Warchild (Karen Lowachee)

Lowachee won the Warner Aspect competition with this, her first novel. Warchild is the story of Jos Musey, an eight-year-old orphaned when space pirates attack his merchant ship. He’s the prisoner of a notorious pirate for a while, then is captured again and taken to the homeworld of the alien “strits”, at which Earth (and most of humanity, save the pirates and a few sympathizers). Lowachee mostly deserves the acclaim she received for this novel; it’s a successful exercise in character development, world-building (even if strit society does seem awfully like feudal Japan), and moral ambiguity. There’s no “good” side in the war; both the humans and aliens bear responsibility for its current state. Jos comes off as a troubled but real character, even though he’s so stand-offish that it’s hard to feel a positive emotional bond to him. I’m looking forward to Lowachee’s sophmore effort to see if she continues with the intriguing world she built here, or whether she’ll start afresh.