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.