Jason Cordova's Wraithkin

Join us on Facebook

So what has eugenics, mecha, aliens, space travel and lots of cool fights? If you answered Wraithkin by Jason Cordova you'd be right. If you answered something else let me know. I love this stuff!

I came at Wraithkin cold. I think I've read a short or two by Mr. Cordova but I seem to have managed to avoid his novels up to this point. That stops now. Wraithkin was a thouroughly entertaining read of the you-can't-make-me-stop-reading-and-go-do-something-productive-if-I-don't-wanna sort. Except maybe I did do some stuff that I had to do, but it was under protest. No system is perfect, I guess.

Speaking of Imperfect...

The society in Wraithkin is divided between Perfects, who have had all susceptibilty to all  diseases bred out of them, and Imperfects  who have a genetic susceptibilty to one or more diseases. The differences in how society treats the two different groups is huge and really forms the basis of the book.  At the end of the day though, that's not all Wraithkin is about.

Our hero is a man named Gabriel Espinoza and he goes through a lot. I don't want to spoil too much here, but let's just say his life is turned upside down in one day and it just gets worse from there. He goes from an idyllic life to the furnace of combat and not all of the transformation is intentional on his part. This is a guy I really like because he takes it on the chin repeatedly and just keeps fighting.

I mean seriously, I remember many moons ago when I was taught the tenets of Tae Kwon Do in a  class I took after school. One of them was indomitable will. Espinoza has that in spades. Not all of what he does is, strictly speaking, intelligent or sane, but it's all in service of a goal and he refuses to give up. In the face of some of the worst adversity I've ever seen a character go through (and I've read a Song of Ice and Fire) he perserveres. Espinoza is the man.

Espinoza is a man who has understandable motivations. I'm not saying that everything he does is governed strictly by logic. Gabriel is neither Spock nor Data. He is a complicated man of emotion. The fact remains that you can understand why he is doing what he is doing. That's a big thing for me. I like being able to follow characters as they go through their lives and find myself nodding. The love of a woman is a powerful thing and has inspired many men to do things they maybe shouldn't have. Gabriel is no exception and I get that. I even admire it. He makes the sacrifices that come with the territory in full knowledge of what the consequences are going to be. He inspires his men to follow him with them knowing what they're going to face not just if they fail, but also of they succeed.

His friends are just as crazy as he is. It seems that the Wraith corps, from which Wraithkin takes its name, is made up of people who are more than just a little off. They recruit insane individuals on purpose. The reasons for doing so are fairly obvious once you've read the book. Crazy is not just an attitude, it's a mission profile. Wraiths are people that don't matter. No one cares if they get killed. It allows the use of tactics that no real world military would even think of attempting. Seriously, if you could find a lunch table full of ten year old boys they couldn't come up with stuff this whacky. Yeah, I said it. It's to Cordova's credit that he makes it believable and engaging.

Also, I have to take a second out to talk about the Wraiths themselves. No, not the soldiers. The Wraiths pilot mecha called, well, Wraiths. I want one. Actually, I take that back. I want several. These things are fast, maneuverable, well armed and extremely heavily armored. They have manipulator arms and can handle things. I want to take a ride in one and blow some stuff up. I may be a bit too sane, but hey, that's life, right?

Cordova is a veteran and it shows in his work. Wraithkin is above all a work of Military Science Fiction. The atmosphere in the book has a strong military flavor as modifed for a total lack of sanity. Discipline is maintained while banter is conducted. The chain of command exists and has to be modified at times due to combat losses. The tactics used make sense. In this sense, it doesn't feel like a table full of ten years olds. Well, with the possible exception of one particular landing. I'll leave that to it's place in the book though.

Of course, with all of this military stuff going on, I have to mention the action and combat sequences. I loved it. There is plenty of blowuptuation to go around. The enemy is scary enough to be believable and appears to be up to more than what we're told up front. I like that. And Cordova seems to remember a saying I've heard reported often. “If you're short of everything except the enemy, you're in combat.” Seriously, it can get annoying when authors ignore that every weapon requires ammunition. And, if you've ever read anything about military planning, you're always advised to assume that your enemy is at least as smart as you are. Cordova gets that as well.

Wraithkin is the first book in a series and I can't wait to get to the rest of it. There are obvious lead-ins to what comes next. There is a mystery here. The war is still ongoing. There is something I'm not talking about. In short, there is more to come and I want to know what it is. There is literally no higher compliment I can give an author. I consumed what he had to give me and I want more. I'll be looking for it.

Bottom Line: 4.75 out of 5 Imperfect Genes

Wraithkin
Jason Cordova
Theogony Books, 2017

Wraithkin is available for purchase at the following link. If you click it and buy literally anything, I get a small percentage.