Reviewed by Asher Syed for Readers’ Favorite - 5 stars

In Nathaniel Jungheim's Savages of the Bulk, the year is 2286, and Jacob Dawes prepares to join the Terran Joint Expeditionary Forces after graduating in Chicago alongside classmates Miguel Castal, Priya Patel, and Milla Sefira. During their final night together, a violent rooftop attack destroys Jacob’s body, leading the government to rebuild him with cybernetic limbs in exchange for joining a classified drone infantry program. While Jacob trains to command combat machines through neural implants, Secretary of Defense James VonBrink investigates an ancient starship discovered near Madagascar. It contains records of a lost human civilization and weapons capable of altering the balance of power among interstellar nations. When a diplomatic mission to the alien Szczari empire ends in assassination, humanity enters a system-wide war that takes Jacob from military training into combat on a distant world.

In Savages of the Bulk, Nathaniel Jungheim offers a masterclass in world-building, with political organizations across several worlds that mold everyday life. Earth governments cooperate with the Saar Commonwealth, while the Szczari empire binds rival kingdoms through arranged royal marriages, designed to produce an emperor who will unite their civilization under a single imperial throne. There are many moving pieces, but the author does a great job of putting them all into place. Jake is an excellent lead with a huge arc and a lot to work through. Priya Patel, piloting the Emma Faith, has control and composure by the bucketload. Kin’Mamani is a brilliantly worthy opposition to political authority, and a rare female baddie in a genre dominated by men. I could read a whole prequel on her alone. Well written and completely immersive, readers hungry for intelligent, large-scale science fiction will devour this book. I'm looking forward to seeing where book two in The Lightborn series takes us.

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