I'm partway through Blackman's Noughts & Crosses series, which is excellent if very grim, so when I saw this on the library shelves I thought I'd give another of her books a go. I liked it, but not as much. There's no denying that Blackman's a fantastic writer, though, and this story is particularly pacy, with an almost thriller-like presentation. It's non-stop action from beginning to end, which is admittedly not my preference when it comes to science fiction, but as I said, I still enjoyed it.

Noughts & Crosses is notable for its race-switching, and while Noble Conflict isn't as brutally in-your-face about its opinions, it seems fairly clear to me that it's a critique of colonialism. Particularly the type of colonialism that blames the victims, and frames their very reasonable response at being subject to the horrors of genocide as terrorism. I'd like to say that my opinions changed as to the status of the supposed heroes as the story unraveled, but truth be told I saw a lot of it coming. And let's be fair, the title of the book is practically dripping irony, so it's a signpost in itself before readers even open the covers.

Honestly, though, this is the third book of Blackman's I've read and they've all been well-written and interesting. I'd pick up any of the rest unreservedly, so time to take this one back to the library and see if they've got any more.