The Hands We're Given - Rambling Readers

Paperback, 441 pages

Published July 21, 2019 by Amphibian Press.

ISBN:: 978-1-949693-83-6

No rating (1 review)

Aidan Headly never wanted to be the man giving orders.

That's fine with the Democratic State Force base he's been assigned to command: they don't like to take orders. Nicknamed the Wildcards, they used to be the most effective base against the seven Corporations owning the former United States in a war that has lasted over half a century. Now the Wildcards are known for creative insubordination, chaos, and commanders begging to be reassigned.

Aidan is their last chance. If he can pull off his assignment as Commander and yank his ragtag crew of dreamers and fighters together, maybe they can get back to doing what they came to do: fighting for a country worth living in.

Life's a bitch. She deals off the bottom of the deck. But you play the hands you're given.

1 edition

MH Thaung reviewed The Hands We're Given by O. E. Tearmann

An appealing mix of found family and a post-apocalyptic setting

No rating

This is an oddly appealing combination of slice of life/found family in a… I guess it’s a postapocalyptic setting? (Never sure how to define these.) Essentially, Big Corp has taken over, and the characters are part of the effort to undermine the current regime. Though that’s background rather than the story here.

The Hands We’re Given is first in a series. The focus seems more on character relationships and seeking/offering acceptance rather than whiz bang acts of rebellion and violence. I haven’t read any sequels (yet), so I don’t know if this is the tone of later books. I wasn’t totally convinced by the challenges the Wild Cards run up against (eg scarcity of xx item but apparently no problem doing yy thing), but I was happy to go with the flow without worrying too much about realism.

The prose was tidy, and the read was easy. I’m not a …

This is an oddly appealing combination of slice of life/found family in a… I guess it’s a postapocalyptic setting? (Never sure how to define these.) Essentially, Big Corp has taken over, and the characters are part of the effort to undermine the current regime. Though that’s background rather than the story here.

The Hands We’re Given is first in a series. The focus seems more on character relationships and seeking/offering acceptance rather than whiz bang acts of rebellion and violence. I haven’t read any sequels (yet), so I don’t know if this is the tone of later books. I wasn’t totally convinced by the challenges the Wild Cards run up against (eg scarcity of xx item but apparently no problem doing yy thing), but I was happy to go with the flow without worrying too much about realism.

The prose was tidy, and the read was easy. I’m not a visual reader, so I got a bit tripped up when (named) characters were referred to as eg “the redhead” or “the older man” and I had to backtrack because I’d lost track of who the term was supposed to refer to.

I’ve been reading quite a lot of cosy-flavoured books recently. This one is too high-stakes to be categorised as such (I don’t imagine that was the author’s intention anyway!) but it certainly has cosy moments too.