Ever since finishing The Last Watch and The Exiled Fleet, I’ve been a J.S. Dewes fan. When the opportunity came to pick up her newest book, I did so without reading the description. I didn’t know what to expect, but I knew it would be good. Well, Dewes proved me right. Rubicon by J.S. Dewes is a departure from her other books. This is still a science fiction and military adventure, but Rubicon dips more into horror this time. Dewes explores trauma and human connection. She puts her characters through the horrors of dying repeatedly. In Rubicon Dewes has created a book that I’ll be thinking about for a while to come.
Disclaimer: The publisher provided a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Any and all opinions that follow are mine alone.
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Trigger Warning
Suicidal thoughts and longing are expressed by the main character.
TL;DR
Rubicon by J.S. Dewes shows the horrors of immortality. This military science fiction novel is fast-paced balancing action with a look at how finding human connection can ease trauma. Highly recommended.
From the Publisher
J. S. Dewes, author of The Last Watch and The Exiled Fleet, returns with another science fiction space opera, Rubicon, that melds elements of Scalzi’s Old Man’s War with Edge of Tomorrow.
Sergeant Adriene Valero wants to die.
She can’t.
After enduring a traumatic resurrection for the ninety-sixth time, Valero is reassigned to a special forces unit and outfitted with a cutting-edge virtual intelligence aid. They could turn the tide in the war against intelligent machines dedicated to the assimilation, or destruction, of humanity.
When her VI suddenly achieves sentience, Valero is drawn into the machinations of an enigmatic major who’s hell-bent on ending the war—by any means necessary.
Review: Rubicon by J.S. Dewes
Adriene Valero is a grunt in the military. She’s a recon soldier, whose job is to survey planet’s for habitability. Her home system, the current system for all humans, is being threatened by a star turning into a red giant. In a few centuries, the habitable zone will have shifted out past the system’s habitable planets. Humanity needs new places to live, but there’s an external threat stopping them from leaving the system, the Mechan. The Mechan are an advanced robot, hive mind civilization bent on preventing humans from settling any planet outside their dying system. Valero and her squad sneak past the blockade of Mechan to search out new worlds. Unfortunately, the Mechan are often there to kill the humans, or worse. And in Valero’s world, there are things worse than death. Because when Valero dies, her consciousness is transferred to a new body, or ‘husk.’ This process has a sanitized, PR friendly name of ‘rezoning.’ But it’s a horrific process. Val and any other soldier emerges from the vat where their new husk is grown with memories of their death fresh in their mind. The trauma of death and rebirth begin the new husk’s life. And our friend Valero? She’s died ninety-six times. She’s endured the trauma of ninety-six deaths, and she retains the memories of those fatal moments.
Luckily for her, Valero gets called up to an elite unit dedicated to intelligence gathering. While there, Valero gets outfitted with a new technology that awakens into full artificial intelligence in her own brain. Because they’re fighting artificial intelligence, it’s illegal for a human to possess an artificial intelligence. With the help of the reclusive Major West, Valero adapts to her new AI and uses it accomplish high value intelligence gathering missions. It’s possible that humanity has a new tool to turn the tide against the Mechan. Or what resides in Valero’s head could be the key to humanity being wiped out by the Mechan.
Rubicon by J.S. Dewes is a third person science fiction horror novel. Valero narrates the whole, fast moving novel. Dewes deftly balances action with an exploration of withdrawing from connection with others as a coping mechanism for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Dewes explores the horror of a perpetual existence dominated by trauma in a readable adventure. I flew through this book, and you will, too.
Horror Disguised as Military Fiction
When I began reading the book, it had the trappings of military science fiction. Quickly, I came to understand that this is really a horror novel with military SF set dressing. And I say that with love. It’s a psychological horror despite the looming existential threats of genocide or environmental destruction that will take the human race with it. Readers learn very quickly that for Valero and her first squad, there is no such thing as retreat. When a mission goes south, they have to die, and the last survivor must kill themself. Yes, death is the only exit, but it’s not a permanent one. The soldiers will awake in a new body with the trauma of dying fresh on their mind because that is the least bad of their options. If the Mechans capture a live soldier, they use technology to hijack that soldiers body while leaving their consciousness intact. That’s right, the Mechans turn the soldier’s body into a prison. This is enough to drive anyone insane.
