Peacekeeper by Laura E. Reeve

Laura E. Reeve's "Peacekeeper" juxtaposes regular war violence with futuristic technologies. It follows the story of a female pilot named Ari. Her crew members keep her company, whilst simultaneously ordering her around like a dog. Fifteen years ago, she was involved in a military coup in the universe, which required her to annihilate over four billion organisms and an entire section of space. In present times, she is being hunted down. Slowly, the members of her crew are killed, and she is next. At one point in the novel, she is interrogated, abused, and even sexually assaulted all because of her deathly past.

Interestingly, Reeve starts off all of her chapters with quotations from books of the future. She does this excellently and makes them so believable that readers think Ari's futuristic story is actually believable.

Additionally, religion is inserted into the book as Gaia is the one creator of the universe. She is seen as a nurturing mother and isn't really expounded on much. This makes the reader think about what religion will be in the far future. Like the war, it is just assumed and not questioned very much at all.

Overall, this book is one of action, despair, and a strong woman that will stop at nothing to protect nationalistic values she may not even wholly understand.

"Peacekeeper" by Laura E. Reeve shines a scarily true light onto warfare and the soldiers enlisted therein. Set in the future, this novel portrays technology doing most of the fighting, with the humans controlling which part of space is attacked. Even though the book is futuristic, it is easy to relate to in such a time of international conflict. After all, regardless of what time era people live in, there is always some sort of disagreement and fighting. Sadly, soldiers like Ari lose their innocence as they are propelled into fighting that they are told is right and true. In the end, they end up being tracked down and beaten to bloody pulps by extremists that belong to sects of annihilated civilizations. Also, when aliens are encountered, some have no faces and skin. This makes them entirely hard to read expression-wise. The militia can not possibly know when they are being fooled when all they see is a blank conglomerate staring back at them. Also, the novel features aspects of intimacy, but is not too graphic. Ari's relations with members of her Crew are alluded to but not necessarily described. As for the scenes when Ari is molested, those have detail but are not erotic as they relate to what truly happens to both male and female soldiers when they are captured by enemy forces. In general, this book is entertaining and akin to a futuristic movie.

Reviewer Age:17

Reviewer City, State and Country: Staten Island, NY USA

Rating: 4

Content Rating: 1