Happy New Year! I started this blog with a review of The Last Watch by JS Dewes, so it brings me great pleasure to come back with a review for her upcoming novel, Rubicon!
On a pathfinding mission with the 803rd, Specialist Adriene Valero dies. Again.
She rezones into her new husk – a synthetically-grown copy of her original body – for the 96th time, feeling even further separated from her own humanity. But not from her addictions, or from the physical and mental trauma she’s endured. To Adriene, rezoning isn’t a blessing, but a curse – something she will do anything to never experience again.
Without explanation, she finds herself suddenly reassigned to forward reconnaissance in a special forces unit. Her new squad is shocked by her number of rezones; in the 505th, “zeroing out” is rare. It’s in this comparatively safe environment that Adriene is finally able to adjust to her new body and begin to form genuine connections with the people around her.
At the same time, she’s chosen for a secret, specialist assignment under the command of a mysterious Major who worries that humanity is about to meet its sudden end. This role warrants an upgrade for her Rubicon, the 505th’s standard virtual intelligence implant…an upgrade that allows her Rubicon to become a fully sentient being inside her brain. Together, they’re tasked with increasingly dangerous missions that expose the commander’s ruthless dedication to his cause.
Like Dewes’s earlier novels, The Last Watch and The Exiled Fleet, Rubicon is fantastically character-focused military sci-fi. Adriene is flawed but brave, anxious but giving her all. It’s so rewarding to witness her developing relationships with her squad members, with the awkward but friendly chief systems engineer, with her Rubicon, and with herself. Readers who, like me, loved Rake and Cav (and all the supporting characters) will also love Adriene, Daroga, et al.
But for that very reason, this book left me feeling haunted. The raw trauma the characters endure is brightened by moments of healing, of friendship, and of empathy; brightened, but not overshadowed. This book is as much about grief as it is about loyalty. There is pain, disillusionment, and bitter regret. And the ending will stick with you.
Rubicon will be released from Tor Books on 28 March 2023.
View this title on Bookshop.org, which supports independent bookstores
Click here to purchase from my local indie, Quail Ridge Books
Also available as an audiobook from Libro.fm
Eryn Lasbelin 