Firebreak was one of my favorite books of 2021 so when I found out Nicole Kornher-Stace was writing a prequel novella following 6 and 22 I knew I had to read it, and I was not disappointed. This is a small novella detailing the time 6 and 22 ran away and I really enjoyed reading it. I am not typically a fan of dystopian books, but I love the world that Kornher-Stace has built here, and I absolutely adore the friendship between 6 and 22.

This book is marketed as a standalone, and I think it works well without having read Firebreak. I have read it, but my memories of specific details are hazy and I had no problem following along with the story here. Though there are small references to future events, specifically in how the Director thinks about the children, I don’t think it spoils Firebreak or hinders the enjoyment of Flight & Anchor. There is also an author’s note that explains connections in this novella to Kornher-Stace’s other books as well.

This story feels like what it is - a side story about characters from a greater dystopia, technologically-augmented child “operatives” who have known no other life than seclusion and constant training. Busting out of the corporate-imposed prison and encountering the bigger world for the first time reveals the strengths and limitations of the two and their partnership.

I found this story captivating. Loved the technology and the glimpses of the world, through the eyes of 06 and 22. I want more of their story and the bigger picture about this world!

I guess I sort of goofed here: I did not put together that this was linked to another book until I’d started reading. From my perspective though that still worked as a stand alone. Yes, some parts were a little confusing and I think with greater context it wouldn’t have been. But, the story stood on its own narrative. It was really pretty good too! The writing style was something I really enjoyed and the plot was intense and gripping. This is such a short thing I finished it in one sitting, but at this point would be happy to go and read the preceding story too. So I’m calling that a win!

I personally love hearing/seeing more about Kohrner-Stace’s connected universe, and seeing her get to dive into a novella from when 6 and 22 are kids and escaped once is just a fun ride. There’s some potentially interesting plot threads that could be picked up in a continuation if she so chose, but its still just nice to be able to read and see more of these characters. Want a dystopian child soldier take on the Boxcar Kids? This is for you.

Flight & Anchor is a prequel novella to one of my favorite books - Firebreaker. The novella follows two major figures in the original novel. While it is a prequel, do not read it first. Firebreaker provides much needed world building that the novella does not have.

In Flight & Anchor the characters are children (superhuman children, but still children) and because of this the narration is more passive than would normally be used. I think this decision worked because when it became important the time turned back to active.

This novella was a great edition to the world and I really enjoyed it. However, I’m not sure it would stand on its own without the original novel. But it isn’t supposed to, so it works. So if you haven’t, go read Firebreaker then pick up this novella.

Flight & Anchor is a prequel to Firebreak, giving readers an insight into SecOps operatives 06 and 22. It was fun to revisit side characters as protagonists and I really enjoyed the insights on the Director as well. 06 is known to be a rebel and 22 is her partner. Taken away from their families at a young age, both have been genetically modified. But they do not want the life of soldiers and at twelve years of age, they decide to run away and seek freedom.

This story has its moments of reflection, darkness, insight, terror, camaraderie and quirkiness. I can’t say enough how much I enjoyed being back in this world. The relationship between 06 and 22 and how the Director underestimated 22 was intriguing and kept me going. In the Author’s note, I discovered easter eggs for other series and that piqued my interest about that book too. The world of Flight & Anchor is a technologically advanced dystopia and I hadn’t expected that there would be decommissioned secret weapons that existed long before Stellaxis did. There is so much room in this world to grow and I will be waiting for future books, whether they are set in the past or present.

Many thanks to the publisher for providing me with a review copy through NetGalley for an honest review.

I wondered what this story would bring to the table as I could not really see where this would lead but Loved 06 and 22 so much that I was happy to take more.
I am not sure this was a story that needed to be told. Maybe it's the fact that I have no idea what the Boxcar children are that Nicole states a clear influence on the structure of the story. Maybe I was not into the director's POV that is included in the novella. Maybe it's the fact that these two children were very charming but their journey felt a bit contrived and forced to fit the larger universe of Firebreak.
In the end, this was a little underwhelming.

