374 pages
English language
Published Jan. 31, 2015
The teenage princess of a future-world Canadian superpower, where royal children are held hostage to keep their countries from waging war, falls in love with an American prince who rebels against the brutal rules governing their existences.
I was expecting something dark and gritty, but was pleasantly surprised, as always i love the wise cracking AI trope.
One thing I enjoyed about this book, which will make me sound like a whackjob, is that the author had clearly thought about the logistics of holding several dozen children of various ages hostage, and, further, the uselessness of an empty threat, and the effects of carrying your threat out.
These kids are a small group of children of world leaders, held hostage by the overlord, space-capable AI, to help encourage their parents to pursue peace. The AI wants what's best for humanity and the world, and if sometimes you have to kill a child to ensure that heads of state really think before they launch a war, well, it's unpleasant, but demonstrably cuts down on warfare.
The children are all clearly traumatised, would be post-traumatic if their trauma could ever actually be post-, and living their lives the best they can. Greta deals by trying to do everything correctly, …
One thing I enjoyed about this book, which will make me sound like a whackjob, is that the author had clearly thought about the logistics of holding several dozen children of various ages hostage, and, further, the uselessness of an empty threat, and the effects of carrying your threat out.
These kids are a small group of children of world leaders, held hostage by the overlord, space-capable AI, to help encourage their parents to pursue peace. The AI wants what's best for humanity and the world, and if sometimes you have to kill a child to ensure that heads of state really think before they launch a war, well, it's unpleasant, but demonstrably cuts down on warfare.
The children are all clearly traumatised, would be post-traumatic if their trauma could ever actually be post-, and living their lives the best they can. Greta deals by trying to do everything correctly, as if compliance and flawlessly written essays will save her. Her roommate, Xie, deals by sneaking out at night to have sex with other hostages in her age-group. Then a new hostage is brought into their group, and refuses to follow the rules set down for him.
This sounds like it's going to be about Elían, the new hostage, but Greta is the POV character, and from her POV, Elían is a dangerous destabilizing force, upsetting the her illusion of control over her surroundings. Greta gets through the day-to-day of being a hostage, caring for the small farm that supports them and following the rules that allow them to escape punishment, whereas Elían breaks rules to be contrary, putting his age-group at risk.
Then the politics of the outside world intrude, and Greta has to make choices.
People seem very split on this book, with a lot of people describing it has boring, which I wonder if might be in part due to the flatness of Greata, the narrator's, affect. I attributed this to the trauma, which granted, may not make it more fun to read.
Anyway, about 80% of the way through the book, it takes a turn I didn't expect but sort of enjoyed? Also, a book in which not everyone is straight. More of not everyone than you thought.
