The overlapping narrative without being too spoilery... A smaller portion of the novel focuses on the the first person recounting of a young girl, Jayne, who is orphaned by nuclear apocalypse and later adopted into a secret society that has oddly highly-skilled minders in it. The other, third person narrative is attached mostly to Sage, second-in-command of the Hope outpost. Jayne naively exists as a character introduced to this sheltered and new world order, with the horrors seen through the lens of a child. The latter over arching narrative is of a location that is thriving and that remnants of old world order wish to claim or exploit for all their varying reasons.

Back story wise, it's vague and unanswered. Think it's chapter 2 where there is a space ship that one military unit starts freaking out about and it's never explored after. General implications is that this is a 3rd or 4th world for humanity, unsure. Why there was a war? Who knows. But a lot of people in the story are dirt bags. Boldly violent dirt bags. Either a product of their oddly very jaded pre-society, or the issue where the writers need a contrast between good and evil and thus the evil side is extreme. I lean to this basically being one corporation playing all sides to bolster itself, but it's also not explored.

Emotional stakes and environmental conflict seemed secondary in this book, and part of me leans towards this being written from a thriller writer's mindset. We don't connect with Jayne when she realizes she will never see her family ever again. We're not embroiled in the struggles of Hope, against its cold, its rationing of resources. A militarized corporation takes over a mine and demands women to help boost the morale of its miners. They're there for 1/2 of the book, never talked about minus the initial negotiations, never are these people walking into town, disrupting things, or stirring up dust, or the women begging to be left alone, nor do the townsfolk express relief for what the corporation brought, such as the greenhouse. It's there, it's nebulous, it isn't personal, a very "this is what it is" and move on narrative. The most developed character is Gaius, who tries to shrug his guilt and suffers from PTSD, but the "we don't talk about the past" is a constrictive plot device. Please tell me about their backstories! Please build the reasons behind why their governments and corrupt corporations tried to rain fire from the sky! The world, the physical place was fleshed out well, but the nuances of the political strife, or the heartache of the populaces was absent.

I'd have to wait for book 2 for probably more of my answers, to see where Jayne connects with the plot, what she can do with her MacGyver skills. It's a different world, and a different take on the nuclear apocalypse scenario. The writing was fine, the progress of conflict and take over seemed normal, mega corps are dirt bags through and through. The driving mechanic of intrigue here does revolve around the former government, military, and mega corps trying to hold onto or regain their influence within the region. It's very, very backstabby, it's appropriately cynical. If you're a dystopia thriller reader type, this would be in your reader wheelhouse and you'd probably highly enjoy watching how many different parties are trying to do power grabs and carve what slices they can out of finite resources. If you're more sci-fi/horror dystopia type as I am, then the marinating on the horror or the human condition (or how any puddle in a radioactive wasteland is the embodiment of mortal peril) isn't something this story is geared for. That's fine. Most of my criticisms are framed by my expectations as a reader for a genre type this story likely isn't. Thriller people move through action beats, touch on a bit of mystery, carry on. Horror types... "What would happen if they stepped in a puddle and brought the water home? Evil laughter"