Unfortunately, while the core themes and ideas of The Anubis War may be good, the book is derailed by a number of poor choices. First, the book is kind of obsessed with the military tech that is used by both sides and spends pages upon pages going through it and how warfare is conducted and nearly all of it does not actually matter...and this slows the pacing and makes the book a slog at times. Second, the main character isn't very interesting and none of the other characters are really ever developed beyond simple archetypes (backstabbing Intelligence Agent Friend, Greedy Warlord Commander, Mysterious Supersoldier who says cryptic comments from a long lost land, etc.). Third, the plot requires kind of a level of belief in the stupidity and intelligence of various forces to the extent that honestly broke credibility. And all of the above is done without any subtlety to a ridiculous extent. I'm not the biggest fan of MilSF, but I doubt even the biggest MilSF fan will find the Anubis War among their favorites.
Plot Summary:
Vasco Alcazar al Madina del Goya has spent the last few years, since his second mission for the Polity, becoming a master of the sword and training students in fencing. But Vasco has always wished he would've had a chance to prove himself in actual combat as both of his missions had kept him in the hacking departments, far away from the actual battle he knew he was capable of. So when an old friend comes to him to ask him to join a new mission for the Polity to "unify" (reconquer) a planet on the edge of human space, Vasco signs up.
And his intrigue only grows when he finds out a Laconian woman - a Walkure or Valkyrie named Sigma - is aboard the mission for the first time ever, even despite the fact that the mission is meant to conquer the Laconian's trading partners. And Sigma is like no one Vasco has ever encountered, able to provoke Vasco in a duel to use his long hidden creche-enhanced genes, and challenging Vasco's beliefs with cryptic yet insightful statements at every turn.
And those beliefs will be further challenged when Vasco gets to the Anubis System to face off against the native Sumi Outlanders on the planet Rumi. For the Sumi Outlanders are supposed to be anti-technology nomads and yet they put up a far fiercer resistance than anyone could expect....resistance that could shock the Polity and Vasco in the end.....
The Anubis War is a MilSci novel with some rather obvious and unsubtle themes, mainly the conflict featuring an empire that embraces a particular way of life (one not described in much detail but seems not too oppressive ) and insists upon conquering all other human colonies (who left earth long ago) and imposing that way of life on them by both force and the carrot of better tech. On the other side are a people who believe that the empire’s actions are monstrous as they prevent people from being free to be creative and choose other ways. Obviously this is a pretty relevant theme, although it’s incredibly black and white here: the empire is blatantly bad and even has its ships coated with bioweapons while the good guys are the equivalent of Amish settlers who with help have weapons to surprise and cause trouble for the empire.
Our protagonist Vasco is a soldier for the Polity (the empire) who is basically a super soldier adopted after his eugenicist* people were conquered and destroyed who is on his third mission and hopes that being part of the ground forces this time can give him the something that feels missing from his life. But of course, upon being challenged by Sigma and of course feeling ground combat first hand (he has a mild experience with the trauma of battlefield combat and death that is then kind of forgotten), he begins to wonder if his ideas about the Polity's emancipation of humanity being correct. Vasco is a man of honor who also likes to be a mentor of sorts but otherwise really doesn't have much other personality traits, as defined by battle and the service as anything other than his love of the sword.
*(The book suggests at first, through an biased narrative that Vasco’s home people were themselves eugenicist monsters but then near the end some other characters suggest they might’ve been better than that which is kind of weird)
Unfortunately, Vasco's the most developed character here, as everyone else here falls into simple archetypes. Moreover, while the book is more about its theme of anti-colonialism and freedom to choose one's destiny and Vasco's realization of same upon being defeated by the Amish-like Sumi Outlanders than about major military combat, the book is OBSESSED with showing off the military technology used by the Polity and others, spending countless words and pages on it. Maybe if you're a huge MilSF fan this will be of interest to you, but to me it just slowed down the pacing tremendously and the technology really wasn't all that interesting. Nor did it matter too much - and while some of the tech is used to further the themes of how say the Polity relies upon overwhelming force and terror to establish control, the book's obsession with the tech goes far beyond the necessary and more into fetishing.
The book's plot arc also is not only predictable but relies upon characters making bizarre and often stupid decisions. So the Polity is going to rely on a Laconian supercomputer to plan and invoke its invasion....a supercomputer that is apparently easily fooled and planned around by the native Sumi (who to be fair have some help from some alien-like mystical insects)? The Polity is also going to battle against guerillas who have surprising types of weaponry and completely ignore and not check these barrels they see lining the country on their battle routes? Even with the help of the alien factors involved, it kind of beggared belief that the battles could go the way they do, and it isn't helped by the viewpoint we see of the Sumi being more cryptic and alien than anything.
Overall The Anubis War has a solid central theme and you can get the idea of a better book built upon its premise. But rather than building up characters better, the author is obsessed with the military tech and hitting the themes as unsubtly as possible, which makes this kind of meh as a read.
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