Heart Scarab

This was...an interesting book.

I don't believe it's a spoiler (just read the synopsis) to say that Bennet is presumed dead behind enemy lines (more on that later). However, we are in the interesting position of A) knowing he is the main protagonist of the entire series so the chances of him getting killed is nil and B) actually getting to read events from Bennet while he is presumed dead, before the funeral.

So, we get to see his friends and family mourn, while knowing explicitly, that he is still alive. Basically, we're watching people grieve when we don't really care about their grief. I mean, I think the first book was told only from two perspectives (Bennet and Flynn) and this book opens up the grieving to Joss (more on that later) and Rosie (as well as Flynn). Because we don't have a rapport with two of the three, mostly indifferent to their grief.

Flynn's grief hit me a little more (but we also get less of it) mostly because he has no public claim to Bennet. He's barely a friend, someone who was close almost two years ago while they worked a mission together. He's not allowed public grief like Bennet's family, lover or close friends/co-workers are.

Now, about the ‘enemy lines' comment. ... I'm not the biggest fan of those type of plots in sci-fi. At least Bennet wasn't setting up a home there, which saved me a lot of frustration. Bennet is mostly focused on saving people and attempting to stick it to the Maess. (More on that later.) Escape planning is a side note. I actually kind of liked these chapters - at least compared to how much I thought I would.

The Maess. I have this problem in fantasy and sci-fi when the big bad is a faceless, alien enemy bent of total destruction of humanity. At least as far as humans can tell, because they are so alien to humanity that humans really don't know what this enemy wants. ... I was hoping that the Maess would become more fleshed out after the shakeup Bennet got in Gyrfalcon. That seems to be a forlorn hope. (I also have a problem with the fact that this war between humanity and the Maess has been going on for a hundred years.)

So, the last more on later: Joss.

I'm going to be blunt. I hated him in the first book. Not for the reason most people would expect. I'm not hating on him because he's in the way of Bennet and Flynn. Bennet and Flynn - and the military in general - are in the way of Bennet and Flynn. No.

I figured out in the first book that Joss is bad for Bennet. He's a bad match in general and his being so against Bennet in the military would do nothing but push them further apart. I also thought he was very manipulative with his ‘consolation' fucks on the side when Bennet wasn't there. (Poly's fine. I do not find this an example of a healthy relationship, much less a healthy poly relationship.)

In this book, we get chapters from Joss' perspective. Not only are we treated to such delightful mentality as:

'[...]it irked him that Caeden's focus there wasn't on Bennet himself [...] but on his status as Caeden's son. Joss had tried to write an obituary to put things back in the proper perspective, make his own claim paramount.'

But we also get the telling of how Joss and Bennet first got together from Joss' perspective. And me realizing that not only is he a manipulator, he's also a creep.

Bennet was eighteen, Joss was thirty-seven. (First of all ??? Really?) Then, even if Joss wasn't his teacher, he was in a position of power.

Then, once they got together...

Look, Bennet was stubborn, even at eighteen years old. Just look at the way he defied his father. But, yet, he was still trying to compromise with Joss - something Joss was never willing to do.

Joss tried to control Bennet. Never trying to understand that Bennet wanted to join the military for himself. Then, because Joss needs sex, he can't go as long as Bennet is gone without getting laid, they had an open relationship. With the very added strangeness that ‘girls don't count.' (Hello bad flashbacks to Glee.)

In the first book, Bennet states that Flynn is the first time that he used the open relationship himself (because girls don't count). Meanwhile Joss is fucking every eighteen and nineteen year old that's willing, I'd imagine.

Look, Joss is a creep. He's a manipulator and a slug. Bennet stayed with him because it was easier than leaving - even though he dreaded his homecomings. Bennet actually states more than once that his relationship with Joss was so bad that he would rather have stayed out there fighting than come home on leave.

Soo... Just had to get that out. Because having to be in Joss' head was probably the worst thing I've read this year.

Now, in other thoughts:

While the first book was very action driven with some interpersonal stuff, this is very interpersonal with some action stuff. And not much at that. How much anyone would like this book depends highly on if you like more drama or more action in your sci-fi. (I tend towards action.) And how much you like the POV characters. (Like Bennet quite a bit, so wasn't happy with the distractions from his POV. Like Flynn and would have liked more of him in the first half. Rosie is...barely okay. Just not attached to her. Hate Joss.)

Why does everyone only have one name? Why is there no surnames in this universe? (Also, how?)

I will be continuing the series for three reasons. 1: I already own the next book. 2: The next sounds more action driven. 3: We have, hopefully, seen the last of Joss.

Three stars, dropped one because I had to spend ANY time in Joss' head.

(If you need more Joss hate, go read my updates as I was reading.)