Space Marines in Powered Armour fight a Bug War in the Captive’s War universe.

Livesuit armour.

My dead pixels copy was a brief 90-pages. The book had a 2024 US copyright.

James S. A. Corey is the nom de plume of the writing team of American authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. Together they have written more than 20-books and several short stories, principally in their Expanse series, but not exclusively. I have read many of their books. The most recent being The Mercy of Gods (The Captive’s War, #1) (my review).

It’s recommended the first novel in the Captive’s War series be read before this one. Although, it is not completely necessary. Note that there was a reference to the events of The Mercy of Gods made in the story, as having occurred in the past.

TL;DR Synopsis

Human volunteers, of an elite force fight the planet-side minions of the Carryx on a level playing field with physically invasive, powered armour. However, the volunteers were unaware of the true extent of their sacrifice.

The Review

I typically don't review novellas, but this one merited it.

The James S. A. Corey writing team seeded the decade-long publishing of The Expanse series with novellas in the long intervals between novels to keep their readers in-the-game. After several of the novels, and with the world building under my belt, I came to like these novellas better than the novels. They appeared more frequently. They were quick reads. They contained snippets of all the hard-ish, science fiction I liked from the series. It’s apparently their intention to continue this practice with their current Captive’s War series?

I approached this novella expecting it to be an updated, version of Starship Troopers , and it was. Although, it also included a bit of the Time Dilation from the The Forever War too. Note that the Space Marines in the story were never referred to as such, or as Starship Troopers, but that’s what they were.

The story’s prose was good, and it was immaculately groomed. I found no errors. This is typical of the James S. A. Corey writing team’s work.

However, I thought the book started out differently than it ended, at least prose-wise. The first few pages, had me thinking this was a work of Literary Science Fiction.

They were all sinners who’d reported to purgatory together, and together they suffered and washed away their sins.

Descriptive prose was good. The action sequences were on par with the high-standard of author’s previous work. Being a MIL-SF story, it was packed with combat. Although, some readers may be disappointed that they were all ground combats, and not space battles? I always enjoy the author's dialog. In particular, the pithy short sentences they tend to use. Interestingly, there was the appropriate use of F*bombs, something I don’t recall from previous stories?

There was only a single POV-- Kirin. He reminded me of updated, Millennial version of Johnnie Rico , although more introspective and wary of authority. Kirin leaves, a good life and love to join the Space Marines with his best friend Piotr. Through natural ability and attrition, he rises to non-commissioned officer in the Livesuited human special forces.

There were several other humans in the human forces with Kirin. Piotr just happens to be assigned to Kirin’s mixed-gender Squad .

Note there was no: “Sex, drugs, and rock’n roll” in the story, although there was no prohibition of music appreciation. However, sex and substance abuse was discussed.

There was carnage and property destruction. (Its MIL-SF!) The body count was genocidal. The Carryx cleansed captured human planets. The Space Marines slaughtered aliens, including Carryx warriors in great numbers. The violence was: physical, edged-weapons, and futuristic, infantry weapons. It was moderately graphic, as were the woundings.

Plotting was good. The number of combats, and interludes felt correct. I did see The Reveal coming. A niggling complaint, was the end could have been drawn-out for a few more pages. I would have liked a bit more of Kirin's dwelling on his future in the final scene.

World building was good. However, it was only vaguely hard science fiction. For example, the humans have FTL Travel (the brane-slip) and other “sufficiently advanced technologies indistinguishable from magic”. The space marines went between star systems in what reminded me of the Rodger Young . These exist alongside more prosaic, conceivable future technologies like: mosquito-sized drones, “smart” ammunition, and augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) helmets. The titular Livesuits were an update to the powered armor trope, using new Millennium tech-concepts.

I was left with this vague feeling that given the available tech, why was there still need for boots on the ground in future combat? Why not just release nano-swarms (as appeared in Captive’s War) into the atmosphere to re-cleanse the planet of the Carryx invaders?

Summary

I started this series with great expectations of a short, well-written MIL-SF story. It was better than I expected.

In particular, the story had all the high-tech flags waving, cannons firing, smoke and bugles blowing requisite of MIL-SF. It was a modern update of the old timey MIL-SF tropes that I had known and loved.

The story was also a lot more cynical than those old timey stories. That also was a reflection of modern sensibilities.

This story was amongst the most: well-written, somewhat gritty, semi-hard, military science fiction I’ve read in the last year or two. It was also blissfully short. I liked the main character. I also liked his stoicism, when he realized just how F*ked he was, but that it was for a just cause.

[Original Bulgarian in the bottom, might as well write something in English as early as I am]

The authors (I recently learned that the name is a pseudonym for two authors) continue to write science fiction that is interesting to me, someone who is not that big a fan of the genre.

Livesuit is a pretty good addition to the pile of questions that The Mercy of Gods had already raised. The authors' style remains strong, light, and very readable, and the plot of this short novella is well-crafted and concise. The ending of the novella leaves you craving more, whether it be other novellas or the main series, but for that, you'll have to wait. If only the reader could enter subjective time to make it go faster.

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Авторите (скоро разбрах, че името е чадър за двама автори) продължават да пишат фантастика, която е интересна за мен, човек, който не е никак голям фен на фантастиката.

