The novel shows Dietz discovering the government’s deceptions by short-circuiting government systems. Dietz is trained to ride the light, to be teleported as a light wave, passively, and somewhat learns how to do it actively. But some light soldiers don’t come back in the same timeline they left in, and Dietz is one of these. Knowing bits and pieces of the war both before and after it happened unsettles Dietz, who starts to lose touch with who is who, when they are what, and what they might know in Dietz’s own life. But as Dietz’s evidence of governmental deception grows, the evidence about people like Dietz gain credibility to the characters around Dietz.
It’s apocalyptic without being gore-porn. It’s gritty without being only dark. It’s complex without losing its own thread. This timeline jumping tendency of the novel had to stress the author as much as it stresses Dietz. I imagine a massive bubble chart, or spreadsheet, next to a list of dates and times–a list showing who is where when, and a bubble chart showing Dietz’s path through that list. It’s an incredibly impressive process to engage in, and one the author absolutely pulls off.
Jumping back and forth, the non-linear timeline is a risk. The lack of clear warnings beforehand, it’s going to put some readers off for sure. But not every book is for every person. So, what does the author gain here, by engaging in this process? I think she gains complexity and a believability to Dietz’s discoveries that take this book past the usual boundaries of military science fiction. Typically, the genre relies on suspicions. Here, the suspicions center around how deep the deception goes, the deception itself is proven to Dietz, but in a way that they can’t prove to another. Typically, the genre achieves complexity by expansion, by bringing in more characters that require more explanation and introduction. Here, the complexity comes from the timeline being non-linear, from Dietz attempting to figure out or remember when they are, and who around them knows what.
As a technical achievement, it’s breathtaking. The plotting and pacing of this novel is insanely complex and Kameron Hurley pulls it off brilliantly. Her themes also play right into current day-to-day struggles: an internet that serves more to deceive and distract than inform, a populace with too-easy access to comfortable echo chambers, fear as a prime motivator, the seeming inevitability of the desires of the powerful, the way we run away and end up exactly where we didn’t want to be, media outlets spinning stories almost beyond recognition, and the narratives we all tell ourselves about our own lives. What is freedom when our primary mode of communication is monitored and governed by rules that we are punished for breaking, but watchers are paid to break? How do we make a country back down from war without resorting to war? How do we push ourselves out of our comfort zones or echo chambers and find other points of view and perspectives? How are we free from fear? These are timely, present day concerns that Hurley delves into deeply, and shows ways around.
Kameron Hurley’s characters and character arcs don’t let the brilliant story and themes down either. Dietz is somebody I would want to spend more time reading about. They captured my attention as their empathy was beat out of them for a higher ideal, which was based on that earlier empathy. They are beat down through unknowable action or situation followed by unknowable action or situation. It’s the story of choosing to look at a near-universal problem from a different angle (Sure, Dietz was initially forced by the malfunctioning light-hopping, but then they chose). Dietz does not portray the typical chosen one storyline. Rather, circumstances force Dietz to act and Dietz fights for the right to change some friends’ futures. And Hurley’s plotting kept me strangely synced to Dietz: when Dietz felt anger over the bridge ceremony, I also had been given enough info and context to feel similarly.
In short, this book is a high-water mark for military science fiction–this easily sails onto my top five list, resting comfortably next to Forever War and Starship Troopers. But, critically, this book bends the genre enough that it’s a great science fiction novel, full stop. This is fantastic stuff here, and I can’t recommend it enough. I haven't wanted to re-read a book this quickly since about 2011 when I first read The City and The City.
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