Valero’s life isn’t much of a life. She’s an alcoholic despite the fact that she’s not in any husk long enough to form a chemical addiction. She’s withdrawn from human connection. She’s numb to emotion, to life itself. She’s died so many times that she knows exactly what answers to provide the automated therapy bot in order to avoid more in-depth treatment, which she desperately needs. Her immediate objectives are to lessen the trauma of rezoning. With her promotion, she begins to connect with other members of her new squad. She finds a budding romantic attraction. Her life improves; yet, she still wants to die. Permanently. As Valero begins to get her shit together, Dewes has more horror in store for her.
Still Thinking About that Ending
For the second review in a row, I loved this book for every chapter until the final one. Whereas in my last review, the final chapter didn’t work for me; here, I go back and forth. Rubicon’s ending is one that I think will divide audiences. And that’s okay. It’s a bold choice, and part of me likes it for just that reason. The other part of me feels that it wasn’t an ending. That the book just stopped there.
This ending, sadly, makes me feel like an old man, set in his ways. The ending was unexpected yet natural, and normally I love that. But I spent literally every other chapter expecting a different outcome. I’m sad that I couldn’t pivot to what I think is a very interesting ending. In short, this is all to say that the effect this ending has will be quite subjective. I look forward to reading what others have to say about it. If you’ve read the book, please, let me know in the comments if you liked the ending. Or let me know if you think I’m just an old man.
Major West and the Categorical Imperative
One thing that stands out in this book is that Dewes has brought back the mad scientist trope in a new way. Major West is sympathetic and a genius at not just technology but also manipulation while being evil. He’d be like Elon Musk if Musk had any technological smarts or technological capability or sympathy for other people. West believes in saving humanity no matter how many people he has to harm in order to do so. He is a walking, talking, manipulating version of Kant’s categorical imperative. The categorical imperative is a concept in morality that people are the ends, never the means. Yet the military uses people as the means to their strategic ends. Canon fodder, collateral damage, acceptable losses, cost/benefit analyses, etc. are military jargon for using peoples very lives to accomplish a goal. In applying the categorical imperative to the military, it would seem that the military is itself immoral. (Yes, this is a simplistic analysis. Bear with me.) Does this mean that an individual solider can retain their morality? The answer is yes. It’s how the soldier conducts themselves that differentiates between moral and immoral.
West is a great character to explore this, and a military story is the place to do that. I’ve heard time and again the complaint, usually from right wing ‘conservatives’ – who also consider themselves pro-life in the irony of ironies – why U.S. soldier abide by rules of engagement when the enemy doesn’t. Bypassing the assumption that the enemy possesses the same rules of engagement as the U.S. military, we’re left with a very good question. Rules of engagement make the job harder and more dangerous for soldiers. So, why do they exist? Because there’s more to life than mere survival. How we survive; how we live; and how we conduct ourselves matter. (Yes, I know this provides zero comfort to grieving families. It doesn’t make it any less true, just more difficult to come to terms with.) The rules of engagement were created with civilians in mind. Honorable, law abiding soldiers don’t use people as a means to accomplish their goals. West, however, does. He installs an illegal, full artificial intelligence in Valero without regard to the consequences for her. What if it malfunctions? What if she’s caught? He’s using her as a guinea pig for his illegal experiment. The contrary thing is that he seems regretful for the horrors and the harm he has caused; yet, those regrets wont stop him or make him think through his actions.
The difference, I would say, between what could be considered moral or not in a war is the phrase, ‘by any means necessary.’ When this phrase is in play, the darkest aspects of humanity are given free reign to unleash horrors. Torture, rape, genocide, all fit under the heading of ‘by any means necessary.’ They are treating humans as usable objects instead of people themselves. West is a ‘by any means necessary’ kind of guy. Valero isn’t, and her drawing boundaries around some things you just don’t do makes West all that more horrific. Valero has died ninety-six times. She’s endured torture at the hands of the Mechan, and for her to go through all that yet maintain some moral boundaries tells the reader about who she is as a person. It also shows just how horrific West really is.
Conclusion
J.S. Dewes Rubicon is a science fiction horror novel that got me thinking about larger questions of morality, the military, and brain chemistry. There’s so much I could write about this book because it’s fun; it’s horrifying; it’s an example of how immortality could be awful; it’s a sharp look into coming back from trauma. It’s all this and so much more. Valero and her squad were great characters that you can’t help but root for, even if that means they get their wish of permanent death. It’s an odd feeling rooting for someone to become mortal but J.S. Dewes found a way. Rubicon is a multi-layered book, and one that you should definitely read. Highly recommended.
Rubicon by J.S. Dewes is available from Tor Books on March 28th, 2023.
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