Livesuit е доста добро допълнение към купчината въпроси, които The Mercy of Gods вече бяха събрали, стилът на авторите продължава да е силен, лек и четим, а сюжетът на тази кракта новела е много добре изпипан и стегнат. Краят на новелата те оставя жаден за още, било то други новели или главната поредица, но за това ще трябва да се чака. Само да можеше да влезе читателя във субективно време, за да стане по-бързо.

If you came to The Captive's War looking for a new setting but the same excellent character work, ponderous prose regarding space and humanity's role there, intense action, and interesting factions as you experienced in The Expanse, you've found it.

I do not intend to disparage The Mercy of Gods, but I do see the issues with relatively uninteresting characters with little to no depth. This does not continue in Livesuit, where the characters are immediately more engaging, personal, and interesting.

This is the story you've been looking for, and it gives me great hope for this series as a whole. I am a fan of The Mercy of Gods, but where that book can feel slow and "dare I say it" low stakes at times, Livesuit opens the book of the universe, and its pages are gilded!!!!

The thing that this reminds me of the most strongly is Old Man's War by John Scalzi. It explores themes much like the ones in Livesuit: soldiers recruited under dire circumstances, given special suits to rely on, not given all the information they really should have been given. Livesuit also shares themes with Forever War, by Joe Haldeman, particularly the weirdly chaotic effects of relativistic time dilation on receiving news and orders.

But with all those similarities, Livesuit is very much unique in its story. Humans are recruited to fight alien aggressors. They are put into Livesuits that allow them to fight in any environment and will patch them up to keep fighting if they are injured. This is then taken to what, in hindsight, seems like the obvious (and chilling) conclusion, but I didn't even come close to guessing at it before the reveal.

This is one that I will probably revisit, now that I know the ending, to look for other clues. The most obvious one is the communication from Mina (or Mira? the name kept changing... possibly an editing issue).

At any rate, I highly recommend this one. It is not necessary to have read the first book of Captive's War to enjoy this, but if you have read it, you will have more context for what's going on (and probably make some connections to things not yet explained in the main series).

Audiobook (3 hours) narrated by Jefferson Mays
Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.

Jefferson Mays continues his award winning narration in this novella between books 1 and 2.
The audio is flawless.

I tend to love the novellas between series chapters as they generally really dive into a character, and this one is no different.

While we learned a bit about the aliens in the first book of the series, this one was about a handful of crew members and the operation of their equipment.

I mentioned how the first book had a hint of Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis series. Well this one brought me back to Old Man's War by John Scalzi. It has a very different feel to it, a different slant, different style. It's obviously the same story, but the situations are different and Corey does an awesome job of changing his voice and bringing us in really close and personal.

Jonathan Mayberry and Brandon Sanderson also do this very well with their in between novellas. It almost feels like we get to meet a character or a couple of characters on their day off, as the whole feel of the novella is outside of the chaos of whatever is going on. Sometimes it might be chaotic, but more like a mini chaos than a whole huge ordeal. It's nice and this felt similar.

The strong pull towards Scalzi made me curious about Corey's influences, so I did a little bit of digging and it seems that Corey has been open about Octavia Butler being a formative influence of his writing. It shows. This is what most has me excited about this series. I love when I am able to pick up hints and shadows that point to strong influences that are done right, honoring those who came before them without copying.

As for Scalzi, it seems that readers have noted some potential influences of Old Man's War in The Expanse series by Corey, but I don't see anything in a cursory search where Corey himself speaks of Scalzi. It seems likely that at a minimum, Corey has read Old Man's War, since so many have noticed.

It seems like I am starting in on a new space adventure.

[3.5/5 stars] I liked this novella. Not because it hit all the same deeply humanistic notes that I’ve come to expect from a JSAC production, which it did, but because of how richly it expanded the Captive’s War universe.

Now I know more of what’s out there. And whether or not these livesuit players will have any roll in upcoming books, or if our time with them was more to provide hope that all is not lost… it was a tangent well worth reading. I got confused during the non-linear timeline switches a few times, but overall got the gist enough that it didn’t seem to affect my enjoyment.

I’m a big fan of the Expanse. Love the first Captive’s War book. And liked this one a full star more than I thought I would. I can’t wait to see what happens next!

Thank you to my Patrons: Dave, Katrin, Frank, Jen, Sonja, Staci, Kat, Betsy, Eliss, Mike, Elizabeth, Bee, Tracey, Dagmara, and Poochtee! <3

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Other books you might like:

Livesuit is the first novella in the Captive’s War series. It’s also James S.A. Corey’s the best novella yet.

Set within the world of The Captive’s War, though not directly connected to the characters of The Mercy of Gods, the story follows Kirin as he joins the Livesuit forces in the military. Members of this elite unit meld their bodies with advanced technology, becoming something more than human. Think Iron Man, but far more unsettling.

Despite its brief 74-page length, Corey delivers a cohesive narrative, well-developed characters, and gripping action sequences without sacrificing emotional depth.

The ending is a gut punch, one that feels inevitable thanks to the careful foreshadowing woven throughout the story, yet still lands with devastating impact.

Overall, Livesuit is a powerful addition to the Captive’s War universe and a standout example of James S.A. Corey’s skill in shorter fiction.