Tuesday, March 20, 2018

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Exo by Fonda Lee





Exo is the second book of Fonda Lee's that I've read (after Jade City), and the second Norton Award nominee (after Want by Cindy Pon) for this year that I've read.  The Norton Award is the SciFi and Fantasy Writers' Association's award for best SFF Young Adult Novel (it's essentially another Nebula Award), and I enjoyed Jade City so I was interested in giving Exo a try when I saw it was available as an audiobook.

Exo is an example of the after-alien-invasion SciFi subgenre (yes there's enough works with such plots for me to consider it a full subgenre).  The story features its 17 year old protagonist, Donovan Reyes, whose body is infused with alien technology, torn between his collaborator father and his rebel mother, and is very well done at showing how that conflict wears upon him.  It's also the first in a series (the sequel comes out later this year) but still functions very well as a stand alone.  It's not perfect for sure, but I can definitely see how it was nominated for the Norton award (even if it wasn't my favorite 2017 published YA work).

Again, I read this as an audiobook, so I apologize if I'm misspelling some terms below.  The audiobook reader is fairly solid, so this is not a bad pickup in that format.

More after the jump:

--------------------------------------------Plot Summary----------------------------------------------
In a not too far off future, the Alien Zhree land their forces upon the planet.  They would later claim their action was only to establish bases on Earth to use as a valuable military stronghold against their enemy, the Re, but at the time, humanity sees them as invaders and so began the "war era" where humanity attempted to fight off the Zhree.....and failed.  The Zhree, backed by far greater technological know-how, defeated the global forces of humanity until humanity's leaders had to surrender and agree to become a colony of the Zhree's commonwealth.

That was one hundred years ago.

Donovan Reyes is an "Exo" - a human who was subject to the "Hardening" process as a child, infusing him with an alien technology that allows him to generate armor around his body both at will and unconsciously.  He has become a member of the Solider Erz (tribe affiliation based upon a Zhree leader) and is a member of SecPac, the security forces who enforce peace and security.  His father is the Prime Liaison, humanity's current highest official in dealing with the Zhree leaders, and has incredibly high hopes for Donovan - who sometimes can't figure out what his father really wants for him.  But when an attempt to bust possible rebels against the Zhree-Human leadership goes wrong, Donovan finds himself captured and faced with the last possible thing he could've ever expected:

His mother - who seemingly abandoned him when he was a child - is one of the leaders of the human resistance - known as Sapience - against the Zhree.

Torn between his childhood knowledge of the benefits given to humanity by the Zhree and his oathes to serve the Soldier Erz and his new need to try to save his mom from a seemingly inevitable fate of execution, Donovan finds his whole world turned upside down.  It doesn't help that one of the people who captured him is a 15 year old girl, who he seems to be falling for.  And when the Zhree's highest politician visits Earth for the first time in ages, it turns out that humanity's position in the galaxy may be even more precarious than anyone could ever have foreseen.

And it may fall to Donovan - torn as he is between his parents, his loyalties, and his love - to find a way to prevent a catastrophe that could result in total annihilation.
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Exo has a difficult job in that it's pretty much in the reader's nature to believe that Donovan's original side is in the wrong - that the Aliens (who sound very clearly like Europeans invading Native lands in their reasoning for coming to Earth) must be fought off at all costs.  But the book does a pretty good job making the case for why such a cause might not be right at this point in human history and why Donovan's dad as collaborator isn't being wholly evil.  And it does a great job explaining why Donovan might be torn, even without the alterations done to his body by the Aliens, yet still be in general loyal to his dad's cause.

In short, I really liked Donovan as a narrator and as a main character.  And Lee does a great job with the side characters as well - from Donovan's parents - one, a rebel, and one the chief collaborator - to Donovan's friends/colleagues, even when they get little page time, to the rebels Donovan encounters.  I kind of wish we had more time with the love interest - the rebel Anya - and to see her outside of her interactions with Donovan, but it's hard for the book to do that without leaving Donovan's PoV.  Even so, nearly every character turns out to be three dimensional, whether they be human or alien.

Interestingly, the book generally lacks for true bad guys- only two characters - rebel Kevin and the Zhree high speaker - could arguably be called wholly "bad" in this book (given that the other characters in opposition to Donovan tend to be at worst antiheroes), and they're basically the only characters who aren't three dimensional.  But the book doesn't focus its plot on either of them, to my surprise.  The plot also didn't go in the directions I expected, and while the book is the first in a series, it does end on a satisfying note.

The book isn't perfect - as mentioned earlier, antagonist Kevin is kind of a lousy villain, even if he disappears about halfway through the book, and his treatment of Anya is very creepy.  It's meant to be, mind you, but it's weird that no one but Donovan seems to comment on it.  And again, I wish we got to spend more time seeing Anya do things unrelated to Donovan (while the Bechdel test is flawed, this book fails it quite clearly and it's annoying to see here).

And while my negative comments here aren't very expansive, I should mention that this book never really ascends into greatness - it's good throughout and kept me interested, but at no point did I really feel like I had to keep going.  It's a solid book and a very good intro to the series, and I'd prefer it win the Norton award over Want (which I liked, but not quite as much), but it's also not really a book that made me think "award winner" (as I've said before, I wish In Other Lands had made the shortlist).  But I will definitely be back for the sequel.
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