This one was fine. I think it would be better to read closer to Firebreak to get some of the nuggets the author added in. This short story follows two 12 year olds that have been modified into super soldiers and escape from the company that “owns” them. The Director does everything she can to get the kids back without alerting others as it would turn into a disaster. The relationship between the kids is really the glue of the story.

I hadn’t read Firebreak, the novel that this novella is a loose prequel to, before I requested Flight & Anchor from Tachyon on NetGalley. Normally I wouldn’t leap into an established world headfirst like this. However, I had a good feeling about this one. It is a standalone story that doesn’t require knowledge of Firebreak. Nicole Kornher-Stace’s writing is very intimate, very in-your-face, and the result is a slow-burn novella that has me wanting to read Firebreak for sure now.

Our protagonists are 06 and 22, cybernetically augmented child soldiers who have just escaped from a Stellaxis facility under control of the Director. She is keeping their escape secret at all costs, for it would be disastrous for her career and this program in general. As 06 and 22 try to survive in an unfamiliar, unkind city, the Director tracks them and observes from afar while trying to conceive of a plan to retrieve them that won’t embarrass her or result in heavy casualties.

The story starts slow. The first few chapters are from the point of view of a barista, Cassie, who otherwise doesn’t return. She is our first introduction to 06 and 22, whom she views as children—odd children, yes, creepy children, perhaps, but children. From there the story alternates between chapters that present 06 or 22’s limited third person viewpoints and chapters that follow the Director or even her ally, a semi-sentient nanoparticle probe she tasks with spying on and sabotaging the children. After 06 and 22 settle into a shipping container they use as a makeshift shelter, they plot their next move. With limited funds, and concerned about being identified and apprehended, they aren’t sure where to go next. They’re only twelve, after all.

So for the first half of the novella, I honestly was unsure what to make of the story and whether or not I was enjoying it. I got it. I understood what Kornher-Stace was trying to do. But I just didn’t see feel it. This changed in the second half, and by the end I was heavily invested in these characters.

The introduction of the probe was the first step towards this change of heart for me. I do love myself a sassy AI, which is essentially what this is. It’s basically the Kronk to the Director’s Yzma, if you know what I mean—an antagonist, technically, but only in the most technical sense. Its shenanigans (for lack of a better term) help propel the plot forward in interesting ways.

The codependency of 06 and 22, referenced in the title, is also so crucial to the story and one’s enjoyment of it. In her afterword, Kornher-Stace connects this to Firebreak, saying that this story gave her the chance to provide a tragic backstory to where we find 22 in that novel. Obviously I don’t have all the context for that statement, but I like it. I really liked the climax and resolution of Flight & Anchor. Kornher-Stace wraps everything up neatly, but the little references throughout the story to “years later” are tantalizing hints at how various characters (particularly our amoral Director) will regret their present decisions.

All in all, by the time I had finished with Flight & Anchor, I was hooked. An obvious comparison would be to Murderbot Diaries—for the length but also the sympathetic killer protagonists—but there are echoes here of numerous other dystopian and cyberpunk worlds I’ve visited in recent years. At the same time, nothing in this setting felt recycled or clichéd to me. Kornher-Stace’s worldbuilding is careful, simple, sufficient. As I said in my introduction, I’m left wanting to read her novel, which is pretty much mission accomplished.

Flight & Anchor by Nicole Kornher-Stace is a long novella (short novel) that takes place in the Firebreak universe before the events of Firebreak. Two of the bio-tech, weaponized super-soldier escape and the Director tries to get them back. There are only four main characters. The two children (they're twelve), the Director and an old piece of nano-tech that is sentient. I expected a story closer to Firebreak, one of my favorite, surprising reads last year. But I was disappointed because that's not what this story is. It is a quick read but I wanted more action and to see the abilities of the super soldiers to fight back. There's little sense of the desperation of most of society from the previous book. I was also disappointed to see that the author wrote Firebreak as a standalone so that wonderful universe is lost to us. I really had a different expectation with this.

