K. S. Merbeth

I started the series with book two: memoria.

A space opera with a focus on a larger family of siblings going through kind of typical space opera things.

At times gripping action or delving deep into characters and their conflicts, at other times overwhelming with clichees or quite uninteresting parts, this book covered it all.

Quite focused around too much action, violence, war, the internal conflicts described are quite limited and not as engaging as I hoped.

Still not sure how much I like / dislike the book, or if I will read the last in the trilogy.… (meer)

It's funny how I can pick up highly-touted books that have received the full marketing push by their publishers, books that are getting much acclaim, and they leave me cold. Then I can find a book I didn't know existed, by an author I've never heard of in the back of a craft store that has a dog's breakfast of romance and action novels, all marked down to $3.00, and it's just a whole lot of fun.

That's Bite. I bought this novel a couple of months back with absolutely no expectations other than, if it sucked—and it was likely gonna suck—it only cost me the cost of a couple of coffees. Yes, I'm over 55, so I get the McD's seniors' discount, so three bucks gets me two coffees.

Anyway. While the author asks you to just kind of go with it (then again, what author doesn't?), she does ultimately reward you with some really enjoyable characters, some very real banter, and some great action.

I love an author who can do bleak dystopian with some humour. Merbeth pulls it off, and I'm now really looking forward to the follow-up, [b:Raid|31932878|Raid (Wastelanders #2)|K.S. Merbeth|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1483023767l/31932878._SY75_.jpg|52587901].… (meer)

For a book that starts with a drunken crash landing, this did not go anywhere close to where I thought it would, and that’s a good thing. Of course, Merbeth delivers on space battles and smuggling shenanigans and everything else you’d expect from that scene, but this is also very much a story about trauma, family, interplanetary politics, ethics, and morality. It gets dark and deep, and it keeps you guessing as the problems just keep piling on.

Scorpia is by far my favourite character, though everyone with a lot of say in the story is well-written. She’s got this relentless optimism and creativity, but also a dark streak of cynicism and fear, and a lot of her arc is about dealing with the trauma of Mama’s parenting and what it means to be a good person. (She also makes poor choices when pretty girls are involved, which is endearing.) Corvus has a sadness and determination about him, Mama is objectively awful and terrifying, other characters show surprising depths just when you think they’re one-note, but Scorpia is definitely the star.

But it’s not the characters that shine here as much as it’s the solar system and the themes Merbeth’s exploring. She’s taken the premise of Single Biome Space Opera planets, added in “they will all kill you” and extinct aliens, and then delved into how the cultures and politics would shake out. It’s not good. Sometimes it’s genuinely bad. It’s entirely complicated, and the Kaiser family’s caught right in the vice between it all. In some ways, it’s like that gag of plugging one hole just for three more to open up, or maybe Whack-a-Mole, if the moles occasionally exploded.

And the themes? I’m used to space opera that’s either an adventurous romp or that really goes at some external issue. (See: the Expanse series and exploitative corporations.) This one goes into emotions a lot more, asks questions about the nature of humanity, and yes, also delivers a lot of the wild political ride that the Expanse does. I found some of the “oh but wait” moments a little hard to follow sometimes—there is sometimes a lot in play—but that didn’t stop me fearfully turning pages to find out what happens now.

Oh, and the family dynamics are something else. There’s so much fear and misinterpretation and distrust that those almost make for a satisfying story on their own. And family history, especially childhoods, factor into the intrigue and adventure surprisingly often.

For all that I’m glowing about this book, though, I didn’t love-love. Some of the narration kicked me out of the story, there were the moments I couldn’t always follow, and some of the more minor characters and moments just didn’t work for me. That said, it’s definitely a series I’m going to keep following and one I recommend, especially to fans of James S.A. Corey.

To bear in mind: Alcoholism. Maternal abuse. A really nasty bioweapon. A government that, if not fascist, is definitely getting there. PTSD and survivor’s guilt. Genre-typical violence and injury.

7.5/10… (meer)