing the battle weary but hardened Dahl and Idina back into the unforgiving world… more death and aftershocks are coming once more the fight for peace coming from harrowing tears and grief that war brings. Highly recommended.
The action in the Gaia system, where human colonists have settled on different planets with different features, continues where it left off after “Aftershocks.” While the first book focused on the characters and the world building, this one delved deeper into the core struggle unfolding, but does not expose the hidden actors behind it just yet. Idina faces some interesting challengers, and they really deepen her character, making her more human and vulnerable. Aden’s adventures on the Zephyr intertwine with Dunstan’s patrol duties and leads, in a winding way, to this book’s climactic ending, which provides more insights into the simmering conflict, and paves the way toward the next book in the series. While in the first book, the characters were mostly on their own journeys, in this one, we finally see them starting to come together to help uncover some of the pieces of the unfolding puzzle. I can only surmise that they will all come together to fight the common enemy in the next book, and that’s okay, because the book was so engaging that you will want to jump right into the closing installment.
This is a fine book for fans of military science fiction, and has better characterization than many in the genre. I did find the worldbuilding a little thin in places, and I suspect there were a few things I would have understood better if I’d read earlier books in the world.
Still, the book addresses my primary criticism of much mil SF, that being that some authors care more about the outcome of battles than how the helmsman feels. Kloos gives the war a human face.
The only real flaw is that this book read very much like a prequel, despite being the second in a series (and that may be just a bias from the fact that I haven’t read the first one). However, it does stand alone well at that point; but not so much at the end. I think it might be best to read Aftershocks first…and perhaps wait until closer to when book 3, Citadel, comes out next June.
This probably isn’t a book I would have picked up if I hadn’t got a free copy, but it was definitely an enjoyable read and I think it would be appreciated more by those who are more solid fans of the subgenre.
(I received a copy of this book for award consideration).