Some Things Transcend, by M.C.A. Hogarth

[rowyn]

This is the sequel to Even the Wingless.

Most of the Some Things Transcend takes place with the protagonists trapped on a small spacecraft in enemy territory. Both sides of the conflict, the Alliance and the Chatcaava, are technologically sophisticated, spacefaring cultures (they've both got, for instance, FTL, highly advanced medicine, and short-range teleporters). There are a few combats that take place as boarding actions, because the aim is to capture rather than destroy. Most of the combat is hand-to-hand, because the ships have tight corridors and little room to get range. The setting and action work well to provide urgency and momentum to the story, and to motivate the characters.

I occasionally had trouble suspending disbelief, however. For instance: the most effective weapons used in these conflicts are the Chatcaavan's natural claws, and swords. Neither side appears to have armor, or any more sophisticated hand-to-hand weapon. This just didn't seem to fit with the rest of the tech on display. The not-working-for-me was compounded by one of the characters being deathly ill but in a way that didn't impede him from using the handful of days they had to prepare between boarding actions to practice and teach hand-to-hand combat. I ended up spending too much time thinking about how various elements were convenient for the purposes of the emotional arc of the story, which made it less immersive.

This aside, I enjoyed the emotional arc, the character development, and particularly the way the relationships between different characters unfolded. The relationships are all nonstandard: there's an asexual romance between Jahir and his longtime partner Vasiht'h, which gets tested in various interesting ways, and a complicated M/M relationship between Jahir and Lisinthir, which is sweet and romantic despite them both being (a) committed to other people and (b) having only semi-compatible BDSM interests (that they discover and talk about but do not consummate in this book). So it's a kind of polyamorous story, in that the characters have multiple interests and don't expect sexual or romantic fidelity from their partners. I had a lot of fun with that. Vasiht'h and Jahir are both psychologists, and their training resonates through their conversations. They feel very real and solidly-grounded. The characters are delightfully complex and multi-faceted. Overall, I'll give this one an 8.

Comments

[danceswithlife]

Now that you mention it, the lack of personal hi-tech body armor does seem strange in the Alliance. The Eldritch probably wouldn't have it unless it was old style, and the Chaatcavan might arrogantly consider that a true warrior doesn't need it. But he Alliance's technology would certainly lend itself to personal force fields and/or vests or such. Good catch!

That said, I love this book so much!

[nekomavin.livejournal.com]

I wonder if there'd be more on ground troops. Keep in mind that the threat they'd have geared up and prepared against is their own weapons - beamed energy devices. What works against that (lightweight conductive mesh) work really badly against claws and swords (since anti-palmer armour would be light to retain mobility, its durability against piercing or slashing attacks would not be great).

It's a good point, though. Once the Alliance figures out what it's up against, they'll come up with all kinds of fun toys. The problem is, they're going to have to go to war with the Fleet they've got, not the Fleet they'd like to have now that they know the nature of their first real enemy. That will be true on more fronts than just armor - it's pretty much the entire story of the conflict, as I imagine it unfolding.

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

+1!

You have twigged onto the big conflict in Alysha's series, which is between humanity ("This is how you conduct war why aren't your warships like real warships AMG YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE ENLISTED") and the Pelted ("Fight? Fight who? We've never needed to fight anything. Let's talk them around!"). A lot of the changes in Fleet are coming, but that's a matter for another series. :)

[nekomavin.livejournal.com]

I've seen how that has developed so far, and it's looks like it's going to get rather pointed soon.

I'm really looking forward to all of this. Stormfront was one of my favourites from a long time back, and now that I think of it that conflict between visions of Fleet was prominent there, too.

[danceswithlife]

Yet...the kind of Alliance unit in Laisrathera is designed for quick and rapid deployment in a variety of settings. There is no mention of body armor of any kind when they are preparing for the conflict in their own warship.

[nekomavin.livejournal.com]

I may be misremembering, but aren't they more of a covert ops group? I can see them having closets (or genie libraries) full of interesting disguises, instead of body armor.

Now the question of why Lisinthir didn't bring it up... hm. That is more interesting. Wingless didn't show the dragons fighting with any kind of armor, and at the speed they move... armor that slows you down even fractionally could be worse than no armor at all.