The Privilege of Peace, Tanya Huff
Sep. 8th, 2019 04:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethThis is an excellent book. I'm going to give this one 5/5.
It's also a bit difficult to explain because there were 5 books in the previous series and this is the third of a trilogy, all with the same main character, by now 'Former space marine Torin Kerr' as the back of the books say.
They also keep saying she saves the Confederation, which is true, but why I'm happy is how she does it keeps evolving.
Like, when you have space marines, you have running around shooting. That's a main thing. And the first set of books very much feature that.
But you know how even shows that say that Violence Is Wrong tend to be like, oh no we must do violence, and then everything blows up and the good guys win and they all live happily ever after?
This series does not do that.
It starts off with On No We Must Do Violence, and then it's like, hang on, must we? Why war? Why this war? The soldiers on the other side are pretty much like our soldiers, give or take a few structural differences and a tendency to talk in smells. Do we really want to blow each other up a lot? And on the whole, no. And then they discover the whole thing was a social experiment being run by sapient plastic. Which is the bit that takes a lot of explaining and leaves much of their universe very WTF. So they decide that is a very bad reason to have a war and stop. Like there's a lot of running around, but, basically, war bad, so war finishes.
And then everybody who was fighting the war, which is a lot of them, goes home and copes with After. With varying degrees of success.
So the Peace trilogy is the former space marine ending up joining the Wardens so they can stop the ex military people and the people who thought war was a good idea and anyone else who breaks the law. Which still involves running and shooting, but now with bonus non lethal weapons, and if ANYone gets injured, including the ones they're arresting, there is mass paperwork and feeling of fail.
So the whole series goes from Oh No Violence, through But We Must Do Violence, via Hang On, Really? and with a big turn around, goes into, Actually No, No Violence.
... well, some violence, but, the big climax of the book is just Actually Arresting Someone With Words.
And they will be sent to rehabilitation. Where they get to do therapy until they won't do the bad thing again.
So we do get the running around having space adventures, but they get more difficult when you're actively trying not to kill anyone, so that's more fun.
It's just a lot of stories say war bad, and then show you war for many books, and seem to mean war bad but winning pretty okay. But this series is not even keen on winning. Not like that.
Also the press is really important? Like it spends a while being annoyed that reporters follow the action around all the time, BUT then it ends up being important, and THEN the main character ends up inviting the press on purpose? So it's like a whole progress from ugh why can't we just do our jobs to yaay they help us do our jobs. And there's a difference between the surveillance options available (which are many) and the free press watching the government. And it's interesting.
Also the main character goes to therapy, and after they have a Hitting People Incident they have to go more often, and that's part of the good ending? And then they decide Not To Hit, but not like they did in the middle, where they restrained themselves, just like because they're kind of done with that and want to arrest people now.
Progress!
So it does a lot of exciting space battles and hitting and people inventing new weapons and so forth, BUT the structure of the story actually agrees with the idea that's all a bit unhelpful.
Fun to read, but not actually resolving the situation.
The actual solution has a lot more to do with the sexual attractiveness of some of the soldiers.
Yes, it's a bit of a make love not war resolution...
... or more like them proving after so many books they really are distractingly attractive to ANYthing.
But they find a pathway to true peace, to sorting out the plastic situation, because the Wardens, ex military and ex criminal and ex salvage operator, all treat this one lump of plastic as a people not a thing. And if they are a people then they are being illegally detained. And, that one time, getting a corner chewed off. And understanding this as A Bad Thing, as well as reaching out to them to prove their sapience and start some kind of back and forth relationship? It starts with sex pheromones but then they share their names and open up communication. They find out the one set of plastic did a crime to this other set of plastic when they locked it away. And they care about that. So being good Wardens, good law enforcement officers, shows them a way to sort out the whole war situation. Because the plastic are many and varied, even if they are a hive mind they have a majority and minority, and making sure the minority have a voice again is going to change things.
So the whole entire set of books is a big exercise in How About We Try Talking To Each Other.
Not just the spectacle of watching the marines go.
And while it's important to be the ones taking risks because that's part of taking responsibility, the shooting only buys space for the talking, and it's the talking that works.
Plus progress for these characters doesn't mean climbing military ranks within a violent system, it can mean deciding to do something else instead. Like be law enforcement, and within that be forensics instead of shooting.
So it's increasingly civilised on several different levels
and I very much like it.
It is fun to read, and the fight sequences are fun, but the way the politics come together and the characters grow is why it's a 5/5 for me.
