Invictus, Part 1
Captive
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 3 months for £0.99/mo
Invictus, Part 1
Buy Now for £21.09
-
Narrated by:
-
Chase Via
-
By:
-
Rachel Neumeier
About this listen
Every soldier knows there are endless ways to die.
Every Ubezhishche soldier knows there are far worse fates than death.
Sevastien one zero two four, S line third modification, has survived the destruction of his own ship and an enemy station. But he was rescued by the wrong side -- by Nalyn Ila, captain of the Elysian destroyer Invictus. Now he's facing a difficult problem: How to persuade Captain Ila and her people that he is not an enemy combatant. That if there was an act of war, it was committed by her people, not his own.
Sevastien is almost certain he was an innocent bystander of disaster ... unless his own people set him up, aiming to get him aboard Invictus for reasons he can't yet understand. Maybe they did. It's just the kind of thing Ubezhishche Command might do.
Nalyn Ila is almost certain Sevastien is an enemy agent, placed aboard her ship by Ubezhishche Command. But no one, not her own people nor the enemy nor Sevastien himself, can possibly guess what use she might actually have for an Ubezhishche soldier. Even if he actually is an innocent bystander, she may be able to use him in her private long-laid plans. And if he's actually an enemy agent ... that might be even better.
©2023 Rachel Neumeier (P)2025 Rachel NeumeierBrilliant
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
THE GOOD
The characters were great, Syova has such a compelling internal world, and his developing relationship with the crew was my favourite part. And the performance of the voice actor was brilliant.
THE BAD
What was with the relationship with the captain? That whole thing was just creepy and stalkerish (from both sides somehow). Also why is everyone so painfully straight, and why is there a D/s dynamic dropped in with the doctor with literally no acknowledgment of it AT ALL. Like it doesn’t have to be sexual, but it was just so obviously D/s that someone noting that would have been appropriate. Esp in a context where (both consensual and nonconsensual) power dynamics are so central to the plot. Which leads me to…
THE (SUPREMELY) UGLY
HOLY EUGENICIST CRAP, the bio-determinism was pretty fucking messed up. Breeding lines that have particular character traits (such as obedience and stupidity)? THAT is some purely Victorian eugenics bullshit. I kept waiting for the characters to wake up to the fact that they had agency and free will, and for the slavefic trope to be subverted, but nope. Nope, we leaned in, and acted as though this wasn’t pure distilled racism. Speaking of racism, are we going to have (yet another) science fiction book that does racism without race, and without learning from any of like, you know, the whole of human history? Apparently so.
As an aside, that explanation by the author at the end that points to dog breeds as a justification for that entire binfire of plot line? Firstly, I can’t believe I need to say this but, humans aren’t dogs babes? We’re a different species? Secondly, that should go up front AS A WARNING. Funnily enough, when I complained about this book to a friend who is a dog behaviourist, her immediate response was, well the author is a white woman with a wolf-dog, what did you expect?
Neo-eugenic space opera where everyone is straight and race is aesthetics only
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.