FLIGHT & ANCHOR takes place before the events of FIREBREAK when the operatives are still kids. It is best appreciated after reading FIREBREAK at the very least, as several plot-important events are referenced without quite spoiling them. I was a huge fan of the Boxcar Children series when I was a kid, collecting them for years, owning several dozen by the time I was old enough that I moved on to other stories. FLIGHT & ANCHOR is wonderfully and unabashedly 06 and 22 with their own attempt at being the Boxcar Children. The world of FIREBREAK with its resources controlled by two money-hungry and uncaring corporations literally at war with each other is a very different environment than the setting of that older series, and so this plays out in its own way. If you've never read those books, the salient point is that 06 and 22 run away from a really bad situation, scavenge to try and survive, and end up hiding out in an abandoned boxcar. It's winter, and their initial optimism about their ability to feed themselves turns into dismay at how little money they're able to find and just how much everything costs. They're resourceful, modified to be survivalists and killers, but their conditioning isn't yet complete and sometimes they can remember faint traces of their lives before they were kidnapped by the corporation. The Director is keeping an eye on them, trying to handle this massive screw up without anyone knowing that she's made a mistake.

The books in this series defy my usual attempts at my sequel check. This gives context for how 06 and 22 end up as the people they are by the time FIREBREAK happens, but it doesn't specifically wrap up anything. The main storyline is both introduced and resolved, but for anyone who's read FIREBREAK the question is much more how it's going to end up the way it always had to, without much doubt as to what the conclusion will be. Even FIREBREAK has that feeling for anyone who has read ARCHIVIST WASP or LATCHKEY. It's not about the destination, it's about the journey, and I could read endless stories of 06 and 22, whatever shape that takes.

Flight & Anchor by Nicole Kornher-Stace
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This novella does a lot of unexpected heavy lifting for the backstories of 06 and 22 (as seen in Nicole's other works such as Firebreak) and I'll just say it now: it was a delight.

Young kids getting into trouble, as only young kids who can outfight a tank can, all within a comfortable setting that is much like our own world of ultimate disposability, dealing with massive amounts of brainwashing, nasty authority figures, poverty, and a great heaping wallop of glorious friendship.

The novella stands just fine on its own two feet but it really dovetail's nicely with the expanded world. I'm very happy.

Back in the day, I was a fan of the James Cameron’s sci-fi tv series Dark Angel, to the point where I ended up buying it and rewatching. Flight & Anchor felt like Dark Angel fan fiction, right down to the bar codes, anonymous Director, and police drones. Understand, I’m not complaining, because I loved Dark Angel. I just couldn’t stop thinking about it, so I’m not sure if my reaction is bleed-over. The writing is above average, however, so I think it isn’t just emotional resonance.

The story hinges on two super-soldier, genetically modified twelve-year-olds who have made an escape from their corporate compound. They are tracked, but for reasons, they are allowed to continue this unauthorized leave. As such, much of the plotting surrounds the adolescents exploring their space, re-familiarizing themselves with the outside world and stretching some mental limits. There was only one plot element that was a surprise to me. On the whole, the work felt like a 0.5 series story; a set piece and character card for fans of another book than an actual independent novella.

Kornher-Stace elaborates on this in the afterword, saying that it’s a side story to two of the favorite characters in Firebreak. She writes that she likes to include elements from her other stories as “Easter eggs,” although considers all of them able to stand alone. While technically, that may be true, I think in this case it’s something a little more, as one of the ‘eggs’ plays a major role in moving the plot forward. It’s eminently distracting when Kornher-Stace inserts lines like “The thought that will return to the Director unbidden, eight years down the line, standing in an elevator with minutes to live” and know that it won’t be part of this story.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed the writing a great deal, with the exception of when it devolved into list-making of found objects. Although I understand that sharing that information can fill out the world, it was a very mundane way to present the material. The exposition with the barista was a lovely introduction to the setting, although perhaps lasting until 15% was a bit excessive, because I fully expected them to play a role later in the story. An an aside, it was a distracting choice to use the word ‘barista’ with the gender pronoun ‘them.’ Just saying.

