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Book rec: Warchild series by Karin Lowachee (spoilers in comments)
I've been meaning to write up something on these books for ... er, awhile now. I took along the first, Warchild, as airplane reading material back in August, and oh, I fell hard for it, hard enough to rush off to Amazon the first time I had Internet access and order the next two so that they'd be waiting for me when I got back to Alaska. (Sadly, it looks like most of them are out of print, but they're pretty easy to get from Amazon's used book resellers.) Anyway, I'm sick and I can't sleep, so I thought this might be a good time to write about them for a while, because I really want to talk about them and I don't know anyone else who's read them! :D This rec is cut for length, not spoileriness -- I've tried to avoid spoilers as much as possible, but if you have triggers relating to sexual violence or child abuse, read the warnings (in paragraph three) before reading the books. They contain potentially quite triggery material!
The series to date consists of three books, Warchild, Burndive, and Cagebird (and I read on her website - or somewhere - that she has eight books planned, but has had trouble interesting a publisher in the next ones). They are stand-alone books, each with a different protagonist whose lives touch on the same set of history-making events: a pivotal battle in an interstellar war between humans and aliens, with the potential to change the future of both peoples. The books deal with the same extended set of characters, but main characters in one book recur as minor characters in the other books. I imagine that you could read them in any order, although I was glad I read Warchild first, as it sets up the main conflict and also features my favorite set of characters.
I need to warn you guys that these books are dark, and contain potentially disturbing and/or triggery material including (but possibly not limited to): rape, child abuse, genocide, PTSD, self-harm (cutting), and drug and alcohol abuse. Basically these are unflinching and graphic books about the psychological effects of war on children. Most of the main protagonists are young people whose lives were uprooted and destroyed, directly or indirectly, by a conflict that began generations ago: violence begetting violence, war orphans and children raised on stories of the other side's atrocities becoming the next generation's leaders, on and on without end.
But the reason why I love these books so much is that they're all about breaking that cycle of violence, on both a societal and a personal level. They're not just books about war and trauma -- they're books about people who survive some of the most horrible things that people can go through, and then they pick themselves up out of the mud, and reach out a hand to others in the same situation, and go on. They're books about broken people finding a family in each other, and I think we all know how much of a total sucker I am for that particular theme. *g* They're books about finding ways to beat swords into plowshares when swords are all you've ever known.
The books aren't all gloom and doom and psychology, either. They're basically space opera -- unusually realistic and well-drawn space opera, but space opera all the same, so there are battles and explosions and spies and space pirates and so forth. :D Don't pick these books up if you want a light read, but there is a lot going on -- I can't really do more than scratch the surface without getting spoilery, but I loved how the author handled not just the characters' personal traumas but also the scope of a generational conflict in which the original act of aggression (the humans trying to seize one of the aliens' colonies) has long since been blotted out by repeated acts of atrocity and retaliation. How do you dig yourself out of that pit, when the war's been going on so long that everyone on both sides has valid reasons for seeking revenge? That's true of the characters on a personal level as well as their societies. These books have very well-drawn portrayals of PTSD and trauma recovery, at least to the extent that I know anything about those topics (which isn't much). But they feel meticulously researched and very believable.
One other caveat, aside from the general darkness: these books probably aren't a good fit for you if a lack of female characters is one of your dealbreakers. It's not a huge issue for me, especially since the books do a pretty good job with the handful of background female characters that they do have -- their armed services are integrated, the women we do see are perfectly competent and not at all stereotypical; it's just that, out of a dozen or so major characters over the three books, almost all of them are male and of the female characters who do wander on and off the page, we don't really get into their heads much at all. Actually, given how much these books deal with sexual abuse, it may well have been an intentional choice on the author's part to leave the women mostly out of it, but I still found myself wishing occasionally that they'd been given more of a voice.
But still -- I loved these books a lot, and I'm crushing pretty hard on some of the characters right now. They totally mashed down my buttons for found-family and getting up from the wreckage and just generally trying to be a good person in the face of overwhelming odds. And if you want to read some really good military sci-fi or space opera, these books are definitely that!
ETA: I have found other people who've read them! *bounces* And there will be SPOILERS in the comments - though not in the post itself!
This entry is also posted at http://friendshipper.dreamwidth.org/287262.html with
comments.
The series to date consists of three books, Warchild, Burndive, and Cagebird (and I read on her website - or somewhere - that she has eight books planned, but has had trouble interesting a publisher in the next ones). They are stand-alone books, each with a different protagonist whose lives touch on the same set of history-making events: a pivotal battle in an interstellar war between humans and aliens, with the potential to change the future of both peoples. The books deal with the same extended set of characters, but main characters in one book recur as minor characters in the other books. I imagine that you could read them in any order, although I was glad I read Warchild first, as it sets up the main conflict and also features my favorite set of characters.
I need to warn you guys that these books are dark, and contain potentially disturbing and/or triggery material including (but possibly not limited to): rape, child abuse, genocide, PTSD, self-harm (cutting), and drug and alcohol abuse. Basically these are unflinching and graphic books about the psychological effects of war on children. Most of the main protagonists are young people whose lives were uprooted and destroyed, directly or indirectly, by a conflict that began generations ago: violence begetting violence, war orphans and children raised on stories of the other side's atrocities becoming the next generation's leaders, on and on without end.
But the reason why I love these books so much is that they're all about breaking that cycle of violence, on both a societal and a personal level. They're not just books about war and trauma -- they're books about people who survive some of the most horrible things that people can go through, and then they pick themselves up out of the mud, and reach out a hand to others in the same situation, and go on. They're books about broken people finding a family in each other, and I think we all know how much of a total sucker I am for that particular theme. *g* They're books about finding ways to beat swords into plowshares when swords are all you've ever known.
