Descent - Marko Kloos

I've been talking up Marko Kloos for a while now, and at this point he's my go to recommendation for "military SF done right". He has a talent for action, for being able to make fighting on the ground seem visceral and bloody and deadly, and battle in space seem stately and messy and lethal. It has an honesty to it, an unflinching acceptance of people trying to do the right thing in a space where that can mean getting hurt, or killed. There's a sense that anyone can be a hero, and a careful caution against hero worship in the same package. And he does this while also being able to put you through an emotional wringer, both in combat and out. Wondering who will survive is one thing, but seeing how they relate to their friends, their families, building them up past ciphers into something more, with a payoff to match, takes talent - and Kloos has it in spades.

Descent is, honestly, proof of that. It spins us across four point s of view, all familiar from previous books in the series, and gives us a blend of personal connection, functional competence and superior firepower that proves quite compelling.

Take Aden. Once a member of an infamous political unit on the losing side of a cross-system war, all he wants to do now is keep his head down, fly trade runs with a crew who are becoming his friends, and forget the past. That past, unfortunately, is seeded throughout the world of the Palladium Wars series, and escaping it isn't often an option; in fact, reckoning with it may be Aden's only chance for a regular life. He's a thoughtful person, and we get to see that here, as he's quietly inserted as a deep cover operative into a movement looking to revive the nationalism of his homeworld. If he manages to figure out what's going on, and who's behind the surprisingly well funded terror group he's infiltrating, then he can go home happy, and alive. But managing to do that is going to be a real trick. Aden's scenes are often wonderfully tense, as he tries to get into the inner circle of the group without giving himself away. But all the more so because, as time goes on, he feels more empathy and sympathy for the, What side he'll be on by the end of the series remains open to question, but Aden can take us on a voyage of moral complexity without making it feel like drudgery - and the portrayal of his, ha, descent, into radical politics, off the back of seeing how poorly his people are being treated, is picture-perfect. 

He's not the only one of course. I always enjoy Idina, the combat soldier for the forces occupying Aden's world after their failed war of aggression. A peacekeeper, she always manages to be in the right (or wrong) place at the right (or wrong) time. And that gives her an excuse to blow some stuff up, often with extreme prejudice. That said, now Idina is running an extra-judicial snatch-squad, looking for the heads of the group that Aden is infiltrating, and things seem like they're a little murkier for her. She's still making the right calls, but the ground is shifting, as her team kicks in doors and works through the ethics of pre-emptive imprisonment, torture and execution without trial. It helps that Idina herself has a personal courage and moral centre that keeps her deeply sympathetic, and that when the chips are down, and she's almost out of ammo, she'll do the right thing.

If Idina is the heart of the story, Solveig is the soul. Instead of approaching conflict through the lens of battle armour or ship cannon, she's coming at it with a sharp suit from the boardroom. Her company, her family, seem to be entangled with the nationalist resistance, a group Solveig has no sympathy for. And we can watch as she slowly stretches her wings, takes hold of some of the company that her father is legally no longer allowed to run, and starts digging into both the past and the future. Solveig is a bright, fierce flame on the page, and her gently budding romance with a police detective is a quiet joy between more adrenaline-fuelled moments (though Solveig has her share). It's interesting to look at things outside a purely military perspective, and Solveig gives us another angle with cool precision over a deeper river of emotion that sometimes makes for a rather intense read.

And then there's Dunstan, who, fresh off being promoted and in charge of the weirdest, deadliest ECW boat in the history of space warfare, is now out on a fishing expedition. He's a solid lad, a good commander, and it's interesting to note that he keeps finding himself wanting to go back into the black rather than stay at home behind a desk with his family. That dilemma is approached with a maturity and compassion I thought was interesting, and I hope we see some more of that later on - though for now, he's mostly breaking out the cool space warfare gadgets. Which, to be fair, are pretty cool - Kloos has a good eye for space action, and knows how to eke out the tension for maximal emotional payoff.

And that's Descent, really, a book defined by its characters. We're here at an inflection point on their journey, as they all stumble down one slightly darker path or another, deciding who they are, and if that's who they want to be. And doing it against a backdrop of rapid-fire action that'll leave you desperately looking at the last page and wondering when the next book is coming out (or maybe that's me). In any case, it's a perhaps more deliberately paced moment in the series, but if you're a fan, still a damn good time.