“There’s another pause, like they’re conferring. It’s less weird under the lights, at least, looks less like telepathy and more like they’re chatting over their implants like anyone else.”

All in all, as an introductory piece to the world, it made me immediately want to go pick up Firebreak. Imagine, then, my disappointment when the sample was narrated by someone who sounded like an escapee from Ready Player One. Whoops. Won’t be purchasing that one. I wonder if Korner-Stace is a literary chameleon? Love the subject choice, but I’ll be checking out her works carefully before purchasing.



many thanks to Netgalley and Tachyon for an advance reader copy

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Tachyon Publishing for an advanced copy of this prequel novella about two lost children, a city of confusion and the evil Director who wants to bring them back to the lab they escaped from.

A barista looks up from her work on a snowy night to see two children, a boy and a girl, wearing mix-matched coats with plastic bags on their shoes staring into the window, taking in the warmth, the food and the light. The barista brings them inside, gives them more sugar and caffeine than the two children have ever had, and wonders where the two quiet children have come from. They seem odd, lost. Turning to make call the children disappear back into the blizzard, with clothing from the lost and found and bag of day-old sugar treats. On the counter is a thank you, left in soy whipped cream. This could be the start of an series of young adult adventures, or even a fable, though this fable has a dystopian future, corporate civil wars, bacterial monitors and child supersoldiers. Flight & Anchor: A Firebreak Story by Nicole Kornher-Stace is a prequel story to the aforementioned Firebreak, featuring characters attempting their first try at freedom, and learning a whole lot more.

06 and 22 are the supersoldiers of the future, at least that is what they are marketed as. War orphans from the many corporate civil wars that have destroyed huge parts of the city the company has used these children to create a new generation or warriors. They have become stronger, faster, better, and more, so much more. 06 and 22 can move faster than cameras, for longer periods of time, kill in ways that are too brutal to describe. And both 06 and 22 are sick of it and want out. 06 and 22 were brought together to keep an eye on each other, but both have become friends in a way, and plan to escape, which they are successful at. However they are only 12 years old, and the city is not what they expect. So while they won the escape, the are losing at the surviving, taking shelter only blocks away from the lab they escaped in a shipping container. The Director of the program knows that getting the two back will be messy, costly and probably not very good publicity for the Director. However rank has its privilege, and part of that is access to old tech, tech that might bring the wayward supersoldiers home.

This is a prequel to the novel Firebreak featuring characters that appear later, but that is not a hindrance to enjoying this book. In fact I never read the main book, but I had a very good time reading this, and am looking forward to reading pretty much everything Kornher-Stace has written. The writing is very good, with a feel of a classic young adult story, with a lot of fascinating technology and ideas, a bit of violence, but a lot of love and friendship. The world is different, exciting and scary, and I want to know more about it, and how it fits with further adventures. There is plenty of humor, a lot of foreshadowing for the later book, which made me interested to know more. I really liked the story and how it felt like a fable, wicked creatures, lost children, evil Director.

Recommended for science fiction writers of course, also for fantasy readers too for the urban fantasy feeling that comes across. I think this would be a good introduction to Kornher-Stace's work, as I know it hooked me and made me want to know more.

This Firebreak prequel presents a compelling, heartbreaking origin story for 06 and 22, the supersoldiers whose plight becomes the cause celebre that finally opens a chink in Stellaxis’ carefully constructed spin-doctored armor. This is a portrait of the two orphaned, brain-washed, child soldier superheroes when they are on the cusp between the children they barely remember being and the genetically altered soldiers Stellaxis kidnapped and paid for. The always rebellious 06, and her stalwart follower 22, run away from their corporate overseers and attempt to blend into the population. It’s a dream that is doomed to fail, but the children are too young to realize it and too selfless to leave each other behind. To a terrible cost, now and in the years to come.

