Read in The Year’s Best Science Fiction Thirty Fifth Annual Collection (Dozois, 2018).
Once again, a story that you can recognise as one from Kress, featuring a well-rounded, working class female protagonist. There is more than a nod to the current political situation in the USA – there are changes afoot which are affecting the working class most, and they are feeling disenfranchised, and willing to fight against the perceived causes. In this case, rather than globalisation and ecological, it is aliens who have arrived on Earth and whose gifting of hi-tech has impacted on traditional industries. MaryJo is estranged from her family, having enlisted. Rather than being Grateful For Your Service, they see it as treachery, as the army is tasked with protecting the very aliens they despise.
There are divided loyalties amongst some in the army, and the action revolves around MaryJo coming face to face with this.
Three dimensional and believable.
