Lots of fun - characterful world, fast-moving plot, and I’m keen to see what happens next!

This is one of those books that half-stars on ratings were made for: 3 stars feels a bit mean but 4 feels a bit generous, so in a world where this is possible, we're hovering around the 3.5 mark instead! Nice cover, btw.

Ion Curtain is set in a near future where known space is mostly divided between the Russian space navy and Chinese-dominated UN forces, in a long standing space equivalent of the Cold War. One of our protagonists commands a Russian ship with an AI who is uncomfortably human but when another ship with the same technology is attacked by one of their own side, it's a former-UN spy turned scavenger who ends up on the run with said technology. This is space opera with added spies, both past and present, so if that's not your kind of thing then this isn't going to be the book for you.

In general terms, I enjoyed Ion Curtain and found it an engaging enough read with some interesting world-building, even if it was teetering on the edge of info-dump territory at times. One minor caveat is that there's some teasing of a queer romance sub-plot that really doesn't go anywhere and feels a bit 'thrown in'. It also has quite an open ending, to be honest, which I find a little infuriating in a book where it's not clearly stated that it's the first of a series - I'd be less annoyed if this was the case, especially if that gave the opportunity to have a proper run at the romance sub-plot and have it actually affect things.

So, in general terms, I liked the book well enough to keep going, and also enough that I'd read a sequel if it materialises, but it left me a little unsatisfied in the end.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher, via Netgalley. This is my honest review of the book in question.

This book was a random, unexpected delight. I bought it on a whim when Michael Stackpole re-tweeted its author, Anya Ow, promoting it on the day of its release, and when I cracked it open a few weeks later, I was hooked from the start.

One of the book's strongest features is its world-building. Ow has designed a complex and believable humanity's-future whose details, factions, and origins are gradually and organically revealed to the reader without requiring an awkward exposition dump at any point. The universe into which you're dropped on page one is intriguing right from the get-go, leaving you wanting to learn more and turning pages until long past your bedtime. And the people who inhabit that universe are just as fascinatingly developed, with all three main POV characters possessing their own secrets, their own worldviews, and their own internal conflicts. Each one's story is gripping as it unfolds, and each one is flawed yet sympathetic in their own unique ways.

Although I don't read as much sci-fi as I used to, I have been far more interested in Star Trek than Star Wars over the past few years, and this book shares much more in common with the former than the latter (ie, it's set in our own future, humans nearly destroyed themselves in a nuclear war, and new technology enables us to travel to untold reaches of space). But in many ways it's more prescient than Trek, as there are no aliens to act as metaphors for modern-day conflicts --- Earth isn't united and committed to peaceably exploring the galaxy; rather, its descendants never got their s*** together and are just as warlike and distrustful of each other as we are in 2022. Contrasted with Gene Roddenberry's perhaps naive (if necessary) vision of a future where we've put all of our differences aside, Ion Curtain presents a humankind that's as flawed as are its individual characters.

It's a book that asks if we'll ever truly deserve to conquer the stars if we can't do any better than we're doing today. Hell, the two dominant factions in the cosmos still do things like send inconvenient citizens to gulags and train their secret agents to attack medical ships if necessary. Those two factions can trace their lineages to China and Russia, respectively, which allows for plenty of criticism of those modern-day governments but avoids any sort of jingoistic pro-Western slant --- the Western World is nearly extinct and barely an afterthought, and with everyone in the story seemingly either ethnically Chinese or Russian, Ow gets to showcase a future that isn't filled with the tired old American heroes of sci-fi past. Hollywood casting agents would be hyperventilating as they desperately searched for someone who could be played by Chris Pratt.

Ion Curtain's battle scenes also deserve to be singled out, as the terrifyingly brilliant AI tech that infuses them keeps both the reader and the characters constantly guessing what's going to happen next. The book's "Gating" technology and the upending of it by the evil AI are great pieces of worldbuilding that absorb the reader at every turn. I also want to praise the quiet progressiveness of the book, as things like preferred pronouns and fluid sexuality are presented as completely and unquestionably normal. My only real criticism is the overuse of the past participle "said," which is often noticeably and jarringly written several times in close succession. There are tons of other ways to indicate that someone has spoken, and some variation wouldn't be amiss.

Like I said, this book came out of nowhere for me, but I very much enjoyed all 300 pages, and I'll absolutely gobble up any sequel just as hungrily.

Great story but was I unaware I was buying what appears to be a book in a series. Very creative,