Most people who know me probably have no idea that I’m a rabid Military Sci-Fi fan. I found them when I was a young reader and was immediately fascinated by the idea of men on incredible battlefields. And I love the title, Cry Pilot and was hooked in the first chapter when I learned what Cry Pilots are and what they do…
Did Cry Pilot make a impression of this Fangirl?
I sat down with this paper copy of Cry Pilot and I couldn’t stop reading… I only intended to get it started. Read the first chapter or two… I quickly found myself sweeping past page 100!! WHAT?! Yeah I was captured. It starts with Maseo Kaytu and his CAV experience so he can enter military training.
Kaytu is wonderfully flawed.
From page one of Cry Pilot we know Kaytu has done something he regrets. And it isn’t something that you can easily sweep under a rug and call a stupid mistake and move on. He’s tried and it just doesn’t work. This isn’t a new concept. Kaytu is seeking redemption on the battlefield. So why is this one of the best books I’ve read in 2019?! Because of the incredible futuristic world!!!
This is a very unique devastated earth.
It’s waaaaayyyyy in the future. We’ve had another massive world war. The earth did not fair well. But corporations came in and took over. It was for the best. They started a technologically fueled clean up to reclaim the earth from our mistakes… There’s only one problem, the war tech used to fight that war? Yeah it’s been abandoned all over the place and the cleanup tech is fixing it along with the earth.
So we need soldiers.
Soldiers to fight these rogue bio-weapons. And now they have a new recruit… Kaytu! Only they won’t accept him. So he forces them to… and finds a place to belong. Kaytu wasn’t some super leader or anything. Each member of the team was good at different things. They bonded and learned to work together like a well oiled machine.
For the dynamite military battles!
Soon we come to understand why its so important they come together as a crew… and its a beautiful messy battle every day!! Okay I admit this is my favorite part of any military sci-fi… I love the tactics and strategy involved and seeing how they beat the odds and survive.
And don’t forget… Ting!
A nonstop chatty hacker who mysteriously seems to be able to hold it together while also beating the odds along with Kaytu… How is this possible?! There was something about Ting that I just loved and a mystery surrounding her that I was dying to uncover. I loved her relationship with Kaytu (its not as a love interest!) and I just want to peer inside her mind for a bit. I need more of her!
I really, really enjoy the way Joel Dane writes.
It’s tight. It feels military. It feels like the future. One of the most well imagined I’ve ever read. I was captured from the first page… but that’s because every page that followed built up my anticipation for the next page and the next page. And the world was shown to us in tiny chunks so that we could form a picture of it in our minds.
It really helped that I liked Kaytu. His situation is unique but totally understandable. You feel for him even as you know he got himself into this tight spot on his own and because of family. And you applaud his desire to push through anyway and seize his redemption. Every time I felt like the story would plateau it got better and the stakes higher! It wasn’t about twists at all, but about making me care.
But you’re probably wondering… I haven’t said I loved every page of Cry Pilot?!
Okay I will admit there is a small span of about 7-10 pages a little past halfway that got a touch repetitive. These are where the team is trying to gather information and not getting anywhere fast. I wish they actually DID something concrete as a group and failed rather than individually… but yeah that’s it. I literally was captured for every other page all the way to the end… And the end… is EXPLOSIVE!!
So was there anything else I didn’t enjoy in this shining jewel of futuristic military sci-fi?!
Well in the future sexuality is very fluid and soldiers with their battle lust have many poly relationships. This is touched on briefly in a couple places but isn’t explicit (thank goodness!) It made me skeptical as I doubt EVERY soldier would have sex with multiple partners of both sexes but its such a minor part of the book I’m fine with it. This is literally how detailed Joel Dane thought about the future.
Cry Pilot is like a rocket ship and you are left breathless at the end!! I’m totally eager to dive right into the sequel (and I hope that I can totally get a copy). While we don’t get all the answers about lampreys we do learn a lot about them and I’m eager to see Kaytu and his crew go up against more… This is futuristic military sci-fi at its absolute best!!
Perspective of a Writer 