(Finally catching up on reviews from last month, aagh!)
Miles makes a ghastly mistake and kills his beloved military career stone dead. Now he has to figure out what to do with the rest of his life. At the same time, Simon Illyan, the legendary head of ImpSec, is going through his own life crisis as his implanted eidetic memory chip starts to break down.
I think this is possibly the best of the series, in many ways - so layered and deeply affectionate. Many of the books are about identity, in one form or another, and this one - which focuses on Miles - is a twin for his clone brother Mark's identity story in Mirror Dance though without the horribly dark aspects, which is a good thing overall. It's a real 'what if' story: what if you lost the thing that drove you the most, that you were superbly good at, the thing by which you define your sense of self? And on top of that, what if you only had yourself to blame? The contrast but also parallels on that latter one between Miles and Simon is really poignant.
There's a good solid mystery at the heart of the book and the story is great, but as always, it's all about the characters. And some of the relatively minor characters come beautifully to the fore here: Miles' cousin Ivan is particularly sympathetic and observant, and his aunt Alys also plays a quietly important role.
Miles makes a ghastly mistake and kills his beloved military career stone dead. Now he has to figure out what to do with the rest of his life. At the same time, Simon Illyan, the legendary head of ImpSec, is going through his own life crisis as his implanted eidetic memory chip starts to break down.
I think this is possibly the best of the series, in many ways - so layered and deeply affectionate. Many of the books are about identity, in one form or another, and this one - which focuses on Miles - is a twin for his clone brother Mark's identity story in Mirror Dance though without the horribly dark aspects, which is a good thing overall. It's a real 'what if' story: what if you lost the thing that drove you the most, that you were superbly good at, the thing by which you define your sense of self? And on top of that, what if you only had yourself to blame? The contrast but also parallels on that latter one between Miles and Simon is really poignant.
There's a good solid mystery at the heart of the book and the story is great, but as always, it's all about the characters. And some of the relatively minor characters come beautifully to the fore here: Miles' cousin Ivan is particularly sympathetic and observant, and his aunt Alys also plays a quietly important role.