Restless Lightning is the sequel to last year’s ‘Valiant Dust’, a military sci-fi story which took the time to explore some socio-cultural
issues in between blowing stuff up. The sequel takes us to whole new worlds,
but keeps that attachment to broader themes which made Valiant Dust so
interesting. It’s happy to talk to you about life and love in a space navy, but
it also wants to talk about cultural homogeneity, stasis, and the struggle to
retain identity in the face of a cultural conquest. The story also, to be fair,
wants to blow some stuff up.
Sikander North is still the protagonist – the scion of a
rich and powerful family, but one whose world was recently appropriated into a
cross-system federation relatively recently. Egalitarian as the Aquilan
Federation claims to be, its members tend to come off as confident in their own
superiority, and Sikander left to prove himself as not being a second-class
citizen. This exploration of the idea that even the ‘good’ guys have their
blind spots – so assured of their own truths that they don’t often question
them – is welcome. It also lets us see Sikander, a son of privilege in the
extreme, in a more positive light. As an outsider, he struggles against social
and cultural expectations even from his own position, highlighting the woes of
those below.
From a character standpoint, Sikander makes for an
interesting protagonist. Alongside his difficulties integrating with an imposed
culture lives a man who wants to do the
right thing. A hero in the classic mould. If his relationship with his
superiors is a complex, often tumultuous thing, his sense of right and wrong is
not, or his sense of duty. Doing What’s Right has defined Sikander up to now,
and it’s nice to see that extended here, even if there are consequences to be
had, or indeed, different definitions of what’s right.
Which brings us to antagonists. I shan’t spoil it, but was
immensely pleased to see time given to Sikander’s antagonist as a viewpoint. As
an individual, they appear to be making difficult, painful choices, and even
when some of them were awful, and others disagreeable, you could see the path
taken to get there. In a different story, perhaps, the villain would become the
hero. It’s a wonderfully nuanced portrayal of an individual acting within their
own bounds to serve what they thing of as a necessary goal – as, after all,
no-one is a villain in their own story. It’s here the text excels, giving us an
antagonist wo is themselves thoughtful, idealistic and determined to do the
right thing – by their own lights. The complexity is appreciated, and gives
some added depth in between the compelling action sequences.
This is a story which asks questions of its readers. When is
social and cultural capital a weapon? How far can you stretch soft-power? What
are the ramifications of economic warfare, and can you push people far enough
that they’re willing to act in their own worst interests just to make it stop?
These are big questions, woven seamlessly into the narrative tapestry. There’s
some answers floating around in there too, though I think as a whole the text
embraces the show, not tell, philosophy.
That said, this isn’t entirely (or even mostly) a book of
meetings about trade. There’s enough hull metal and big guns floating around to
satisfy anybody. The space combat is there, and some of the ground action that
kept the heart pumping in the previous novel. The blend of the stately dance of
space warfare is tactically convincing and well realised; the infantry battles
are visceral moments of violence entwined with adrenaline and blood.
It keeps you turning pages, that’s a fact. The characters
definitely have the depth and complexity of real people, and they’re working
against a well-drawn background to provide a masterful blend of politics,
personal drama and hard-hitting military action which kept me looking at the
next page, and the next, and the next. So yeah, if you need some more sci-fi
military action, this continues to be a breakout series that is absolutely worthy
of your attention.
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