Traitor

In 2012, scientists unearthed an artifact of advanced technology in Italy. Soon after, a hole opened in the sky and an alien race made contact with humanity. Interestingly, the aliens were human, too. It didn't take long for Earth to be overcome by these conquerors. Seven years later, The Corps (as the fleet of conquering human-aliens is called) is struggling to stamp out a vicious terrorist resistance.

Since this is a sci-fi book dealing with an advanced race, there's quite a bit of futuristic technology. In addition to the standard pulse-blasters, energy shields, and bio-implants, there's a dark and sinister invention: “coffee” made with a triple shot of hot sauce.

I can see why the terrorists are rebelling.

There's a pretty small cast of characters, with the core three being:

* Rebecca: The titular traitor, she used to program drones for the Canadian government. Now, she lives on a space station near Jupiter, just trying to save up enough money to buy out her indenture to The Corps

* Katherine: She used to work for the Canadian military and has turned her skills toward rebelling against The Corps.

* Zain: Rebecca's friend on the space station and respected alien within The Corps. He's also a creep.

All of these characters are dynamic, and your opinion of each will change throughout the book as you learn more.

Aliens—who happen to be descended from the same ancestors as humans and thus look exactly like us—conquered Earth in 2012 during what came to be known as The Fall. Most people died, with the survivors either assimilating into the conquering culture or becoming rebel freedom fighters.

Rebecca chose to willingly submit to the aliens, becoming a traitor to the human race (well, the Earth humans). She works on a space station near Jupiter as a second-class citizen, trying to buy out her indenture and become fully accepted by the aliens. All of her hard work is put in jeopardy when some of the most notorious rebels that survived The Fall decided to launch an operation against the Jupiter space station.

This could have easily been a much longer book. Ball manages to pack a lot of action and some heavy themes into a mere 250-page story. One of the interesting results of this is that there are very few “info dumps” in the story. Most of the exposition to lay the foundation for the book takes place in a short prologue, told through news headlines and tweets that outline the events leading up to The Fall.

Everything after the prologue serves to advance the plot, with healthy chunk of character development along the way. The book is fast-paced; I read the entire thing in under 24 hours, which is almost unheard of for me. The prose is very straightforward, with no frills and minimal descriptions.

Pick this up if you enjoy science fiction, quick reads, and flawed characters that evolve throughout the story. This is a fast-paced popcorn read with intrigue and action, so if that's something that interests you, you'll have a great time.

If you prefer poetic prose or deep worldbuilding, this might not resonate with you. The writing style tends to introduce you to new aspects of the world only when you need to know them, and the prose is written to be easily digested.

Overall, this was a fast and fun read. I greatly enjoyed it and am looking forward to the sequel.