Archive for the ‘military scifi’ Category
Bitter Angels, by C.L. Anderson
Posted on: August 29, 2011
Bitter Angels by C.L. Anderson
Published in 2009
Where I got it: Purchased New
why I read it: met the author at a bookstore book signing
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Ever heard the phrase “it’s not that you don’t like insert-subgenre-here, it’s that you just haven’t read the right one”? I’ve read a few military SF novels over the years, and they’ve never done much for me, so I figured I just didn’t care for military SF.
Turns out I just hadn’t read the one that was right for me.
Bitter Angels may fit most neatly into the subgenre of military scifi, but it’s a hard scifi action political thriller murder mystery, and it stars a kick ass female protagonist.
It’s been over 20 years since Terese Drajeske retired from the Guardians a damaged woman. She retired after her last mission, after she was captured, tortured, had her bio-companion ripped from her head and was left for dead. Over 20 years since she left her mentor, Bianca Fayette, left all that pain behind. But now Bianca is dead, and the Guardians are asking Terese to return to active duty, to leave her husband, her children, everything that’s kept her sane all these years, to investigate Bianca’s death.
Anderson throws a lot at the reader in the first hundred pages of Bitter Angels. A lot of set up, a lot of characters, a lot of politics and star system socio-economic culture. Don’t get me wrong, I love a quick read, but this is one that would only have benefited from being 200 pages longer. We get a lovely intro with Terese and her family, and her heartwrenching emotions when she has to tell her husband she’s voluntarily returning to active duty. We get some character point of views from the Erasmus system where Bianca was killed. There’s a lot going on, and a lot to follow.
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