O. E. Tearmann

Take a man with no managerial pretensions and a team who don't want to be managed and you get book 1 in the Aces High, Jokers Wild series. In danger of being disbanded due to their inability to follow orders, Aidan has his work cut out to prove that everyone can do their bit in the ongoing war

A slow burning plot that allows time for the characters to develop and explore their personalities, strengths and weaknesses.

The author deals sensitively with various issues as the team become closer and it all adds to a very enjoyable read/listen

https://montysbookreviews.blogspot.com/… (mehr)

They’re out of control and in their own way - and they’re humanity’s last hope.

DISCLAIMER: I received this title for free in exchange for an unbiased review. This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

WARNING: This review contains mild spoilers.

I am not the target audience for this novel. I failed to do my due diligence, so enamored by the first rate world-building, and wound up with a romance. Because I requested this novel I feel obligated to review it, but take the review with a grain of salt. Having said that, there is a lot to like in it.

Did I mention the world-building is first rate? Oh, my goodness! The setting has enormous promise. In 2155, after unspecified Middle Eastern conflicts, the United States government collapses after the final straw of genetically tailored medicines splits the country into eight “grids”. This is “The Dissolution” - when government gridlock and repeated shutdowns of increasing duration led to riots that culminated in the dissolution of the United States.

During this “now” there seven Corptocracies, with citizens as employees, and a resistance. The Wild Cards are part of this rather well organized resistance, which made up of “Dusters” who are working to bring back a democratic type of government. And, I love this part - Dusters are called so because they are in the grid none of the corporations want - a new age dust bowl. If you “dusted”, you fled the corptocracies and went into the badlands.

The beauty of this story telling is all the above observations are gathered from hints in reports, off-hand conversations, even children’s songs. The corporations have a “Citizens Standing Score” and immediately I think “credit score!” There are armed drones (Vipers), huge, Amazonian warehouses, the ruling elite, the castoff undesirables; everything you need for a cyberpunk dystopia, all wrapped in a solid narrative flow - no obvious or distracting infodumps. There may be some, but I didn’t notice.

The audio is first rate! Excellent narration and production values, no background hum, no mic pops, no repeated lines, no uneven editing, or change in volume levels. Each character has a distinct and recognizable voice. Kirt Graves does an excellent job and I’m envious of his ability.

With all of this, why didn’t I like it? Well, it is a romance. After talking about this with a couple of my peers who regularly read the genre, they took a peek and loved it. There were some events that presented as logical disconnects for me, the biggest being Aiden, our protagonist, is not motivated to rehabilitate a formerly elite group, but just to hang on for a month and claim the commander level benefits. That stuck in my craw. There is also a disproportionate amount of assumed privacy, which is weird not just because this is a dystopia, but it’s on a military base, where everybody knows everyone else’s business, because that’s how the unit survives.

Every 3rd page, Aiden has to remind himself, “I’m the commander”. Rank notwithstanding, clearly he isn’t. And the Wild Cards know it. This leads to bullying, mental & physical, being passed off as teasing and presents like CW drama.

With the exception of one character, Kevin, there are no nice people, only asses, and even Kevin has moments. He wears glasses as "protest" against genetic purity, yet his "creamy," fair skin secretes zinc oxide. Skin is creamy due to zinc oxide secretion, but he has a problem with blushing. How is he blushing if his cells secreted an opaque substance?

Some other disconnects:
Hiding out in the desert, underneath "slick tarps" and worried about presenting a minimal EM-footprint, they spend their time discussing what television programs they should pirate and watch.
The assumption that scavengers living hand to mouth in the desert are somehow technologically superior to and can regularly raid with impunity corporations whose profit margins depend upon security.
Aden presents as functionally illiterate and with no desire to lead, yet is the commander. He comes off as a dummy, with Kevin clearly the intellectual superior. It gives rise to uncomfortable speculation; is the resistance in the desert based on the commissar model, where people are promoted because of who they know rather than on any merit?

This novel is also an exploration of gender identity, which I found interesting, much more so than the romance element. There is an excellent podcast with the authors at the Amphibian Press site: “Hope and Quiet Activism in a Dark Future with O. E. Tearmann” - Episode 39.
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This is an oddly appealing combination of slice of life/found family in a… I guess it’s a postapocalyptic setting? (Never sure how to define these.) Essentially, Big Corp has taken over, and the characters are part of the effort to undermine the current regime. Though that’s background rather than the story here.

The Hands We’re Given is first in a series. The focus seems more on character relationships and seeking/offering acceptance rather than whiz bang acts of rebellion and violence. I haven’t read any sequels (yet), so I don’t know if this is the tone of later books. I wasn’t totally convinced by the challenges the Wild Cards run up against (eg scarcity of xx item but apparently no problem doing yy thing), but I was happy to go with the flow without worrying too much about realism.

The prose was tidy, and the read was easy. I’m not a visual reader, so I got a bit tripped up when (named) characters were referred to as eg “the redhead” or “the older man” and I had to backtrack because I’d lost track of who the term was supposed to refer to.

I’ve been reading quite a lot of cosy-flavoured books recently. This one is too high-stakes to be categorised as such (I don’t imagine that was the author’s intention anyway!) but it certainly has cosy moments too.… (mehr)

Set in near future where corporations run everything. However, there is an organization standing up to the corporatocracy. One team within the organization has fallen apart after losing their team leader. This story is them finding a way to work together under a new leader.

I love Aidan's struggle of being uncertain he's qualified to be a leader while having to step up and be a leader anyway.

What's great about the story is its focus on the strengths and vulnerabilities of its characters. Their struggle to build strong relationships, both professional and romantic, in a world that's stacked heavily against healthy relationships and themselves, is what makes the story compelling and has me looking forward to the next book.

The romantic part of the story is between two masculine presenting characters, which is rare enough in science fiction that I'm always happily surprised when I encounter it. Especially when it is as thoughtful and genuine as it is in "The Hands We're Given".

"The Hands We're Given" is a great story. If you've the time and opportunity, I recommend reading it.… (mehr)