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The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley. 2019, Saga Press. Hardcover, 356 pages. ISBN 9-781481-447966.

Military science fiction of the anti-war "war is hell" variety. Dietz enlists with Tene-Silvia corporate infantry to fight human colonists on Mars after their family goes missing in an attack on São Paulo. The military transports people over long distances by breaking them down into light; Dietz's combat drops do not go as expected.

There are clear references to Starship Troopers (both the book and I think Verhoeven's movie) and Haldeman's Forever War here. I didn't mind that, the references and any borrowed structure helped to ground the book while other aspects went completely sideways.

Dietz and the reader experience the war out of order and have to puzzle out what's really going on. It's confusing, but purposefully so, and never for too long. It's a pretty gnarly book, gory and mean. I found it to be a propulsive, blunt, and pretty direct read. Liked it quite a bit. Particularly liked the ending. I look forward to reading it again to see how it works with prior knowledge of the plot.

cpm.1 FastCaps[.df] at youtube.com. The latest (and sadly probably final) Quake 3 Defrag compilation video from power_of_heavy_metal. 15 minutes of fastcaps performed with cpm movement and fastcap 1 rules (so no weapons, teleports, or jumppads).

Content warning for flashing lights and first-person gameplay that might cause motion sickness. Same for all Quake videos.

power_of_heavy_metal has great taste in music and the selections for this video are no exception. I particularly like the second track, Io by Concealed Identity from their Nightingale Floor EP on Repertoire.

Linking this today because I found it recently and it's rad. I'll probably link the other power_of_heavy_metal compilation videos when I get around to rewatching them.