#BookReview: Swim Among the People, by Karl Gallagher

In a world after Big Brother has been chased off, what happens when he comes back?

With his Fall of the Censor series, Karl Gallagher seems intent on covering every possible aspect of science fiction, as well as straight up warfare. The Censor is a multi-planetary 1984. In books two and three he covered new angles of space combat. His last book, Karl had the fine art of spycraft.

In this book, Karl breaks out the manual on guerilla warfare.

Story

In book three, the planet of Fiera had been liberated from the Censor’s tyrannical grasp with the help of The Concord — the star system on the other side of the hyperspace bubble. Everything was going fine on Fiera, even a new government had been established.

Unfortunately, the Censor is back, and they want to send a message: Freedom just isn’t done here. They’re out to retake the planet. And when the Concord forces are driven off, Marcus Landry is left behind with his Fieran wife Wynny.

But unlike the Censor, the Concord does not destroy books when the author dies. So Marcus has a surfeit of books on insurgencies.

I like a lot of various and sundry tricks Karl used throughout this one. From an opening that’s right out of On Basilisk Station to how the point of view shifts are handled, the plot is effectively conveyed without bloated plots or unwieldy casts.

And I do enjoy Karl’s writing. His style uses an efficiency of words that other authors should learn from. There are some authors that would have made this novel into three volumes. At one point, Marcus Landry is called to be a Devil’s Advocate (long story) and “Marcus wondered if the Devil could appeal for ineffective counsel.”

Also, do not f*** with the engineers.

I will grant that there is one massive problem in this book, but that’s mostly because the needs of the plot dictated it. Despite the dozen different fleet and ship battles Karl has written in this series alone, the first battle in this book is over and done with in a matter of pages. One thing goes wrong in a battle plan, and Fiera is left to fend for itself by its Concord allies. However, it’s understandable. The battle to retake Fiera wraps up at 18% of the way into the novel: the book description is entirely about the Censor taking Fiera back, so an extended battle is futile—the reader knows it’s going to happen. It makes sense, it just strikes a discordant note in what has been, to date, a solid series.

Then there’s the cartoon stegosaurus, and the process for getting a library card. Bothof which are funny as hell. And there’s weaponized accounting in a way I would have expected from Larry Correia.

By the end, this book is perfectly set up for a sequel without feeling like sequel bait.

The Characters

I do enjoy the character developments here. It’s all done so nice and neat and efficient.

Marcus Landry is one of our big point of view characters, the better to convey a planetary-wide insurrection in manageable bites. He’s gone from “I just load cargo onto a freighter” to combat trainer, fleet commander, cultural translator, and now he’s William Wallace.

Wynny Landry has gone from being a simple private investigator (mostly by necessity) to being a spy hunter… and sometimes resistance leader, mostly when Marcus isn’t in the office.

Then there are two different infiltration experts. One is a marine. The other is … amusing.

Damn it, sometimes, I hate needing to avoid spoilers.

The World

The culture clashes here are so well thought out it’s hard to encapsulate it all. Forget the clashes between enemies, the culture differences between friends and allies can make things overly complex. In this book, it becomes a major turning point in the plot when Marcus find unlikely allies with whom to hide with. It even touches on elements of the rules of warfare (“You attacked a hospital? We have treaties prohibiting attacks on Hospitals!” “Did I sign this treaty?”).

And like characters, the worlds have growth. Before the shooting starts, it’s interesting to see just how much the problems of prosperity kick in and impact Fiera on multiple levels. Even the political systems have unique cultural elements. (Granted, it is amusing when the new Fieran president is an actor. Though it becomes obvious he did his own stunts.)

Of course, our heroes are not the only well-drawn characters with fleshed out cultures. The Censor has a vivid culture. It’s pure evil with some threads of idiocy, but it is consistent with all of their cultural elements. The Censorate has a learning curve, but some of the lessons come just a little too late. One plot point comes in because it fits perfectly in keeping with the Censorate culture—and has ripples throughout the book. The Censorate culture of bureaucracy even interferes in picking people out for random executions… seriously.

The Concord cultures are … seriously on point. I can’t go into it, it’s a spoiler.

All of these cultures feel like they have a Tolkien-sized appendix for them, but unlike Tolkien, the cultural elements and history only come up when they feed into the plot.

Politics

This one doesn’t have a political bent. Unless you count “the

Content Warning

There is warfare. There is even mass murder. But nothing is presented in a gruesome or graphic way. I didn’t even note a language issue.

Who is it for?

It feels like a mashup of David Weber and Timothy Zahn: military science fiction with smart characters who will think through their problems.

Why buy it

It’s a straight up, tightly written, entertaining novel with smart characters.