It helps that Honor for the Dead is rather good.
The story focuses on Ao, a villager-turned-infantryman for a nation which seems to be sitting on the edge of the war with its neighbour, the auspiciously named "Kings". Quite who started the war, and what they#re getting out of it, is unclear, at least as the story begins. But Ao is quick to discover that war isn't as much heroic last stands, glory and victory parades as it is blood, and mud, and dead friends. The text is unflinching in showing the costs of conflict, though it also makes time to show us the courage and tenacity of the soldiers as well.
Ao is a compassionate, empathetric individual, with a fairly well developed sense of right and wrong. He's also a member of an ethnic minority that is at best tolerated, and at worst violently discriminated against. His struggle to shape who he is to fit social expectations while also still being himself is fascinating to read, especially as he's still trying to decide who he is, even while working out what the military expects of him. Ao just wants to do his best, doesn't want to be defined by what his family have done, or what his people have done, wants to step out and be a hero. It soudns simple, but as we turn the pages, Ao discovers that all of these things are more complex than they appear on the surface. If his family have a history of desertion, was it justified? If his people are discriminated against, is it worth asking why, and how much is he willing to tolerate it? If there's a war, what started it, who benefits, and how does it end? If Ao isn't just a simple farm boy, then who is he? As a protagonist, Ao is a lot of fun to spend time with, and if his moral wrestling sometimes drags a little, he makes up for it with resilience and a genuine desire to do good. Whether that's going to work out, on the other hand, is anyone's guess.
In his defence, Ao is surrounded by people who are somewhere between moral ambivalence and outright psychosis. Fellow new soldiers get the shine knocked off of them very quickly, and his officers are either pragmatic killers, or individuals sufficiently out of their depth that their capacity for doing terrible things is far greater than the constraints set out to stop them. There's some question of who the antagonist is for this story - the enemy army, which wants to kill everyone, or members of Ao's own unit, who do a wonderful line in delicious malevolence with a side of brutality. Interestingly, the latter get their own viewpoint sections, and they're as unpleasantly compelling as you might expect.
Ao (and his many, many enemies) live in a rich world, with a history that I can feel just bubbling under the surface. Honestly, the local area is wonderfully described, to the point where I think I might be able to navigate it myself. The forests, mountains and horse-ranches have a deep sense of place, of having roots about them. I would have liked to hear more about the rest of the world, though - there are hints about the Kings, about why the nations work as they do, of a shared history, of mistakes, of places other than small villages on contested borders - but we don't get enough time to make them as real as I'd like. Still, perhaps this is something the next book will rectify. In the meanwhile, I shan't complain too much, because what we have is a slice of space and time that has a real depth and texture to it.
And the story, well, there's a fair bit of military marching and muskets going off, and battles in close order (and otherwise). There's betrayal and disaster. There's more than one victory, some of which even stick. And there's a boy growing rapidly past his expectations and dreams into a man, one who may be able to change the course of, if not the war, at least his little patch of it, for the better. It's a snappy read, and one that kept my attention from the first page - and as such, I'd say it's worth giving Honor for the Dead a look.