So I like this book and this series a lot.
It's also a bit difficult to explain because there were 5 books in the previous series and this is the third of a trilogy, all with the same main character, by now 'Former space marine Torin Kerr' as the back of the books say.
They also keep saying she saves the Confederation, which is true, but why I'm happy is how she does it keeps evolving.
Like, when you have space marines, you have running around shooting. That's a main thing. And the first set of books very much feature that.
But you know how even shows that say that Violence Is Wrong tend to be like, oh no we must do violence, and then everything blows up and the good guys win and they all live happily ever after?
This series does not do that.
It starts off with On No We Must Do Violence, and then it's like, hang on, must we? Why war? Why this war? The soldiers on the other side are pretty much like our soldiers, give or take a few structural differences and a tendency to talk in smells. Do we really want to blow each other up a lot? And on the whole, no. And then they discover the whole thing was a social experiment being run by sapient plastic. Which is the bit that takes a lot of explaining and leaves much of their universe very WTF. So they decide that is a very bad reason to have a war and stop. Like there's a lot of running around, but, basically, war bad, so war finishes.
And then everybody who was fighting the war, which is a lot of them, goes home and copes with After. With varying degrees of success.
So the Peace trilogy is the former space marine ending up joining the Wardens so they can stop the ex military people and the people who thought war was a good idea and anyone else who breaks the law. Which still involves running and shooting, but now with bonus non lethal weapons, and if ANYone gets injured, including the ones they're arresting, there is mass paperwork and feeling of fail.
So the whole series goes from Oh No Violence, through But We Must Do Violence, via Hang On, Really? and with a big turn around, goes into, Actually No, No Violence.
... well, some violence, but, the big climax of the book is just Actually Arresting Someone With Words.
And they will be sent to rehabilitation. Where they get to do therapy until they won't do the bad thing again.
So we do get the running around having space adventures, but they get more difficult when you're actively trying not to kill anyone, so that's more fun.
It's just a lot of stories say war bad, and then show you war for many books, and seem to mean war bad but winning pretty okay. But this series is not even keen on winning. Not like that.
Also the press is really important? Like it spends a while being annoyed that reporters follow the action around all the time, BUT then it ends up being important, and THEN the main character ends up inviting the press on purpose? So it's like a whole progress from ugh why can't we just do our jobs to yaay they help us do our jobs. And there's a difference between the surveillance options available (which are many) and the free press watching the government. And it's interesting.
Also the main character goes to therapy, and after they have a Hitting People Incident they have to go more often, and that's part of the good ending? And then they decide Not To Hit, but not like they did in the middle, where they restrained themselves, just like because they're kind of done with that and want to arrest people now.
Progress!
So it does a lot of exciting space battles and hitting and people inventing new weapons and so forth, BUT the structure of the story actually agrees with the idea that's all a bit unhelpful.
Fun to read, but not actually resolving the situation.
The actual solution has a lot more to do with the sexual attractiveness of some of the soldiers.
Yes, it's a bit of a make love not war resolution...
... or more like them proving after so many books they really are distractingly attractive to ANYthing.
But they find a pathway to true peace, to sorting out the plastic situation, because the Wardens, ex military and ex criminal and ex salvage operator, all treat this one lump of plastic as a people not a thing. And if they are a people then they are being illegally detained. And, that one time, getting a corner chewed off. And understanding this as A Bad Thing, as well as reaching out to them to prove their sapience and start some kind of back and forth relationship? It starts with sex pheromones but then they share their names and open up communication. They find out the one set of plastic did a crime to this other set of plastic when they locked it away. And they care about that. So being good Wardens, good law enforcement officers, shows them a way to sort out the whole war situation. Because the plastic are many and varied, even if they are a hive mind they have a majority and minority, and making sure the minority have a voice again is going to change things.
So the whole entire set of books is a big exercise in How About We Try Talking To Each Other.
Not just the spectacle of watching the marines go.
And while it's important to be the ones taking risks because that's part of taking responsibility, the shooting only buys space for the talking, and it's the talking that works.
Plus progress for these characters doesn't mean climbing military ranks within a violent system, it can mean deciding to do something else instead. Like be law enforcement, and within that be forensics instead of shooting.
So it's increasingly civilised on several different levels
and I very much like it.
It is fun to read, and the fight sequences are fun, but the way the politics come together and the characters grow is why it's a 5/5 for me.
So I like this book and this series a lot.
no subject
Date: 2019-09-12 10:05 pm (UTC)