Then I opened the cover, flipped through the first couple sheets, and came across a nearly blank page with a single statement printed near the top: So anyways, I was walking through the library this one fine day, saw this book, and thought the cover art was pretty intriguing. In my profile for the site, I mention that I have no patience for “plots that don’t grab by the throat, the heart, or the funny bone”.
Because I’ve found that I’ll still occasionally find something that pushes my buttons. It seems somewhat ludicrous that between all of the books that I really want to read, and all of the others that publishers/agents/etc send to us, that I could ever find time to read something I found at a library. Books this one kind of reminded me of.Every once in a while I go to the library looking for books. If you want a time traveling book, good ones: Finney - Time and Again, Van Coops - In Times Like These, Anderson - Time Patrol, Willis - Say Nothing of the Dog. Its really unclear as to what is happening and when after the first jump occurs. The story jumps in time sequence so quickly from a moment unfolding in real time to something in the past to unfolding in real time again, only not the same time as the first real time. This story could have used another 2-3 major edits to get everything tied together a bit tighter. By 'lack of follow through' I mean 'EDITING'. Just the lack of follow through on the authors part keeps it from getting there. It has all of the ingredients to be a classic Sci Fi story. The Starship Troopers references in other reviews are accurate. Given the complexity of the plot, close attention is required.įirst - love the story.
The narration is well done with a decent range of characters. The disjointed time segments are at first confusing, but gradually can be pieced together as Dietz slowly appreciates the true state of affairs. The real appeal is the dystopic future of a world ruled by corporations in a life and death struggle against each other, while the bulk of the population suffers without recourse. The major sci-fi element is the light conversion, although this is never explained and neither is the weird time displacement. As these jumps progress, she gradually begins to suspect that all is not what it seems and concludes that the 'war' may simply be an excuse for corporate competition as well as population control. Dietz is one and finds herself being transported out of time such that she experiences futures and pasts different from her comrades. The title refers to the term for those soldiers who return different. Soldiers are converted to light which doesn't always work correctly, to traverse the distance to Mars. A young girl, Dietz, with nothing to lose, joins the military to fight Mars. Supposedly, Mars has rebelled, attacked Earth, and 'blinked' away 2 million people. In this dystopic future, Mars has been colonized while Earth governments have slowly given way to a small set of corporations who impose a rigid caste system with the bulk of the population making up the have-nots. Kameron Hurley's The Light Brigade is a solid entry on the futility of war in the same vein as Starship Troopers, The Forever War, and Old Man's War. Is Dietz really experiencing the war differently, or is it combat madness? Trying to untangle memory from mission brief and survive with sanity intact, Dietz is ready to become a hero - or maybe a villain in war, it’s hard to tell the difference.Ī worthy successor to classic stories like Downbelow Station, Starship Troopers, and The Forever War, The Light Brigade is award-winning author Kameron Hurley’s gritty time-bending take on the future of war. Dietz’s bad drops tell a story of the war that’s not at all what the corporate brass want the soldiers to think is going on. Those who survive learn to stick to the mission brief - no matter what actually happens during combat.ĭietz, a fresh recruit in the infantry, begins to experience combat drops that don’t sync up with the platoon’s. Everyone is changed by what the corps must do in order to break them down into light. Grunts in the corporate corps get busted down into light to travel to and from interplanetary battlefronts. The Light Brigade: it’s what soldiers fighting the war against Mars call the ones who come back.different. I wanted to be counted among the heroes who gave us this better world. They said the war would turn us into light. From the Hugo Award-winning author of The Stars Are Legion comes a brand-new science-fiction thriller about a futuristic war during which soldiers are broken down into light in order to get them to the front lines on Mars.
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