I didn't get the chance to read, I had problems with downloading it and lost the chance. But I'll by it and edit my review after I read.

Full disclosure: I am reviewing this book after receiving a free advance review copy from Netgalley. The price I pay for a book does not affect my reviews; I'm honest (for better or worse).

I’m of mixed mind about these related, but not continuing-story novellas, which are packaged as a single book.

On one hand, they do a decent job at creating medium-hard sci-fi stories of characters with nano-and macro-tech body enhancements, providing rapid body repair, mind-to-mind wireless conversations, and other nit-original, but well-executed themes. And the notion of creating a character/story the first novella but not slavishly creating a single-story, multi-book series, and instead developing other story lines and characters in the same universe, is more akin to Banks’ Culture series (which is good).

And the stories themselves were artfully crafted, moved at a good pace, and though the properties of the enhanced persons are pretty miracle-ish, the author only pulled really big miracles out of hats infrequently.

OTOH, at the end, I felt like the books were a little lightweight.

And, (this reviewer now braces himself for the ire of some readers of this review) the books felt like they were written so that there are “hard sci-fi books with women heroes & characters”. Like the need to have *that* as a key element meant the happy endings were a little lame. It felt kinda like a female-first version of the “youth-first” aspect of young adult science fiction. Okay, but maybe better consumed by that target audience than the audience that might like medium-hard sci-fi.

I don’t believe I’m sexist (though I will allow that I may have unconscious biases), nor do I think only male characters can be heroes. In fact, immediately after reading this set of novellas, I read “Nucleation” by Kimberly Unger - a woman author writing a story with key women as lead heroes and villains. And that was amazing. Importantly, it didn’t leave me with the sticky-sweet female-forward feeling I did after these novellas.

So, I guess I’ll just say that these were okay, well-executed, kinda hard sci-fi, with some neat elements that make them worth reading - just, colored by the above. Three stars according to my rules, which are:

-- Five stars is when you read a book to the end, put it down, take a deep breath, pick it up and start reading it all over again - or you would if you weren't so anxious to read the next book in a multi-book series. Or, it's simply one of the best books you’ve ever read, period.
-- Four stars is when you tell yourself : ”This is good, this is well-written, this is full of interesting ideas, characters and plot points”, but you know you will never read it again.
-- Three stars is when you read it to the end, put it down and proceed to forget all about it in the next instant.
-- Two stars when it's so bad that it makes you laugh, or sigh, and want to write a review, but you can't remember the name of the book or dislike it so much that you don't write it.
-- One star when you can't read past chapter 3, even as penance for your sins, and write tye review to help others avoid wasting their time.

The set of four novellas was a pleasant surprise. Two women, Genevieve and Sienna, struggle to survive the conquest of the Pax Romana empire. In the beginning of the first book, you find Genevieve on a mission without explaining why or how she got there. I finally began looking for a prequel, but don't give up, it's explained, just a little later than I was hoping. This science fiction/romance series touches on deeper subjects as the victims of war, both civilians and soldiers, struggle to deal with loss, bereavement, PTSD and so on. Are nanites and fully realised AIs the solution to all our problems? Apparently not. The problems the women face due to having these thrust upon them gave an interesting twist to the stories. Genevieve and Sienna were realistic and believable and I related to them and I was rooting for them to succeed. All in all, four great shorter stories that you will find entertaining and perhaps thinking deeply about the folly of war. Highly recommend.