Normally prologues tease, throwing action and intrigue but in a short dollop. The first part of The Mirrored Heavens (UK / US) begins at flat out pace, like a prologue, and then keeps going and going, in a highly enjoyable, multi-plotted action sequence. Unfortunately the rest of the book doesn't live up to the openeing.
It's a future world, still Earth, but with balkanised world regions in a Cold War V2. The characters include Razors who are hackers and Mechs who are on-the-ground companion soldiers to Razors. The feel is kind of cyberpunk crossed with military SF. The plot is twisty and turny, but often I found at the expense of clarity. By the end I didn't really care who was responsible because I'd lost track of who could have been behind everything. Some of the conversations between characters go so far out of their way to avoid expositional dumps and provide teasing clues that they end up saying nothing at all.
The characters seemed far removed from the real power and manipulations, despite being explicitly involved in the action. This sort of "characters as pawns" story works if you care about the characters (for example in The Execution Channel), but unfortunately I didn't. The characters felt too shallow, without anything for me to hook onto and empathise with.
There are some well handled action scenes and some eye-kick set pieces, but the story left me feeling like I had just seen a generic Hollywood action film.
One for the action fans.
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