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sarrie's review
dark
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
If you enjoy hand to hand combat in any form this is going to be the book for you. Combat Codes by Alexander Darwin focuses on a world in which hand-to-hand combat solves everything, from trade disputes to political machinations. I really felt a lot of Red Rising and at times Karate Kid vibes in this novel. It wasn’t perfect but it was intriguing enough that I’d recommend it for fans of any of those things.
The story is told following two characters - Murray and Cego. Murray is a Scout and former Knight. Having lost a fight that had devastating consequences for his country he is now tasked with finding new blood for the Greivar school that trains up new warriors. Cego is a young boy with a mysterious past who Murray finds fighting and brings up to the school for enrollment. Outside of these two characters, there is little past the very surface of any other character. Our ‘good’ characters are very clearly good, and our ‘evil’ characters are very clearly evil.
The world itself I think needs a bit of fleshing out, which may come later. Murray and Cego are both members of a race called Greivar. These people traditionally lived under the earth and solved all problems by fighting in rings of alloy that attract mysterious spectrals (small whisps of light that seem to have some sentience). They now fight for the nations, sold and traded. I’d love to see more emphasis and information there, and based on the ended of this book we just might get that in the next installments.
Outside of this I can say this one was a fun read if not frustrating at times. I’m still unsure if it was just Murray and his attitude but the book was half spent waxing on how the Greivar are superior to the other races because they were fit and fought, and half spent moving fairly slowly through a school setting. Towards the end we finally see Murray bend his own rules and do something and the plot picks up. Unfortunately I was put off by him by this point. The lines of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ are very distinct and there is little nuance, which is disappointing.
My biggest gripe was where were the women? I know this was not just something I noticed, as a great many reviews I looked over also pointed this out. There was a shocking lack of women for a society that’s entirely built on fighting. I believe we had two speaking female characters, possibly four mentioned even in passing. Coupled with a strange moment of hate and aversion to make-up/cosmetics I was left with a weird taste in my mouth.
A lot of this could simply be a debut/first book problem. I will continue the series and hope to see some improvements from Mr. Darwin. I loved the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu aspects of this, a lot of the fighting, and the exploration of muscle use and recovery. Those are all super relative to my interests! Give us more of that, more women and some more world building and this could be a fantastic series.
P.S. Orbit, you did these covers dirty. Bring back the old ones.
3 Gi’s out of 5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Vomit and War
Minor: Death of parent and Abandonment