My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Tor Publishing Group for an advance copy of this science fiction novella about war, forgiveness, moving on, and finding one true's self, no matter what society dictates.
My school library was for some amazing reason really well stocked with non-fiction books. I don't know how this little oasis of knowledge survived the Reagan years and kept both books and a staff, but they had numerous books, adult and child appropriate on numerous subjects. Being a quiet I was drawn to the books on war. One was a history of the London Blitz. Near the end after pages about the Battle of London there was a discussion about bomb disposal, and how years later, decades later, bombs would still be found, and still go off. I still remember this. Weapons going off after the war, it seemed mind boggling. Years later learning about landmines and unexploded ordinance in Cambodia and Afghanistan, I still couldn't wrap my hear around the idea. My parents couldn't get a refrigerator that lasted more than 3 years, and yet mines could explode decades later. I consider this a part of my awakening to this world not making a lot of sense, something that has only gotten stronger over the years. I think that is why science fiction stories dealing with ancient wars and war weapons hit my so hard. The idea of killing after the war has been forgotten, is a disturbing thought. A thought that is the plot of this novella, Unexploded Remnants, by Elaine Gallagher is a story of love, choice, surviving, thriving, and trying to do what is right, even when it might be wrong.

Alice is the last survivor of the planet Earth, and is spending a day in a vast open air market of technology when something catches Alice's eye. What she sees does not look like much, but something about it calls to Alice. The device also calls to others as Alice is followed, and soon being shot at, causing her to flee through the wormhole gates that allow people to travel world to world to world. Finding sanctuary Alice finds that the little data device is far older than it looks, and also has a quest living inside. An A.I., military A.I., from a war that ended thousands of years earlier, though to the A.I. which has been shut down for years, the pain of loss is still fresh. Fresh enough to want to kill anything remaining of its enemy. Others are looking for this device, for a variety of reasons, but not as pure as Alice's. Alice wants to bring a sense of peace to the A.I., stop the feelings of hate. Even if Alice has to bust a few heads to do it.

For a novella this story is jam packed with ideas, story, action and character development. Enough to fill a few series. Gallagher brings all this together well, the story about Alice, who she works for, her partner, and life in the grand universe. One wishes the story could have been longer to let things breathe a little, but I hope to see more of this character and this world, so I am content to wait. Gallagher makes everything seem real, and lived in. And of course one wants to know more. The story is a little standard on the war department, but everything else is so interesting, including the characters, one tends to forgive.

A really good story perfect for an evening's read, and I really can't wait to read more in this series or more by Elaine Gallagher. The author has a real gift for big stories.

My thanks to NetGalley for making an eARC of this book available to me.

This book gives an interesting view as to what an intergalactic civilization might have evolved into (sans humans). The portal transportation (can you say "Stargate"?) is kind of fun. Well worth reading, even if the final scene didn't work for me (in the context of the characters' previous interactions). Otherwise, a quick fun read.

A very quick/short review, for this one. This is a pretty fast-paced, galaxy-trotting science fiction novella. After a slightly shaky start, I quickly fell into the setting and became invested in the characters’ fates. It doesn’t quite stick the landing, but I nevertheless enjoyed it.

Gallagher’s novella starts with a busy bazaar scene, which had me initially a little worried — it felt overloaded with “who/what the hell is that?” moments, but thankfully it quickly moved on from that kind of scene-setting. As Alice embarks on her journey, the story became quite gripping, as Gallagher takes her character across the galaxy. Even though she’s fleeing for her life, protecting a strange piece of technology that appears to contain an ancient AI, readers are still treated to some more world-building. The author avoids info-dumping, and leaves plenty of scope to return to this setting in the future (which I certainly hope Gallagher does).

The story wrapped up a little suddenly, for my taste, and therefore felt like an anticlimax. Nevertheless, I very much enjoyed a lot of this, and certainly look forward to reading more by the author in the future.

The writing style is heavily narrative and carries a sense of removal from the story, which I don’t personally enjoy. I can see this going over positively with heavy sci-fi fans, though. It feels like it fits within the genre conventions well. I stopped 20% in, but it’s a likely 3 to 4 stars for the target audience.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor for the ARC.

The book's strength lies in its interesting ideas and world building. I loved the descriptions of different cultures, especially the Archive and how Alice describes changing her communication style based on cultural context. I also thought the book's focus on helping and healing a ghost in the machine -- as opposed to questioning its sentience or writing it off as inhuman -- was well done.

However, the book lacks the space to dig deeper into its characters. Alice, endlessly curious and dealer in information, is super cool, but we barely get to know anything about her. We meet figures from her past who are the same; we get an idea of who they are and their relationship, but little depth. There's a lot of "action," but much if that translates into "running through wormholes" that frankly gets dull and repetitive. The ending may bother some people -- I liked the concept, but felt the execution was off. If the same conclusion had been done without it being the result of a multi-page monologue, I think it would have hit home better.

In short, I think this book is okay for a quick, fun romp, but I don't think it's particularly memorable or great. If there were more space to dig into the characters, the settings, and the lore, I think the book would have been much stronger.

A brief story about that builds a very interesting universe in which it transpires. There were lots of glimpses of interesting places, people and ideas that I think could warrant a more in-depth and involved novel.

I loved this story, the world building is fantastic, and trans and queer representation is solid. Unexploded Remnants is a novella that is a well written exciting science fiction story as well as a quick read. It follows Alice down an almost literal rabbit hole to find and understand the story of a consciousness locked in a weapon of mass destruction, with fun cultural references from her home planet Earth (which at the time of the story has been destroyed). Being a novella it had constraints on how much was included and I found myself wanting more.I wanted to know more about the worlds the main character passes through, but I loved that I enjoyed it so much it left me wanting more. It is a fast read that I loved every minute of.