"The Light Birgade" by Kameron Hurley

The Light Brigade is a Sci-Fi novel set in a distant future on Earth and on Mars. By this point, humans have successfully colonized the Moon, Mars and are envisioning moving further into space. On earth, geographic divisions are no longer along country/nation borders. Instead, the entire planet is divided between six major corporations who are de-facto and de-juri governments of their respective territories. Citizens of those territories have the most rights and benefits, residents basically have to work very hard for the same benefits, and ghouls are the lowest rung of society and have to scavenge to survive.

Our main character Dietz was able to rise from ghouls to resident and has now enlisted in her corporation's army in order to earn citizenship and more importantly to avenge the deaths of her younger brother and girlfriend who died in what was reported as Mars' attack on Sao Paolo.

I loved this novel. It is fast paced, entertaining, has great characters and is filled with poignant themes of what is reality, what is truth, and how does one break out of the vicious circle of war and power-grabbing. It also portrays war as a senseless timewarped meat-grinder where soldiers are stripped of all identity, are expected to blindly follow orders and the meaning of "heroism" loses any meaning.

There is also a time-traveling aspect to the novel which I personally always like in Sci-Fi novels. Overall, the more I think about it, the more things I find to ponder. This would make a great book for a bookclub. 5 out 5 stars. Here are a couple of my favorite quotes from the book:

"None of this is real," Andria said. She began to move around me. "This reality, more than even the one we see, is a complete fabrication. It exists in your mind. Like pain. Like pleasure."

"Truth is a point of view."

"We are, all of us, caught within a massive loop of time, bouncing around in the spaces between things."