Sci-fi. Late 22nd century. On an earth ravaged by nuclear war and climate change, after the richer and whiter nations have largely left for space-based colonies while retaining a neocolonial role in affairs on earth. Set during war between the newly-independent Igbo people of Biafra and the Nigeria from which they seceded. According to the Author’s Note, it draws on the real-life war between Biafra and Nigeria in the late 1960s, to which the author has family connections, and also makes allusions to wars on the African continent in more recent decades. Except, y’know, with flying mech suits and nanobots and other amazing tech. The main characters are basically all current or former child soldiers. Mostly well done, but I found it really hard to read – on the one hand, there are descriptions of battles that read like they’re straight out of a *Pacific Rim*-like gritty high-octane shoot-em-up sci-fi movie, but on the other hand it does not flinch even one bit in showing how terrible and traumatic and brutal war is for everyone concerned. Honestly, I’m not the target audience, as I don’t really like reading war books, though of course I had a sense of what it was going in and picked it up anyway because I’d heard it’s good. And it is, a few quibbles aside. It’s just hard to read.
Originally posted by Scott on Goodreads.