VERDICT: Readers who loved Firebreak are going to fall hard for this as it adds layers to the buckets of heartbreak and tears to the already poignant ending of their saga. However, as a prequel it also makes a terrific entry point into this compelling, corrupt, dystopian world, in a story filled with the forging of unbreakable bonds set against harrowing adventure, heart-rending choices and traumatic consequences. Recommended for lovers of dystopian SF and anyone who couldn’t get enough of Firebreak.

I want to start this review by clarifying that you need to have read Firebreak first to really enjoy this one. This is not clear in the marketing that I have seen. It's a stand alone in the sense that it is a complete story and it doesn't pick up where Firebreak left off or anything but 100% of the world building for this story is established in Firebreak and none of it is built up in this book.

That being said I enjoyed this novella. It was a fun little return to the world of Firebreak. I liked the way it was told with 06 and 22's perspectives being interspersed with the Director and seeing how she'd think she had it all figured out only to switch perspectives and realize she didn't. It was a fun cat and mouse chase.

I would recommend this is you loved the world of Firebreak and want to dive into it again.

There honestly wasn’t much to this - I think in part because it would have worked SO MUCH BETTER if anything from this story was even hinted at in Firebreak. Like, there are all these things brought up (namely the probe, honestly) that could have totally changed the game in Firebreak and it just feels like they were left out.

Also, if 22 and 06 had escaped before, why was everyone so surprised and outraged when the events of Firebreak went down? It felt a little heavy-handed having the constant little blips of “and this is an assumption that will spell her downfall in eight years”. Not to mention all the weird prophetic thoughts that 22 has - as a twelve year old.

I dunno, I thought I wanted it, but honestly I wish I didn’t get it.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I've kept up with NK-S' writing and think their sci-fi worlds are really well constructed. Sadly, I think I'm just bored with 06 & 22's story. I'd love to see another set of stories set in either world (IYKYK).

Read courtesy of NetGalley.

I think this novella is probably rather wonderful if you've read Kornher-Stace's earlier books, particularly Firebreak, for which it serves as a prequel, or perhaps companion story. Unfortunately, this was my first time reading this author, and thus, it was rather obvious that much of the emotional weight was missing, and my entire review comes down to two things - if you already know and like Firebreak, you'll probably enjoy this, and if you're looking for the first book by Kornher-Stace to check out, this isn't the one.

On its own: the plot is relatively non-dynamic (and would seem even more so if you tried to summarise it), yet the author manages to create an atmosphere and do a lot of introspective character work - still, I felt like the stakes would appear immediately more fraught, and the characters elicit more emotions from me if I knew what I'm meant to know. The worldbuilding is interestingly dystopian. I thought the style was good, but I must admit the voice did not make me that curious to pick up the original novel - I might check it out of a library, if it was available, but felt no urgency, particularly given that the element I liked best - the nanobots - apparently are not from that novel but another story altogether.

Thank you to NG and the publisher for an ARC.

I have to say that if I had gone into this without previously having read Firebreak, or any other works by the author it would have been a completely different experience than it was. And surely it wouldn't have been as much of an emotional ride as it was.

While a stand-alone, I believe it benefits to aslo read Firebreak, either before or after. This novella gives a backstory to important Firebreak characters whom we don't get to learn much about. Unintentionally, I read Korhner-Stace books in a more backwards order (first the Archivist Wasp duology, then Firebreak, lastly this novella), and in my biased opinion, that's the best way to read them. There are certainly very few things that manage to metaphorically punch me in the gut as well as this did.

All that aside, this is an author that I will definitely keep on my radar. Firebreak is among my favourite books, and Flight & Anchor seves as proof that they know what they are doing. I'm looking forward to see what's next, whatever world we get put into.