/lit/ - Literature

>>22518480
Ironclads - Adrian Tchaikovsky (2017
)
This novella, from start to finish, is about a rescue mission told after the fact. The narrator, Sergeant Ted Regan, even directly addresses that he's telling a story at one point. As far as I could tell he seems to be a reliable narrator, so this being a frame story is more a stylistic choice than anything else. So, Regan and his men have been ordered to rescue a scion of one of the most powerful corporations. Scion is both what he is and also what they call the exosuits they use. That's not what's shown on the cover. They have mechs, but most of the fighting is between infantry, vehicles, scions, and a gunship. The rescue mission takes place in the newest US corporate target, Sweden. Along the way there's various mishaps, duplicity, and shifting allegiances. This isn't only a story about machines though, as there also bioengineered humans with animal characteristics and other augmentations.

Considering the length of this novella there's a lot of background info, world history, and general worldbuilding that's done. The story takes sometime in the mid to late 21st century where because all of the climate disasters and other catastrophes corporations have started literal wars against other corporations to maximize their holdings and profits. Governments have been relegated to a lesser position. The US has become a theocratic fascist state that has removed the rights previously held by most of its citizens, especially women and non-whites. They don't really mind that the corporations wage war on Canadian, Mexican, and the other American corporations. The national governments of those being invaded don't seem mind as much as one would think.

Thematically this is anti-war, corporate, elite, theocratic, fascists and much else. That's mostly expressed through polemics, the book says so, and somewhat through what happens. Again, it's a rescue mission, so they're mostly just traveling from one point to another looking for the guy. There's not really much to it in terms of plot, but that's to be expected due to its length. It doesn't really show off much of it what it talks about because of how constrained it is. It's all elsewhere. Why it's so restricted is explained by the narrative and makes perfect sense, butI think the realism in this case got in the way of being cool and fun. I would've liked it more if it wasn't so straightforward until the the reveal at the end which is entirely thematically appropriate. All in all, it's fine. I don't feel strongly either way about it.

Rating: 3/5