This book is probably more sci-fi than what we’ve seen
before but it’s different from your average sci-fi as the alien possessors are
so free from your many of your usual sci-fi markers
That’s my excuse. But I’ll be honest I just wanted to
read this series as it was well recommended and I already liked Wesley Chu’s Time Salvager and since it’s generally frowned upon to hunt down authors that
intrigue you and demand they write the genre you like on pain of am
armadilloing, I decided to read this one. And save my armadillos for another
day (also spellcheck, I disapprove of that lack of “e” on armadillos but after
10 minutes of struggle, I lost).
This book has aliens, the Quasing find human hosts which
they then influence – but don’t take over. They have no super powers, they give
no super powers – they just give knowledge. Thousands and thousand of years of
experience – the experience of all human civilisation. Civilisation for which
they were behind a lot of it, with a huge amount of the most famous and
influential people of history were possessed by quasing.
In many other books I would comment on how this is
appropriative and how it dismisses real human history. Especially since it does
a very good job of not just focusing western history (so much of our fiction is
western orientated): Tao, the Quasing we follow, has most prominently been in
the head of Ghenghis Khan and Sun Yat-Sen among others. So this would suggest
putting he achievements of great people in history – great POC in history –
down to alien intervention (which is borderline “aliens built the pyramids”
level of problematic)
It manages to avoid that by the simple amount of
influence Tao has. Sure he can guide, but he can’t control. He can enhance but
ultimately the quasing is not in the driver’s seat. On top of that Tao is as
much – or more, willing to claim his failures as much as his successes. He not
just blames himself for the failures of his past hosts but also Quasings in
general. I found the brief reminisces of Tao’s previous lives, how Quasing
history has developed, how world history has developed and how Prophus and
Geijix factions came about. But thin it was excellently balanced by not
including too much – we introduced the history and goals of the factions
without completely overwhelming the whole book or turning it into an info-dump.
Still I did prefer the reminiscences to the story of Roen
– partly because I don’t particularly like how Roen was treated. He has a lot
of character flaws and, no, he wasn’t especially physically adept: but Tao
insisted he become an agent, as in secret agent. They even said that the
Prophus have need for scientists etc – academics – so why not look for a role
more suitable to Roen’s skill set. I felt this made the human host, in contrast
to the backstory, somewhat irrelevant. Tao’s specialities counted and the host
will be forced into that mould (even if it comes with a bit of fat shaming).
Still, beyond that original problem, I really liked the
story and how Roen’s character developed. I like how he didn’t become perfect
right off the bat. I also liked how absolutely no character expected him to.
There was no shame or attack on him for not being excellent, no-one looked down
on him for having to start slow and easy. I really liked that – so many books
would have had his failures or his weaknesses be attacked by more professional
people or more experienced people. Instead everyone was always behind him,
everyone was always supporting him and willing to help him develop. Even when
he needed space and needed to back off.
The plot itself was more gentle – this is a very character
and world driven story rather than a plot and event driven story. That’s not to
say the story of did – but it is a very classic training/coming into his own,
character growth story. It’s not bad not even close, but it’s there to showcase
Roen and to showcase this excellent world.
I believe the protagonist is a man of colour… but it’s a
little vague. Actually personal descriptions are pretty vague in most of this
book which generally makes it hard to pin down anyone’s race or ethnicity. Roen
is vaguely described once as somewhat dark skinned, possibly latino, possibly
Asian or, and I quote, possibly a fan of the tanning booth. Since we’ve
followed Roen around for a long time and we’d know he’s more likely to take up
bungee jumping without a rope than actually go to a tanning booth, I’m going to
say he’s a POC.
We have a number of background POC we have Roen’s mentor and
several background agents. (ok, an Asian martial arts – I also like that Tao is
very centred on Asian people and Asian history he has been involved in in the
past). We have Paula who may be more prominent in future books who is Asian and
some background agents who are POC. There aren’t a lot of main characters –
Roen, his love interest Jill and Sonya his mentor: everyone else is somewhat
background – there are a LOT of background characters on both sides – many many
indeed – and several of them are POC
On Jill and Sonya – I’m really unhappy with how it ended
for these two prominent female characters – I’m also annoyed there was a
semi-romance in both cases and I’m really annoyed by Sonya being kidnapped (and
not rescued but needing rescue) especially since the book had done such an
excellent job of establishing her as awesome and skilled. Sadly isn’t this a
trope? Awesome woman ends up being teacher/trainer for the more mediocre male
protagonist?
There are no LGBTQ characters – background or otherwise
All in all I love this book. It has flaws – but it’s also
extremely well written with interesting characters, a fascinating world and a
really original concept, definitely a fun and refreshing read.
