Reviewed by Quirky Cat on
Exile is the first in a series of one of my favorite types of science fiction subgenre: Space Opera. In this case it’s all about tyranny, the fight for justice, and forming a new colony. It’s actually quite a lot of ground that Glynn Stewart managed to cover. I’m sure at least some of the groundwork was laid down in his other series, but without having read them (yet) I can’t be certain which ones. I do know that he likes to connect the dots where possible, and that he’s been building in the same world. So it seems plausible.
I just want to take a quick minute to say that I love the cover for this novel. I can’t quite explain all the reasons I like it. I think it’s mostly the color palette that gets to me. That and the large and heavy font choice – it fits perfectly both with the image on the cover as well as the theme of the book.
Would you feel like you had any options, other than to resist, when witnessing a martial tyrant ruling over all the humans they can access? Would that feeling change, say if you were a famous actress, or the tyrant’s son? For Amalie and Isaac there really wasn’t a choice to be made here.
Amalie was one of the most popular actresses of her time, and she used her popularity and excuses to travel to organize a revolution. Nobody knew it was her, not even the people she was revolting against. It’s actually an impressive feat, when you stop and think about it.
Isaac is the son of said tyrant, who by the way has the nickname of Iron Bitch. That naturally means that his nickname is the Iron Brat. He hates the name, and for good reason. He’s never stood for what his mother has been doing, which is why he joined the rebellion.
That rebellion ended in a way that none of them had anticipated, and all things considered the whole thing actually went down quite early in the novel. It became quickly apparent that the rebellion wasn’t the focus of the novel, more the start of a chain of events that were the focus instead. It’s an interesting choice, and not one you see frequently.
At first it was a little hard to get into the swing of things – we were starting out right in the middle of things, with long term plans unfolding (or not) all around. But once things settled down, and once the book got to its main focus (life of Exile) things got quite interesting. Realistically it was probably not until I was a third of the way through the book that I fell in love with it.
There are a lot of interesting perspectives in this new series, and I have to admit I found it all endearing. The new way of looking at exile, the politics, the interactions between races (yes, I am being vague here intentionally, but once you read the novel I think you’d be happy for my choice), and so on. All together these changes, from the minor ones to the major shifts, make this series stand out among the many in the science fiction world. I can assure you that I won’t be forgetting this one anytime soon, and that I’ll certainly be following up with any others that come out in this series.
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Reading updates
- Started reading
- 12 August, 2018: Finished reading
- 12 August, 2018: Reviewed