Embedded by Dan Abnett – Book Review

I decided to take a break from Black Library and see what else their authors write. Dan Abnett’s Embedded piqued my interest, so I gave it a try. Embedded is a fun book, though it left me conflicted trying to write a review. Embedded delivers great military action set within a fantastically vivid take on an alternate-history/military-sci-fi setting. Yet it all rides on a rather flimsy plot. A little more careful storytelling – I believe – could’ve made this a far better book than it turned out to be.

The colony planet of Eighty-Six looks as dull as all its fellow new worlds to veteran journalist Lex Falk. But when a local squabble starts to turn violent, and the media get the runaround from the military high command, his interest is seriously piqued.

Forbidden from approaching the battlezone, Falk gets himself chipped inside the head of a combat veteran – and uncovers the story of a lifetime.

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#1 – The Format

This isn’t a Black Library book, obviously. The story has no relation to Warhammer Fantasy or Warhammer 40K or any other trademarked IP Dan Abnett writes for (such as Marvel).

Embedded is a stand-alone sci-fi story published by Angry Robot Books. The version I have is a no-frills (but good quality) trade-paperback, 362 pages plus a few ads in the back. The price-tag on the cover is £7.99, though the book has been out for a few years now and can easily be found for less. The Kindle-Version of Embedded on Amazon is priced at £4.49.

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#2 – What I liked about Embedded

Dan Abnett’s books are always good reads, and Embedded is no different. It’s nicely paced and a great page turner. Moreover, it highlights some of the things that Abnett does really well:

• A Good, Convincing Setting

Dan Abnett excels at bringing fictional worlds to life. The setting of Embedded is colony planet Eighty-Six of the expanding future human race. There are bits of alternative history in the mix, as the Cold War in Embedded has never ended, even as humanity spread to the stars. The first man on the moon appears to have been a Russian, for example.

Beyond that, it is all about military and mining in space, in a society dominated by large omnipotent corporations who fear nothing except bad press. A “James-Cameron-Future” without the aliens.

Though this could’ve turned out to be a fairly generic setting, it is not. Abnett’s attention to detail, the little things people talk about, his take on technology, the military hardware, etc.. all breathes life into this and makes the colony of Eightly-Six and its people feel “real”.

• Good Military Sci-Fi Action

That, of course, is the main selling-point for Embedded, and Dan Abnett delivers.

The main chunk of the book revolves around a group of soldiers, including one soldier who is secretly being run “Avatar-style” by an over-the-hill reporter inside his head, fighting for their survival and a way out of a nasty trap laid out for them by the enemy.

Embedded may not be another Gaunt’s Ghosts, but Embedded throws some spectacularly thrilling sci-fi firefights and combat scenes at the reader. Abnett clearly spend time studying possible future military technology, of which he makes good (and usually bloody) use. The various military (and non-military) characters are fun to read about. The action keeps coming. Good stuff all around.

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#3 – What I didn’t like about Embedded

As good as it ready, Embedded quickly falls apart when you think too much about the story.

Just to start the entire premise of a military unit deep in trouble, with an ageing star-reporter going along inside the head of one of the soldiers, Abnett needs to ask his readers to suspend suspension of disbelieve more than once.

The grumpy, burnt-out reporter Lex Falk arrives on Eighty-Six largely without ambition, only to be (somewhat conveniently) drafted on short notice into the corporate top-secret project that allows people to ride along in other people’s head. Once there, Falk’s host soldier (somewhat conveniently) receives a non-fatal head-shot, which puts Lex Falk into control of his host body.

Once the action starts, things don’t get really improve. The main group of protagonists does little else but trying to stay alive. And yet, trying to stay ahead of the guns from the “bad guys”, they conveniently stumble into evidence A, B, C, allowing them (and the reader) to put the puzzle together. A “detective-story-by-accident” that strains plausibility the longer it goes.

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#4 – The Verdict

I do not want to dwell on the flaws of the story itself too long.

Tight storytelling likely isn’t what people will buy this book for. It (just about) works as a vehicle for the action-firework Dan Abnett unleashes in Embedded. If you like Dan Abnett’s work in general, or action-packed military sci-fi in general, you will almost certainly like Embedded.

Another boon, to me at least, is that it isn’t an epic trilogy that needs months of reading dedicated to it. Embedded is 360 pages of self-contained action fun.

Embedded is a good book. As an “action-novel”, I would recommend Embedded without hesitation.

If anything, I am a bit disappointed because it could’ve been a great book.

Z.