A few spoilery thoughts here:
Http://ciaracatscifi.blogspot.com ( )

Chess and war and space, we get it already. ( )

It's an intriguing and dangerous universe Edward M. Lerner's Championship B'tok attempts to create. The Hugo nominated novelette opens on a universe that is shrunken and more interconnected than ours, complete with hostile alien races and interstellar computing networks connecting the disparate planets and races. The Snakes are a race that has been conquered after an attempt to conquer others, and now, quietly, they plot to rise again.

There's a lot of potential and creative energy in Lerner's story, but it never quite comes together in satisfying way. Because the story is part of a larger set of tales that Lerner writes, and though this is billed as a stand alone, I wondered if it was because I hadn't read anything else that I was often lost. Really, though, I think it's just a lack of narrative connection between scenes and characters, leaps joined by sudden exposition of details otherwise unavailable, and sudden plot resolution that left me feeling...unresolved.

Also, there's the protagonist failing to protag very well. Sometimes it feels like it's going to move into a noir like mystery, and others its international espionage. In th end, it just ends...

The novelette feels like a good first draft, but here it is up for the Hugo. There's potential, so I give it three stars, but ultimately, it feels forgettable. ( )

2015-05-15/100%: Boring. Filled with unanswered questions. Obviously part of a longer work which I shall studiously avoid based on how boring this was.

I'd also note that it felt more like something written in the 50s than something current. Cosmic Ultra security earned an eye roll and a removed a half-star. ( )

Hints of an interesting world. The Intervener conspiracy was the most interesting thing going on here, and I wish we had gotten a better glimpse of it. Unfortunately this didn't feel like a complete story so much as one chapter of a novel. ( )