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roadtripreader 's review for:
Ironclads
by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Let the record show that when I started reading this book, I was still in the deep space haze of an astrophysics mental "hangover" having just read about a rum smelling, raspberry tasting Milky Way. But, this book is WILD and just lassoed my brain and dragged me out into curated chaos of the Ironclad world.
From the get go, I was transported into the barracks of a couple of soldiers fighting in a really weird war where the countries at loggerheads sound eerily familiar but also....different. Nordland, Sweden...the Union ...which Union? Hooked in a couple of paragraphs. I try not to read the blurbs for most books I select and this was one of them. I had a vague notion that it had to do with some form of higher order AI and from the cover - machines, and that was enough for me.
We see the events of Ironclads through Ted's eyes (Poor Ted, not the Rich Ted because Rich Ted could never get his hands dirty, typical suit.) and it's like trying to surf a massive wave using an orca whale as the board - messy, dangerous, INSANE, epic and a behemoth task for the daring daredevils. Honestly, at some point, it seemed like they were literally stumbling about in the face of danger at every turn. It was thrilling.
1. We've got big machines that people can sit in and go wage war. Unfair advantage and only for the wealthy, kinda like the massive Pacific Rim's Jaeger's run and managed by corporations.
2. We've got a war backed by Multinational Corporations - it's basically a war between these companies really and the people are cannon fodder. (par for the course in reality as well)
3. Scandinavians are the last holdout pushing back the expanding Union (which sounds a lot like the US to the power of 5 more countries or so) and you know what - that is believable. shoutout to Finland and The Finns who are the all powerful hybridized bioweapons.
4. We've got humor, double crosses, questionable war strategies, drones, oh man some really epic drones mind-melted to an operator.
So really, how could I not fall in love with this book with off the cuff, witty writing like this:
"Cruising in at treetop height was probably the biggest gunship anyone had ever managed to get in the air. In Canada they’d had three of them across the whole front, and they were called something like Jodorowskys. Of course just being big didn’t actually count for a whole deal, but they were built with that modern Slavic approach to engineering, all redundancy and hard-wearing components and no regard whatsoever for looking pretty. They took a lot of pounding before gravity took offence and yanked them down to earth."
From the get go, I was transported into the barracks of a couple of soldiers fighting in a really weird war where the countries at loggerheads sound eerily familiar but also....different. Nordland, Sweden...the Union ...which Union? Hooked in a couple of paragraphs. I try not to read the blurbs for most books I select and this was one of them. I had a vague notion that it had to do with some form of higher order AI and from the cover - machines, and that was enough for me.
We see the events of Ironclads through Ted's eyes (Poor Ted, not the Rich Ted because Rich Ted could never get his hands dirty, typical suit.) and it's like trying to surf a massive wave using an orca whale as the board - messy, dangerous, INSANE, epic and a behemoth task for the daring daredevils. Honestly, at some point, it seemed like they were literally stumbling about in the face of danger at every turn. It was thrilling.
1. We've got big machines that people can sit in and go wage war. Unfair advantage and only for the wealthy, kinda like the massive Pacific Rim's Jaeger's run and managed by corporations.
2. We've got a war backed by Multinational Corporations - it's basically a war between these companies really and the people are cannon fodder. (par for the course in reality as well)
3. Scandinavians are the last holdout pushing back the expanding Union (which sounds a lot like the US to the power of 5 more countries or so) and you know what - that is believable. shoutout to Finland and The Finns who are the all powerful hybridized bioweapons.
4. We've got humor, double crosses, questionable war strategies, drones, oh man some really epic drones mind-melted to an operator.
So really, how could I not fall in love with this book with off the cuff, witty writing like this:
"Cruising in at treetop height was probably the biggest gunship anyone had ever managed to get in the air. In Canada they’d had three of them across the whole front, and they were called something like Jodorowskys. Of course just being big didn’t actually count for a whole deal, but they were built with that modern Slavic approach to engineering, all redundancy and hard-wearing components and no regard whatsoever for looking pretty. They took a lot of pounding before gravity took offence and yanked them down to earth."