Stephanie Jane reviewed Grubane by Karl Drinkwater (Lost Tales of Solace, #3)
Adds interesting depth to the main series
3 stars
The enigmatic Major Grubane was one of the supporting characters I met in Karl Drinkwater's full length novel Lost Solace. Already having gained a sense of him from that encounter with Opal and Clarissa it was interesting for me to flesh out more of his personality here (although if you haven't already read read Lost Solace, I think Grubane could be read independently as a satisfying standalone novella). Drinkwater concentrates his focus on a single mission in Grubane's long career and narrates it from the point of view of an AI splinter, Aurikaa12, which he is gradually coaching to play chess. Through their games, Grubane and Aurikaa12 explore deeper philosophical concepts.
Grubane himself is a very self-contained man so it was difficult for me to fully empathise with his decisions. I appreciated seeing more of the background to this world. Hints of racism and religious intolerance undermine the believed superiority …
The enigmatic Major Grubane was one of the supporting characters I met in Karl Drinkwater's full length novel Lost Solace. Already having gained a sense of him from that encounter with Opal and Clarissa it was interesting for me to flesh out more of his personality here (although if you haven't already read read Lost Solace, I think Grubane could be read independently as a satisfying standalone novella). Drinkwater concentrates his focus on a single mission in Grubane's long career and narrates it from the point of view of an AI splinter, Aurikaa12, which he is gradually coaching to play chess. Through their games, Grubane and Aurikaa12 explore deeper philosophical concepts.
Grubane himself is a very self-contained man so it was difficult for me to fully empathise with his decisions. I appreciated seeing more of the background to this world. Hints of racism and religious intolerance undermine the believed superiority of the militaristic UFS empire building strategy and Grubane's questioning of where the moral line should be drawn makes for tense scenarios. I admit I felt more distanced from Grubane than I have from the other books in this series, but it was still a good read and the unexpected appearance of chess in this book has me tempted to start trying to play again.