I will admit, to my eternal shame, that I have never given military science fiction a fair shake. My boyfriend and his dad absolutely love it. There are three bookshelves dedicated to it at home. I swear it’s a modern wonder of the world, and his father reads the genre exclusively. I’ve been meaning to get around to it.
I’ve been going through my boyfriend’s Kobo before bed every night (yay for backlights!) In order to deal with the huge quantity of books I’ve loaded on there, I decided to read alphabetically, though this may change as I just realized I’m missing out on series and binging good authors. But I digress.
I was excited when I opened Acheron Rising: A Federation Chronicles Novella by Ken Lozito and realized it was a military science fiction novella. Finally, I could talk with my boyfriend about the genre and maybe learn a thing or two! This book was short, I think it was intended to be a reader magnet designed to introduce the universe. It was a fun little book.
This book was action packed. I read it in three sittings, and I thought about it throughout my day. There was a huge emotional buy-in. All of the characters had depth, insecurities, fears and motivations that made sense. They were allowed to be flawed, and human. Miles’ desperate quest to save his brother was one example, without spoilers, his plight seemed almost like a Shakespearean tragedy. Elias, the acting captain of the ship, has to make hard choices after being disgraced and left in an impossible situation. The stakes were high, with an entire colony hanging in the balance and the Jordanis out for blood.
All things considered, I really enjoyed this novella. It kept me engaged, I wanted to know what happened next and I was really quite sad when it ended.
I’d strongly consider continuing in this universe, and getting the rest of the books. Five stars here!