The Light Brigade

Okay, I guess I should know better by now. I can deal with science fiction that is relatively straight forward - just ordinary folks in a future time, but otherwise pretty easy to digest. But I just can't get into these twisty far out science fiction novels, like say [b:Ancillary Justice|17333324|Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch, #1)|Ann Leckie|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1597476110l/17333324.SY75.jpg|24064628]. And to that list you can add The Light Brigade. It just isn't for me.

Not to say it didn't start out promising. Much like [b:Old Man's War|36510196|Old Man's War (Old Man's War, #1)|John Scalzi|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1509467059l/36510196.SY75.jpg|50700] or [b:The Forever War|21611|The Forever War (The Forever War, #1)|Joe Haldeman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1386852511l/21611.SY75.jpg|423], it was a military sci-fi. But then the protagonist made the first jump and everything went sideways, both for her and for me. Time travel, revolution, torture, you name it. I read another 150 pages and still had little idea what was going on.

As I said in my review for Ancillary Justice, it's not the book, it is me. I just can't seem to follow these "far out" science fiction novels. I had another 100 pages but felt I wasn't having fun and life's too short, so I will just move on. I am surely in the minority here (even more so for Ancillary Justice) so please, if trippy time traveling sci-fi is your bag, go for it!

What I learned, as I looked back on those times, was that the lies are what sustained us. The lies kept us going. Gave us hope. Without lies we have to face the truth long before we are ready for it.

The majority of the book flirted in the "enjoyable" category but elevated itself to "great" when the significance of the Light Brigade is known. Like most of my random finds it came to me by way of r/fantasy, the Goodreads Readers Awards or mentioned as part of a recent nomination, wherever or however I stumbled across it, I am glad I did.

The days of trying to change the system from within were long over. Sometimes you had to let the whole world burn behind you.

Because I went in the story cold I will do my best to keep my review as bland and spoiler free as possible because when the story clicks and slides in to place I was blindsided and don't want to rob anyone of that feeling. Most of my highlights came days in to reading the book, right around the time the book elevated itself in quality.

My only complaint would be that it took so long for the pieces to connect. Throughout The Light Brigade we are working on a puzzle with missing pieces, or pieces that belong to another box. We have no idea what we're building towards. It would normally be a frustrating time but the main character (Dietz) is a humorous, cynical and gruff voice that I was content to read his story...and then the puzzle came in to view and I was impressed that I didn't figure it out sooner or that such a reveal would coalesce everything as well as it did.

Are you as old as your physical body, or as old as your memories?

After the reveal Dietz's commentary took on another meaning and science fiction/future stuff aside, maybe this story about a soldier in a war is closer to reality than we realize. Not asking questions, following the brief, unsure you are fighting for the right reasons, questioning morals and being distrustful of the media are pretty key elements through history and in present day. This helps make the story as good as it does. Fancy tech aside, Dietz's memories could have been chapters taken from a diary of a soldier surviving in trenches, cut off from others and unsure how much time passed.

I don't regret what I've told people about my motives in this conflict. I don't regret what got me here. Maybe you wanted a different story. One with more answers, less ambiguity. But that wasn't how I experienced this war.

As a reader you are just as confused as Dietz and struggle to understand what is happening, but I was given enough to follow along and connect the dots with the breadcrumbs of information. The story has a quick pace and I never felt it was dragged in slowed down by Dietz having a retrospective moment. This story has multiple levels to enjoy and made for an excellent read.

Super awesome! The best book I read this year.

I think it's best if you go in knowing nothing. It's a sci-fi about soldiers. I used a notebook to track the plot but it's not really necessary. And it's really good. That should be enough.

Anyway, I'll write down why I love it. I won't spoil any twists, but I will necessarily tell more of what the book is about.


It's a time-travel story. It probably says so on the back cover, so this is not much of a spoiler. But still I think it's best if you don't know. The main character doesn't know. She just sees weird stuff and people think she's weird. It takes a while for her to realize what's happening. She's making random jumps in time. This is why I used a notebook to track where we were on the world's timeline. It's weird and it's a fantastic plot device.

What I didn't expect was the excellent critique of capitalism. I've read a lot of cyberpunk that go "oh, those greedy corporations!" and "look at the poor people in the slums eating trash!". I'm okay with that setting, but they never really explained what's wrong with capitalism. You could have pollution and inequality and discrimination and poverty in any other social structure just as well.

The Light Brigade is also set in a capitalist dystopia. But Kameron Hurley does explain what's wrong with capitalism. It's so good. It had a real effect on how I view capitalism.

Cool! So it's a book full of time travel and a take down of capitalism, right? No, actually it's not. All the characters are foot soldiers. The book is full of shooting at an enemy you cannot see, running to cover, carrying your bleeding friends around, and shouting for medics. They are not even your friends because of shared interests, a common understanding, or a moral alignment. They are idiots who you would not agree with on anything. But you've been through bootcamp together. And they are the only ones still alive. So they are your friends and you carry them when they bleed.

Time travel, capitalism is bad, war is bad. I don't think the recipe is that simple. Would you get a fantastic book each time you mix those ingredients? There is surely more to what makes The Light Brigade so good, but I can't say what it is. Read it and tell me!