Michael Barnes
I'm a fan of huge fan of Neon Yang’s Tensorate novellas So I was excited to read this transmutation of saint Joan of Arc into a foul-mouthed and combative protagonist Misery Nomaki.
The world building is incredible, sufficiently strange but with weird but firm underlying structure With the battles fought by holy mechs It’s a little Pacific Rim, a little medieval Europe with the combative arguments of power between monarchs and the catholic church. The ritualistic, authoritarian trappings of empire around that which call to mind Yoon Ha Lee’s Hexarchate or Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch; and the giant sacred space robots and the battles between the Empire’s space robots and the forces of the rebel Heretics – smaller in number but able to engage in more novel formations thanks to said heresy. (of course I am rooting for the heretics, because science)
As a space opera at heart, there will be terms and names that make your brain sputter in confusion. Just go with it, the meaning will soon be clear enough. An example of this wielding of language to create different space the groups of mechs called servings then of course a battle group would be termed a banquet.
"The narration begins with someone asking an angel for Misery's story, to make sense of things, which explains the omniscient narration and the interludes that explain some of the backstory of humanity going into space, how the Church of the Faithful was created and how the Heretics split off. The holy war between them is officially at a truce, and there are stones that can be manipulated by those considered saints or are holy parts of the Church. There are also those infected with the Void, the emptiness and mutated aspects of space. It gets into the mind first, creating hallucinations and then personality changes before completely obliterating the human form with mutations and violence. From the start, Misery is aware of the void sickness inside her, as she has a hallucination following her and running commentary or telling her what to do; this sickness had also killed her mother years ago. But she is able to manipulate the holy stones, changing their shapes or moving through their doors, so everyone believes she is the next Messiah that was prophesied. She must train to use the mechs in combat against remaining Heretic forces while not really believing in her own hype. Her goal is survival, and if the rest of humanity survives too, that's a bonus".
The book ends in what I think suggests the story has more to tell and I have seen suggestions its is a duology or trilogy and I certainly would love to see more of this world and Misery.
I'm a fan of huge fan of Neon Yang’s Tensorate novellas So I was excited to read this transmutation of saint Joan of Arc into a foul-mouthed and combative protagonist Misery Nomaki.
The world building is incredible, sufficiently strange but with weird but firm underlying structure With the battles fought by holy mechs It’s a little Pacific Rim, a little medieval Europe with the combative arguments of power between monarchs and the catholic church. The ritualistic, authoritarian trappings of empire around that which call to mind Yoon Ha Lee’s Hexarchate or Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch; and the giant sacred space robots and the battles between the Empire’s space robots and the forces of the rebel Heretics – smaller in number but able to engage in more novel formations thanks to said heresy. (of course I am rooting for the heretics, because science)
As a space opera at heart, there will be terms and names that make your brain sputter in confusion. Just go with it, the meaning will soon be clear enough. An example of this wielding of language to create different space the groups of mechs called servings then of course a battle group would be termed a banquet.
"The narration begins with someone asking an angel for Misery's story, to make sense of things, which explains the omniscient narration and the interludes that explain some of the backstory of humanity going into space, how the Church of the Faithful was created and how the Heretics split off. The holy war between them is officially at a truce, and there are stones that can be manipulated by those considered saints or are holy parts of the Church. There are also those infected with the Void, the emptiness and mutated aspects of space. It gets into the mind first, creating hallucinations and then personality changes before completely obliterating the human form with mutations and violence. From the start, Misery is aware of the void sickness inside her, as she has a hallucination following her and running commentary or telling her what to do; this sickness had also killed her mother years ago. But she is able to manipulate the holy stones, changing their shapes or moving through their doors, so everyone believes she is the next Messiah that was prophesied. She must train to use the mechs in combat against remaining Heretic forces while not really believing in her own hype. Her goal is survival, and if the rest of humanity survives too, that's a bonus".
The book ends in what I think suggests the story has more to tell and I have seen suggestions its is a duology or trilogy and I certainly would love to see more of this world and Misery.