BOOK REVIEW: Embers of War by Gareth Powell

Embers of War is a curious example of a space opera. The main character is a sentient ship, called the Trouble Dog, which was a warship that was involved in a horrific genocide that ended a war and is now part of an organization which resembles an interstellar version of the International Red Cross known as The House of Reclamation. Other characters in  Embers of War  include Ona Sundak, the former warship captain who actually ordered that genocide and who has been hiding incognito for years; two spies for opposing governments, Laura Petrushka and Aston Childe, who could be and may be more than just friends and Sal Konstantz, the current captain of the Trouble Dog.

The heart of the story is is about a conflict between a multitude of competing factions who are trying to control a precious resource. A major theme is also about the nature of forgiveness and the after-effects of war. A planet-spanning sentient forest was exterminated by Sundak in an attempt to end a war in order to save lives that would be lost if the war continued. How does one weigh the consequences of such an act? Are genocidal acts ever"reasonable"? As I said, this is an unusual topic for a military SF space opera tale, but it is a compelling one. 

However, overall, I was not as enthralled with Embers of War as I expected to be, considering the genre it is in and the fact that it was nominated for Best Novel in the British Science Fiction Awards (BSFA). One of the problems for me was that I didn’t really connect with any one of the human characters. The most compelling character in the book is the ship, but “she” portrays herself as such (it probably shouldn’t have a gender but it thinks of itself as female based on the source of the cells that comprise the biological substrate of the ship’s mind). Speaking of gender, the majority of the characters are female and the male characters are either viewed as incompetent or as needlessly and recklessly violent. This may have been another reason I didn’t emotionally connect with the story. I would note that there’s a lot of action in Embers of War, which is a nice feature of the book and there is also a significant presence of aliens and ships can travel faster-than-light by moving through the equivalent of "hyperspace." Overall, I'll probably still read the other books in the trilogy (Book 2 Fleet of Knives was recently released), but I'll probably wait until the entire series is complete.

Title: Embers of War.
Author: Gareth L. Powell.
Paperback: 411 pages.
Publisher: Titan Books.
Date Published: February 20, 2018.
Date Read: February 25, 2019.

GOODREADS RATING: ★★★½☆  (3.5/5.0).

OVERALL GRADE: A- (3.67/4.0).

PLOT: A-.
IMAGERY: A-.
IMPACT: B+.
WRITING: A.