I don't know where to begin with this review as this book is unlike any I have read before. Believe me when I say that I have read a lot of scifi so that is unusual in itself.



So what is different? Well, i'll try and explain what Stover is creating here and i'll say right now, you can tell she has a lot of books in this series in mind, you can just feel it. So a brief overview: This is a high tech military book, absolutely packed full of acronyms like SOP and KTNO, it is also full have high milit

I don't know where to begin with this review as this book is unlike any I have read before. Believe me when I say that I have read a lot of scifi so that is unusual in itself.



So what is different? Well, i'll try and explain what Stover is creating here and i'll say right now, you can tell she has a lot of books in this series in mind, you can just feel it. So a brief overview: This is a high tech military book, absolutely packed full of acronyms like SOP and KTNO, it is also full have high military speak, so Space Opera it is not. I have no idea what Stovers background, but I can tell you one thing, she knows how to make dialogue between soldiers feel like you are listening to actual footage, rather than a story. The book is based on one character called Thwip, who is in training to become of the Elite soldiers, called the Nova's. So for the first 1/3rd it is all about learning who Thwip is and how clever he is. You get dropped straight into a action scene and don't expect any backstory, you are pretty much straight in, which I love.

Anyway... told you this was going to be hard to write. The Nova's wear a high tech suit called a Trepid, which is so awesome that they pretty much never take them off, ever, (so you can tell no romance in this book right?!). Because these suits are an key component in the story and the characters lives, it spends at least half the book with our man Thwip learning to use his suit. Sounds boring right? But it actually isn't. I found the whole premise of putting on this suit that can make you into superman and taking weeks to not even fall over when walking refreshingly realistic. The last quarter is all about the Nova team and the ending pretty much shows you there is more to come.

So what makes it so different. The world building is pretty much non existent, because their world is in their suit. So you need to learn all about the suit right?

The characters are flat and so rigidly soldiery that it is like watching wooden blocks communicate. But, you can't have 100% no personality and slowly but surely Stover gives you little snippets of human traits in the crew and you leap on that and pay attention. It is weird, the characters are so defined in my head, but yet, 90% of their communication is rigid military speak.



This book isn't for everyone, you can see a people being bored by the whole detail that Stover brings to the table. I think that she is a very very clever writer and I am starting to see the promise of this series. It is nice to be exposed to something different and if you like hard scifi, military scifi, or hightech warfare then I think this is a series than may appeal to you. It is a relatively short read and I am looking forward to seeing where this story goes.