Reeve, Laura E.: Peacekeeper
Peacekeeper (2008)
Written by: Laura E. Reeve
Genre: Science Fiction
Pages: 110/324
There were several red flags on this book. 1) I hated the cover. 2) I hated the subtitle "A Major Ariane Kedros Novel." I've already bitched about this trend and my irrational dislike of it before, so I'll leave it at that. 3) The title itself, Peacekeeper. Anyone who's ever watched any episode of the television show Farscape is going to perk up his/her ears over that, especially in an SF setting. I'm not saying Farscape's usage is the BE-ALL-AND-END-ALL usage of the term, but it's a common one, and in pop-culture, where SF novels tend to dwell, the Farscape usage is important. Plus, I'll admit I'm selfish: I cringe when I see people using certain terms I want to use in my own work. ;) But in all seriousness, for someone who's read this book, is anyone actually CALLED a peacekeeper, or is that simply the role that Ariane Kedros is playing? I suspect it's the latter, and if that's the case, the title annoys me more.
So with all of these red flags, why bother with the book? If you've been reading this journal for a while, you know that my one weakness is 1) SF that is 2) written by a woman and gets bonus points for 3) being a debut.
Since the red flags weren't based on the premise or the actual writing, how could I say no?
The premise: Ariane Kedros is a war criminal, one of many who were part of a mission that may very well have obliterated a star system. She's got a new face, a new identity, but nothing will chase away the fears or the guilt, not even liquor or drugs. But she's got bigger problems than her guilt when members of her old crew end up assassinated, and she's assigned to protect one of them from a similar fate. But it's not just an old crew-mate she's got to protect, it's herself too.
My Rating
Couldn't Finish It: I tried. I really did. While reading, I could easily see the C.J. Cherryh and Frank Herbert influences, and I'm willing to bet that Reeve has read some Elizabeth Moon too, particularly the Vatta's War series. Also apparent is the fact that Reeve, like Elizabeth Moon and Sandra McDonald, has a military background that is seriously influencing her SF. It's all good, right?
Except for a book labeled "A Major Ariane Kedros Novel," we're getting more POV's than I'd like, and all I'd like is Ariane Kedros. Not that I particularly care about her or anything, because honestly, she hasn't done anything to win me over and make me want to read more of her story, but if a novel is going to be billed as such, that's the lens I want the story told from. Not her employer Matt, and not some dignitary/prince dude from Earth. Especially when all of these characters feel two-dimensional at best, especially Matt and the Prince.
And I also really balked at the world-building. For one thing, I'm becoming irritated at the trend in SF overall that states once alien life-forms have been found, Earth is no longer EARTH, but TERRA. So even though we've called this planet EARTH for centuries, we're suddenly TERRA when alien life has been discovered and/or we colonize other planets. Don't ask me why this THING annoys me now instead of in other books that do the same thing, it just does.
Oh, wait, I know why it annoys me: because when I read SF, and I'm given the impression that the SF I'm reading has roots to Earth (oh, excuse me, TERRA), then I expect my space-faring cultures to be an obvious evolution to what's on Earth now. To read about a space-faring culture that originally came from Earth (TERRA) and cultivates all things Greece for its religion and language and naming of the solar systems, well, I just have issues. Are you telling me that Greece, in some far future, becomes a world power dominate enough to launch itself into space and create such a culture? Maybe so, but it's laughable when the alien race that is in charge of the N-space (warp speed/hyperspace/Stargates/take your pick) technology is called . . . wait for it . . . THE MINOANS.
Really? Okay, maybe that's just what humans called these guys for whatever reason, but that wasn't made clear to me in the first 100 pages, and if it was, then I glossed over it for reasons I'll explain later.
Maybe I'm feeling cranky. After all, Tobias Buckell postulates a Caribbean space-faring culture in his Crystal Rain and the series that follows thereafter, and I didn't have a problem with that. Well, I don't remember having too big a problem with it, save for parsing out the dialect...
At any rate, I think these issues I'm having boil down to mechanical problems. The flashbacks never felt right to me, and the info-dumps had my eyes glazing and skimming over the words. But what really made me put the book down wasn't the fact I wasn't interested in the characters, or too many POVs, or the world-building that turned my head sideways, but rather, it was the writing. I hate to say this, because by all accounts, the writer seems like a nice person and I really hate saying this about 1) an SF writer who 2) is a woman and is publishing 3) her debut.
But I was bored. And every time I tried to make myself push forward, I was thwarted by the info-dumps, the flashbacks, the characters I didn't care about and the situation I couldn't care less about either. So I quit. I'm sorry, but I quit.
And I'm mad that I had to quit, because a book about a woman who released a weapon of mass-destruction, who's a war criminal, who's on the run for her life, should be really interesting and compelling to me. But I can't abide by a character who has no strong voice in the narrative (first person would've helped with this), nor can I abide by a character who drowns herself in alcohol and drugs and does what she's told because she has to. There's no real motivation on her part, it's survival in the most bland sense, and when characters are fighting for their lives, I want real tension on the page. This didn't cut it for me.
Does this mean I won't give the author another shot? Certainly not in this series. I'm just not biting. Reeve will have to do something radically different to get my attention, and even then, I'm going to wait a while and see what the piled up reviews have to say.
Cover Commentary: I already mentioned I hated it. Normally, I'm all for photographic covers and covers that are close to it, but the very shallow part of my brain is criticizing the model's looks. See, I told you I'm shallow. No, it's not fair to judge a book by its cover or the model that graces it. But I should've. And besides, while the model might be a picture-perfect representation of Ariane Kedros, it's just not a flattering or bad-ass cover. Is it? I thought it was trying too hard.