22 July, 2002
Rules of Conflict
Kristine Smith
2000
373 pp
Wow, it took me a long time to read this book. It's not the book's fault, I just haven't had a lot of time for reading the last couple weeks.
So, anyway, this is the sequel to Code of Conduct, and this note contains spoilers for the previous novel. It picks up shortly after Code left off, with our heroine Jani Kilian once again on the lam, hiding from the government who wants to "question" her about the death of her superior officer eighteen years ago, during an alien civil war. Kilian understandably doesn't want to be questioned, since she murdered him. She doesn't make it far; she gets brought into custody and shipped off the Earth by the end of Chapter 2. Worse, her health problems have started getting worse again. To her surprise, when she arrives on Earth, she's not greeted with a quick trial and execution. Rather, she's given extensive medical care, a decent job, and charged with a minor crime of mishandling documents.
Plot-wise, this book seems to be mainly intended to wrap up all the loose ends from the first book. There really isn't a central plot thread, just several minor ones. We find out some more about the events of eighteen years ago, Kilian's medical problems are finally treated, and her legal status is resolved. This leaves the way clear for other plot threads to come to the foreground in future volumes. (Such as Kilian's relationship with her Idomeni mentor and her possible future as a link between human and Idomeni cultures, and the relationship between Kilian and the doctor who both saved her life and performed some highly unethical genetic experiments on her).
So, lacking a strong plot to discuss, I'll talk about the characters. I'm kind of ambivalent about Jani Kilian herself. On the one hand, she's an interesting character. On the other, she's so untrusting and so self-destructive that it's frustrating to read about her, sometimes. As her enigmatic boy-toy Lucien tells her, "There are plenty of ways to make your point without impaling yourself in the process."
Lucien himself is one of those minor characters who has the potential to be much more interesting than the author has let him be, thus far. He's got some kind of mental "augmentation" which supresses his capacity for empathy. Kilian likes him because, in a twisted way, he's "safe." She doesn't have to worry about forming a deep, mutual emotional attachment with him, because she doesn't think he's capable of it. And yet, he is strangely attached to Kilian. He takes care of her when she's incapacitated by her health problems, spends much of his free time in her company, and shows all the typical signs of somebody who's suffering from a huge crush. However, thus far Smith hasn't explored his motivations or his personality much at all. Perhaps I find him so interesting because he reminds me of Tal Diamond from City of Diamond. (Man, I want to read that book again. Someday I'll have time for it.)