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| Author: |
Elizabeth Bear |
| Barcode/ISBN13: | 9780553587500 |
| ISBN: | 0553587501 |
| Imprint/Brand: | Bantam Spectra |
| Release Date: | 28 Dec 2004 |
| Format: | A Paperback |
| Series: | Hammered 01 |
| Number of Pages: | 324 |
| Weight: | 172 grammes |
| Price in AUD: | $17.95 |
| Categories: | Science Fiction Staff Favourites / Staff Recommendations Book Bestsellers |
A former Canadian special forces warrior artificially engineered for combat, Jenny Casey spends her days hiding from the government she once served, but now she has become a pawn in a highstakes battle for power as a ruthless scientist sets his sights on Jenny and her unique talents.
A first novel.
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Hammered is the first published novel by US author Elizabeth Bear and the first in a trilogy. With this book Bear has appeared as a significant new talent in the genre.
The series is hard science fiction, somewhat military, set on a near future earth just reaching into space. Global warming has shifted the economic balance of the world economy. The fertile grain belt of USA has shifted north into Canada, leaving USA with massive soil erosion, crop failure, famine and civil strife. Christian Fascists are ruling USA in economic and social collapse. Canada and China are now the superpower rivals. Canadian troops run UN peacekeeping missions into the USA and the try to contain the racial wars in South Africa. This is all scene setting, and not the core of the story. Jenny Casey, the lead protagonist, is a veteran of these wars and now trying to live unnoticed in the drug and crime infested USA slums. She gets drawn into a gangland war, which leads to international espionage and a new space race. In treatment for her for various battle wounds, she has acquired a metal arm and various other bionic military modifications. Casey is now coveted by scientists and politicians because she is a rare success in this ethically suspect medical research. Casey is presented as a very accomplished soldier but the reader has long waits between combat scenes. This is not a pulpy shoot-em up book. It contains realistic romantic tension, detailed military combat, likely scientific advances and civilisation failures, all seeded with the hope that humans bring with their chaos.
Hammered, Scardown and Worldwired are a series and the reader needs all 3 to complete the story, however, each book is its own novel with a differing feel and plot focus, with progression through crises and character development, or death. In this way the trilogy is so much better structured than most. Many recently published series are either one long story truncated into convenient page length volumes or merely serial episodes with the same characters. Bear has created something better. I am keen for more.
I would like to commend the publisher for releasing the whole trilogy in paperback in the same year, 2005. This allowed anticipation and momentum amongst the readership. I really loved reading these books and have been introducing many other readers to the series.
It took me a little while to get into the book. I gather that this is the first of a series of books, as I felt the first two thirds provided a background story for an ongoing series, and that by the last third of the book Elizabeth Bear had hit her writing style and it flowed much better. I liked some of the character development and the intertwining of characters from past backgrounds back together again and the ongoing manipulation of the characters. I think the 2nd book will probably improve upon the first.