The books aren't all gloom and doom and psychology, either. They're basically space opera -- unusually realistic and well-drawn space opera, but space opera all the same, so there are battles and explosions and spies and space pirates and so forth. :D Don't pick these books up if you want a light read, but there is a lot going on -- I can't really do more than scratch the surface without getting spoilery, but I loved how the author handled not just the characters' personal traumas but also the scope of a generational conflict in which the original act of aggression (the humans trying to seize one of the aliens' colonies) has long since been blotted out by repeated acts of atrocity and retaliation. How do you dig yourself out of that pit, when the war's been going on so long that everyone on both sides has valid reasons for seeking revenge? That's true of the characters on a personal level as well as their societies. These books have very well-drawn portrayals of PTSD and trauma recovery, at least to the extent that I know anything about those topics (which isn't much). But they feel meticulously researched and very believable.
One other caveat, aside from the general darkness: these books probably aren't a good fit for you if a lack of female characters is one of your dealbreakers. It's not a huge issue for me, especially since the books do a pretty good job with the handful of background female characters that they do have -- their armed services are integrated, the women we do see are perfectly competent and not at all stereotypical; it's just that, out of a dozen or so major characters over the three books, almost all of them are male and of the female characters who do wander on and off the page, we don't really get into their heads much at all. Actually, given how much these books deal with sexual abuse, it may well have been an intentional choice on the author's part to leave the women mostly out of it, but I still found myself wishing occasionally that they'd been given more of a voice.
But still -- I loved these books a lot, and I'm crushing pretty hard on some of the characters right now. They totally mashed down my buttons for found-family and getting up from the wreckage and just generally trying to be a good person in the face of overwhelming odds. And if you want to read some really good military sci-fi or space opera, these books are definitely that!
ETA: I have found other people who've read them! *bounces* And there will be SPOILERS in the comments - though not in the post itself!
This entry is also posted at http://friendshipper.dreamwidth.org/287262.html with
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one (http://sabrina-il.livejournal.com/895499.html), two (http://sabrina-il.livejournal.com/895816.html), three (http://sabrina-il.livejournal.com/896506.html), four (http://sabrina-il.livejournal.com/896662.html), five (http://sabrina-il.livejournal.com/897519.html) (with author comments), six (http://sabrina-il.livejournal.com/901422.html) (also some author comments), seven (http://sabrina-il.livejournal.com/901804.html), eight (http://sabrina-il.livejournal.com/902079.html), and nine (http://sabrina-il.livejournal.com/903323.html). Sooo... those should probably fill your need to talk about the books :-)
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ETA: Heeeee, reading her squee posts is cracking me up because that's more or less EXACTLY how I felt while I was reading the book (and pretty much thereafter until I got the second one so that I could appease the craving somewhat), except I didn't get any farther than just thinking about posting it to LJ. Heh.
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Oh, they sound very interesting and after reading the, spoilery, description of my "book dealer" - I think that "Warchild" will be right down my alley... *is a sucker for "broken" characters who won't give up*
Thank you for the rec!
*sneaks away again*
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Yeah, it depends. In this case it was exactly what I needed to read about a book so that I'll buy it but in some cases it's very annoying to read a major plot thing or twist in the description of the book. *sighs* And even more annoying is it when the description is about a really minor part of the book and the "big plot" is something completely different which doesn't interest me at all and I wouldn't have bought the book if I would have known that that is the major plot of the book... *big sigh* Sorry, that just bugs me with no end about book descriptions on the back of them...
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Thank you so much for recing it! Thank you!
*is off to order part 2 and 3*
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Yes, Yes, Yes! @ Macedon. I love that Azarcon (Cairo?) collects "strays" and gives them a second chance, that everybody on Macedon gives them a second chance and tries to understand them. I love that Azarcon doesn't leave his Jets behind when they are captured or "lost" on a ship/planet.
Yeah, the "greyness" - the best example for that: Niko. Assassine and at the same time somebody who takes the time to help a traumatised child of the "enemy". For a long time I had the nagging feeling that Niko was somehow behind the attack on "Mukudori" and that it wasn't chance that he "rescued" Jos from Chaos but it seems that I was wrong.
Another reason why I love this book so much: It made my mind go wild with theories about the characters and let me create AUs in my mind for so many scenes. I so *love* it when a book does that to me.
I can't wait to read this book for the second time and pick up all the things you only pick up when you read a book for the second time and/or you know what happens to a character.
I so hope that I get Part 2 and 3 before Christmas. I want to read more in this Universe! :)
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I wonder if I can get my library to order them.
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Knowing what you like, and what you don't like, I think the one thing about these books that probably wouldn't be to your taste is that there is a certain amount of sex in them, and a lot of it is very, very messed-up sex, usually between guys. For the most part it's largely off-camera -- we know that it happens (the main character in the first book was sexually abused as a child and raped as an adult, for example), but it isn't really shown; however, the third book gets a great deal more graphic than the previous two.
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Your reviews are spot on and so nicely put what I liked about them. So dark but so good and I loved all the characters...or at least grew to love them. I remember...I think it's the second books main protagonist annoying me greatly at first and me adoring him by the end!
So very very much hope she gets to publish the rest!
...dang, and now I want to go reread them and I have NO CLUE what coast my copies are on...hmmmm....
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But anyway, yeah - these books mashed down quite a number of my buttons! I really hope the author is able to interest a publisher in more of them, because I will be so there!