Book: Olga Gromyko “Karma”

I feel like by the ninth book in the “As*troheds” series by Olga Gromyko, I’m starting to repeat myself in my reviews. Yes, Karma is the ninth installment of the series that Olga Gromyko began with Andrei Ulanov 11 years ago. Though Ulanov co-wrote only the first novel with Olga, the rest of the series has been written by her alone.

In short, the series takes place in the not-too-distant future, where humanity has ventured into space, colonized numerous planets, established diplomatic and trade relations with other races, and — importantly for the series — started producing cyborgs by growing living bodies and implanting them with electronics and cybernetic enhancements.

Essentially, the entire series revolves around the theme of sentient cyborgs — their plight running like a white thread through the otherwise reckless and humorous adventures of the book’s characters.

The earlier books told the story of the crew of the starship The Space Brain-Eater, although at times separate stories and novellas featured different protagonists. Eventually, Olga stepped away from the original crew and focused more on parallel events. The result, in my opinion, was mixed. The Cyborg and His Forester was interesting, but I liked it less than the others. The follow-up, See You on Cassandra!, was much more enjoyable, largely thanks to the colorful avshur character, Sarah.

Where the previous book was a sort of ensemble piece, bringing together heroes from various novels, novellas, and stories, the new novel titled Karma sees Olga Gromyko once again focusing on a small group. The main character is the cyborg Kai, who was “adopted” by a former soldier nicknamed Shooter — a story told in one of the cycle’s short stories. Kai has grown up (by cyborg standards) and no longer sees himself as a child. He’s left Cassandra and works as a mercenary. However, he does this with a measure of contempt for regular humans, who still see cyborgs as soulless machines, despite the ongoing movement for cyborg rights. Slowly, though, Kai begins to change his attitude toward the team that hired him — especially as his childhood friend (and secret love) joins the mission. Especially since her father’s life is at stake.

Structurally, Karma mirrors the early novels of the series. Once again, we have a crew aboard a spaceship that isn’t particularly great at fulfilling its missions. Once again, there’s a sentient cyborg on the team. Once again, there are adventures — and pirates.

For this reason, the book could even be considered a return to the series’ roots. Yes, to be honest, it’s a repetition of what’s come before. But surprisingly, it’s not a bad one. After all, the problem at hand is new, the crew features different colorful personalities, and each of them (including the cyborg) has a few skeletons in the closet.

Olga Gromyko both continues to develop the plot of the universe she created and reuses some of her successful elements. But to me, the book felt a bit drawn-out, especially in the first part. The story progresses rather slowly, and Kai repeats the same “world-weary cyborg” behavior seen in previous books. Only this time, unlike his predecessors who dealt with life with more humor, everything feels more serious.

And the real action kicks off in the second volume, where — thanks to his childhood friend — even Kai finally allows himself to feel and express emotions.

Once again, the main strength of the book isn’t in its detective-adventure plotline, but in the characters, their relationships, and their personal struggles. However, the further you go, the more it starts to feel like “we’ve seen all this before.” Still, I found this book in some ways better than several of the previous ones.

Compared to the relatively small-scale novel The Cyborg and His Forester, this one returns to interplanetary adventures, with more characters who are also more diverse. And if you compare it to the previous book, See You on Cassandra!, here the focus shifts back to a single crew instead of a large crowd of characters, where one or two would end up stealing the spotlight from the rest.

So while the first volume left me a bit uncertain, the second one made up for it. The series clearly needs some fresh blood, but it’s still solid and engaging.

My rating: 4/5 for the first volume, and 4.5/5 for the second